Here is something about the song you quote. Wouldn't want you to remain ignorant.

An arsonist set fire to Tom Petty’s L.A. home in May 1987, burning most of the house to the ground. While his wife and daughter stayed at a friend’s place in Beverly Hills, Tom began rebuilding the house on the exact same plot of land, using his basement recording studio – one of the few rooms to survive the blaze – as the foundation. He wasn’t going to back down to any firestarter.

The house was still under construction by the time Thanksgiving rolled around. The Pettys, who’d already spent half a year in someone else’s home, were getting restless. Deciding that a game of softball was the best way to blow off steam, Tom got into his car and went out in search of baseball mitts.

“I was going to drive down to the Sav-On in Beverly Hills and buy a dozen ball mitts so everybody could play ball,” he tells author Paul Zollo in Conversations with Tom Petty. “[It] was the only place open on Thanksgiving Day. So I’m at the traffic light, and I look over to my left, and there’s Jeff Lynne, who I’d only just recently seen in England. So I honked my horn, and he turned around, and we pulled over.”

Petty and Lynne talked for a few minutes, reconnected during the Christmas holidays, and formed the Traveling Wilburys in early 1988. When Petty started writing songs for a solo album later that year, he naturally went to Lynne for help. Full Moon Fever was the result of that collaboration, and “I Won’t Back Down” was the album’s first single.

A defiant song about standing up to one’s enemies, “I Won’t Back Down” is directed at the person who set Petty’s house ablaze. “Gonna stand my ground / won’t be turned around,” goes a line in the first verse, which calls to mind the charred ground where his original home once stood. Despite his personal connection to the lyrics, though, Petty turned “I Won’t Back Down” into an anthem for anyone struggling against some sort of oppression. The song isn’t really about a house fire. It’s about resilience.

Petty certainly knew a lot about resilience at the time. Several weeks before the house fire, he successfully sued a tire company for mimicking one of his songs, “Mary’s New Car,” in a TV commercial. A few years before that, he waged a public battle with his own label, MCA Records, after the company tried to charge customers a higher sales price for his 1981 album Hard Promises. The Heartbreakers were waging a few battles of their own, too, and drummer Stan Lynch was already planning his exit by the time Full Moon Fever rolled around. “I Won’t Back Down” became Tom Petty’s musical motto, a song that summed up everything he stood for in less than three minutes.

Like many Tom Petty tunes, the lyrics are simple and direct. The arrangement is straightforward, too, a rarity on an album filled with Jeff Lynne’s multi-layered production. Sometimes, the easiest way to say something is to just say it, and “I Won’t Back Down” speaks volumes.

“I Won’t Back Down”

Well I won’t back down No I won’t back down You can stand me up at the gates of Hell But I won’t back down

No I’ll stand my ground Won’t be turned around And I’ll keep this world from dragging me down Gonna stand my ground And I won’t back down

Hey baby, there ain’t no easy way out Hey I, I’ll stand my ground And I won’t back down

Well I know what’s right I got just one life In a world that keeps on pushin’ me around but I’ll stand my ground And I won’t back down

Hey baby, there ain’t no easy way out Hey I, I’ll stand my ground And I won’t back down

Hey baby, there ain’t no easy way out Hey I, I’ll stand my ground And I won’t back down No I won’t back down americansongwriter.com/20...m-petty-i-wont-back-down/

It was on these drives that he came up with many of the songs for the album, and the fire was a huge influence, especially on this song. Petty felt grateful to be alive, but also traumatized - understandable since someone had tried to kill him.

"I Won't Back Down" was his way of reclaiming his life and getting past the torment - he said that writing and recording the song had a calming effect on him.

The arsonist was never caught, which made Petty's plight even more challenging. As for motive, there was no direct connection made, but 11 days earlier, Petty won a lawsuit against the B.F. Goodrich tire company for $1 million. Goodrich wanted to use Petty's song "Mary's New Car" in a TV commercial, and when he wouldn't let them, their advertising agency commissioned a copycat song that the judge felt was too similar. http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1070

It's a long day, living in Reseda There's a freeway running through the yard And I'm a bad boy 'cause I don't even miss her I'm a bad boy, for breaking her heart

[Chorus] Now I'm free - free falling Yeah I'm free - free falling

All the vampires walking through the valley Move west down Ventura boulevard And all the bad boys are standing in the shadows And the good girls are home with broken hearts

[Chorus] Now I'm free - free falling Yeah I'm free - free falling

I wanna glide down over Mulholland I wanna write her name in the sky I'm gonna free fall out into nothing Gonna leave this world for a while

[Chorus] Now I'm free - free falling Yeah I'm free - free falling

Sometimes when you're brain-dead, your body will keep breathing for up to a week or so without a heart-lung machine.

So he will die soon but he isn't dead yet. Or so it seems from various reporting.

"I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings. Coming down is the hardest thing. I'm learning to fly around the clouds. What goes up must come down."

That was my flight school song.

Like many Tom Petty tunes, the lyrics are simple and direct. The arrangement is straightforward, too, a rarity on an album filled with Jeff Lynne’s multi-layered production.

For those of you who don't know,when you hear the name Jeff Lynne,think "Electric Light Orchestra.

These guys.

I thought the song you were going to quote was "I won't come around here no more." :)

That had his best music video, his Alice in Wonderland video with 'Don't come around here no more' as the background song.