Mike Campbell has looked back on the making of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers' American Girl, for which he had to get creative with his trusty 1951 Fender Broadcaster.

Like the rest of us, Campbell has one guitar that he prizes above the rest. For him, it’s his trusty Broadcaster, which has crafted the quintessential guitar tone of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and many projects beyond.

And while it set him back $600 in 1975 when he picked it up from Nadine’s Music in Hollywood, it's safe to say the investment was well worth it.

Among the Rolodex of tracks it was used on is American Girl – perhaps Petty's most popular song, and certainly a classic rock staple. Released in February 1977, the song was originally supposed to have a 12-string. The only problem was, neither Petty nor Campbell had one to hand. Enter the humble Broadcaster, which saved the day.

“We didn’t have a 12-string, but we wanted one on the song,” Campbell says in the new issue of Guitar World.

“Well, I did! I took my Broadcaster and played octaves – because a 12-string is multiple notes and octaves on one string. I tried to simulate a 12-string on that riff throughout the song. At the end, where I do that triplet thing – that was an afterthought.”

The afterthought experiment didn't sit right with Campbell, nor did the attempts to emulate a 12-string. Petty didn't agree. He wanted Campbell to double down.

“I didn’t like it,” Campbell says matter-of-factly, “but Tom said, ‘No, it’s great. Now you’ve got to double it.’ So I doubled it, and that became the end of that song.’”

As Campbell explains, American Girl encapsulates the sound of that guitar – and vice versa. “It was the harmonics between the rhythm and the Broadcaster on top of it. That became the Heartbreakers' sound.”

Campbell would use the Broadcaster on tracks such as Here Comes My Girl (1980), Mary Jane’s Last Dance (1993) and You Wreck Me (1994).

And while all his Teles “sound good”, Campbell, who even has his own namesake Fender Stories Collection Red Dog Tele, admits that, after all these years, the ’51 Broadcaster is still king of the pile.

“[It] is still bright and has a nice midrange. It’s got a warm tone underneath there, and that makes it sound different from other Teles,” he notes.

In more recent news, Campbell revealed that his current amp of choice is an old piece of gear from the early Heartbreakers days.

For more from Campbell, plus interviews with John Osborne and John 5, pick up the new issue of Guitar World from Magazines Direct.

For Mike Campbell, opening a new chapter with the Dirty Knobs on upcoming album Mission of Mercy, doesn’t mean he’s forgetting his roots with late bandmate Tom Petty.

Rather, he’s embracing the future while nodding to his illustrious career through the gear he’s using – namely, an old amp from the early days of the Heartbreakers.

“I stick with what I’m comfortable with,” he admits in an upcoming interview with Guitar World.

“I’ll try a new guitar or amp, but if I’m recording and working on a record, I don’t want to be bothered with too many choices. I want to focus on the song and the performance.”

Indeed, for this record – and for the last couple of albums – Campbell reconnected with a loyal companion: the Ampeg Rocket from when the Heartbreakers were first starting out.

So, how did he manage to unearth this long-forgotten gem? “It was just in my closet,” he replies, “and one day I pulled it out, turned it on, and thought, ‘Wow… this is a sound that I’ve been missing.’

“It sounded really good, and I sort of stumbled back into the room, and there it was,” Campbell adds with a laugh. Turns out, it was exactly the tone he was looking for after all these years – and it had been there all along.

Guitar World’s interview with Mike Campbell will be published in the coming weeks.

In more recent news, Campbell looked back on writing The Boys of Summer with Don Henley – after Tom Petty passed on the song.

At the dawn of the 1980s, Tom Petty was on top of the world.

His third album with his trusty sidekicks the Heartbreakers – 1979's Damn the Torpedoes – was his breakthrough, one of those blockbusters of the era where virtually every song either was a hit single or could have been one.

Refugee, Here Comes My Girl, Even the Losers, Don't Do Me Like That, What Are You Doin' in My Life? – these were all masterclasses in songwriting. Petty delivered winning chorus after winning chorus, while ever-underrated lead guitarist Mike Campbell played the perfect supporting role, gamely responding to Petty's exhortations with leads and solos that often had hooks almost as catchy as the ones tasked with carrying the load up the mountain.

The music business is a tough one, though, and once Petty had delivered literal and figurative gold, the expectation was that there would be more to follow.

Though his disdain for the needs and wants of record companies was legendary, Petty was also a dogged perfectionist who was himself determined to not lose any momentum. No pressure or anything.

Petty knew that the followup album's lead single in particular needed to hit the nail on the head. Consequently, he explained in an interview captured in the terrific documentary Runnin' Down A Dream, he “wanted something that had a little lick from the beginning.”

And then came the riff – perfectly simple, perfectly effective; pick-up-'n'-play-it – and that's what he did. All he did, really.

“That's all I had,” he said. “I did that for weeks.”

Then, another breakthrough – that magical chorus; unforgettable and charming, but again, so simple.

But then came another wall. So, what to do other than go back to that riff? Over and over again...

“All week,” Petty said, cycling through the riff to the amused interviewer. “You eat dinner, come back, sit down and pick up the guitar... People started banging on the wall – ‘Don’t play that anymore!’”

Then, the song that would become The Waiting finally came.

The opening line alone, “Baby don't it feel like heaven right now”, made the teething process worth it. Throw in Mike Campbell's instant classic of a lick that swirls beautifully around that stubborn riff in the intro, and you have something timeless.

A top 20 hit, The Waiting – coupled with the duet he wrote for himself and Stevie Nicks around the same time, Stop Draggin' My Heart Around – indeed kept things rolling at pace for Petty & the Heartbreakers. No-one would think of him as a one-album wonder again.

Known as the chiming lead guitarist for Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers, and his tendency to brandish a beloved beaten Broadcaster, Mike Campbell was born to strum six strings.

“I loved it right off the bat,” he says. That’s obvious as Campbell’s mojo-laden connection with fellow songsmith Tom Petty manifested music for the ages. Albums such as Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers (1976), Damn The Torpedoes (1979), Long After Dark (1982) and Southern Accents (1985), to name a few, feature droves of Campbell-penned and -assisted cuts. And it was as easy as it seemed.

“It was just one of those things you can’t explain,” Campbell says. “It’s a lot of luck and hard work, and here we are. I don’t know if people realise how much work and sacrifice we put into it,” he says. “Before things started to happen after Damn The Torpedoes, and we started to get some commercial success, it wasn’t easy. It took a long time – and it wasn’t overnight.”

Challenging as it was, songs like American Girl, Breakdown and Refugee told Campbell that he was on the right path. “I never doubted for a second that, somehow, it was going to work out,” he says. “And it worked out beyond my dreams.”

More than 50 years later, and Campbell was in the position to write his life story in a book, the aptly titled Heartbreaker. He lost the man he calls a “brother”, Tom Petty, in 2017, joined Fleetwood Mac for a spell around a year later, and has carried on with his band, The Dirty Knobs, ever since.

“It’s a lot of emotions,” Campbell says of writing his book. “I don’t generally look back, but I was kind of forced to relive some of the things I went through. Mostly, what I feel is gratitude. I realise how lucky I am. I’m grateful for the life I’ve had.”

And why shouldn’t he be? In addition to his Heartbreakers exploits, Campbell has lent a hand to Stevie Nicks, Don Henley, Johnny Cash and dozens of others. He doesn’t fancy himself a session player but admits he’s always been filled with songs.

“It was never a challenge,” he says. “I just did what I wanted to do. I stuck to my guns and to the integrity of who I thought I was. And with Tom, he could take my music and his music and write those great songs with his personality. Those songs still hold up. I think that’s what set us apart, that we had strong songs.”

To that end, Campbell still feels sadness when he looks back on Petty’s untimely death. He feels they left nothing on the table, though they had more to do – but it’ll never stop him from continuing.

“He and I had a connection,” he says. “Tom and I wrote the songs together, and there was something that we both felt was special and once in a lifetime; it was a connection and it’s magical. I don’t know why we found each other when we did, but there was something really strong there and it sustained us through the whole career.”

Looking back, what was the lightbulb moment for you when it came to the guitar?

“It was an instant connection when I got my first guitar. It was kind of unplayable, but I didn’t know that at the time [laughs]. I would play until my fingers split, literally, because I was just so enamoured with it; I felt like I found my purpose. The more inspired I was, the more I realised I had a knack, felt very connected and that it was something I could do for the rest of my life.”

What do you think made you the right guitarist for The Heartbreakers?

“That’s quite a question. It was like magic, honestly. It’s magical that my path crossed with Tom’s when it did, and with all the other guys in the band. All the things that led us through our dream together, it’s some kind of bizarre destiny. I don’t know why… but I’m awe-inspired by how things worked out.”

What was the secret sauce between you and Tom?

“We had the same influences, so we immediately connected. We loved 60s music, like The Beatles, The Stones and The Beach Boys. We had both been listening to all the same stuff and were inspired by the same things, so when we met it was almost like we knew each other.”

Do you remember the first time you sat down to write with Tom?

“He was starting to write songs and I was messing around trying to write, too. I remember one day after I’d known him for – I don’t know – maybe a few days, we sat down and he showed me a song he’d been writing. He already had a good handle on writing, but I was still learning.

“I said, ‘Well, here’s something I’ve been messing around with…’ I was trying to channel a Byrds-type piece of music and I saw Tom’s eyes light up, like, ‘Oh, that’s exactly the kind of thing I’m trying to do,’ you know? We instinctively tried to accomplish the same things and play the same types of chords. We immediately bonded.”

That bond between you both was apparent in early Heartbreakers songs like American Girl and Breakdown from the band’s eponymous debut album. What gear were you using back then?

