For almost 50 years, guitarist Mike Campbell was Tom Petty’s most trusted collaborator and confidante.
In his 2025 memoir, Heartbreaker, Campbell describes how he and Petty made a pact with each other early in their time together: to stick together, no matter what, through poverty, legal battles, and massive fame.
The two met when they were both members of the Gainesville, Florida-based band Mudcrutch and would eventually co-found Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers together.
Campbell had a natural chemistry with Petty, a seamless interplay that became an essential element to the Heartbreakers’ sound; Petty, with his full, steady rhythm guitar, allowed Campbell’s hook-driven leads, high arpeggios, and sustained drones to perfectly and powerfully complement his chord progressions, like in “Refugee” and “American Girl.”
Campbell always showed tasteful restraint, never one to let his playing overshadow Petty’s. He preferred, instead, to play guitar in a way that served the needs of each song rather than compete for the spotlight.
Campbell, though, was more than just a lead guitarist; he was a vital co-writer and co-producer. Their creative process often involved Campbell creating fully arranged instrumental demos that he would then present to Petty, who would write the accompanying lyrics. Among the hits that Campbell co-wrote for the Heartbreakers are “Refugee,” “Here Comes My Girl,” “You Got Lucky,” and “Runnin’ Down a Dream.” He also co-produced nine Heartbreakers albums, including Southern Accents and Into the Great Wide Open, as well as Petty’s solo albums, Full Moon Fever, Wildflowers, and Highway Companion.
He originally formed his side-project, the Dirty Knobs, with guitarist Jason Sinay (later replaced by multiinstrumentalist Chris Holt), Lance Morrison on bass, and Matt Laug (who was later replaced by Heartbreaker Steve Ferrone) in 2000 as a low-pressure creative outlet to play clubs outside of the Heartbreakers.
But since Petty’s untimely death in 2017, the Dirty Knobs have become Campbell’s main focus. While starting as a performance band, the Dirty Knobs (tech slang for a broken amplifier dial) finally released its debut album, Wreckless Abandon in 2020, followed by 2022’s External Combustion. Those records, said Campbell in a press release, were the Knobs “trying to find our way as a rock & roll band.” Then, in 2024, the Knobs collaborated with Graham Nash, Lucinda Williams, and Chris Stapleton to release Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits.
Now, with the June 12 release of the band’s fourth album, Mission of Mercy, Campbell says the new record is all about great, in-depth songs.
Mission of Mercy displays Campbell’s full songwriting range, “an action-packed collection of tunes,” as he puts it, with songs ranging from the unbridled rock and roll of “I Remember” to the Americana ballad “More Than Gold.” The album features guest appearances by Kate Pierson of the B-52’s and singer-songwriter Morgane Stapleton.
Campbell recalls something Petty once told him. “Tom said, ‘I love the English language. There’s so much you can do with it.’ Campbell, he says, is discovering that, too. “Looking for rhyme schemes, the right word. At first it was a struggle. Now that door has opened. I’ve turned a corner.”
The Dirty Knobs will be on tour throughout the summer starting July 7 in Minneapolis. And on September 12, Campbell will unveil a selection of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers songs performed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
How has the Dirty Knobs’ identity shifted from being a side project to becoming your primary creative vehicle?
It used to be a little studio, bar band that I would use to work out new songs. And we developed a nice little group. I always figured someday, if the Heartbreakers ever retire, that this is what I want to do. So, unfortunately, things have played out the way they have. But I’m here with this great band, and I’m very grateful for it.
The new album is great. I really dig it. How does your songwriting process differ now that you’re writing specifically for the Dirty Knobs rather than presenting demos to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers?
Well, my writing process has not changed. I write when I get an idea. I follow the idea. I don’t put parameters on it, like, this has to be a Heartbreaker song, or this has to be a Dirty Knobs track. It’s just a song, you know? I try to make the song really good when it’s finished. If it sounds like something that might fit the Knobs, then I give it to them, and we turn it into a Knobs track.
Two songs really stand out to me on this new album: “No Regrets,” and “I Remember.” What inspired those songs?
“I Remember” is a very simple track. Lyrically, it was written on the piano, which is a little different for me. But I enjoyed finding the chords and putting them together and then coming up with words over it. There wasn’t a lot of thought put into it. It was just what felt good. “No Regrets” is more of a story. There’s a character that goes to the song, so there’s more lyrics focused on that song. I’m really proud of the words. I’m getting into lyrics a lot now where I can see the characters, and I can develop them into a song format. I have a Rickenbacker 12-string on it, which is an identifiable sound. Of all the songs on the record, that one is the most reminiscent of the Heartbreakers-type sound. So it just turned into the story of a guy who’s trying to get out of town before he gets sent to jail for a bum rap.
I do love the sound of the 12-string Rickenbacker. And you’re right, it has such a notable sound.
Yeah. There’s something about the chime of the Rickenbacker, which I fell in love with back from the ’60s. We’ve used it in the Heartbreakers a lot. I always tend to reach for it here and there because it just sounds like an orchestra by itself.
In September, you’ll be performing classic Heartbreakers songs with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. How has the process of translating these tracks into a symphonic performance changed the way you view them from when you originally wrote and performed them?
