I’ve been an enormous Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers fan since highschool, once I first heard “American Woman” on the radio. Regardless that I used to be born and raised in New Yawk, I cherished Tom’s folksy southern rock type and his wonderful voice and songwriting skill.
When the band’s third album (and first monster hit), Rattling The Torpedoes, got here out in 1979, and your complete world heard singles like “Don’t Do Me Like That,” “Right here Comes My Woman” and particularly, “Refugee,” I used to be already on the College of Florida in Gainesville, Tom’s hometown, and the place the place Tom first acquired along with Heartbreakers’ lead guitarist Mike Campbell, a man I at all times felt was severely underrated within the enterprise. I felt the identical approach about Miami Steve Van Zandt, who nonetheless performs lead guitar for Bruce Springsteen & The E Avenue Band, my different favourite stay rock act.
So, once I discovered that Mike and his present band, The Soiled Knobs (which he shaped in 2020, or about three years after Tom handed away in 2017), had been enjoying Ruth Eckerd Corridor on Aug. 13, I purchased tickets for myself and Jannah, made preparations for a photograph go for the present (Ruth Eckerd Corridor’s director of public relations Katie Pedretty has at all times been so honest and accommodating to me) and we stayed over in Clearwater for the night time.
Katie additionally talked about the opportunity of — and I actually hoped to additionally get — an interview with Mike, particularly in mild of the truth that he had simply had his e book, Heartbreaker: A Memoir, launched the identical week because the Ruth Eckerd present by Grand Central Publishing. I ordered a replica on Amazon, obtained it two days earlier than the live performance, and had learn the primary 150 or so pages by time we arrived in Clearwater to see Mike & The Soiled Knobs carry out. I’ve already reviewed the live performance on-line, however couldn’t but evaluate the e book at the moment as a result of I hadn’t but completed it.
However, Heartbreaker…what a fully wonderful learn! Mike talks about his powerful upbringing in a run-down north aspect neighborhood in Jacksonville, FL, known as Sherwood Forest. He says he cherished his father, Malcolm Campbell, who cherished Johnny Money and was within the Air Pressure. However, not lengthy after his father acquired transferred to Okinawa, Japan, he stopped sending Mike’s mom Helen cash. The household needed to transfer a number of instances and Mike mentioned all he had had been two shirts, one pair of denims and a pair of outdated sneakers, “however all I needed was a guitar.”
Naturally quiet and shy, Mike mentioned he was at all times the brand new child at college as his household stored transferring round, however his father finally despatched him an affordable Japanese guitar and he discovered learn how to play from a “Study to Play” e book by Seaside Boys guitarist Carl Wilson, though Mike couldn’t learn music. Regardless of his shyness, he by some means maintained straight As and his highschool steering counselor helped him earn a scholarship to U-F.
He finally met Tom when he heard the unique lineup of Tom’s band Mudcrutch play in a neighborhood bar in Gainesville after which noticed a “Assist Needed” advert posted within the native music retailer that “Mudcrutch Wants…” and each Mike and the drummer he had been residing with, Randall Marsh, had been requested to hitch the band.
The e book then chronicles the years of struggles of Mudcrutch, which turned well-liked as a canopy band that performed bars that doubled as strip golf equipment, together with a well-known one known as Dub’s, the place every member of the band acquired paid $100 every week — extra money than Mike says he had ever seen in his lifetime as much as that time. However in fact, Tom Petty needed to play his authentic songs, which wasn’t what Dub had employed them to do.
Mike recounts these tales and extra about Mudcrutch’s struggles as a gifted band that by no means fairly made it. There have been persona conflicts, cash issues and a primary file that didn’t promote. And, the one file firm that was solely needed Tom Petty. However, Tom insisted that Mike be included in any deal.
Finally, they let Mudcrutch go, however quickly, Tom and Mike reconnected with drummer Stan Lynch, bassist Ron Blair and keyboard participant Benmont Tench, all of whom they knew from Gainesville.