“When I first met Tom, he was writing on guitar, but he mostly played bass in the band that we were in, Mudcrutch. When we got to LA, I had a ’64 Stratocaster that I got for $200, which is now probably worth 200 grand! [laughs] Tom didn’t really have a good electric guitar, so I let him use that one when he switched over to guitar.

“Then I went out and got this Fender Broadcaster from some little shop – I had to put our PA on consignment to afford it [laughs]. I brought those two guitars to the studio, and we really found that sound.

“I had the Broadcaster and Tom had the Strat. He was playing Bo Diddley chords, you know, and we wanted to get a 12-string sound on top of it. I love The Byrds, but we didn’t have a 12-string, so on my Broadcaster I played the octaves with a low-D drone to try to sound like a 12-string.

“Suddenly, this harmonic happened that became, to me, the Heartbreaker sound. The way we played guitar, the way I voiced against Tom, we found it on American Girl. It was very exciting when I heard it. I thought, ‘Wow… nobody sounds like this. This is us.’ Those two guitars helped make it happen.”

The Heartbreakers had a string of gold and platinum records through the 70s and into the 80s. And the perception is that the success was overnight… but was it actually that way?

“It got stronger, the more successful we got. But the truth is – and I said this in the book – I think people may be surprised by how much sacrifice, struggle and how many years it took to start having success. Our first two albums weren’t financially successful and we scraped by for a long time, sleeping on mattresses on the floor and living on corn flakes.”

Did any of those struggles lead to periods of self‑doubt for you?

“I never doubted the music. I didn’t know if it would be financially successful; I hoped it would. But I loved what we were doing and I believed in it. I would have done it even if we weren’t financially successful because it was in my heart. Of course, you always have self-doubt and concern… I always wanted to be better than I was.”

Damn The Torpedoes was the game-changer for The Heartbreakers. How had your rig evolved by then?

“I was getting better all the time. I had the Broadcaster and a Les Paul Goldtop, and I loaned my Strat to Tom. So I had two guitars and that’s pretty much all. Later in my career, when I could afford to buy more, I did, but I would use those two guitars with my four-track to write music that Tom would hopefully like and put words to. Songs like Refugee, Here Comes My Girl and Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around were all written on that four-track.”

In the 80s, you started doing a lot of session work with artists such as Stevie Nicks and Don Henley, yielding big-time hits. How did that happen?

“To be honest with you, I never considered myself a session player. I was a songwriter and I would write my songs with my guitar style. I didn’t venture out of The Heartbreakers much to do sessions, but if I had a song that Tom didn’t want, I might go to Stevie and she would help me write it and finish it.

“So there’s only a few people I really worked with, like Don Henley, of course, on Boys Of Summer. That was a great moment for me, but I didn’t do it as a session. I wasn’t like a hired guitar player per se. I was mostly focusing on writing songs.”

What do you particularly remember about writing Boys Of Summer?

“[Producer] Jimmy Iovine was the catalyst. I played the music for Boys Of Summer to Tom and Jimmy one day and had a different chorus. It was the same track, but it went minor key on the chorus, which was not that good. Tom listened to it and said, ‘Oh, it sounds kind of jazzy because of the chord in the chorus,’ but Jimmy thought it had something going on.

“Tom passed on it, but Jimmy liked it and had met Don Henley, who was looking for a song. So Jimmy called me and said, ‘If you’ve got something for Don…’ I went back and changed the chorus chords to a major key, which was more uplifting, and that’s the version I played for Don. I don’t know… I was on a roll. This just came to me; I don’t know why.”

Later in the 80s, Tom started recording albums without The Heartbreakers, but he always kept you on. He must have really valued your input.

“It says a lot and comes back to our relationship. It was a very strong, mutual respect. It was stronger than any brotherhood you could think of. It’s to his credit – and my credit – that when he decided to do a solo record, he could have called anybody, but he respected me.”

Does that go back to the connection you two immediately shared in the early days of Mudcrutch?

“He knew I had a knack for bringing something to his songs that made them special, and that I loved his songs. He wanted me there, and I did the best I could to help his vision – and he helped mine as well. We were just really close; we had great respect for each other all the way through.”

In the late 90s and early 2000s, you worked with Johnny Cash on the American Recordings albums. What was it like working with Johnny?

“Rick Rubin saw something in me that he thought was valuable. He was going to do the Johnny Cash project and called me in to help him. I was completely blown away because Johnny was a big influence and a hero of mine. I came in and connected with Johnny; we made those records, which was gratifying. I’m very proud of that.”

Was it very different working with Johnny when compared with your work with Tom?

“That’s a good question. They’re very strong songwriters. They’re very, in their own ways, distinct vocalists. You know who Johnny and Tom are the minute you hear them, so there’s a personality there that’s identifiable.

“I would try to bring anything I could to the songs and the voices and make them sound better. But with them both, it’s all about those two, their voices, personality and lyrics. They’re very powerful. My job, if I was working with them, was to enhance that without screwing it up.”

Tom passed away very suddenly in 2017. Did that leave you in a space where you were having doubts about wanting to continue making music?

“Losing Tom was huge – and is still huge for me. It’s like I lost my right arm. It took part of my ability to be who I was with him, to some extent. But making music is too much a part of my being to stop. I felt depressed and sad carrying on without him, but I just did the best I could. It never once occurred to me to stop. It was not going to stop me from playing music. Nothing will.”

To that end, you hooked up with Fleetwood Mac in 2018 after Lindsey Buckingham left the band. That must have been a challenge.

“That challenge came to me… They called me and offered me the job. I considered the challenge of stepping into Lindsey Buckingham’s shoes, knowing I couldn’t replace him. I learned a lot digging into those songs and trying to bring the essence of them the best I could and how he performed them.

“I think I did a pretty good job, but no-one can beat Lindsey Buckingham. I had to learn a lot of those guitar parts because they were essential to the songs. So I dug in and it was a challenge because I wasn’t used to it. I’m used to doing my own songs, but I’m glad I did it.

“They treated me like gold. We toured around the world and saw the sights; it was like a great paid vacation. I enjoyed playing with Stevie a lot because we have a friendship. It was a joy for me and really helped me through my grief. It took my mind off it and gave me something constructive to do.”

Because Tom died unexpectedly, do you feel like you left anything on the table as far as The Heartbreakers go?

“Well, I don’t know… we had plans. His death was sudden. It was not expected. He was going to get surgery on his hip and we were going to make another record. That was the discussion that we had. But there’s nothing on the table because we used everything we had at the time. And since Tom passed, I’ve had my own band [The Dirty Knobs] and I’ve been writing songs with them. That’s been a good challenge and fun for me.

“I don’t have any regrets. I mean… I look at my life and what can I regret? Everything that I ever wanted came my way, except for losing Tom. But I have no control over that. I wish he was still here. But since he’s not, I have to carry on. And there’s always a new song, you know? There’s always a new challenge to keep me going.”

How do you hope to be remembered as a guitarist?

“As an all-around cool dude [laughs]. I would like to be remembered as someone whose dreams came true. That if it can happen for me, it can happen for you. If you have determination and really have a passion for what you love to do and you do it, you can have an enriched life.

“And I’ve had an enriched life and I’ve got more to go. I’m not done yet. I guess if I have to be remembered, it would be to be remembered for the art, songs and music. Hopefully, that’ll bring joy to the people.”

• Heartbreaker: A Memoir is out now via Grand Central.
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Through their work in The Heartbreakers, band leader Tom Petty and his guitar foil Mike Campbell developed a sound that would define the group’s entire catalog and go down as one of the most celebrated guitar partnerships in rock music.

As it turns out, that particular sound was the result of both the pair’s natural musical chemistry and some off-hand gear choices that were chosen out of a matter of necessity when Petty – who was mainly performing as a bass player when he first met Campbell – was in need of a suitable electric guitar.

“When I first met Tom, he was writing on guitar, but he mostly played bass in the band that we were in, Mudcrutch,” Campbell says in the new issue of Guitarist. “When we got to LA, I had a ’64 Stratocaster that I got for $200, which is now probably worth 200 grand! [laughs] Tom didn’t really have a good electric guitar, so I let him use that one when he switched over to guitar.

“Then I went out and got this Fender Broadcaster from some little shop – I had to put our PA on consignment to afford it [laughs]. I brought those two guitars to the studio, and we really found that sound.”

‘That sound’ wasn’t just a case of putting the Stratocaster and the Broadcaster together, though. A lot of it, of course, came down to how the two played, but it was also helped along by how Campbell opted to set up his Broadcaster – which he re-tuned in order to harness the 12-string sound of The Byrds.

“I had the Broadcaster and Tom had the Strat,” he continues. “He was playing Bo Diddley chords, you know, and we wanted to get a 12-string sound on top of it. I love The Byrds, but we didn’t have a 12-string, so on my Broadcaster I played the octaves with a low-D drone to try to sound like a 12-string.

“Suddenly, this harmonic happened that became, to me, the Heartbreaker sound. The way we played guitar, the way I voiced against Tom, we found it on American Girl. It was very exciting when I heard it. I thought, ‘Wow... nobody sounds like this. This is us.’ Those two guitars helped make it happen.”

Earlier this year, Campbell opened up on what he brought to the Heartbreakers, and how his particular style affected their music.

“I think I brought a musicality that Tom wasn’t capable of,” he reflected. “I had guitar techniques and musical influences that I could express to him in his songs, or present to him as my music, that he couldn't have done on his own.”

For the full interview with Mike Campbell, head over to Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Guitarist.

Like many musicians hailing from Mike Campbell's generation, The Beatles not only served as a source of inspiration throughout his career but, for Campbell, the Fab Four – George Harrison, in particular – were the reason he started playing guitar in the first place.

