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Legendary rocker Tom Petty has died aged 66 after suffering a cardiac arrest at his home in California, his manager said in a statement.
Petty suffered cardiac arrest at his home in Malibu early on Monday morning (local time) and was taken to UCLA Medical Centre but could not be revived, his long-time manager Tony Dimitriades said.
"We are devastated to announce the untimely death of our father, husband, brother, leader and friend Tom Petty," Dimitriades said on behalf of the family.
The veteran rockstar died peacefully at 8:40pm (local time) surrounded by family, bandmates and friends.
On Tuesday, it was reported Petty was "clinging to life" after conflicting reports emerged saying he had died.
US media organisation CBS News tweeted he had died, citing the Los Angeles Police Department, but the LAPD later said they had only "inadvertently" provided "initial information" to some media sources.
The Gainesville, Florida native carved a career as a solo artist as well as with his band The Heartbreakers, and as part of supergroup The Traveling Wilburys.
He was best known for his roots-infused music and hits such as Free Fallin', Refugee, Don't Do Me Like That and American Girl.
From Heartbreakers to Wilburys, Petty 'full of the light'
Florida-born Petty, with shaggy blond hair and gaunt features, drew upon the Byrds, the Beatles and other musicians he loved while growing up in the 1960s.
He caught the rock'n'roll bug as a child after he was introduced by his uncle to Elvis Presley, who was shooting the picture Follow That Dream on location in Florida in 1960.
He has said he began working on music in earnest after seeing the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964.
Petty formed The Heartbreakers in the mid 1970s, but it was not until the band's third album Damn the Torpedoes in 1979 that their music really took off, with hits such as Refugee and Don't Do Me Like That.
Petty and the Heartbreakers were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002, when they were described by organisers as "the quintessential American individualists", capturing the voice of the American everyman.
He was also a member of the 1980s supergroup The Traveling Wilburys with Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, George Harrison and Jeff Lynne, penning hits such as End of the Line and She's My Baby.
Dylan called his death "shocking, crushing news" in a statement to Rolling Stone magazine.
"[Petty was] a great performer, full of the light, a friend, and I'll never forget him," he said.
Dark periods during stunning career
Amid his successes, Petty also suffered dark periods during a career spanning five decades.
A 2015 biography of the singer, Petty: The Biography, revealed for the first time the rocker's heroin addiction in the 1990s.
Author Warren Zanes said in an interview with The Washington Post that Petty had succumbed to the drug because he "had had encounters with people who did heroin, and he hit a point in his life when he did not know what to do with the pain he was feeling".
Petty also suffered from depression, channelling his pain into 1999's Echo, during which he was also dealing with a divorce.
In 2002, he married Dana York and told Reuters he had been in therapy for six years to deal with depression.
"It's a funny disease because it takes you a long time to really come to terms with the fact that you're sick — medically sick, you're not just suddenly going out of your mind," he said at the time.
Petty and The Heartbreakers recently embarked on a 40th anniversary tour of the United States, one which he hinted would be his last.
They last played three dates in late September at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. The band was scheduled to perform two dates in New York in November.
Reuters/AP
Topics: arts-and-entertainment, music, death, united-states
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