Mike Campbell On Dirty Knobs Debut, A Look Back At Tom Petty’s ‘Wildflowers’ And The Art Of Songwriting

Prior to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in America, Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell was looking forward to the March release of the album Wreckless Abandon, the debut from The Dirty Knobs, a group in which he moonlighted for over a decade between duties as Heartbreakers songwriter and guitarist. 

Dating back to his days in pre-Heartbreakers group Mudcrutch, Campbell found himself alongside Florida-born rocker Tom Petty for nearly 50 years, appearing on a pair of Mudcrutch studio releases, 13 Heartbreakers records, all three of Petty’s solo efforts, live albums, box sets, greatest hits collections and more, a career responsible for the sale of more than 80 million records worldwide.

Petty’s untimely death in October 2017 gave Campbell the chance to focus on The Dirty Knobs for the first time - until he received an offer from Fleetwood Mac co-founder Mick Fleetwood to join the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers as a full-fledged member less than four months later. Ultimately, Campbell embarked upon a Fleetwood Mac world tour which took him through the end of 2019, one of the longest outings of his career.

All of which is to say that Wreckless Abandon has been a long time coming. 

Following eight months of delays amidst health issues and worldwide pandemic, and postponed 2020 tour dates, Campbell is finally able to celebrate the release of Wreckless Abandon, now available via BMG.

“We were all set to go. We had our tour sold out and released stuff and then things happened. So we were just pushing it back and pushing it back and waiting,” said Campbell over the phone earlier this month. “I think it’s a great record. It’s live on the floor. It’s a 4-piece band so the guitars are turned up a little bit more to fill out the sound. There’s very little keyboards and no overdubs to speak of. We did the [guitar] solos on the floor live. A lot of the vocals are live. It’s just the band interacting live in the studio with a really good sound.”

The aptly titled Wreckless Abandon is a wholly rollicking, joyous affair, a record whose 13 songs recall some of Campbell’s finest recorded moments alongside Petty as co-writer of cuts like “You Wreck Me” and “Running Down a Dream.” 

Despite having never mounted a full tour, The Dirty Knobs - Campbell (vocals/guitar), Jason Sinay (guitar), Matt Laug (drums) and Lance Morrison (bass) - performed together frequently in California between Heartbreakers road trips. That shared performance history allowed the group to hit the ground running upon entry of the studio together for the first time.

Free of pretense or deadlines and with little expectations, The Dirty Knobs captured spontaneity over the course of just a few weeks at Hocus Pocus Recorders, Campbell’s California home studio, focusing the new album squarely on one key element: fun.

“God bless you. You hit the nail on the head: fun. That’s the key element in my life right now. I want to have fun. And you can hear it in the tracks,” said Campbell of Wreckless Abandon during a pre-pandemic conversation in February. “You can tell that we’re really enjoying ourselves and having a blast. And I think that really translates. Because you can’t do that with a drum machine and overdubs,” the guitarist said. “The record deal kind of came to me without looking for one, really. I was on tour with Fleetwood Mac last year and I was in Boston. These guys from BMG came to the gig and they really liked the guitar that night. And they said, ‘Do you want to make a record?’ I said, ‘Sure.’ It just kind of dropped in my lap at the right time. And we were ready to go.”

The new album features guest appearances from a frequent Campbell co-conspirator, Heartbreakers keyboard player Benmont Tench, as well as hitmaking songwriter Chris Stapleton. 

Stapleton performs on “Pistol Packin’ Mama” and co-wrote the latest Dirty Knobs single, the humorous “F—k That Guy.”

“Oh, it was great working with him. And it’s a great story. He opened for the Heartbreakers at Wrigley Field. And I met him for a, ‘Hi, how you doing?’ And that was it,” Campbell recalled. “Ironically, we’re going to open for him at Wrigley Field next year,” he continued, noting a Dirty Knobs performance in Chicago alongside The Highwomen and Mavis Staples tentatively rescheduled for July 17, 2021. “He called my management office and asked if I wanted to get together and write songs. I don’t usually do that. I mostly just write inside my band with one or two exceptions. It’s out of my comfort zone - but I liked him a lot. So I said, ‘Sure.’”

“F-ck That Guy” is a tongue-in-cheek affair. The song’s video, directed by Gilbert Trejo, features actor Danny Trejo (Desperado, Machete) and comedian Jeff Garlin (Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Goldbergs) and recently went viral.

The comedic short features the walking embodiment of COVID-19 personified, a despicable party who parks in handicapped spaces and steals from street performers. “F—k that guy,” sings a masked and socially distanced Campbell in the video over a lilting slide guitar. 

The envy of many in 2020, ultimately COVID is beaten and left for dead in a car trunk. 

“Chris had an idea one day. He said, ‘I’ve had this idea for a song called ‘F—k That Guy.’ Because everybody at one point in their day probably says that to somebody in traffic or on TV or whatever,” Campbell explained. “So I said, ‘Have you written it?’ And he said, ‘No.’ I said, ‘Well, can I have a shot at it?’ It’s kind of a goof. But it’s comical. I literally threw it together in five minutes and came up with a little J.J. Cale groove to it. I showed it to the band when we were in the studio the next day, we played it once and that was it,” he said of the new song.

“I always pictured that as just a little bit of comic relief on the album. But it’s become a thing now. It’s hilarious,” Campbell said of the video. “It’s interesting because it’s not a political statement - unless you want it to be. A lot of people are assuming certain things about it. And I’m just kind of amused at the whole reaction to it. But, mostly, it’s really positive. People are getting a laugh and a little relief from all of the drama that we’re going through. And that’s what it’s about.”

