Mike Campbell: ‘Fleetwood Mac pulled me out of my grief’
As he releases his autobiography, Tom Petty's right-hand man tells us about life in the Heartbreakers and finding joy in joining Fleetwood Mac after Petty's death.
By Lee Campbell
It’s days before Mike Campbell releases his aptly-titled autobiography Heartbreaker and the man himself is showing no signs of slowing down. He’s in LA as we chat over Zoom, but the gentle smile & laid back, southern American accent that emerges as he lights up his pipe are the perfect way to begin our audience with the man who has been at the centre of US rock for the last 50 years.
He may be forever synonymous for being Tom Petty’s loyal, right-hand axe man, but in his mid-70s, Mike remains as creative as ever, still writing & touring with his band, The Dirty Knobs.
In the early ‘70s, Mike was introduced to an unforgettable presence, at that time a singing bass player, one that he would make music with across five decades, until Tom Petty’s tragic passing in 2017. There’s a fantastic account in Mike’s memoir recalling this first meeting. “I heard him say the words that I would hear countless times over the course of the next forty years,” he writes. “Often he said them as an introduction, a warm welcome. But sometimes he said them to indicate that a particular line of discussion had now come to an end. Not this time. The first time I ever heard him say these words, they were not the end of anything. They were the very beginning – ‘I’m Tom Petty.’ “
“I was struck by his energy and his desire to make music, and by the fact that he seemed to be just like me,” Campbell tells RS UK of their first meeting. “We grew up on the same things and we both wanted to make a life out of music if we could. We became friends immediately.”
One track from many that stands out for Mike is ‘American Girl’, which really captured that iconic Heartbreakers sound for the first time. He explains the early beginnings of the song that was included on their 1976 debut LP. “It was on the 4th of July, Tom and I were working on a few ideas. One day he came in with that song. It had a real simple guitar rhythm, and I loved the song immediately. The lyrics were of longing, hope and redemption. It was something that was in his personality and a thread that ran through songs as we went forward.
“As we were learning songs, I would sit down, he would play, and I would find something to go along with him, sonically and rhythmically. In ‘American Girl’, we found a guitar harmonic and an energy that was very unique. That sound was us discovering what we were in that moment.”
A pivotal figure in Mike and the band’s life that gave them true belief in themselves was UK producer, the late Denny Cordell. Mike expresses his importance – “Denny was very significant. He saw that we were young, searching for our identity and our vibe, which we found on ‘American Girl’. But even before that, he saw something in us that we didn’t even see ourselves. He sensed that we had something special. He believed in us and said ‘you guys are good, keep going after this’. Denny was essential to our career, to Tom’s persona, Tom’s writing, and to my confidence. He just was the guy, he was our guru.”
Tom Petty’s Wallflowers’ album from 1994 has become one of his most cherished. This featured another memorable producer. Although not officially a Heartbreakers release, Mike Campbell was once again at the centre of the record, this time produced by Rick Rubin. It was a different direction that Petty was looking for on this LP.
“We had just done two albums with Jeff Lynne [‘Full Moon Fever & ‘Into the Great Wide Open’] which were incredible, but that process had become a little routine,” he recalls.
“So, we were looking for some new energy and Rick called me wondering if Tom and I would be interested in working with him. It was a chance for Tom to explore his writing without having to write for the Heartbreakers. He could get a little folky or write a ballad. It was an opening to do something a little different, and Rick was perfect for that.”
There’s a devastating section of Mike’s memoir where he said that he wanted to tell Tom “a hundred things” but sadly never got the chance to do that following the final gig at The Hollywood Bowl in LA, in late September 2017. Were there any regrets that still lingered with Mike? “No, my slate is clean”, he says definitively. “I sat with Tom in [hospital] in the last few hours and said everything that I had to say about our love and the brotherhood & the gratitude. I got that all out. A lot of the stuff between Tom and me was pure respect. We didn’t talk about feelings or we didn’t verbalize things like maybe some people do, but we respected each other deeply. We didn’t have to say it.”
A few months after Tom Petty’s death, Mike got a call from Mick Fleetwood in early 2018. It was a call that came at the perfect time for Campbell in a very dark and unprecedented period for him, after losing his musical brother.
“It was on my birthday. I was sitting in my backyard and I was deep in grief. I knew I was going to keep working on music, but I wasn’t ready yet. I didn’t know how that was going to shape out. The phone rang and it was Mick and he offered me the tour,” he says.
“It took 24 hours to think it over and I saw it as a challenge to learn those songs. We had a beautiful tour. My wife Marcie and I went – It was like a five-star, paid vacation. I’m very grateful to Fleetwood Mac. It really pulled me out of my grief, helped me to focus & process what I was going through. I owe them a debt of gratitude for that.”
Of course, Mike had met Stevie Nicks many years before that at the time when Mike penned ‘Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around’, which eventually ended up on Stevie’s smash album, Bella Donna as a Stevie Nicks track. Mike described that song as one of many ‘gifts’ that has come to him throughout his career.
How would he describe Stevie Nicks in a sentence or two? “An angel and spiritual sister. She is inspirational; a kind hearted person who takes her artistry very seriously. She’s devoted her whole life to her art. I respect her for that. She’s just a sweetheart. She’s been so kind to me and I have nothing but great respect and love for her.”
Nicks was once quoted as saying that she would have joined the Heartbreakers at the drop of her Fleetwood Mac hat. Would this actually have happened? “Yeah”, exclaims Mike. “She was having an argument of sorts with Fleetwood Mac. She liked us and she connected. Stevie thought she would be good in the band. And of course, Tom said, ‘We don’t have girls in the Heartbreakers’ [laughs], but she was kind of like the fifth or sixth Heartbreaker in a way.”
The Beach Boys and The Beatles were two bands that had a huge impact on Mike Campbell. In 1992, George Harrison organised a special concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall for the Natural Law Party, which also featured Ringo Starr. Mike describes the surreal moment when he joined two of his boyhood heroes on stage.
“It was like really nothing I could have ever foreseen when I was 16 watching The Beatles on TV. It felt as if I was ten feet off the ground; almost like it was somebody else. I had that moment where I looked around and I just thought to myself, how did I get here? George invited me to do that, and I thank him for that. It was certainly a high point in my life.”
Mike continues, “That’s a dream that would have never been even thought to be possible. It’s actually something that all through my life, things have happened like that. I’ve been so blessed to meet all these heroes and work with them. I’m just very grateful for it. That’s why I thought this book would be a good idea. It’d be nice to share that blessing and show that dreams can come true”.
This was in stark contrast to one of Mike’s first experiences of the UK when Johnny Rotten from The Sex Pistols sneered at the Heartbreakers, calling them “American pigs!” “Those were heady times to be in London in the late 70s. We landed there with our bell bottomed velvet trousers [laughs] and people were walking around with razor blades in their noses. The whole vibe of that scene was cool and we kind of rubbed around the edge of it,” he says.
“But the fact that anyone liked us around that time was kind of a miracle because we weren’t really a punk band. The press there, the NME and Melody Maker were really kind to us and they gave us confidence. Some of the momentum from that tour carried back over and helped us get America to start rolling along.”
Almost 50 years later, Mike continues to want to look for the next musical project rather than looking nostalgically over his shoulder – “I’ve since now moved into my own band [The Dirty Knobs] and I’m more focused on that. I’m in control of the whole thing more with the songwriting, singing and directing the band. I’ve got a great group of guys and we’ve made three records. This book forced me to be nostalgic, but I don’t like to go back to where I’ve been and relive things. I like to just keep moving forward.”