Music Book Review: "Heartbreaker," by Mike Campbell
I read "Heartbreaker" in three days. I didn’t want to put it down.
I read Heartbreaker, the new memoir from Mike Campbell, the “one and only” guitarist for Tom Petty, in three days. I didn’t want to put it down. Every time I’d think I was done for the day and went to put the book down, I’d scan the beginning of the next chapter and it’d be three or four more chapters before I’d finally shut the book. Some musician memoirs tell stories, but Heartbreaker makes you feel the emotions, the friendship, the glory, the shit-talking. It is an incredible book.
I am not some kind of Tom Petty super-fan. I always liked the band quite a lot, always felt like they were on our side, but I didn’t fall hard for them like I did with other bands at that time. But I liked them, rooted for them, bought the records, sang along to their songs when they were on the radio (and they were always on the radio, as Campbell points out). I explain this because I did not expect to care about this book as much as I did.
You read memoirs by musicians for a lot of reasons: you want to know how they did it. You want to know why, what drove them. You wish you were there at the beginning and could have witnessed everything and not learned about the lore and the legends second-hand. You want the truth and you want the dirt. You get all of this and so much more in Heartbreaker.
He has a co-author but Campbell is a very smart guy and the book is clear, well-written, engaging, and propels you forward, as noted above. It is not all good stories; for one, you already know how it ends before you open the book. It is the history of the Heartbreakers, it is their particular journey from Florida to Los Angeles, it is the ups and downs and downs and ups of the music business. And the story will, as the title promises, break your heart. I’m a Pisces and the planets are fucked up right now but even with all of that, this book made me cry so many times, and towards the end there was a point where I just stopped trying to not cry, because I knew what was going to happen.
The one thing this book does not do is let anybody off easy, not Campbell, not Tom Petty, not various managers, not other members of the Heartbreakers. There are lots of drugs and there are many, many bad decisions, both personal and professional, by all of the aforementioned individuals. I was amazed by the depth of Campbell’s love for Petty and also the way he absolutely did not mince words about certain decisions, like the moment when the band were taken under the wing of legendary managers Tony Dimitriades and Elliot Roberts and were told that from now on, the money would be split 50-50, with 50% going to Petty and the other 50% being split between the four members of the Heartbreakers. Or Campbell trying to advocate for himself as a co-writer and arranger and being told, “But I’m Tom Petty.”
The early days of the band in Los Angeles has been told over the years but with a lot of handwaving and glossing over exactly how hard it was. It was harder, crueler, more vicious. It will make you believe in karma or predestination because there is nothing else that can explain that they managed to pull through it and become Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
About the name: as a high school kid and a New York Dolls devotee, it would irk me endlessly when I would try to talk about the other band named the Heartbreakers, and people would say, “Oh, yeah, I love Tom Petty” and I’d have to explain, No, actually, there is another band. It is in this book that I finally got the confirmation that Petty knew -- Benmont Tench knew all about them, and told him -- and he did not care. (It did not serve them well when they came to NYC to play CBGB.)
But there are so many other amazing and great and fantastic stories in here that lift the reader up and carry you through the book. One of my favorites has to be about the time that Benmont Tench put an ad in the LA Recycler looking for musicians to play with and a guitarist named Stuart answered the ad. Decades later, Tench found himself at a show and recognized that guitarist. He walked up to Billy Zoom and said, “I’m sure you don’t remember, but in 1975 you came over to my apartment and we played together and talked about starting a band.” Zoom’s response was to turn to his roadie and say, “I told you!” Also worth rereading is the time they opened for KISS in Columbus, Georgia, which was about as incongruous as it seems -- except for the fact that Gene Simmons was so impressed with them he called a bunch of industry tastemakers to tell them about the incredible new band that had just opened for them.
Other heroes in this story include Duck Dunn, Al Kooper, George Harrison, and Campbell’s wife, Marcie. In addition to insisting that Campbell buy a 4-track recorder for his house and start recording his song ideas, she’s the voice you can hear saying “It’s just the normal noises in here!” at the beginning of “Even The Losers.” (She is also right about many other things. #TeamMarcie). It is also something quite beautiful the way that Campbell gently but consistently extols every one of the band members he’s played with over the years, whether it’s Benmont Tench or Stan Lynch or Howie Epstein or Tom Leadon, and that list goes on and on.
I was a little disappointed (for obvious, personal reasons) that there was not more detail about the band’s appearance at the MUSE concerts in 1979 (where, famously, when explained to Petty that the audience wasn’t saying “Boo,” they were saying “BROOOCCCEEEEE,” and Petty said, “What’s the difference?”) but Campbell makes up for it with the incredible detail of their time on the road backing up Bob Dylan, the idea for which may have well originated with Campbell. Campbell loves Dylan as a fan but unlike many other musicians who have been too overwhelmed by the thought of playing with Bob (or too worried about pissing off Bob fucking Dylan), he gives the reader a slightly different window into the dude. And his story about the time in 1981 where he and Petty were summoned to the Stones’ rehearsals at SIR and when Ronnie Wood asked if either of them played bass – they both did but in what you will at that point recognize as the most Mike Campbell-est, he was on stage before Ronnie finished asking the question and made sure to play Mick Taylor’s bass line in “Tumbling Dice” “correctly.”
You will be cheering – probably out loud – when Marcie Campbell’s premonition that her husband should be recording his song ideas ends up saving their house when Don Henley took Mike’s music and wrote “The Boys of Summer,” because that first quarter royalty check alone solved their problems, and he’d go on to do that a few more times for other musicians. (Petty turned that one down – “too jazzy” – and Dylan said, “I wouldn’t mind having a big hit too”) And also gratifying – because at that point you’ll have an opinion on this, guaranteed – is when Petty decides to mend some bridges with his original bandmates and reformed Mudcrutch. (I stupidly didn’t see the last times Tom Petty was in NYC because those tickets were insanely expensive, but I did get tickets for Mudcrutch at Webster Hall and remain endlessly grateful that I had that. )
The other aspect of this book is that it will make you want to go back through the entire Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers catalog in detail and listen to it while reading Campbell’s descriptions, details to look for. It is a different doorway into the songs and while I spent this book kind of kicking myself that I didn’t get to witness more of this first-hand while it was happening, I’m grateful for the opportunity to do this now, with expert commentary. (And there’s a whole bunch of Dylan tapes with the Heartbreakers that are out there for the downloading, too.) Because it is, in the end, all about the music, and Campbell is a songwriter and a musician but he is also an unabashed fan of rock and roll, and it is the combination of his love and enthusiasm for the art form and for his band that carries you through this book. If you care about rock and roll even 1/4th of the way Campbell does, you will absolutely love this book.
Caryn Rose
