(JTA) — Tom Petty, whose classic hits such as “American Girl,” “Free Fallin’” and “I Won’t Back Down” made him one of the biggest rock stars of all time, passed away Monday at 66.
Over the course of his decades of touring the world, Petty, a native of Gainesville, Fla., was bound to end up playing in Israel at some point — and he did for the first time in September 1987, at the start of the “Temple in Flames” tour.
Petty and his band, the Heartbreakers, were opening for Bob Dylan, who was universally panned by Israeli critics and audiences alike for lackluster performances and snubbing dignitaries (while Petty drew raves). Earlier that year, Petty and the Heartbreakers had released “Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough),” their seventh album, featuring the hit, “Jammin’ Me.”
In a program called “Rock Israel,” MTV chronicled part of Petty’s trip to the Holy Land, which the rocker described as a complete whirlwind. In a clip now available on YouTube, Petty met with Northwest Baltimore resident (but then Jerusalemite) Avraham Rosenblum, leader of a band called the Diaspora Yeshiva Band that blended rock, country and bluegrass with spiritual lyrics. (The original DYB disbanded but some members, including Rosenblum, have reunited over the years.)
Rosenblum — who’s known around Baltimore as “the Rockin’ Rabbi” for his outreach work over the decades — showed Petty, Roger McGuinn (the former Byrds leader who was opening the tour with the Heartbreakers) and their entourage around the Western Wall Plaza.
“I’m not really familiar enough with the rules and regulations of the religion,” said Petty, a non-practicing Christian who claimed rock music as his creed. “I think anybody should be able to pick up an instrument and jump around.”
“Are we in modest dress?” Petty asked while descending upon and looking around the holy site’s plaza. “This is really amazing.”
Rosenblum talked to Petty about some of Jerusalem’s geography and spiritual significance, and said that some rabbis believe “the whole process of music” began in Israel.
“Ten years of Sunday school and this guy told me more in five minutes than I ever grasped from that,” an astonished Petty said to comrades while leaving the area.
Since Petty’s sudden death, Rosenblum, 66, a married father of six and grandfather of 15, told Jmore he’s received a number of calls from media outlets inquiring about the YouTube video.
“I certainly didn’t expect this kind of attention at this point, 30 years later,” said Rosenblum, an ordained rabbi who works in financial services and still performs and records music. “I’m really sorry it all comes on the heels of this. What a way to go, like a thief in the night.”
A Philadelphia native who moved to Baltimore in late 1988, Rosenblum remembered his meeting with Petty as a “quick schmooze. It was fun. They were all very down-to-earth guys and all ears, very attentive. I gave them a spiritual answer without getting too convoluted, especially about the rock [under the Western Wall complex] being the source of all music in the world.
“Later on [after watching the video], I was very complimented when Tom said that he learned more from me than he did in 10 years of Sunday school. … They were all decent guys and they asked cool questions. They were strangers in a strange land, but they were very receptive. They weren’t being treated like superstars, and I think they liked that. They were laid back.”
While expressing sorrow over Petty’s passing, Rosenblum — who attended the Woodstock music festival in 1969 and met Bob Dylan at Jerusalem’s Mount Zion in the early 1970s — said he was glad he got the chance to meet the “Refugee” singer, however briefly.
“Everything in life is beshert [destiny],” said Rosenblum, a member of Shomrei Emunah Synagogue in Northwest Baltimore. “Nothing is random. We might not think that it is, or not be aware of it, but it’s all beshert, part of HaShem’s plan.
“It’s just amazing to me that after 30 years, it all comes back up.”
Jmore Editor-in-Chief Alan Feiler contributed to this report.
Watch more from Petty’s Israel trip here.
Top photo: 1987 at The Kotel Plaza (Photos courtesy Avraham Rosenblum)
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