Wreckless Abandon, by design, is a primarily guitar-driven album. But Augie Meyers of Sir Douglas Quintet adds organ to “Pistol Packin’ Mama” and Tench shines in his contributions on “Aw Honey.”

“It is a guitar record. And I purposely kept keyboards off - pretty much. But I wanted to have Ben on it. Because he’s my brother. We had that one song and we thought maybe he could just come in and add some piano to it,” said Campbell, referencing “Aw Honey.” “It was wonderful. It was very brotherly and emotional and sweet. We play really good together. We’ve always had an empathy musically and we compliment each other when we play together. It was nice to feel that again.”

Being at Petty’s side for nearly five decades has had a profound impact on Campbell as a songwriter and singer. Tracks like “Southern Boy,” from the new album, and the pandemic-inspired online release “Lockdown,” both conjure up memories of some of the Heartbreakers more rocking efforts.

“It’s always going to impact me. It’s my whole life. I’m very proud of the legacy and I treasure those years. And I do miss it. It’s in my DNA,” said Campbell looking back. “With The Dirty Knobs, I made a conscious effort to not sound like The Heartbreakers - as much as I could. But when I play the guitar, it tends to sound a bit like that. That’s just what it is. With the singing, I tried, purposefully, to filter out all of the Tom nuances that I had picked up over the years from hearing him sing. I’ve got my own personality. But there’s still some southern slang that rolls by every now and then. That’s where I grew up.”

Campbell, Tench and Petty were all born in Florida, where Mudcrutch had its roots. Known for producing southern rock staples like Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers Band, The Heartbreakers went a different route than their Floridian contemporaries, focusing on more structured songs and narrative storytelling driven by irresistible melody.

Wreckless Abandon features cuts like “Don’t Knock the Boogie” and boogie itself is a word Campbell has frequently used in discussing his latest project, that southern influence occasionally gurgling just beneath the surface.

Many of the new tracks are character-focused stories, with Campbell developing personas, setting scene and resolving plot within just a few minutes of music. 

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s trademark ability to compliment that storytelling through his playing is on display during each of the new album’s 57 minutes.

“It’s a craft. I’ve been doing it a long time. And I’ve learned a lot from Tom. Songs have a certain structure. And you can go against that structure. But I like songs that have a chorus. And that tell a story. And maybe have a little bridge in the middle. I try to use that as a rough form when I’m writing,” said Campbell. “Writing a song can come from anywhere. It can start with a guitar riff. Or one lyric. The muse is a magical thing. I just love writing. You get started with a little germ of an idea and you don’t really know where it’s going to go. ‘OK. Here’s this rough idea... Who is this person? Where are they? Who’s around them? Where are they going from here? What are they doing to do? What are they thinking? What do they want?’ When I’m writing, I just try to look at it like a movie,” he continued, noting his songwriting approach.

“I can let loose. I can play long, extended solos if I want to. I love Mike Bloomfield. He was a huge influence on me. But my biggest influences were in the 60s - The Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Animals, Beach Boys. Going back a little farther, Elvis,” Campbell said. “Those artists were doing three minute songs mostly. George Harrison for instance. Those guitar parts needed to compliment the story and the voice without going off on an ego tangent. And that’s what I’ve always tried to emulate. I prefer to hear something that really makes the song better and doesn’t distract from the direction the song is going in.”

Campbell and Tench recently took part in a celebration of what would’ve been Petty’s 70th birthday. And as the guitarist continues to mourn the death of his friend and bandmate, he’s also heavily involved in the new project Wildflowers & All the Rest. 

Campbell co-produced the 1994 Tom Petty solo album Wildflowers and the new edition features the full double album as the artist originally intended it be heard alongside rare outtakes, live tracks and demos. 

“It was joyful and sad. It was hard sometimes to sit there and hear his voice. I had to leave the room a few times. Because it’s a very deep grief that we’re going through. But it was also fun to discover these things that never came out and share them with everybody. I think it shows an intimate side of Tom that people that like him will really appreciate,” said Campbell of the new release. “There was an alternate version of ‘Wake Up Time’ which, I think, with Stan Lynch on the drums, was more, the first time we played it, a little more rocking approach as opposed to the sensitive, quiet approach. I like that one. There’s a version of ‘Don’t Fade on Me,’ an alternate version, that I like quite a bit. There’s some live things and unreleased tracks like ‘Leave Virginia Alone’ that I really appreciate hearing again.” 

As he looks ahead to 2021, Campbell remains hopeful The Dirty Knobs are finally able to launch their first ever tour, taking his music back to the small clubs that nurtured groups like Mudcrutch once upon a time. 

“It’s an adventure. It’s a humbling experience for me. Because I’ve been spoiled a bit and been very lucky to do a lot of bigger type tours and this and that. But I couldn’t be more excited to get into the smaller places with my band. I think true rock and roll, the magic - arenas are great and some magic does happen - but when you’re in a little place and you’re eyeball to eyeball, and everybody is within the same four walls and everybody hears the same sound and you’re all in the same moment, that’s when magic happens,” he said. 

“We’re just going to keep making albums. We want to have a second album done by May. And we’ll just keep forging ahead and hoping for the best. I look forward to the day when the band and audience are all in a room together like we used to be and we can all be joyous that this is behind us.”