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Home / Music and sport / Tom Petty's daughters sued his widow for $5 million over control of his music
Case file s495 · Music and sport · 2017
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2017
Tom Petty: Tom Petty Live in Horsens (cropped2)
Tom Petty. Ирина Лепнёва. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
2 October 2017
Place
Santa Monica, California · United States
Field
rock (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) · Music on the timeline
Legal tradition
US common law (California); trust law · Common law
Historical event
Opioid overdose epidemic
Music and sportNowNorth AmericaUnited States

Tom Petty's daughters sued his widow for $5 million over control of his music

Tom Petty died of an accidental overdose a week after finishing a 40th-anniversary tour†. His widow, Dana York Petty, his second wife, whom he married in 2001†, became trustee of his estate. His daughters from his first marriage, Adria and AnnaKim Petty, said the trust gave them "equal participation" in decisions about his catalogue. In 2019 they sued Dana for $5 million, alleging she had taken control over their rights. Dana countersued†. The fight delayed the planned reissue of Petty's 1994 album "Wildflowers." On 10 December 2019 the three women and Petty's longtime manager, Tony Dimitriades, settled. Terms were not disclosed. The three announced that they had "resolved their differences and dismissed all litigation matters." They formed Tom Petty Legacy LLC, with each family member given equal standing, and put Will Botwin and Coran Capshaw of Red Light Management in charge of the catalogue and his name. The "Wildflowers" box set came out in 2020†.

What the law took from it

A trust that gives a widow and adult children equal say with no tiebreaker produces deadlock, then litigation.

Sources
  1. Rolling StonePress
  2. Rolling StonePress
  3. ultimateclassicrock.comPress

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Tom Petty's daughters sued his widow for $5 million over control of his music,” story s495, https://www.celebrity.estate/tom-petty-2017, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Music and sportNowNorth AmericaCommon lawUnited States