After writers described the character as “Tom Petty without the success,” Mike Judge ventured to actually ask Tom Petty to voice Lucky in King of the Hill. Petty said yes and voiced the character for 28 episodes.

Rock Stars Who Appeared on ‘King of the Hill’

When King of the Hill writers created the character Elroy “Lucky” Kleinschmidt in 2004, they never envisioned that a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer would eventually join the ranks of the many musicians, including ZZ Top and Gene Simmons, who lent their voices to the show.

Lucky was the invention of showrunner John Altschuler, created as a small part of the Season Eight episode “The Redneck on Rainey Street.” The writer described the character as looking like “Tom Petty without the success.” So when it came time to find a voice for Lucky, show creator Mike Judge wondered if the rock legend would be up to the task. “And he said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it,’ Judge recalled to the Chicago Tribune, adding that Petty “just killed at the table read.”

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