Tom Petty guitarist Mike Campbell on moving on with own band: 'It gets a little emotional'

Mike Campbell was the greatest right-hand man Tom Petty could’ve hoped to find, a brilliant lead guitarist who co-wrote such Heartbreakers classics as “Refugee,” “Here Comes My Girl” and “A Woman in Love (It’s Not Me)."

Their partnership was forged in Gainesville, Florida, where they were barely in their 20s when they hit the scene in 1970 with Mudcrutch.

Campbell even played on all three Petty solo albums. That’s how strong their musical connection was.

It’s been six years since the Heartbreakers ended their 40^th Anniversary Tour with a three-night stand at the Hollywood Bowl.

A week later, Petty was dead of an accidental overdose.

It’s a feeling of loss Campbell sums up as “kind of beyond words,” adding “but you must go on, you know.”

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Playing Petty songs with Dirty Knobs is 'all part of the healing process'

Campbell has been doing a handful of Heartbreakers songs “out of respect and as an homage to my past" as he tours the country with the Dirty Knobs, the side gig that became his main gig when his main gig went away

“Sometimes it gets a little emotional," he says. "But that's OK. It's all part of the healing process.”

He couldn't wait to get on stage again, he says. It's in his blood.

“I love the band I'm in," he says. "I miss the band I used to be in. But you have to move forward. And playing in front of people is a healing process. So it wasn't hard at all.”

The Dirty Knobs have been on his side burner for “a couple of decades really, without being an official group,” he says.

“We were just studio friends having fun and I was able to develop songs and woodshed a little bit. Then we would go out and play local bars around LA just to try songs out. It's not a solo project, but it is my band and I'm in charge.”

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'I was a large part of the Heartbreakers sound'

Being able to give the Dirty Knobs his full attention has been fun but also bittersweet.

“I always figured I’d focus on them if some time opened up,” he says. “I didn't expect what happened to happen. But now that I have this life ahead of me, I want to fill it with music, and I love this band."

There is a very real extent to which the Dirty Knobs can feel like an extension of those decades he spent playing in the Heartbreakers.

“It's inevitable, isn't it?” he says. “I mean, I was a large part of the Heartbreakers sound, the guitar parts, the songwriting and everything. The energy. That's me. So whatever I do is gonna have an element of that spirit in it. And I'm proud of that.”

The Dirty Knobs' 'External Combustion'

The Dirty Knobs are touring on their second album, “External Combustion,” with another album in the works.

They’ve been approaching the recording process as a live band playing in the studio without much in the way of bells and whistles.

“I like that type of recording,” Campbell says.

“The last several Heartbreakers records were done that way and the Mudcrutch records, so there's interplay and chemistry. And the players are so good that we don't really have to do many takes. You count it off and play it, play the solos live. I like the energy of it.”

There’s a rawness to both albums they’ve released so far.

“It's not sloppy raw, though,” Campbell clarifies. “It's good raw.”

'Going for greatness' with Tom Petty on 'Damn the Torpedoes'

It’s a whole different way of approaching the studio than a record like “Damn the Torpedoes,” the triple-platinum triumph that became their mainstream breakthrough, sending “Don’t Do Me Like That” and “Refugee” to the upper reaches of the Hot 100.

That was “a pretty slick record,” Campbell says.

“We spent a lot of time getting every little nuance of every sound and getting big drum sounds and perfect echo. At the time, that's what radio seemed to be playing and we were aiming for radio airplay.”

They also took more of a heavily produced approach to Petty’s solo breakthrough, “Full Moon Fever,” and the Heartbreakers’ “Into the Great Wide Open,” with Petty’s fellow Traveling Wilbury, Jeff Lynne of ELO, producing.

“He has a whole different method of working where the band doesn't play all at once,” Campbell says. “We'll start with acoustic guitars and build it up piece by piece like a puzzle until it makes a picture.”

He likes those records, Campbell says, “for what they are.” But it’s not necessarily fun to make that kind of record.

There were moments of fun making “Damn the Torpedoes.”

“But it was hard because we were still learning how to record,” Campbell says. “We’d only made two records. And we were going for greatness. We wanted to make the best record ever made in the history of music. And that puts a lot of pressure on you. But I think the final product holds up pretty well.”

Mott the Hoople's Ian Hunter guests on 'External Combustion'

In addition to the Dirty Knobs, “External Combustion” features Campbell’s former bandmate Benmont Tench on keyboards with vocal cameos by Margo Price and Mott the Hoople’s Ian Hunter.

“I still haven't met him to thank him in person,” Campbell says of having Hunter on his record. “It was just a phone call to the office.”

Hunter’s manager had reached out asking Campbell to contribute lead guitar to something Hunter was recording.

“I did one song and he liked it, so he sent another one,” Campbell says.

“Then I sheepishly asked, 'Well, would you like to sing on our record on one song?' And he said ‘Yeah.’ So we sent him the track and he did this great vocal and piano and sent it back to me. I was thrilled. He's been a favorite artist of mine over the years. So I feel very honored.”

He’s been a fan of Hunter’s singing since his days in Mott the Hoople.