“I couldn’t take my eyes off them,” he writes in Heartbreaker: A Memoir. “Especially the one in the middle – the tall, skinny, dark-haired guitarist with the big hollow body Gretsch Country Gentleman. George. The quiet one.

“He smirked and played the perfect, 10-second solo to All My Loving – one minute in to a two-minute song – and that was it for me. That was it. I knew I needed a guitar. I needed one. I didn’t know why. I just knew.”

Come 1988, Campbell was operating in the upper echelons of rock ’n’ roll. And being part of this highly-coveted rank meant rubbing shoulders with the very Beatle who had compelled him to kickstart his own guitar journey.

The Traveling Wilburys – the supergroup composed of Harrison, Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty – were preparing to release their first single, Handle with Care.

As the story goes, Campbell was personally asked by the Beatle to play a solo à la Eric Clapton. However, if you're currently scrambling to hear Campbell's contribution to the track, hold your horses – because he himself asked for his part to be removed from the final recording.

“I was right, and history proves me right,” Campbell told Rolling Stone’s Brian Hiatt. “I just had a hunch. I didn't think I played that well, but they were just being nice. I think I played pretty pedestrian.”

Campbell's solution was simple: ask his childhood guitar hero to play something better suited to the track.

“I thought, because I was intimidated, you know, I'm sitting there with George and Jeff, [He was like] ‘Okay, I'll try something.’ That wasn't my best, but I had a hunch that he [Harrison] could pull something out with the slide that would be more in the soul of the song, which he did.

“I just handed him the guitar, I had handed him a slide. The amp was already set up, and he just did it. Took the pressure off me!”

Mike Campbell's many stories from his decades-long career are encapsulated in his recently-released memoir – including insights into what he brought to the Heartbreakers as Tom Petty’s guitar foil.

Mike Campbell was Tom Petty's right-hand man during Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ rich history, and his forthcoming memoir will lift the lid on his fruitful and colorful career in the band.

Simply named Heartbreaker, the book is due March 18 via Hachette Book Group, and it charts a spellbinding career that, at one point, nearly saw Campbell join Fleetwood Mac, save for Stevie Nicks' intervention.

Unsurprisingly, however, the memories of his Heartbreaker days prove most illuminating, and, catching up with Guitar Player ahead of the memoir's release, Campbell has opened up on what he brought to the Heartbreakers as Petty's guitar foil.

“I think I brought a musicality that Tom wasn’t capable of,” he reflects. “I had guitar techniques and musical influences that I could express to him in his songs, or present to him as my music, that he couldn't have done on his own.”

Petty’s songwriting abilities were the heartbeat of the band – few other musicians could have written a song as successful as Free Fallin’ with just a handful of chords – but Campbell left his mark across their catalog, too.

Together with Petty, the pair hammered the likes of Refugee, Here Comes My Girl, and Runnin’ Down a Dream into shape, with Campbell's riffs playing major roles in the process. His lead playing, meanwhile, perhaps best showcased with American Girl's guitar solo, further helped the material stand the test of time.

Indeed, their uniqueness resided in their stylistic polarity because when it didn’t, Petty was unmoved.

“There was one instance when I gave him something that sounded like a Heartbreakers song,” Campbell recalls. “And he said, ‘That sounds too much like me. Go do something that I can't do.’”

Last year, Campbell revealed how Petty helped save what would become Breakdown's most essential lick from being lost on the cutting room floor.

“Tom wrote it on the piano, and I went in at the end of the night, noodled around for six minutes through the whole song, just playing the blues; a mindless stream of consciousness,” he said. “And at the end of the song, I got bored, went home, and said nothing about it.

“Tom called and said, ‘You’ve got to come back to the studio. There’s something at the end of the song that you played that would be perfect for the beginning.’”

It shows just how well their partnership worked – and how impressive Petty’s ability to turn nothing into something was.

During his GP chat, Campbell goes on to recall how digging up certain memories often got the better of him, stating, “I'll tell you, I know it's a good book. That’s not just ego – I know it's good because when I read it for the audio version, there were times when I got choked up.”

Aside from his Heartbreaker contributions, Campbell would also work with his hero, Bob Dylan – and one night broke a strap in front of the legend himself – and would cut records with Warren Zevon, Joe Cocker, and Bob Seger. His entire career, though, could have looked a lot different had he not met Tom Petty.

“Lord knows what would've happened if Tom and I never met,” Campbell ponders. “As I wrote the book, I realized how many miracles have happened to me through timing, luck, divine intervention.

“I started with nothing, and these songs came to me from somewhere. There were chance encounters with my heroes, and of course, there was my relationship with Tom.

"We had our brotherly friction here and there, but there was a deep love that kept us together through all the rough times.”

Mike Campbell was Tom Petty’s right-hand man throughout his career. They started playing together as teenagers in Mudcrutch, moved to Los Angeles together and honed their music together, along with keyboardist Benmont Tench, the other band member who was there from Petty’s beginning.

Campbell wasn’t only the Heartbreakers’ lead guitarist; he was the only band member Petty regularly co-wrote with, and that includes landmark songs like Refugee, Here Comes My Girl and Running Down a Dream. Campbell also co-produced many of the band’s albums and did some landmark work with others.

He wrote and played on Don Henley’s The Boys of Summer and Stevie Nicks’ Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around and worked with a range of other artists, from Bob Dylan to Aretha Franklin.

When Petty died in 2017, Campbell replaced Lindsey Buckingham in Fleetwood Mac and stayed put for a two-year world tour before turning to the Dirty Knobs, the group he had formed in 2000 as a live outlet during Petty’s touring breaks.

The Dirty Knobs, featuring Heartbreakers drummer Steve Ferrone alongside guitarist Chris Holt and bassist Lance Morrison, both of whom have worked with Henley, released Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits on June 14. It is their third album since 2000.

“I had a big interest in doing my own songs and learning how to front a band,” Campbell says. “While I was in a band with Tom, out of respect for our relationship and our songwriting arrangement, I didn’t want to do anything that would throw that off-kilter..”

Are you enjoying it?

“Yes. I learned a lot watching Tom front the Heartbreakers all those years, and I’m picking up how to be at the mic, engage the audience, try to sing in tune, remember all the lyrics and lead the band.

“It’s a lot more than I thought, and I have a lot more respect for him now that I’m trying to do it all. But I’m enjoying it and getting a lot better each time – and the band is just great. I love playing music and I can’t see going through the rest of my life without doing so.”

Remembering lyrics is like stretching a different part of your brain; it’s not like the muscle memory of having a million guitar parts in your fingers.

"Absolutely. It’s a corner of my brain that was asleep. What’s the next verse? What’s the chorus? What’s the bridge? How do I tell the band where to move or break down? That part of my brain has been awoken out of necessity. I love playing lead guitar, but I also like to put chords together and write songs, and that’s as much or more satisfying than playing a great solo. I try to do both."

You mentioned Tom putting lyrics to your music. Is that how you wrote together?

“Usually, I’d write music and leave him a blank palette – basically a finished record with no vocals – and if he liked it, he’d bring it in the next day and start singing along with what he’d written. He would just get in there, find the melody, come up with some words and then show me what he’s got.

“He would hand my music back to me as a better song. The songs he wrote on his own, he would usually bring them in fully finished, then I would just listen and play along, and by the end of the song, I’d have an alternate guitar part that hopefully made the song better. A lot of our writing was very organic.”

Do you approach a solo differently on a song where you were the primary writer?

“No, I’ve always had the same process in the studio. I’m usually engaged in the rhythm track and let the vocal do its thing. If there’s room for a guitar lick, I’ll put it on the live track, but I rarely work them out.

“If there’s a solo that I have to go back to, like the end of Running Down a Dream, I approach it the same way; I don’t compose solos in advance. I like to run the track and see where my fingers go and what my mind picks up in the moment.

“A lot of times it’s a bunch of sloppy crap, then two little pieces that show me the way I should be playing the solo. So I can roll it back again and use that as a template to do a better solo. I do like to wing it; that’s where the spirit is.”

Playing with the same guys for years leads to easy, unspoken communication. Have you had to work to rebuild that with the Dirty Knobs?

“The Heartbreakers had a history of mental telepathy where we would just instinctively know how to complement each other, which was a blessing that could also be a curse. We would sometimes fall into repeating ourselves, but it’s a comfort to know that this guy is not gonna let you down, that you can get a feedback going between you and inspire each other.

“In this band, we’ve now been together long enough that we’re starting to develop that. They can sense where I’m gonna go, or I can give them a look or a shoulder move and they’ll follow me.

“And thank God we now have Steve Ferrone on drums. He’s really great and we have a history so he knows me really well, which makes it easy to play with dynamics. If I want the song to get quiet or build up in an unscripted moment, he can pick up on that.

“The whole thing is just kind of coming alive and becoming a great band. I’ll love the Heartbreakers forever, but this is like starting over and we have a lot of fun. I’m blessed to have these guys.”

How was the Fleetwood Mac experience? It was a blip in your career, but you did some significant shows with them in what seems like it would have been a tough situation – although you have a long history with Stevie Nicks.

“It’s interesting that you use the word blip because we went around the world for two years and played a lot of shows. It was actually a beautiful and long journey – but now when I look back at it, it does feel as you described it. It went by and became something that happened but is hard to believe. Like, I went to high school once and I toured the world with Fleetwood Mac. [Laughs]

“It was an interesting experience. Mick Fleetwood asked me to join the band, but I don’t think Stevie voted against me. It was a challenge because I don’t usually play other people’s guitar parts. I had to do something I’ve never really done before and try to emulate some of Lindsey’s melodies that the songs need. I don’t play like Lindsey, but I was able to do the songs justice. That was a good bit of work and it was good for me.

