You know his guitar, you know his songwriting and now you’re getting to know him as a frontman. Mike Campbell spent over four decades as lead guitarist and co-songwriter in Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. And what started out as a side project, has now morphed into a second chapter for the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer leading Mike Campbell and the Dirty Knobs.
While rock bands and songwriting duos are known for high-profile breakups and feuds, Mike Campbell was with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers through it all. From humble beginnings playing bars across the South as the band Mudcrutch, to numerous platinum records and a halftime performance at Super Bowl XLII.
“I think it's just a matter of the two pieces fit. You know, I'm a team player, and I didn't have a whole lot of ego," Campbell told BTPM NPR. "Like, 'this is my song, and it goes this way.' I was more like, 'this is an idea I got, what do you think?' Oh, yeah, let's work on that together. My personality was not as ambitious as Tom's, which was good for our relationship, because I was happy to let him be the leader in in the process. And I didn't feel like I had to compete with him."
After Petty’s sudden passing in 2017, Campbell was without his friend and musical partner. That’s what led him to go all in with the Dirty Knobs.
“I love to play in a band, and I didn't have a band anymore, so I got this band together, and I am the leader, and I write the songs mostly, and it's just what I love to do," he said. "Tom's been gone for eight years now, and I can't go back. I've lived that great life, and now I'm starting a new life with a new band. It's like starting over, but it's exciting.”
Campbell also recently took an open look at his life and career, releasing a memoir in March titled “Heartbreaker.” Campbell said he was hesitant to write one at first, because he didn’t want it to turn into a cliché rock and roll memoir. But after seeing co-writer Ari Surdoval’s work, Campbell was impressed.
“My only rule about it was, I want to write a book about the music. It's not going to be a salacious sex, drugs and rock and roll book," Campbell said. "I'm not interested in doing that at all, and that's been done anyway. I wanted this book to be focused on the creative mystery of where the songs come from, and my relationships with my band members, and the journey of my life from poverty to success."
That life from poverty to success started in North Florida in 1950. Campbell found a love for the guitar in his early teens, inspired by the sounds of the British Invasion, but also American artists like The Byrds and Bob Dylan.
A mutual connection to Petty while in college led to an audition, and soon the early band Mudcrutch was playing gigs at dive bars and gin joints in the early 70s. After failing to achieve national success, most of the members, including Campbell, reformed into Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in 1976. That’s when the creative juices started flowing, and success.
“I met Tom, and he was already a little farther along with the songwriting, especially with lyrics and stuff, and we hit it off. And I found a great partnership where I could work on my music without any lyrics," he said. "And instinctively, you know, hear where Tom might sing, or what he might do in this chord progression, and hand it to him. And if I was lucky, he would hand it back with these great songs. So I was really, once again, very blessed that my paths crossed with him and we stuck together for the whole ride."
Campbell built a strong following within the music industry for his producer skills, guitar playing and co-writing. That led to opportunities to collaborate with many of the artists Campbell and Petty looked up to early in their careers. People like Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and George Harrison.
“I would just look up every now and then and go like 'how did I get here?' And the book talks about these things have come to me, these meeting my heroes and working with them, and all the success and great songs that have come to me," said Campbell. "And I'm very grateful that I've been chosen to be this conduit, you know, for the music that I come up with."
The Heartbreakers took Campbell all around the world. That includes a memorable trip many years ago to Canada, through Buffalo.
“We stopped at a hotel and dumped all our smokes and things that were naughty at the hotel before we crossed the border, so that we would be clean and we'd come back, we'd pick our stuff up," laughed Campbell, reminiscing about his time on the road. "So we're going across the border there in Buffalo at 4 a.m., on our bus, and they pulled the bus over. The dog came on the bus, a dog named Max, and he sniffed out our road manager's jacket, which had one little roach in it that he forgot about. So they hauled us all off the bus. It was like 30 degrees in the middle of the morning, and they stripped us down to our underwear and detained us for a while, and eventually they let us go.”
Campbell’s current tour with the Dirty Knobs has him traveling across the country alongside southern rock band Blackberry Smoke, including a stop at Artpark in Lewiston on July 31. He said his approach to shows now is all encompassing. Giving fans a balance of the legacy of the Heartbreakers, nods to 60s influences and cuts from the Dirty Knobs’ three original studio albums.
“A lot of it, is similar to the Heartbreakers, because it's me playing guitar. It has that type of sound in it, but the Dirty Knobs a little more edgier, a little more distorted and a little more excitable, maybe," he said. "And so if you come to see the Dirty Knobs, you're going to see us doing several songs from our three albums, and it's going to be spontaneous. We change the set a lot, and we might even change the arrangement on the stage in the moment, which the Heartbreakers rarely did."
And Campbell said even though Petty has been gone for nearly eight years, when he’s on stage now, the clock feels turned back.
“I get little flashes of memories of being on stage from all the nearly 50 years with the Heartbreakers, that's all still in my DNA," said Campbell. "And I feel that, especially when we do some of those songs, I feel Tom's presence. My friend is there, urging me on, hopefully. And it's kind of a religious experience, in a way.”
