Who did Tom Petty voice on ‘King of the Hill’?

He was an icon of the music industry, one of America’s most prolific songwriters, and an all around rock star — oh, and in his free time he voiced a character on King of the Hill. You know what they say, everyone’s got to have a hobby.

That’s right, you might not have known it but Tom Petty was a frequent collaborator of the show’s co-creators Mike Judge and Greg Daniels. The musician ended up lending his golden pipes to the show for an impressive 28 episodes, and his voice acting (to no one’s surprise) wasn’t half bad.

When you’re a singer by trade, then using your voice to perform isn’t probably that hard. Right? Rock and roll is known for its theatrically after all. So who the heck did Tom Petty voice on King of the Hill?

The “Don’t Do Me Like That” singer ended up voicing none other than the legendary, the uncompromising, the downright scheming — Elroy ‘Lucky’ Kleinschmidt. If you squint hard enough, he even looks like Tom Petty.

Now that King of the Hill has officially been renewed on Hulu, some are beginning to wonder how they’ll explain away Lucky’s absence, but that seems to be the last thing on anyone’s mind. Lucky was a cartoon character, Tom Petty was a human being — and is deeply mourned by millions of his fans around the world.

Dying of an accidental overdose at the age of 66, Tom Petty was gone before his time. His influence on music, pop culture, and art can’t be expressed in words. We’re just happy to have been around in a world that had Tom Petty in the first place.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, one of the show’s creators Mike Judge discussed Petty’s passing.

“We had all grown up on his music, that unique voice of his, and to have him as the voice of Lucky on King of the Hill was just wonderful. He was always a pleasure to work with – such a funny guy. He will be greatly missed.”

Regardless of how it’s handled in the show, the fact that Tom Petty was on King of the Hill in the first place is pretty darn awesome. Sure, we’re excited to see what the creatives behind the show have dreamt up for an entirely new season — but while we wait for Hulu to release the series, we’ll definitely be listening to some Tom Petty classics.