Born on October 20, 1950, in Gainesville, Florida, Tom Petty got hooked on music at age ten after visiting the set of Elvis Presley's film Follow That Dream and trading his slingshot for a stack of Presley's records. He started the band that became Mudcrutch with future Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench, and when that group split he formed Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in 1976, building hits like "American Girl," "Refugee," and "Don't Come Around Here No More." His 1989 solo album Full Moon Fever produced "I Won't Back Down" and "Free Fallin'," and in 1988 he joined George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne as a founding member of the Traveling Wilburys. Petty sold over 80 million records and entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. He died in 2017 at 66, a week after the Heartbreakers wrapped their 40th anniversary tour.

Born on October 20, 1978, Paul Wilson had been friends with Snow Patrol since 1995, often joining them onstage unofficially while fronting his own band Terra Diablo, before Snow Patrol fired bassist Mark McClelland in March 2005. Singer Gary Lightbody asked Wilson to step in, and he switched from guitar to bass, playing his first show as a full member in Dingle that April. Known for playing left handed with a pick on a black Rickenbacker 4000, Wilson wrote basslines and occasionally contributed guitar and piano, even taking on keyboards live for "Just Say Yes." A 2006 arm and shoulder injury during the Eyes Open Tour forced the band to cancel six shows. Wilson stayed with Snow Patrol until September 2023, when he left to focus full time on his metal project Above as Below.

On October 20, 1977, Lynyrd Skynyrd's chartered Convair CV-240 ran out of fuel and crashed into a wooded swamp in Amite County, Mississippi, just three days after the release of Street Survivors. The band had played Greenville, South Carolina, the night before and was flying to Baton Rouge for a Louisiana State University show when both engines lost power. The crew tried reaching McComb Airport, then attempted an emergency landing in a field, but the plane clipped the treetops and broke apart short of it. Lead vocalist Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, backing vocalist Cassie Gaines, road manager Dean Kilpatrick, and both pilots were killed, while twenty of the twenty six aboard survived. Investigators blamed fuel exhaustion from crew inattention, worsened by poor flight planning and a malfunctioning engine. The band had planned to retire the aging aircraft for a Learjet after reaching Baton Rouge. The tragedy halted the band's career for roughly a decade, until Ronnie's brother Johnny Van Zant led a reunion in the mid 1980s.