Ask any touring rock star what they like about Chicago and out rolls the usual checklist of the city’s boldest characteristics. Good: the food, the music. Bad: those bitter winter squalls off Lake Michigan. Mike Campbell goes a little deeper when reminiscing about all the times he’s touched down here — for decades as Tom Petty’s guitar savant co-captain with the Heartbreakers and most recently as the frontman of his own project, the Dirty Knobs.
“I’ve never talked about this really,” Campbell says over the phone from his home in Los Angeles. “It’s a bit of a brag, but it was a moment that really touched me.”
In 2003, when Petty and the Heartbreakers took over the Vic Theatre for a five-night residency filled with old blues covers and deep cuts they wouldn’t dare touch during their big stadium shows, Campbell remembers the crowd giving him a fervent extended ovation when introduced by Petty at the end of Muddy Waters’ “Baby, Please Don’t Go.”
The cheering went on “for like a long time, where almost Tom was getting a little annoyed,” the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer recollects with a twinge of awe. “They really responded to me in such a sweet way.”
It’s a situation of “game recognizes game” — industrious Chicagoans can identify a workhorse among them.
“I hope some of those people come to this show!” the 76-year-old says of returning to the Vic on July 9 with the Dirty Knobs to celebrate the release of the quartet’s rollicking fourth album, “Mission of Mercy.”
Apart from a two-year stint touring with Fleetwood Mac when the Grammy winners needed an icon to replace a kicked-out Lindsey Buckingham, Campbell went all in on the Dirty Knobs, which includes former Heartbreakers drummer Steve Ferrone, guitarist Chris Holt and bassist Lance Morrison, after Petty’s death in 2017 from an accidental overdose.
“Someone once referred to this band as my vanity project. It highly offended me,” he says. “This is not my vanity project, it’s my life!”
That life sees fewer private planes than in his lavish days with the Heartbreakers as bona fide rock royalty, but the smaller theaters allow for more interaction with fans and experimentation. “That’s where I want to be,” he explains. “That’s where the music sounds the best and it’s the most fun.”
“Mission of Mercy” catches the Dirty Knobs having a rip-roaring time. Anchored by Campbell’s ability to craft earworms that clock in at under four minutes, the album isn’t shy about shining a spotlight on instantly recognizable influences. “Armageddon” goes hard into Led Zeppelin territory while “Bongo Mania” is so B-52s-coded that founding member Kate Pierson showed up to lend her vocals. The chiming title track practically levitates with Brian Wilson’s aura.
Despite his reserved nature, Campbell now relishes his role in front of the microphone.
“I’ve found that I really like being in charge. I’ve had many years to watch Tom and learn from the way he presented himself and carries himself. I got a lot from that. He got some things from me too,” he says matter-of-factly. “It feels good. When it goes well, it’s great. It gives me a reason to live.”
Campbell and Petty’s songwriting partnership spawned some of the Heartbreakers’ signature tunes like “Refugee” and “You Got Lucky” while the guitarist also helped write bangers for Don Henley (“The Boys of Summer”) and Steve Nicks “(Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around”). In a departure, Campbell takes on writing both the music and lyrics for the Dirty Knobs.
After Petty’s passing, it took Campbell a long time to find his own voice and the confidence to write, knowing there was no one there to hand it over to. “Even though he’s not here physically, I feel his spirt. I can feel him sitting next to me going, ‘You can do better than that,’” he says with a chuckle.
On the album, he’s at turns wry (“I’m bent out of shape / Living in a digital world / And I’m an analog tape” on a whirling “Let Me Back In My Dream), heartsick (“I need to fill this hole / With more than gold” on an aching “More Than Gold”) and just plain wacky (“Just like Richard Burton / His bleeding heart is hurtin’ for certain” on the spoken-word fever dream “Vagrant”).
Song ideas come to Campbell constantly even when he’s not trying to field them. “I feel like I’m a walking antenna,” he says. “My problem is I have all these sketches that come to me and I need to finish them. They pile up on me.”
Marcie, his wife of more than 50 years, can always tell when Campbell is in the throes of creation. “I’ll go, ‘How did you know?’ and she’ll go, “I can see by the look on your face.’”
Maintaining a marriage for a half century while nurturing a working relationship in a band for over 40 years seems like a fool’s errand. Campbell admits bands are “fragile organisms” that can be derailed by almost anything before listing out the culprits: love, ego, jealousy.
So, how did Campbell do it? What’s the secret to keeping his wife and the man who once responded to a denied request for a raise with “But, I’m Tom Petty” both happy?
“A long relationship, especially in this business, requires sacrifice and work and sometimes apologies and forgiveness,” Campbell shares.
“I’ll borrow a phrase from Olivia Harrison (the late Beatle George Harrison’s wife). ‘How do you keep a marriage together for so long?’ She said, ‘Don’t get divorced,’” he relays with practicality. “It’s as simple as that.”
Janine Schaults is a freelance writer.
If you go
Mike Campbell and the Dirty Knobs (with guest Sarah Lee Guthrie) at 7 p.m. July 9 at the Vic Theatre, 3145 N. Sheffield Ave.; tickets from $48.42 at www.jamusa.com