“The gigs were incredible, and they treated me and my wife like royalty: private planes, big hotels, lots of days off all around the world. It was almost like a beautiful paid vacation, and the music was always good. I would look around and see Mick and John McVie and go, ‘Holy shit. How did I get here?’ It was just another blessing in my life.

“I learned a lot about the guitar by having to learn Lindsey’s parts. Nobody sounds like somebody else, but I did the best I could and brought my own vibe to it.

“Also, every night we would do Free Falling as a tribute to Tom, and that was very emotional. Stevie was wonderful and she carries a vocal coach to warm up her voice, and I came by every day and he worked with me to learn how to get more character and strength and pitch in my voice. He taught me this vocal routine that helped me a lot, and I’m not sure I’d be doing what I am as well without that.”

At what point in your relationship with Tom did your roles become defined – that he would be the front man and you would be the guitar player?

“Right away. I wasn’t singing and I was beginning to write a little music, but he already was writing songs and he just had that charisma.

“He was playing bass when I met him in Mudcrutch, then he borrowed my Strat and we switched him over to guitar and got a bass player so he could present his songs the way he was writing them. We just had a natural respect for each other. I was happy to be the guitar player, and I think he was happy to have me there.”

One of the joys of seeing the Heartbreakers was salivating over the instruments you and Tom played. Now that you have a smaller production, are you traveling with fewer instruments?

“Yes. I have a guitar obsession. I sold about 120 of them a couple of years ago because I don’t have room for them anymore. I’ve quit buying them because I kind of have one of every guitar that I ever dreamed of. At this point buying them is kind of pathetic.

“I play them all in the studio, but I just take a few essentials on the road because you’re right – it is a smaller production. That includes a Rickenbacker 12-string, a ’56 Tele that Gene Parsons installed a B-bender on, and a white Firebird that I got in a pawn shop for 500 bucks on the Fleetwood Mac tour.

“Now that I’m leading the band and I’ve got all these things I must concentrate on, the last thing I want to do is try a different guitar just for fun. I just want it to be in tune because I’ve got to think about other stuff now. It’s a different gig!”

• Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits is out now via BMG.

Mike Campbell first tasted fame in the late ’70s as the lead guitarist in Tom Petty’s backing band The Heartbreakers.

He has worked with Stevie Nicks, Johnny Cash and the Eagles’ Don Henley, co-writing the latter’s ’80s classic The Boys Of Summer. And after touring with Fleetwood Mac in 2018-19, he has made three albums with his cheekily-named band The Dirty Knobs.

You’ve played a lot of guitars over the years. What was your first?

“I remember it well. It was an acoustic guitar, though I don’t have it now. It was a Harmony acoustic with an F-hole that my mom got me for 15 bucks. It was unplayable, but I didn’t know that. I learned to play on that thing, even though you couldn’t tune it! You could hardly put the strings down, and my fingers would bleed trying to play the damn thing!”

What was your first electric?

“When I was young, I went to a friend’s house, and he had a [Gibson] SG. I picked up that guitar and said, ‘Oh, my God, it’s so easy to play!’ That was the first electric guitar I played. My dad was stationed in Okinawa, Japan, and he sent me a Goya Electric, a real cheap version of a Strat, and I learned a lot from that.”

Which guitars in your collection mean the most to you?

“Lately, I’ve brought out my original [Fender] Broadcaster from the first Heartbreakers album, which I used on American Girl and Breakdown. It’s been exciting to hear that again because it sounds great. Other than that, there’s been my ’59 Les Paul and a Rickenbacker here and there.”

Which guitarist is your biggest influence?

“I tend to listen to guys I grew up on, and I go back quite a bit. I’ve been around a long time, and I’m still drawn to the ’60s. I hear new music, but I haven’t heard any guitarists more inspiring to me than George Harrison, Jimmy Page, classic Jimi Hendrix or Chuck Berry. Nobody new has really thrilled me to the point where I want to figure out what they’re doing per se.

“To my ears, the ’60s is when all the cool stuff happened. Those are the places I go now. I don’t really keep up. I’ve tried, but most of the new music just leaves me cold. If I want to be inspired, I listen to the stuff that originally inspired me.”

In terms of technique, what’s the last new trick that you learned?

“Not to overplay. I’ve learned most of the tricks that I’m gonna learn. I just try to refine all the nuances, play in pitch, get a good tone, not play too many notes, and help the song.”

What was the last piece of gear you were excited about?

“Lately, I’ve been using an Ampeg Rocket amp, which I used on Mary Jane’s Last Dance and some of the earlier records. I found it in the closet, pulled it out, and loved its sound.”

How much did you practise in the early days, and how much do you still practise now?

“That’s a good question. I don’t practise per se. When I was learning, I practised a lot to learn the notes, scales, and how to bend notes. I learned that pretty well, but now, when I pick up the guitar, I don’t pick it up to practise. I pick it up because I’m inspired to play or have an idea for a song, and I’m gonna chase the song. So, when I pick up the guitar, I’m usually off and running.”

Is playing fast overrated?

“I’m not a flashy player. I can do it real fast if I want to, but that doesn’t fulfil my musical mojo. I like the song, you know? I’ve always emulated George Harrison and Keith Richards and tried to come up with guitar parts, and it sounds like that. I’m very conscious of tone, touch, and vibrato that fits the songs. And I try to come up with great melodies.”

As a player, do you have any bad habits?

“It’s like being a painter – I don’t try to do it too hard. I don’t think anybody wants to hear me struggling to do something. I stay within my parameters of the stuff I can control and play well. I always focus on my vibrato, and it often needs to be in the rhythm of the song.

“If you listen to old songs by the Heartbreakers, like Breakdown, there’s a slow vibrato, and it’s bluesy and in pitch. Those are my main focuses. I want the guitar to sound like a voice, be in tune, and not bend the strings past the note. I’m not here to show off my technical ability. I always want to help the song, rather than show off.”

Is there anything that you can’t play that you’d like to?

“The cello! I wish I could play the cello or violin. Several years ago, I tried to teach myself, but it’s hard to play an instrument without frets on it. If you take those frets away, boy, I’m in real trouble! Put a bow in my hand, and it doesn’t work. I wish I could play those because I love them, but I just gave up. It’s beyond me.”

What technique did you have to work hardest to master?

“Well, I can tell you one little thing I have incorporated into my style that comes out quite a bit – using chords with open strings under. The guys in the Heartbreakers used to laugh at me, saying, ‘Yeah, you’re doing the bagpipes again!’ It’s like a drone.

“Underneath the suspension are the open strings as the chords change up the neck, and some open strings ring against it. It kind of gives me a sound like The Byrds, and it’s something I often fall into because it’s natural for me.”

What is one song or performance that you’re most proud of?

“On my latest record, [Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits], the first song that comes to mind is Hands Are Tied. It’s an old song that I dug up, and I like it because it’s unique to me and has different time signatures. And now, I’ll get technical! It’s got a movement and a time signature that’s a challenge to play, but the words are spiritual and personal to me.

“I didn’t notice this till after the fact, but there’s a guitar intro there that’s very reminiscent of Breakdown. It’s a similar type of lick in a similar tone and harkens back to that a bit. So, of the older songs, I’d probably choose Breakdown from the Heartbreakers’ first album. When we first cut that track it was a six-minute jam.

“Tom wrote it on the piano, and I went in at the end of the night, noodled around for six minutes through the whole song, just playing the blues, just a mindless stream of consciousness. And at the end of the song, I got bored, went home, and said nothing about it. And then Tom called and said, ‘You’ve got to come back to the studio. There’s something at the end of the song that you played that would be perfect for the beginning.’

“I didn’t know what it was, but I went back, and they played it for me. I ended up putting the line at the top of the song, and it kind of became very definitive. That’s a good example of my vibrato, tone, and finding my essence.”

What do you play when you’re just relaxing and playing for the fun of it?

“Oh, I do that a lot. I tend to fall into blues lines by, like, Mike Bloomfield, B.B. King or Chuck Berry. If I get stuck, I always go into Chuck Berry mode, leading me in the right direction.”

And after all these years in the game, can you remember a time when you felt like you’d failed as a player, or felt embarrassed by a performance?

“That’s a good question, but I don’t think I can answer it clearly! I tend to work stream-of-consciousness with guitar stuff, especially solos. I tend to run the tape, record it, then listen back, and go, ‘Oh, well, that little piece there… that should be the essence of this. Let’s get rid of that other crap!’ And then I’ll do it again with that in mind.

“I will just play it again and try it in the right vein. You always learn something from every song, and you surprise yourself. If you’re lucky, you’ll surprise yourself a lot and think, ‘What was that? Where did that come from?’. The important thing is to be open, pay attention, and don’t let anything get past you that was really good.”

• Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits is out now via BMG.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist, Mike Campbell, has recently recalled an incident involving his beloved 1962 Gibson Les Paul SG Junior, during which his guitar snapped in two in front of a live audience, right in the middle of an impassioned Bob Dylan speech.

“I'm on tour with Bob Dylan, with Tom [Petty] and the Heartbreakers. We're at The Forum here in LA [in 1986, as part of the True Confessions Tour] and I had this guitar on and I'm standing there trying to be cool,” Campbell tells Gibson TV.

“And I kind of went to scratch my ears or whatever. And Bob was talking to the audience, going on some important spiel about something, and the strap came loose, and it was wide open, and it went 'bam'.

“And the amp was up, the guitar was up, and the neck broke off right here [pointing to the nut area]. And Bob turned around like, ‘What the fuck are you doing back there? I'm trying to talk up here.’ And my heart just broke, because I love that guitar, you know, and I just thought they're gonna repair it, but it'll never be the same. But it kind of is. They did a great job.”

In the same interview, Campbell talks about how he bagged this guitar at a bargain price.

