He’s recorded and written with Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond, Don Henley, Stevie Nicks, Aretha Franklin, Brian Setzer, Joe Cocker, Jackson Browne, Lone Justice, Warren Zevon, Chris Stapleton, Roy Orbison, Roger McGuinn, Paula Abdul, Dwight Twilley — and that’s naming just a few. He also toured with Fleetwood Mac during 2018–’19, and leads his own band, the Dirty Knobs, which Campbell formed some years ago.
Primarily, however, Campbell is known as the lead guitarist in Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. He, Petty and keyboardist Benmont Tench joined forces circa 1970 as part of the Gainesville, Florida, band Mudcrutch, which moved to California and released a single before breaking up in 1975. A year after that, Campbell, Petty and Tench formed the Heartbreakers, which released 13 studio albums and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame before Petty’s shocking death on October 2, 2017, at the age of 66. In that band, Campbell served as first lieutenant, co-writing, co-producing and lighting up the shows with his ferocious solos. In fact, the Heartbreakers’ guitar-drenched 2010 album, Mojo, was inspired by a 1959 Gibson Les Paul Campbell purchased a couple of years prior, and he was also onboard for Petty’s three solo albums as well as a resurrection of Mudcrutch in 2007.
Given that background, it’s not surprising that Campbell has remained part of the Petty camp, helping to curate and produce the posthumous archival releases that have included the compilations An American Treasure (2018) and The Best of Everything (2019) as well as 2021’s Finding Wildflowers, an immersion into Petty’s acclaimed 1994 solo outing, Wildflowers.
Campbell was also the driving force behind the latest package. (Warner Records) hails from the Heartbreakers’ ground breaking 20-show residency at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco during January
