The guitar player tugged at his black hat and stepped away from the front of the stage. “I’m a human being.” He gazed down at the setlist. “I have feelings.” The crowd offered verbal support. This decree of vulnerability occurred on December 11 at the United Theater on Broadway, in downtown LA. About a half-hour into the last stop on a short tour to promote his new autobiography, Mike Campbell and the Dirty Knobs performed the rarity “You Can Still Change Your Mind.” After that mellifluous moment, Campbell set the tone for the night: nostalgic, misty-eyed, and brave. “It’s hard playing these songs,” he added. “It brings back lots of memories.”
Not one to tinker with the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers legacy, Campbell has shied away from an embrace of their celebrated catalog. What could make him revisit the past in an exercise he expressly termed “bittersweet”? Book promotion: publishers can be pushy. You see, Mike’s memoir isn’t named after his side—now main—project, the Dirty Knobs. It’s entitled Heartbreaker. Hence, a return to the Tom Petty band’s glory days was deemed necessary.
This point was made clear from the first rootsy notes of the first song, “Rockin’ Around (With You).” This foot-tapper was the first cut on the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers debut album. It was followed by the beautiful ballad, “The Wild One, Forever,” from that inaugural LP. And, you guessed it, the third song played was part of that record, too, the modest “Hometown Blues.” But Campbell knows a thing or two about pacing and audience pleasing, so he next went to his trusty 12-string Rickenbacker for the beloved “Listen to Her Heart.” Two songs later he delivered an acoustic “Refugee.” After a foray into the silly “Girl on LSD,” he satisfied all comers with authentic renderings of “Here Comes My Girl” and “Even the Losers.” The latter came across unusually sweet. For a tune based on a shallow lyric, it hit unexpectedly deep. It inhabited Petty’s defiant spirit well enough to trigger sad traces of the terrible loss Mike and the entire music community faced in 2017.
Campbell addressed his difficult decision to dip into the past. “It’s been eight years since Tom passed. We’re all getting on with our lives.” Heads nodded under the mirrored oval dome inside the Spanish Gothic grotto, built in 1927 by D. W. Griffith, Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, and Mary Pickford for the first independent movie company, United Artists. An appropriate place to honor and maintain the history of a true—and supremely talented—rock ’n’ roll rebel.
Before I continue, I have amends to make. In a recent review of the Eagles lackluster show at the Sphere, I compared guitarist Chris Holt to the masterful Don Felder—unfavorably. I noted that Holt lacked Felder’s “gusto and dexterity.” Maybe. But Felder can only dream about singing like the sweet-voiced Holt. Not only did Dirty Knob member Holt make up for Campbell’s lack of vocal abilities, but Holt carried the show musically. He executed rhythm guitar parts perfectly while Mike took on the role of frontman. Holt also shined on bottleneck slide and other leads, and he covered the keyboards with aplomb—sometimes switching instruments midstream. He did all of this with great gusto and dexterity. My apologies for doubting his excellence. No wonder the Eagles turned to him when they needed help, Holt having displayed his virtuosity in earlier years when he toured with a solo Don Henley.
The other sidemen held down a strong beat. Longtime Knobber Lance Morris provided rock steady bass, and virtuoso drummer Steve Ferrone—of latter-day Heartbreakers fame—filled every pocket with uncharacteristic subtlety.
I admit, my eyes moistened when the group launched into a dramatic “Straight into Darkness,” but they brightened during an uplifting take on the Traveling Wilburys’ “End of the Line.” The main set closed with a rambunctious “You Wreck Me” before the band returned for a timely “Christmas All Over Again.” For the finale, they chose a John Sebastian–penned tune made famous by the Everly Brothers, “Stories We Could Tell.” It gave a sense of grace and a genuine resonance to the end of an emotional evening.
Each song was presented in front of a screen featuring images of Campbell’s storied past. It showed candid shots of the Heartbreakers, and in one sequence, it looked like Tom was hovering over the stage. I used that photo for a recent Facebook post.
As you can see from one of the other photos on our Facebook page, at the end of their nineteen-song set, Campbell posted his own message: “It was all a dream.”
Yes, a real-life fantasy that proved to be—as you said, Mike—bittersweet.