“I was in Hartford, Connecticut, on tour, and I went for a walk, and passed a video store.

“I just walked in, and somehow, in a conversation, they said, ‘Oh yeah, we have a couple of guitars, and this is one of them.’ They had this. Why would a video store have guitars? I don't know. They had two. In the back was this one, and I bought them both. It was like, I don't know, 120 bucks.”

Earlier last year, Campbell joined Larkin Poe on stage for a surprise rendition of the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers classic, Runnin’ Down a Dream, a performance the band described as a “lifetime memory made”.

Larkin Poe were joined by two very special guests onstage on Saturday February 11 during their set at the Fonda Theatre, Los Angeles, when former Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Steve Ferrone jammed Tom Petty’s Runnin’ Down a Dream with the Nashville-based roots band.

The track was co-written by Campbell with Jeff Lynne and Petty, and featured on Petty’s 1989 debut solo album, Full Moon Fever. The perfect vehicle for Rebecca Lovell on her Fender Stratocaster, Campbell on his Gibson Firebird, with Megan Lovell on lap steel, it has lost little of its hard-riffing power over the years. And Ferrone can sure hit ‘em.

The Lovell Sisters have cut plenty of covers over the years, particularly on YouTube where they have their own channel dedicated to performances of classic Scorpions, Chris Isaak and Rolling Stones tracks. They have covered Petty before, taking on the 1978 Heartbreakers’ cut Listen to Her Heart, and Wildflowers, from Petty's album of the same name, but never Runnin’ Down a Dream.

Larkin Poe are presently touring the US on the Blood Harmony tour. They typically work a couple of covers into the set, with Link Wray’s Rumble and Son House’s Preachin’ Blues a regular feature of their shows. At the Fonda, it looked like a case of the stars aligning with Campbell and Ferrone in town.

On Instagram, the Poe said the performance was a “lifetime memory made”.

“We’re honored to not only call these fine gentlemen our friends, but also to have had them grace the stage with us last night,” they wrote. “Mike Campbell, Steve Ferrone, we love y’all so much and can’t thank you enough for melting our faces off with your rock.” 

Campbell and Rebecca Lovell took the verses, with Megan – Bakelite Rickenbacker lap steel in hand – joining both for the chorus. That Firebird Campbell is playing there is one of his ‘desert island guitars’ and is presently his number one with the Dirty Knobs. Speaking to Guitar Center for a YouTube segment in 2021, Campbell explained how it came into his possession, and how, “supposedly”, it has Johnny Winters’ signature on it.

“This guitar I bought in Philadelphia,” he said. “I was on tour with Fleetwood Mac on a day off and my wife and I went walking and we passed a pawnshop. And I have Firebirds but I don’t have a white one. I put it in the show that night and it was my main guitar the rest of the tour. It just sounded perfect. And it’s also become my main guitar in the Dirty Knobs.”

Larkin Poe’s tour continues tomorrow night when they hit The Commonwealth Room in Salt Lake City, Utah. See Larkin Poe for the dates.

Since the untimely death of Tom Petty, Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell has kept himself busy.

After touring extensively with Fleetwood Mac, he took to his home studio to record a second album with his band The Dirty Knobs.

We catch up with him to find out how it all came together…

This is only the second album you’ve made with the band, and yet you’ve been together for quite a long time. 

“Yeah, well, I was busy for many decades with the Heartbreakers and in between tours, I met these guys and we would record and play little clubs around town just for fun. 

“These guys are really good, very patient. And so when my time opened up, this is what I wanted to do. We’ve actually been together quite a while and know each other well, and we have an intuitive style. So it worked out really good.”

What are your influences when it comes to writing your own material? 

“Well, the ‘60s is where I grew up, which I think was an amazing time to learn guitar. It was such a renaissance as we look back on it – the ‘60s and early ‘70s. All those great bands and great songs. You just don’t have that any more. Those are my roots and those are the influences that I draw on when I make my own music.”

Was all the material written specifically for this album?

“About half of it was. I’ve got a bunch of analogue tapes and I’ve been going through them, baking them and restoring them. I found three or four songs from those old tapes back in the ‘90s that ended up on the album. I had forgotten about them, but they turned out to be really good, so it worked out. 

“A song called State Of Mind, which has Margo Price on it, was an old track I had completely forgotten about. The title track External Combustion was [originally just] a piece of a riff that was on tape, and I thought, ‘Well, I can make something out of that now…’ and maybe a couple more. Those are the first ones that come to mind.”

And you recorded this in your own studio?

“Yes, I’ve recorded in my home studio for a long time. A lot of Heartbreaker stuff, too. I have a great state-of-the-art studio in the annexe next to my house and it sounds awesome. Don’t have to worry about the sounds, I just get to work on the music.”

Talk us through the selection of gear you used on this album…

“I was using my ’59 Les Paul, which I don’t take on the road. It records really well. Occasionally, there’s a Telecaster in there. The amp was a little Fender Princeton and an Ampeg Rocket amp – little amps in a nice-sounding room, mic’d up, you know, close and far away. 

“That was pretty much it. The other guitar player [Jason Sinay] played a Strat most of the time. He has a ’72 Strat and he also played through a Princeton amp. That was our sound. That’s what we use on stage, too.” 

Using a small guitar amp to get a huge sound was a secret weapon of many ‘70s bands. Can you explain how you also came to do that? 

“When the Heartbreakers started out, we had big loud amps. We had these things called Vox Super Beatles, which were 100-watt amps and they’re about 4ft tall. Loud as crap, and I don’t know how Tom [Petty] sang over those, but he did. As the years went on, we got tired of loud stage amps and got the slightly smaller amps.

“I went down to an AC30 for a while. But when I started playing with my band in the clubs, I went down to an even smaller amp like the Princeton, and I also used a Fender Tweed Deluxe from the ‘50s. I got that idea from Neil Young, actually. 

“I went to see Neil Young here in LA once and he was playing through a little tweed amp, and they had a microphone on it and up through the big PA – it sounded huge, you know? And what’s great about that is the stage sound is not blasting. You’ve got a nice sound and you can put it through the PA to make it as loud as you want. I liked that so much I started using it with the Heartbreakers as well.”

Did you record the band live in the studio?

“This band is all live. Most of the solos are live on the take, and most of the takes are the first or second. I like to catch the band unawares before they really know what they’re doing too much and before they’re thinking about it. 

“You know, you catch the spark of discovery in the music, in the moment, and get that on tape, rather than labour over it and overdub later. I mean, there’s a few overdubs here and there on the record, but a lot of the vocals and almost all the lead guitars and the rhythm tracks are basically us just playing. That’s how we sound.”

How do you approach a solo in the studio?

“I like to complement the vocals. I listen closely to the vocal and the melody, and, when I play, I try to be another voice that fits in and doesn’t distract from the song. I have a basic outline of what I want to do, then I just roll the tape – I like to have things come off the top of my head. I rarely work them out in advance. I just like the spontaneity: run the tape and I’m going to play along and hope something happens.”

Do you use pedals in the studio or do you go straight into the amp?

“Mostly straight into the amp. But with this band, and this record – since it is basically the way we play live – I had some pedals set up so I could kick up the volume here and there, or add a delay with my feet on the fly, so we don’t have to overdub and put echo on it. It’s all basically off the pedalboard. It’s just a simple pedalboard: overdrive and a delay mostly is all I used.”

You play slide on the album. Are you a glass or steel slide player?

“I like glass. Back in the day they didn’t make glass slides. You could get an aspirin bottle – a Coricidin bottle – and throw the pills out, put that on your finger. So I learnt to play with the sound of glass. I’ve used metal and sometimes ceramic, but the glass seems to speak to me a little better.”

What’s your personal philosophy when it comes to recording?

“I do a lot of recording on my own, which can be fun. I mean, the main thing really, with recording and writing, is to be truthful. It should not be a labour, you know? You should just be enjoying it and if you’re really having fun and getting off on the sound and creating your ‘little masterpiece’, then that’s 90 per cent of the game. And believe in yourself; you have to have confidence that you can make it good.”

• External Combustion is out now via BMG.

Mike Campbell is selling a trove of vintage gear on Reverb, including a number of electric guitars and amps he has used through the years with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Don Henley and Fleetwood Mac.

Campbell's melodic sensibility and guitar tone have helped to shape the sound of American rock, and there are some super-collectible pieces in his collection. Why is he selling them? Well, like the best of us, Campbell is a long-term sufferer of Gear Acquisition Syndrome, and they're running out of storage at the Heartbreaker Clubhouse.

“I just woke up the other day and realized that I have been collecting guitars and amps my whole life and I just don't have room for a lot of them anymore,“ said Campbell. “I have decided to sell some of the nicer pieces.“

There are some very desirable amps going on sale, including the very first amp Campbell got – a Heathkit TA-16. There is also a vintage National amp, a Gibson Lab Series L5 combo which was a big favorite of B.B. King and was recommended to Campbell by the Cars, plus a variety of Fender combos.

As for guitars, perhaps the most noteworthy items are a Gibson Les Paul Custom Lite that has an onboard compressor – a far-out choice that he used while rehearsing with Fleetwood Mac – and a B-Bender-equipped 1970s Gibson Les Paul Standard.

“I used this with The Heartbreakers for a string of dates we did at the Vic in Chicago," Campbell says. "I like this because it has a string bender on it, which is rare on a Gibson. But this is a great-sounding guitar, and a real workhorse. I hate to part with a lot of these [guitars], but something's got to go.“

Other guitars include a 1980s Gibson Les Paul Black Beauty '55 Reissue, bought as a road dog to spare his '56 original, a 1950s Kay Barney Kessel Artist and an Italia Monza with a built-in amplifier.

