Tom Petty "couldn’t communicate" in his final days.
The ‘I Won’t Back Down’ hitmaker passed away in October 2017 at the age of 66 from an accidental overdose and his Heartbreakers guitarist, Mike Campbell, is thankful he had been given the opportunity to really "connect" with his friend on their final tour together.
He said: "In the hospital, lying in the bed, I talked to him a little bit.
"He couldn’t communicate, but maybe he heard me, I don’t know.
"It’s hard to put into words but I had an opportunity on the plane a couple of times towards the end of the last tour to connect, to say all the things I really wanted to say to him.
"We were able to touch base, to identify our bond and our friendship in a very powerful way.
"I feel fortunate to have had those moments with him, not knowing what was going to unfold."
And Mike admitted he was stunned when he received an early morning phone call to say Tom had been rushed to hospital.
He recalled to Uncut magazine: "The last time I saw Tom he looked like an angel. I got the call at four in the morning you always worry when the phone rings in the middle of the night.
"My wife picked it up then said to me, ‘Tom’s in the hospital’. I said, ‘Tom who?’ It didn’t even occur to me it could be him, it must be some other Tom. That’s how shocked I was.
"I knew he had a little pain in his hip, but he hardly ever complained about it on tour."
And Tom’s death came at a time when he still had a lot of musical goals to achieve.
Mike said: "We were looking forward. We talked a lot about what we were going to do after the tour. We had a lot of plans."
Mike Campbell reflects on Tom Petty’s death
