Taylor Swift Pays Tribute to Tom Petty: 'He Represented a Kind of Songwriting I Idolized'

Taylor Swift is speaking out about the late Tom Petty and his impact on her own career.

The 27-year-old “Look What You Made Me Do” singer-songwriter paid tribute in a statement to Rolling Stone.

“To me, Tom Petty represented a kind of songwriting I idolized: complex simplicity,” she said.

“It said so much in the lyrics, the concepts, the stories, the message, the nuances…but always brought you back to a hook that got stuck in everyone’s head. He motivated thousands of guitarists to learn to play just because they wanted to be able to play ‘Free Fallin.” Count me as one of them.”

Tom sadly passed away at the age of 66 on Monday (October 2).