“[The Monza] is a nice guitar to have if you don't have an amp handy,“ said Campbell. “I remember when I was in the studio with Dylan one day, I had this down there and he went crazy and he had his manager go find one. They're kind of hard to find, but they play really well.“

As for effects, there is a Boss GT6 multi-effects unit on sale, but don't spend all your money on that until you've considered the MKII Watkins Copicat tape echo, which would look nice in your home studio, right?

The Official Mike Campbell Reverb Store is online from Wednesday, July 21. For more details and to sign up for an alert once it's live, head over to Reverb.

Over the past year we’ve seen some incredible virtual jams, both together and separate, from Testament/Metal Allegiance electric guitar master Alex Skolnick and Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante.

Now, the two monster metal musicians are back with another jam sure to impress –and also surprise – fans, tackling the Stevie Nicks/Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers classic, Stop Draggin' My Heart Around.

In addition to Skolnick on lead guitar and Benante on drums, the cover features Jennifer Cella (Trans-Siberian Orchestra) on vocals, Randy McStine (McStine & Minnemann) on vocals and rhythm guitar, Mark Menghi (Metal Allegiance & BPMD) on bass and Harry Waters (McNally Waters & Roger Waters) on keyboards.

As Menghi explains, “Here is our take on the Stevie Nicks classic (which also features Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers) Stop Draggin' My Heart Around (originally released by Stevie on her debut solo album, Bella Donna, in 1981).

“Alex, Charlie, Jen, Randy and myself had such a blast working on Rhiannon that we wanted to continue the momentum... I honestly don't remember how we settled on this tune, it kinda just happened where someone mentioned it and before we knew it, drum tracks were recorded. 

“However, this time around we added the amazing Harry Waters of McNally Waters on Keyboards (getting that B3 Hammond organ sound). Harry has also toured in his father's band, Roger Waters, for the last 15 years, for The Wall and the Dark Side of the Moon tours, and most recently Desert Trip alongside the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Neil Young.

“It was a lot of fun recording my bass for this tune... after a little research (and right before I hit the record button), I learned that the original Heartbreakers bassist did NOT record on the original recording, in his place (for this one tune only) was the legendary Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn. 

"I'm a huge fan of Booker T & The M.G.'s, all of Duck's recorded work with the Stax label and of course his stint as the bassist in the Blues Brothers. Not sure how I didn't know this, but sure glad I learned about it. All in all, another different avenue for me as a bassist and once again having some fun with some amazing friends and musicians.”

You can check out Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around above.

Mike Campbell recently sat down with Guitar Center to discuss what he describes as the “mystery of songwriting.”

In the process, the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers legend – who currently plays with Fleetwood Mac as well  as his own band, the Dirty Knobs – talked about how instruments often spark the idea for a song, and also pulled out three of the most cherished electric guitar models in his collection, which he dubs his “desert island guitars.”

First up is his Number One, a ‘50s Fender Broadcaster. “It’s priceless,” he says. “I will never sell it. I got it for $600 at Nadine’s Music Store in Hollywood, California when [Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers] were doing our first record. I only had a Stratocaster at the time and Tom was using that. So I needed something good.

"I found this on the wall and it’s natural wood. It’s just beautiful, it plays wonderful. And we used it all throughout the Heartbreakers records. In fact, on Mary Jane’s Last Dance, Tom played this.”

Next up is a ‘59 Les Paul burst. “This is a particularly good one," he says. "It’s in great condition. I don’t take it out of the house. And it’s a totally different sound than the Broadcaster.

"This guitar represents a lot of records I grew up – Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, a lot of those great players from the ‘60s who inspired me used this same model guitar."

He continues, "I got this when we were starting an album called Mojo with the Heartbreakers. I started playing it and Tom lost his mind. He said, ‘That’s a great-sounding guitar. I want you to play it on every song. We’re going to make this album around the sound of that guitar.’ And we did.”

Finally, Campbell pulls out a white Gibson Firebird that “supposedly” has Johnny Winter’s signature on the body. “This guitar I bought in Philadelphia. I was on tour with Fleetwood Mac on a day off and my wife and I went walking and we passed a pawnshop," he says. 

"And I have Firebirds but I don’t have a white one. I put it in the show that night and it was my main guitar the rest of the tour. It just sounded perfect. And it’s also become my main guitar in the Dirty Knobs.”

As for the impetus behind collecting guitars?

“There’s the joke about how many guitars does a guitar player really need,” Campbell says. “Only one…more.”

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ third album followed the legal wrangles surrounding their independent contract and publishing issues. This release saw them break into the Top 10 for the first time, peaking at Number 2.

Able to comfortably ride the new wave and rock trains simultaneously in the late-'70s, the Heartbreakers have always been a band that was cool to like. Petty once said there was a real sense of the band being “on a mission to make a really great album” in the face of all the hassles. They succeeded.

The result was, as Mike Campbell has perfectly described it, “a polished but tough” record. Speaking of Campbell, when we interviewed him for our January 2019 cover story, we made sure we reserved some time to discuss Damn the Torpedoes - the sessions, the gear, the mood and more.

Do you have any particular memories about recording Damn the Torpedoes?

"Absolutely. That record was really hard to record because we were going for a sound that we had never made before - and I don’t know if anyone else had ever made before.

"We went and hired Jimmy Iovine to produce and Shelly Yakus, the engineer, who we admired because he had done Because the Night with Patti Smith and we loved the way that record sounded. So we wanted to bring them in with us and try to get a big sound.

"So we go in the studio with these aspirations of making this big-sounding record, and it took us a while to translate what we were doing in the room into the studio to make that sound. It was a lot of work. We spent weeks on songs - and days on a snare sound.

"We were determined to make the best-sounding record ever made, and in a lot of ways I think we succeeded. It’s an amazing-sounding record and I’m really proud of it when I hear it now. I don’t think I’d ever want to make a record that difficult again. [Laughs] But we were learning. Iovine was great on that record. He pushed us; he pushed us with the songs; he pushed us getting the sounds right.

"Take Refugee, for instance. We knew it was an important song. We wanted to make that one especially good and we were just having trouble getting the sound or the groove. It went 50 takes, 80 takes, and I finally just walked out of the studio one day. I just said, 'I can’t take this,' you know, 'This is just painful,' and I left town for a few days and cleared my head out and came back and we eventually found a take that was good and finished that one.

"That’s the only time I ever walked out of a session like, 'I can’t take it!' That’s how hard it was, but it was worth it. We hung in there and we fought for it."

What was your main guitar and amp setup?

"It would have been… At one time I remember Shelly had put every amp known to man side by side, like 15 of them. And we were going through and plugging in the Marshall, plugging in the Fender, plugging in whatever they had out there. And I think we ended up using a Marshall on a lot of the record, and I had a Broadcaster, my original Fender Broadcaster that I used on Here Comes My Girl and Even the Losers.

"There were some 12-strings here and there, a couple of Gibsons, but we didn’t have that many guitars at the time. You know, I had a Goldtop and a Broadcaster and a Strat. And that’s mostly what we used on the record. 

"Tom played my Strat because he didn’t really have an electric guitar at the time per se, and we just worked and worked and worked and moved amps and microphones around until Jimmy said, 'Okay, let’s record now.' 'Wait, I’m burned out. I don’t even know what song we’re doing!' 'Okay, here we go.' 'No, that doesn’t sound good.' 'Okay, let’s get a good night’s sleep and come back tomorrow.' 'Now the sounds have changed, we’ve got to work on the sound some more.' It was one of those kinds of records.

"But yeah, those are the guitars. A Strat, a Broadcaster and a Goldtop. And maybe there was a Flying V that I think we used on the solo for Even the Losers. And then a Martin acoustic, a Gibson acoustic. But there weren’t many guitars back then."

Beyond the fact that it was a difficult record to make, when you look back on it now, what’s the thing that sticks out about it?

"Two things. First of all, the songs. We were blessed with some really good songs in that era. Don’t Do Me Like That, Here Comes My Girl, Refugee, Century City, Louisiana Rain. I’m always proud of the songs. I think our songwriting is what kind of kept us going all these years.

"And then the sonics of the record, when I hear it on the radio, it just sounds great. You know, like, that’s good work. Whoever recorded that really knew their shit, you know? So I’m proud of the songs and the sound. And the playing - we played pretty well, too!"

Speak with Mike Campbell for any length of time, and a word that will pop up repeatedly in the conversation is “bittersweet”. And how else to describe the last few months for the guitarist? He is clearly still in mourning for his band mate and friend Tom Petty, who passed away October 2, 2017, at age 66, after accidentally overdosing on the prescription drugs he was taking to treat a fractured hip, emphysema and knee problems, among other health issues. “It’s only been a year since I lost my friend,” Campbell says to Guitar World, just minutes into this interview. But even while he continues to come to grips with such a devastating personal and professional loss, Campbell is excited about his present musical state of affairs, as the new guitarist in Fleetwood Mac following Lindsey Buckingham’s split with the band this past January.

As Campbell tells it, the call to join the legendary outfit, which came right around his 68th birthday — on February 1, 2018 — was wholly unexpected. “I was sitting in my backyard and contemplating my life,” he says. “Still grieving, but just sort of taking in all the changes. And the phone rang, and it was [drummer] Mick [Fleetwood], who I actually knew very little. I had met him and played a few sessions with him over the years, but we never really connected beyond that. And he said to me, ‘I’ve been listening to your music a lot the last several days, and whether you know or not, Lindsey has left the band and we have a tour coming up.’ ”

Fleetwood, it turned out, was interested not only in having Campbell come out on the road, but also in having him sign on as a full-fledged member of the band. “That carried a lot of weight for me,” Campbell says. “Because I wasn’t interested in being a sideman. So I told Mick, ‘Give me 24 hours and I’ll get back to you.’ Because it was kind of overwhelming. And Mick was cool with that. So I thought about it, and I kept going over the pros and cons… and I couldn’t come up with any cons, really. So I said yes.”