However, even the debut, self-titled album of the brand new Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers struggled to search out an viewers. Solely the music “Breakdown” cracked the top-40, whereas the anthem that will turn out to be even greater afterward, “American Woman,” by no means did.
The Heartbreakers’ second album, You’re Gonna Get It, additionally failed to search out an viewers of great measurement, however Petty and his bandmates knew they had been getting nearer. Character clashes, particularly between Petty and Lynch, almost derailed the band, however as soon as the songs from Rattling The Torpedoes began hitting the airwaves, the Heartbreakers shortly turned considered one of rock’s greatest and most sought-after acts.
Campbell and Surdoval do a tremendous job of bringing you deep contained in the band’s rise to stardom, together with the lawsuit between MCA Data and Petty that might have stored Rattling The Torpedoes from ever being launched, if not for Petty himself discovering the loophole he wanted and the braveness to face as much as MCA and the group’s authentic supervisor Denny Cordell, and getting them to settle the lawsuit.
Heartbreaker additionally supplies perception into the making of each album that got here after Torpedoes, together with Tom’s first “solo” (in quotes as a result of Campbell and almost all the different Heartbreakers additionally performed on it) album Full Moon Fever, which included the monster hits “Free Fallin’” and “I Received’t Again Down.” It was on Full Moon Fever that Tom started working with former Electrical Mild Orchestra frontman (and fellow future Touring Wilbury) Jeff Lynne as his producer.
The e book additionally provides wonderful insights into Campbell’s now-50-year marriage to his spouse Marcie, Petty’s divorce from his first spouse Jane and his second marriage to his spouse Dana, the band’s use of medication, particularly cocaine, the abuse of heroin by bass participant Howie Epstein (who changed Blair within the band) and, for some time, by Petty himself, Tench’s consuming downside and even Campbell’s one-time overdose on amphetamines, which landed him within the hospital.
The chapters concerning the Touring Wilburys — George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Lynne and Tom —in addition to Mike’s work with the Eagles’ Don Henley (Campbell wrote the music for Henley’s solo hit “The Coronary heart of the Matter”), and co-writing, with Tom, the large hit Stevie Nicks (of Fleetwood Mac fame, in fact) music “Cease Draggin’ My Coronary heart Round” are all informed from Mike’s distinctive perspective.
However, via all of those trials and tribulations — and large successes — Campbell and Petty endured collectively, not solely as lead guitarist and lead vocalist, however as a strong songwriting duo. Mike explains how his songwriting course of was fully totally different than Petty’s and that he composed at the very least items of dozens of songs that by no means made it onto a Heartbreakers or Petty solo album. Lots of these compositions by Campbell did, nevertheless, find yourself as a part of the three Soiled Knobs albums (to date, at the very least).
The story concerning the Heartbreakers’ closing tour and closing efficiency on the Hollywood Bowl in 2017 — solely days earlier than Petty handed away from an unintended overdose of painkillers, after he performed the ultimate reveals of that tour with a damaged hip — is totally a intestine punch. Campbell says he lastly informed his long-time pal and accomplice, “I like you, brother” as he held Petty’s hand shortly earlier than Tom handed away.
The e book additionally talks about Mike touring for 2 years because the substitute guitarist for Lindsey Buckingham in Fleetwood Mac after Tom’s passing, and the way Nicks acquired Mike collectively together with her vocal coach.
And, there are also chapters about Mike’s time as the first songwriter and lead singer in his band The Soiled Knobs, which mainly introduced me proper updated simply days after seeing the fantastic live performance which featured extra songs by the Heartbreakers (11) than by The Soiled Knobs (8).
I’ve tried to the touch on as many intervals as attainable within the wonderful lifetime of Mike Campbell with out gifting away your complete story. Whether or not or not you’re a fan of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Heartbreaker: A Memoir is a real page-turner.
I picked up my hardcover copy of it on Amazon.com.
