Mike Campbell on the blessings of Fleetwood Mac, his guitar obsession and what he learned as a Heartbreaker

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Mike Campbell was Tom Petty’s right-hand man throughout his career. They started playing together as teenagers in Mudcrutch, moved to Los Angeles together and honed their music together, along with keyboardist Benmont Tench, the other band member who had been there since Petty’s early days.

Campbell wasn’t just the lead guitarist for the Heartbreakers; he was the only band member with whom Petty regularly co-wrote, and that includes such landmark songs as Refugee, Here comes my girl and Running a dream. Campbell also co-produced many of the band’s albums and did some landmark work with others.

He wrote and performed on Don Henley’s summer boys and Stevie Nicks Stop pulling my heart and worked with a number of other artists, from Bob Dylan to Aretha Franklin.

When Petty died in 2017, Campbell replaced Lindsey Buckingham in Fleetwood Mac and stayed on for a two-year world tour before heading to Dirty Knobs, the group he formed in 2000, during breaks from touring Petty’s.

The Dirty Knobs, featuring Heartbreakers drummer Steve Ferrone along with guitarist Chris Holt and bassist Lance Morrison, who both worked with Henley, released Tramps, Virgos and Misfits on June 14. It is their third album since 2000.

“I was very interested in making my own songs and learning how to lead a band,” says Campbell. “While I was in a band with Tom, out of respect for our relationship and our songwriting arrangement, I didn’t want to do anything that would develop that.”

are you happy

“Yes. I’ve learned a lot from watching Tom front the Heartbreakers all these years and I understand how to be on the mic, engage the audience, try to sing in tune, remember all the lines and lead the band .

“It’s a lot more than I thought and I have a lot more respect for him now that I’m trying to do everything. But I love it and I’m getting better every time – and the band is just great. I love playing music and I can’t see myself going through the rest of my life without doing it.”

Memorizing lyrics is like stretching another part of your brain; it’s not like the muscle memory of having a million guitar parts in your fingers.

“Absolutely. It’s a corner of my brain that’s been sleeping. What’s the next verse? What’s the chorus? What’s the bridge? How do I tell the band where to move or break down? That part of my brain was awakened out of necessity. I I love playing guitar, but I also love putting chords and writing songs, and that’s just as or more satisfying than playing a great solo.”

You mentioned that Tom put lyrics to your music. Is that how you wrote together?

“I’d usually write music and leave him a blank palette – basically a finished record with no vocals – and if he liked it, he’d bring it in the next day and start singing along with what he’d written. He would just go in there, find the song, come up with a few words and then show me what he had.

“He would give the music back to me as a better song. The songs he wrote himself, he’d usually bring them in completely finished, then we’d listen and play them, and by the end of the song we’d have an alternate guitar part that hopefully made the song better. A lot of our writing was very organic.”

Do you approach a solo differently on a song where you were the main writer?

“No, we’ve always had the same process in the studio. I’m usually engaged in the rhythm track and let the vocals do their thing. If there’s room for a guitar lick, I’ll put it on the live track, but I rarely work them out.

“If there’s a solo I have to go back to, like the end Running a dreamI approach it the same way; I don’t compose solos in advance. I love running down the track and seeing where my fingers go and what my mind is up to in the moment.

“A lot of times it’s a bunch of sloppy nonsense, then two little pieces that show me how I should play the solo. So I can play it again and use it as a template to make a better solo. I like to make it with wings; that’s where the spirit is.”

Playing with the same men for years leads to easy and unspoken communication. Did you have to work to rebuild that with Dirty Knobs?

“The Heartbreakers had a history of mental telepathy where we would just instinctively know to complement each other, which was a blessing that could also be a curse. Sometimes we would fall into repeating ourselves, but it’s a comfort to know that this guy won’t let you down, that you can get feedback from each other and inspire each other.

“In this band, we’ve been together long enough now to start developing that. They can sense where I’m going, or I can give them a look or a movement of the shoulder and they’ll follow.

“And thank God we now have Steve Ferrone on drums. He’s really cool and we have a history, so he knows me really well, which makes it easy to play with the dynamic. If I want the song to be quiet or develop in an unscripted moment, he can understand that.

“It’s all about coming to life and becoming a great band. I’ll love the Heartbreakers forever, but it’s like starting over and we’re having a lot of fun. I’m blessed to have these guys.”

How was the Fleetwood Mac experience? It’s been a bumpy ride in your career, but you’ve done some meaningful shows with them in what seems like a tough situation — even though you have a long history with Stevie Nicks.

“It’s interesting that you use the word blip because I went around the world for two years and played a lot of shows. It was actually a long and beautiful journey – but now that I look back on it, I feel the way you described it. It passed and became something that happened, but it’s hard to believe. I was in high school once and I toured the world with Fleetwood Mac. (laugh)

“It was an interesting experience. Mick Fleetwood asked me to join the band, but I don’t think Stevie voted against me. It was a challenge because I don’t usually play other people’s guitar tracks. I had to do something I’ve never done before and try to mimic some of Lindsey’s melodies that the songs need. I don’t sing like Lindsey, but I was able to do the songs justice. It was good work and it was good for me.

“The accommodation was incredible and they treated me and my wife like royalty: private jets, big hotels, lots of days off all over the world. It was almost like a nice paid vacation and the music was always good. I’d look around and see Mick and John McVie and I’d be like, ‘Holy shit. How did we get here? It was just another blessing in my life.

“I learned a lot about the guitar by having to learn Lindsey’s parts. No one sounds like anyone else, but I did my best and brought my own vibe.

“Also, every night we would Free fall as a tribute to Tom and that was very emotional. Stevie was wonderful and has a vocal coach to warm up her voice and I came in every day and she worked with me to learn how to get more character, strength and tone in my voice. He taught me this vocal routine that helped me a lot and I’m not sure I’d be who I am without it.”

At what point in your relationship with Tom were your roles defined – that he would be the leader and you the guitarist?

“Right away. I wasn’t singing and I was starting to write a little bit of music, but he was already writing songs and he just had that charisma.

“He was playing bass when I met him in Mudcrutch, then he lent it to me Layer and we switched him to guitar and got a bass player so he could perform his songs as he wrote them. We just had a natural respect for each other. I was happy to be the guitar player and I think he was happy to have me there.”

One of the joys of seeing the Heartbreakers was drooling over the instruments you and Tom played. Now that you have a smaller production, do you travel with less tools?

“Yes. I have a guitar obsession. I sold about 120 of them a few years ago because I didn’t have room for them anymore. I stopped buying them because I have one of every guitar I’ve ever dreamed of. At this point, buying them is kind of pathetic.

“I sing them all in the studio, but I only take a few essentials on the road because you’re right – it’s a smaller production. That includes a Rickenbacker 12 stringsa ’56 Tele that Gene Parsons installed a B-bender on, and a white firebird I picked up at a pawn shop for $500 on the Fleetwood Mac tour.

“Now that I’m running the band and have all these things to focus on, the last thing I want to do is try another guitar just for fun. I just want it to be in tune because I have other things to think about right now. It’s another concert!”