And with that, Campbell (along with another new recruit, Crowded House and former Split Enz singer and guitarist Neil Finn), joined with Fleetwood, bassist John McVie, keyboardist and singer Christine McVie and singer Stevie Nicks in the newest iteration of Fleetwood Mac. By the time Guitar World speaks with Campbell at a hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, the new band is already a few dates into their highly touted 2018-2019 world tour. “And it’s been going phenomenally,” he says. “Better than I could’ve hoped. The crowds have been great and we’re having a blast.”

At the same time, Campbell adds, “It’s also emotional. I mean, every night I walk out onstage and look around and [Petty and the Heartbreakers] aren’t there, you know? And I miss them. But that’s part of the process.”

Campbell, it’s worth noting, has not completely put the Heartbreakers behind him. Along with Petty’s wife, Dana, and eldest daughter, Adria, plus Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench and producer Ryan Ulyate, he recently helped compile a box set, An American Treasure, that gathers Petty album cuts, outtakes, alternate versions, B-sides, live performances and more. The process, he says unsurprisingly, was “bittersweet.”

“There were times when it was joyful and there were times when it was tearful. Sometimes, it was just impossible to deal with it emotionally. But, the whole team worked very diligently to put together something that really showed the strength of Tom’s singing and writing.”

And there’s more Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers material on the way. Another compilation, The Best of Everything, came out in November, and a long-in-the-works release celebrating Petty’s 1994 album, Wildflowers, is also on the horizon. “We talked quite a bit about that, and Tom wanted to do it, so out of respect to his desire, we will probably follow through on the Wildflowers project in the not-too-distant future,” he says.

Additionally, Campbell reports that he’s planning to tour with and release an album from his own band, the Dirty Knobs, and that maybe — just maybe — there will even be some recording with Fleetwood Mac. “I think we could make a great record,” he says.

And so while Campbell continues to cherish and celebrate his past, the future — as his old friend once sang — is “wide open.”

“Believe me, I’m grateful,” Campbell says. “And I feel very blessed for where I am.”

Now that the Fleetwood Mac tour is in full swing, have you found there are any particular high points for you during the shows?

There’s lots of high points. My biggest thrill at the moment is doing “Oh Well,” which is an old Peter Green [Fleetwood Mac founder, as well as the band’s original singer and guitarist] song that they asked me to do the vocals on. And that’s been going down really well. I love playing that song. It’s a great guitar riff, too. So I look forward to that song every night. But it’s just a really great set. All the songs are good songs, and the rhythm section, just playing with Mick and John is amazing.

Why do you think Mick asked you to join Fleetwood Mac? What do you do as a guitarist that might have led him to think you’d be a good fit?

That’s a good question. I guess you’d have to ask him his reasoning, but my opinion about it is they wanted somebody that maybe was well-known… but that wasn’t too well-known. [laughs] And I have a history with Stevie. We have a friendship and we’ve written songs over the decades. So that might’ve been part of his thinking, that it would help Stevie feel comfortable because he thought that she might like having me in the band. But you know, Mick has always put Fleetwood Mac together. Over the years, through all their lineups. Mick found Lindsey. And Lindsey brought Stevie. So he’s always been the one to kind of pick the players. And I guess they had a choice of throwing in the towel or to keep going. And they wanted to keep going. So, possibly, he thought my guitar style would fit with them and that I would be able to easily cover any of the songs they’ve already done — and also hopefully bring something new to them, just like I did with my own band. That’s the best I can figure — that they liked what they heard and thought it would be musically cohesive.

Prior to getting that call from Mick, did you have any idea as to what your next move, musically, was going to be?

Yes. And it’s what I’m going to do the first time I get a break from this tour. I have a band called the Dirty Knobs that I’ve had for probably 15 years now, and I’ve worked with them between Heartbreakers tours, mostly just playing clubs and little theaters around L.A. We just recorded a record with [producer] George Drakoulias and it’s about 95 percent done. So I was planning on going ahead with that. It’s on a much smaller scale than Fleetwood Mac, but it’s something that’s artistically rewarding for me and that I’ve always wanted to do. I used to think that, you know, whenever the Heartbreakers retire or take a long break, I’ll do that. I didn’t expect a break to come this way, but I love those guys and it’s a great little band. So we intend to go full steam ahead when we get a little window of time.

When you agreed to join Fleetwood Mac, they already had this world tour on the horizon. I imagine you had to learn a lot of songs — and incredibly fast.

Oh, god. I learned, like, 40 or 50 songs. And it was a labor of love, but it was a lot, you know? And then we quickly realized, “Well, this is way too long.” So we started trimming it down and trimming it down. I think we’re down to 24 songs now, and we have a running order that flows really well. And I’m happy that it’s not just the hits. We left quite a few of the recognizable songs off the set list to make room for some of the older catalog. We’re doing some Peter Green stuff, and we’re doing a [former Fleetwood Mac guitarist and singer] Danny Kirwan song from [1970’s] Kiln House. So they’re allowing a little space for the history of Fleetwood Mac to be exposed. It’s not just the Lindsey/Stevie period, you know? They go back before that to some very valid and exciting music.

How did you personally go about woodshedding all this material?

With so many songs, I didn’t necessarily learn all the nuances. I kind of got the basics down so that when we played it in rehearsal I would have some idea of how things go. And then I would work out the details on the floor with them. But I approached it like I did with the Heartbreakers. A lot of times we would do covers — Chuck Berry or J.J. Cale or all kinds of cool songs — and whenever we did that I would always listen to the original record and really try to figure out what made it a great record and bring that to the floor. Maybe I’d add a little bit to it but I’d still be very reverent to the original records.

So I did the same thing with these songs. A lot of these guitar parts and arrangements are etched in people’s minds, and I don’t want to go in and just start jamming along on them, you know? I want to define the best nuances of the song. And maybe at the end or in the middle I can bring my personality into it. But I want it to sound like what people are expecting to hear.

A song like “Oh Well,” you played with the Heartbreakers.

Right. And the Dirty Knobs have done it, too. So I knew that one pretty well. And that one clicked right off. But once again, you know, I’m reverent to Peter Green’s arrangement of the main bulk of the song, and then there’s the solo bits where I can do my thing a little.

When people think of your guitar influences in the Heartbreakers, they think of guys like Roger McGuinn and George Harrison.

Sure.

But was a guy like Peter Green big for you at any point?

He was not a big influence but he’s certainly an influence. Because I was influenced by that whole British blues era, from Eric [Clapton] to Jeff [Beck] to Jimmy Page to Mick Taylor. And also Peter Green. I mean, out of all of those, Peter Green was not the one that I keyed into the most, but I have great respect for his writing and his playing. And also his singing — I love the way he sang.

It’s interesting because in some ways Fleetwood Mac — in particular the Peter Green and Danny Kirwan iterations — are forebears of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. But the Lindsey/Stevie version of the band is almost like a peer to it.

Yeah. Absolutely. It’s both. And it’s a long history. And that’s why this set is great — you get a lot of the current stuff and the stuff from the middle period, but then we throw in a couple of things that maybe some of the younger people in the audience don’t know. Like, they might not know that Peter Green wrote “Black Magic Woman.” They probably think it’s a Santana song. So it’s a little bit of a history lesson.

“Black Magic Woman” is one where you get to dip into your blues roots with some nice soloing.

Yes. And it’s great to hear a woman’s point of view, because Stevie sings it. We turned it around a little bit, the character of it. But you know, the first part of the song is true to Peter Green’s arrangement, and at the end it goes into a shuffle where the band can actually play very spontaneously. We jam. I go over by Christine [McVie], she plays a little piano for a while and it’s unrehearsed. And then Mick and I get into a thing and it’s all very on-the-floor, loose, spontaneous playing, which I love to do. So that song represents both sides of the band — the polished side and the exciting by-the-seat-of-your-pants thing.

What guitars are you using onstage?

It’s the same gear I’ve used for quite a while with the Heartbreakers. I have about 10 or 12 guitars, some of which are in non-standard tunings. Mostly I play a clone of my ’59 Les Paul. Gibson made that for me when I first got mine, and I take that on the road. It’s really great. And then I have a Fifties Telecaster that has a B-bender on it. I’ve used that guitar for years and years. It was on all the Mudcrutch records. It’s a workhorse. I use that on “Rhiannon” and several other things. I also have a couple of hollow-body guitars that I didn’t use with the Heartbreakers that I really like. One is a Harmony Rocket, which has some really nice loud pickups on it. I use that on a couple of songs, like “Second Hand News.” And then I have this red ’67 Epiphone Casino with a vibrato arm. I’m using that on a song called “Isn’t It Midnight,” which has a lot of soloing on it. But I have to be careful because it’s a hollow-body, and when you crank it up, if you’re not careful, it’ll howl a little bit. But it’s got a great tone. Then I have a Rickenbacker 12-string I use on “Free Fallin’,” and a Dobro that I use on “Gold Dust Woman.” I play it through my amp with a pickup and it sounds really good.

What are your main amps?

My amp setup is the same that I’ve had for years. It’s a Fender Princeton side-by-side with a Fender Tweed Deluxe. That’s my main sound. And then behind that I have a Leslie that is set on slow. It’s kind of on all the time, just for some depth. And next to that I have a thing called a Fender Excelsior, which I don’t think they make anymore, but they made them a couple of years ago and we liked them so much. It’s got a 15-inch speaker and a little more gain. But mostly my sound is the Princeton and the Tweed Deluxe. And then I have a few pedals — a [Way Huge] Camel Toe boost, a Vox wah, a Line 6 delay and a Line 6 tremolo. Nothing outrageous.