“He had a bit of a Dylanesque voice and delivery that was very rock 'n' roll,” Campbell says.

A conversation with Roy Orbison about Bob Dylan and Tom Petty

It’s pointed out that one could say the same for Campbell.

“I'll take that as a huge complement,” he says. “But it's not on purpose. I think what you're probably getting at is that I'm not a trained singer. It’s more of a conversational-type delivery.”

He’s reminded of something the late Roy Orbison once said about the other Traveling Wilburys.

“They were in the other room and Roy and I were talking,” Campbell says. “And he goes, 'You know, those guys, they're not really singers. They're stylists.'”

Campbell laughs at the memory.

“He goes, 'I'm a singer.' And I knew what he meant. So I guess in a sense, I fall into the stylist category. I love Dylan too. I probably do emulate him subconsciously. Because he's a genius. The way he delivers his words and his characters, I mean, I would love to aspire to that.”

Recalling when Tom Petty thought he sang too much like Bob Dylan

Campbell remembers Petty being worried that there might be too much Dylan in his own voice as a young man.

“We were working on our first album with Denny Cordell at Shelter Records and Tom was still finding his voice,” Campbell says.

“He had brought a couple of songs in that were kind of Dylanesque. And he was upset, saying, 'I sound too much like Dylan. I gotta get this out of my system. I don't want to be a Dylan clone.'”

That’s when Cordell set him straight.

He told him, 'Look, don't worry about it. Just do it. Let it come out of you, get it out of your system and you will find your own voice.' And eventually he did.”

In 1986, the Heartbreakers went out as Dylan’s backing band.

“We got to rehearsal one day, and he turned around to explain something about what he wanted,” Campbell says.

“And he goes, 'What I like about you guys, it's like talking to one person, because you're all in sync with each other. I could talk to one guy, and you all understand exactly what I'm saying.'”

Mike Campbell on touring with Fleetwood Mac

Campbell’s first tour after Petty’s death was joining Crowded House’s Neil Finn in replacing Lindsey Buckingham on a world tour with Fleetwood Mac that ran from 2018 to 2019.

“I had to work hard to try and emulate some of the guitar parts,” Campbell says. “I'm not used to doing that. I'm used to playing my own guitar parts. So that was a challenge for me. But I did the best I could to bring my own element without messing the songs up.”

The best part of that tour, besides the music and camaraderie, was the travel.

“They took my wife and I around the world first class to almost every country,” he says. “And we had lots of days off. It was like a first-class paid vacation around the world and then we'd do a few gigs in between. It was really a great experience.”

He and Stevie Nicks have been good friends for ages. He and Petty co-wrote and appear, as do the other Heartbreakers, on her first (and highest-charting) U.S. solo hit, “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.”

But the entire band made him feel more than welcome on that tour.

“They're good people,” he says. “I love them all. And I did like Lindsey. I bumped into him at the memorial for Christine (McVie) and he was really kind to me.”

Campbell is playing much smaller rooms with his own band than he did with Fleetwood Mac, but he doesn’t mind that.

“It's like starting over,” he says. “It's a romantic thing in a weird kind of way. Last year, we had a tour bus for a little while. But mostly we were in vans, playing biker bar type places, 500 to 1,000 seats, mostly 500. Bars are fun. That's how I started out, playing in small places where you can see everybody's face.”

Mike Campbell's favorite Phoenix memories, from Super Bowl to playing with Muddy Waters

He’s played some of the biggest rooms in metro Phoenix, including State Farm Stadium for the Super Bowl halftime show in 2008.

“That was quite a thrill,” he says.

His favorite Valley memory, though, was a night at a much smaller venue called Dooley’s in Tempe.

“We were on tour playing an arena and after the show, we went to a bar where Muddy Waters was playing,” Campbell says.

When Waters went offstage at the end of his set, the Heartbreakers got up to make their exit through the back door.

“And his manager was standing there and said, 'Why don't you come meet Muddy?,’” Campbell says.

“So we all went in sheepishly. And he was so sweet to us. He said, 'Why don't you come out on the stage and play in my encore?' We're like 'What?!' It was totally spontaneous. So he dragged us out on stage — me and Tom and Ben. And he pointed to us to take a solo here and there.”

It was, as Campbell says, a very a memorable night in Phoenix.

“That's probably my favorite, even more than the Super Bowl,” he says. “Way more. What was cool about Muddy is he wasn't like, 'Oh, here's Tom.' He was like, 'Who are these other guys? He wanted to meet everybody.”

He even complimented Campbell as they left the stage.

“He turned around and looked at me and goes, 'I heard you buzzing out there,’” Campbell says. “That made my life. So yeah, that was Phoenix. That's my fondest memory.”

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Mike Campbell & the Dirty Knobs

When:  8 p.m. Sunday, June 4.

Where: The Van Buren, 401 W. Van Buren St., Phoenix.

Admission: $35.

Details: 866-468-3399, thevanburenphx.com.

Reach the reporter at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter @EdMasley.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Mike Campbell says the pain of losing Tom Petty was 'beyond words'