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Issue date: 2/7/08 Section: Just on the Web

Stephanie Ogozaly

For most people, the Super Bowl is about the game. For me, it was all about the halftime show... which happened to be the only part of the game that I watched. This year there were no "wardrobe malfunctions" or glammed up, glittery pop stars. Instead, America was treated to twelve minutes of a rock and roll institution: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

My love affair with Tom Petty's music began when I was a youngster, fresh out of second grade and ready to rock. My mother bought me the "Greatest Hits" CD, which I listened to endlessly. By the time I rolled into third grade, I had switched schools and had the love of classic rock switched on in my heart. The chords coursed through my veins while the guitar riffs served as my heartbeat. While my classmates gobbled up prepackaged pop and the flavors of the month, I was achieving personal rock and roll victories - like finding Petty's "Full Moon Fever" cassette tape at an outdoor flea market on a sticky summer afternoon.

When I was 16, one of my dreams came true: I saw Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers live. It was pure magic. As I watched multi-colored spotlights dance on the ceiling and listened to songs whose lyrics are tattooed on my heart, I felt like I was floating, taken into the air by rhythm. Not once did I sit down during the concert and the next day my sore back and feet were badges of honor to be worn with pride. I had spent two glorious hours under the same roof with the man who was crafting the soundtrack of my life. I knew then that the music of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers would be permanently cemented in my life.

While I sat on a floral patterned couch in my living room, Petty was stomping the stage of the Super Bowl halftime show... and I felt a familiar rush. It was the same rush of excitement I felt back in the third grade when I would spin my "Greatest Hits" CD and dream of the future, the same rush that comes with giddy children's grins - the type of feeling that I never hope to lose, no matter how old and cynical I become.

It wasn't just Tom Petty up on that stage, it wasn't just music pouring from the television's speakers - it was my childhood being beamed at me. Every smile, every hardship, every feeling of my young life is wrapped intricately and safely within the notes of Petty's music. Every note holds a memory, a good-bye, a hello.

For me, it's more than just rock and roll: it's my life.

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