Mike Campbell by writing songs with Tom Petty, their difficult relationship

In his new Memoirs, “Heartbreaker”, Mike Campbell remembers an afternoon in the early 1970s when Tom Petty – Campbell's Bandmate in a group of cover of Gainesville, Florida, called Mudcrutch – played one of his songs. While Petty climbed the agreements of his unavoidable future of FM radio “don't do me like that,” Campbell told Petty: “I would give my right arm if I could write a song like that.”

Campbell at the time was a gifted guitarist raised by a single mother, desperately trying to withdraw from poverty by becoming pro. When he met Petty, he worked terrible minimum wage jobs and was seriously thought of enlisting in the army. “I wanted to play the guitar to avoid getting real work or joining the Air Force,” explains Campbell. “As long as anyone was going to pay me money to play, that's what I was going to do.” Campbell also wrote songs – they were good, not great. Petty, on the other hand, wrote well and quickly written. Years before, one or the other has tasted the success of the Heartbreakers, Campbell decided to work hard and work intelligently: Petty was a talent out of competition, and Campbell would remain the course with him.

Campbell has become one of the biggest rock sidemen – the man on the left of Petty on stage throughout the racing over 40 years of the Heartbreakers career, until their last show at the Hollywood Bowl on September 25, 2017, a week before Petty's death at 66 years old. It was a role he spent years cultivating.

“Heartbreaker” is a story of endurance and patience rewarded. In a short time, Petty has become, well, Tom Petty and Campbell became a god of the guitar. Master of the perfect guitar part, the solos that ring in Campbell are tattooed on our brain as indelible as the playful rumble of Petty. They worked so well together that when Petty made solo albums outside the group, he enlisted Campbell to write, produce and play. “You come across with someone and you take a ride on the left or right, and this can define your whole life,” said Campbell from his home to Woodland Hills. “If I had not met Tom, or if I had left early when things got hard, I don't know where my life would have disappeared.”

Things have been difficult for years when the musicians slipped from Mudcrutch, and the group made hard miles – playing hundreds of concerts across the south, in search of the right alchemy which would distinguish it from all the other excellent coverage groups in Florida. There was a cavernous bar in Gainesville called Dub's, and the group played there every evening for weeks, sometimes throwing one of the original Petty inflected. “At the time”, writes Campbell, “everyone was trying to look like the Allman brothers. No one played … short songs with sweet harmonies and big choirs.”

The group played for drunk and angry bikers, accompanied by competition of wet t-shirts, engaged in howling games with the owners of gourmet clubs. Some members of the frustrated group have abandoned; Campbell knew better. He knew that Petty was his golden ticket. “We were young and we had a dream,” explains Campbell. “We were not really convinced that we were going to go anywhere, but we dreamed of it.”

“I was never going to compete with him for leadership,” said Mike Campbell about Tom Petty, “but I could be the guy who fills the gaps. I could drive it and make it better. ”

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

According to Campbell, Petty, only 19 years old at the time, arrived completely formed. Blustey, confident and burst with ideas, Petty always thought of five movements ahead of everyone in the group. “He had the ambition and the desire to do something good and not to be diverted or to be content with less,” explains Campbell. “But in many ways, we seemed a lot, especially in terms of the music we loved.” It was Petty who struck label doors with a demonstration cassette in his pocket, until the president of the discs of Shelter, Denny Cordell, discovers it and launches the group. “I was never going to compete with him for leadership,” explains Campbell, “but I could be the guy to fill the gaps. I could drive it and make it better. ”

Perhaps more than anything, “Heartbreaker” is an introduction on how to work effectively in a group with an alpha male. Campbell has learned to become a conciliator and a mediator – how to let trivial reproaches die, to smooth things out for the greatest good, so as not to let greedness embarrass the overview. Petty could be volatile and erratic – he knew he was the straw that sparked the drink – but he always encouraged Campbell to write.

“Tom was extremely confident,” said Campbell. “I had my own songs, so I followed it and I contributed the best possible.” Rather than fueling your songs in the group, Campbell slowly pushed Petty with a skeletal agreement cassette or a chorus or a choir in the hope that Petty could sniff a song. This method of collaboration would produce classics, but not without concern by Campbell.

“At the beginning, I was not sure of my writing,” explains Campbell. “I like to improve my writing before showing it to anyone, even my wife. There were times when Tom took a long time before listening to my things, but then he found something incredible. I prefer that it seated in the eye globe with someone in a room.”

Petty and the Heartbreakers exploded in 1976 when their first eponymous album produced the hymns “American Girl” and “Breakdown”, but as the issues increased, internal and external pressures of the same. Campbell did its best to make sure that the cooler heads would prevail, that the group would not collapse under the weight of expectations.

Mike Campbell, on the left, and Tom Petty by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers occurred in the old nightclub of San Francisco in 1977.

(Images Richard McCaffrey / Getty)

“Damn The Torped” of 1979 was the first of their mega-vendus albums, but he almost broke the group. As Campbell remembers his memories, producer Jimmy Iovine and his engineer Shelly Yakus pushed everyone so strong in the studio that it started to feel like a psychological war. The Stan Lynch Heartbreakers drummer has brought the weight of torture; On many occasions, Lynch came out of the studio, only to be cajolé when no one worked (Lynch left the group in 1994).

Campbell remembers playing at least 70 “refugee”, a song that started life as a Campbell riff before Iovine, Yakus and Petty occur on it. “It was not easy because Tom was very direct and he did not suffer from fools, and he almost said the truth,” explains Campbell. “There was just a lot of pressure to be great.”

There was also the question of money. At the beginning, the co-management of the Heartbreakers, Elliot Roberts, presented it in uncertain terms: Petty would receive 50% of the profits and the group would divide the other half. This arrangement, according to Campbell, has created a bad will for years with the keyist of Heartbreakers Benmont Tanch. At one point during the “Torpille” sessions, Campbell and Petty exchanged words on Campbell wanting a bigger cup for his work, to which Petty pronounced three words: “I am Tom Petty.” End of discussion.

“To be fair, Tom gave me a huge cup on the” full moon fever “, explains Campbell in reference to the Album Solo Multiplatinum in Petty from 1989.” There was also a generous side for him. “

More importantly, Petty and Campbell co-write songs that millions of people now know by heart: “You Got Lucky”, “Refugee”, “Here come my girl”. While Petty accepted more songs from Campbell, Campbell's confidence as a songwriter has flourished, and he extended beyond the group, co-writing with Don Henley the megahits “The Boys of Summer” and “The Heart of the Matter”. “Tom made me believe in me,” explains Campbell. “We have always been able to talk about things and come back to love and respect. This is why we stayed together for so long. ”

Mike Campbell at home in Woodland Hills.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)