The songs I would be doing in that thing, which is still being developed, will be songs that people recognize from my decades of songwriting. I love orchestra music. I love Beethoven, Mozart, and Bach. I listen to that stuff quite a bit, and I thought a lot of our songs would lend themselves to that orchestration. Instead of a guitar here and there, it might be a cello or an oboe. As I’ve been starting to work on it, I’ve realized that a lot of our music does lend itself well to that interpretation. So now that I am a man of a certain age, it dawned on me: if I’m gonna do it, this is something I dreamed about; this is probably the time to do it.
Is the Atlanta concert going to be the only one like this? Or are you planning on doing more?
In my mind, it’s something, if it goes well and I really enjoy it, and people like it, it’s something I can do off and on from now on. If there’s an interest in it, certainly, I would do more shows.
You once mentioned that Tom Petty was an expert at finding the hook within your instrumental demos. Now that you’re leading your own band, how do you know when a riff or melody is finished?
I don’t know if it’s any more than I used to. I’ve always been meticulous about my music. When I would make demos for Tom, having the home studio, I was able to hand him tracks that sounded almost like finished records that just needed words and a melody. So I still approach it that way, except now that I write the lyrics, sometimes the lyrics come first and the music comes after. I’m just trying to get better as a writer, and definitely as a singer and a lyricist. I’m starting to find my own voice.
What’s the most surprising thing about your relationship with a guitar now that you didn’t realize back when you first started?
I never thought I would be as successful as I became when I was learning the guitar. I just fell in love with it. It became my passion and something I could tell I was pretty good at. So I chased it, and it became part of my life. I’m pleasantly surprised that it’s lasted this long. I still love the guitar. I play the guitar every day. I have guitars all over the house. Wherever I sit down, there’s a guitar nearby in case I get an idea. So the guitar is a thread that changed my life and gave me a purpose.
What’s your advice for somebody learning to play guitar or getting back into guitar after many years?
Follow your heart. Do what you feel. Learn what you want to learn, and draw from those influences and try to make them your own. Work hard. Work at it every day. You’ll get better.
After playing guitar on and off, half-assed, for more than 30 years, I’ve finally decided to practice much more seriously. It’s been an interesting process as an adult.
Yeah, it’s a fascinating instrument. There’s only six strings and what, 20 frets? But within all those notes, there’s eternal ideas. I’m always picking up a new idea or a new chord change, or a new chord voicing. I don’t really practice lead guitar per se. When I was younger, I did, to get to where I thought, well, I’m pretty good at that now. Mostly, when I play guitar now, it usually has to do with a song idea. Or I hear a record that I like, and go, well, what is that? And I’ll get the guitar out and try to figure it out. And in the process, I may get it wrong, but I’ll find something that I can use for myself, and that’s the beauty of it. It’s like therapy in a way. It’s a spiritual therapy, and it centers you and brings you comfort and hopefully inspiration.
When you and Tom worked together, you’ve described your connections as a telepathic musical bond. Was there a specific moment on a track, like “Refugee” or “Running Down A Dream,” where there was an unspoken musical choice or a single look that you gave each other that changed the direction of the song?
If Tom would show me a guitar song, he would usually be strumming and singing. So, my input would be to listen, learn what he’s doing, and then find another guitar that makes him sound better without taking the song in the wrong direction, to stay within the song he’s trying to put across and add what I can to it. And it always seemed to be a magical moment. He would show me something like “American Girl,” which is just the four chords mostly. And I sat down and played along. Almost every time he would show me a song, by the end of the song, I would’ve come up with something that enhances the song that he would like. It was never worked out or spoken about. Like you said, it was intuitive, and I just seemed to know what he liked. And he liked what I did. We were on the same channel, so it was pretty easy for us to work something out.
Is there anything that we didn’t talk about that you’d like to add?
The new album, I’m really proud of. I’m glad you like it. I like the two songs you mentioned, but I like a lot of the other songs on the album. I think this fourth album of the Dirty Knobs shows a growth in the songwriting. There’s a lot of rock and roll and guitar-focused kind of boogie stuff. But on this album, there’s also some other things that are quite different, like the title track, “Mission of Mercy,” which is very inspired by Brian Wilson. It’s something that’s very different for the Dirty Knobs, and I’m real proud of that one. It’s got a strong melody and different types of chords in it. And I like “Armageddon,” which is kind of a scary piece, but has a lot of redemption in it when I hear it. And I like the song we did with Kate Pierson, the bongo song (“Bongo Mania”), which is a lot of fun.
What was it like working with Kate Pierson?
I didn’t actually get to see her. I had the track, and I, in my dream, I thought, wow, this is like the B-52’s. Wouldn’t it be great if I could hear that voice on this track? And so the office contacted her and she was open to it. We had a conversation on the phone. I liked her quite a bit, and I sent her the track, and she did this amazing vocal stuff on it and sent it back to me. She instinctively knew exactly what the song needed. She’s an amazing artist, and I’m just thrilled that she added to my song.
What’s the one thing you miss most about Tom?
His sense of humor and his friendship. He was my best friend. We had a lot of deep connections over the years, long talks, and musical journeys that coincided with each other. I just miss my friend, I guess, mostly. I’m still grieving. But he’s kind of always here with me and on my shoulder saying, “Don’t do that. Do this.”