You mentioned earlier that you’re playing “Free Fallin’ ” in these shows.

It was actually Stevie’s idea. And I said, “No, we’re not going to do that.” I mean, I love that song, but I was so tired of playing it and it’s so emotional. But she said, “No, I think we could do this song really well.” And we tried it and she was right. It’s a real emotional high point of the evening. It’s a very sweet tribute and she sings it really well. I get tears, still. But I’m glad we’re doing it. I have a whole new respect for the song because it feels right.

Onstage, there are images of Tom on the screen behind you guys when you play it.

Yeah. That was all Stevie’s idea, too.

I would imagine that doesn’t make it any easier to play the song.

Well, I don’t see the images. I saw them when she showed them to us during rehearsals. She said, “This is what I’m thinking of doing…” And we chose a few shots. But during the show I don’t look back. You know, I have enough trouble keeping it together without those pictures.

Stevie, of course, had a long relationship with Tom [the two collaborated several times, most notably duetting on “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” — written by Petty and Campbell — from Nicks’ 1981 album, Bella Donna].

Yeah. We’re like family. So it means a lot. I think he would be proud of it.

What do you recall about the first time you met Tom Petty?

[laughs] Well, we all had long hair. Actually, I didn’t have long hair. He had long hair. I was living in Gainesville [Florida]. I had a house out on the edge of town with a drummer friend of mine, Randall Marsh. The band I was in with Randall had broken up and I had seen an ad on a student union bulletin board for a band named Mudcrutch that was looking for a drummer. And I’d seen them play on the lawn at the student union — they were kind of a Flying Burrito Brothers country-rock band. And I thought, That’s a pretty good little band… So I told Randall, “You should call them.”

And so one day they came to our house to audition Randall. I was in the back room, and at one point Randall came in and said that their guitar player just quit. “Do you want to come in and sit in?” I said sure. So I walked in and there’s Tom with his long hair, and the other guys with their long hair. I had short hair at the time and I had my cutoff jeans. And I had a $60 Japanese guitar. I looked like a total geek. And I could just see their eyes, like, “Oh, God, this guy’s a loser! This will never work.” It was one of those moments. But I thought, Well, these guys are cool…

So we sat down and I said, “What do you want to play?” They said, “What do you know?” So I suggested “Johnny B. Goode.” We kicked it off, and at the end of the song Tom looks at me and he goes, “I don’t know who you are, but you’re in my band forever.” That was the night I met Tom.

What was the best thing about making music with Tom?

The quality of it. And the commitment — it was full-on 100-percent commitment that we’re going to make this great and we can make this great. He had great confidence in himself and in our band. And he respected the value of him together with the band, because it just worked. We understood him in a telepathic way. We knew how to play together, and Tom just always had the confidence, like, “I’ve got the shit, follow me.” And we did.

You’ve intimated that at some point in the future the Heartbreakers might play together again.

That’s a tough one. I don’t know. I love those guys and we’re such a great band, but to get up in a room with them and without Tom at this point in my life would just be heartbreaking. I don’t think I can emotionally deal with that right now. But in the future, maybe when our grief is in a different phase, possibly we’ll find some situation where we can all work together and it won’t feel so painful. But it’s hard for me to see that right now.

Would you imagine there might be new Fleetwood Mac music at some point?

I’m hoping, I mean when I was asked to join the band, my first thought was, “Let’s go in and get some good songs and make a record.” And I think that’s on their minds as well. But they have this tour commitment so that’s taking up the whole focus right now.

But at the end of all this activity, if we’re still friends [laughs], I would love to go in and write some songs and make a record. I think we could make a great record. So we’ll see what the future holds.

At a recent SiriusXMU live session Kurt Vile performed a cover of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ “Learning to Fly.” Accompanied only by a percussion backing track and his own looped acoustic guitar, Vile took a laid-back country-tinged approach to Petty’s classic 1991 song.

Vile also performed an acoustic version of his song, “Bassackwards,” from his new album, Bottle It In.

Bottle It In was released on October 12 via Matador. Guests on the record include Kim Gordon, Cass McCombs, Lucius, Stella Mozgawa, Mary Lattimore and more.

You can pick up a copy of Bottle It In here.

The Best of Everything, the first career-spanning collection of all of Tom Petty’s hits with the Heartbreakers, Mudcrutch and solo, will be released via Geffen Records/UMe on November 16.

The remastered 38-track 2-CD set also features two previously unreleased songs: “For Real” and an alternate version of “The Best of Everything,” which restores a never-heard second verse to the song that was originally recorded for the 1985 Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers album, Southern Accents. The alternate version can be heard here.

The Best of Everything will be released simultaneously as a 2-disc CD, featuring deluxe packaging, and in all digital formats. LP editions—in both black and clear vinyl—will arrive on December 7. The collection also features an essay on Tom Petty written especially for this collection by Academy Award-winning screenwriter, director, author and journalist Cameron Crowe.

The Best of Everything is available for pre-order here. 

At last night's Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles, Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder performed a somber, moving cover of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' classic, 1999 ballad, "Room at the Top" as a tribute to the film-industry veterans who have passed away over the course of the past 12 months.

The "In Memoriam" segment featured stills and clips of legends of the stage and screen, including Chuck Berry, Harry Dean Stanton, Jonathan Demme, Roger Moore, Don Rickles and Jerry Lewis.

Vedder took the stage solo with a Rickenbacker electric, and was backed by the ceremony's official orchestra. You can check out the full performance above, and a shorter clip of the performance below.

"American Girl," the second single off Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' 1977 self-titled debut album, has pretty much got it all. There's its urgent Bo Diddley beat, its undeniably catchy melody, its New Wave punch, a tasty hook or two—even a bizarre "American" tie-in (It was recorded July 4, 1976, which is some wild, wacky stuff).

Best of all, it sports lots and lots and lots of guitar, including an exciting, impressive-sounding yet somewhat easy-to-play guitar solo/outro by Mike Campbell.

Bearing in mind that we've got a very nice transcription of the song coming up in the next issue of Guitar World, we hereby submit a few videos that will tide you over—and help you play it like a pro.

As I found out when my band briefly covered this song in 2009, Campbell's dazzling outro licks are really just one fun shape that moves up the fretboard with only one alteration when it gets to the 12th fret.

First, behold a vintage clip of the Heartbreakers performing the song on a long-gone sketch comedy show called Fridays (I remember watching Paul McCartney and Wings perform "Old Siam, Sir" on Fridays, but who cares?):

Although we get to see Campbell's hands every so often (in the video above), the cameraman loves to pull away just when things are about to get interesting. Ergo, take a look at this performance of "American Girl" by the Petty Hearts, an Epiphone-loving Tom Petty cover band:

Finally, let a guitarist named Tom lovingly break down the entire song, including the clever outro lick, in this well-done video:

Finally, and purely "for the hell of it," check out a cover of "American Girl" by Roger McGuinn of the Byrds. It was an interesting idea for a cover, since the reference most classic rock fans thought of when they initially heard Petty's "American Girl" was McGuinn's 12-string Rickenbacker attack from a decade earlier—so McGuinn went ahead and covered it (in 1977). According to legend, when McGuinn's manager first played Petty's "American Girl" for him, McGuinn said, "When did I write that song?"

In honor of George Harrison's 75th birthday on February 25, the eight-time platinum Concert for George will be available for the first time on vinyl, as a 4-LP box set and a Limited Edition Deluxe 10-disc box set via Concord Music.

"We will always celebrate George's birthday, and this year we are releasing Concert for George in a very special package in memory of a special man," said Olivia Harrison, George's widow, in a press release.

The concert, which took place November 29, 2002, at London's Royal Albert Hall, was organized by Olivia Harrison and George's longtime friend, Eric Clapton. The show, which was captured on film by director David Leland, featured an all-star lineup of guests, including Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Clapton, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Jeff Lynne, Joe Brown and Ravi Shankar.

The new deluxe box set of the concert is limited to 1,000 pieces worldwide and features the complete sound and film recordings (on 4 180-gram LPs, 2 CDs, 2 DVDs and 2 Blu-rays), a 12"x12" hard-bound 60-page book, plus an opportunity to own a piece of the historic event, by way of a cutting from the original hand-painted on-stage tapestry used as the backdrop at the Albert Hall that night.

The package is housed in a gold-colored, fabric-wrapped box with a die-cut mandala window to display the unique stage fabric, and includes a note from Olivia, explaining the story behind the tapestry.

The 4-LP box set includes the complete sound recordings from Concert for George on 180-gram vinyl, featuring a special, mandala-design etched on Side 8. This is the first time all the songs from the performance have been available on an audio configuration. The album also will be made newly available via streaming platforms, with a track listing mirroring that of the vinyl.

In addition to the vinyl formats, the release will be presented as a 2-CD set, as well as newly issued 2-CD + 2-DVD, and 2-CD + 2-Blu-ray combo packages. The 2-CD set features sound recordings from the concert. The 2-disc DVD and Blu-ray sets also include the complete filmed concert on the first disc, with a second disc containing the original theatrical version featuring concert highlights, interviews with the performers, rehearsals and behind-the-scenes footage. Exclusive to the Blu-ray format, the second disc includes an interview segment featuring Ringo Starr, Jim Keltner and Ray Cooper, entitled "Drummers."

The Deluxe Box Set is available for pre-order exclusively from concertforgeorge.com. The 4-LP Box Set can be pre-ordered here, while the 2-CD Box Set can be pre-ordered here.

A fascinating video has been making the rounds at Reddit over the past week.

It shows a group called Mr. Spankey and the Hipthrusters (who somehow are not a German hair metal band from the mid-Eighties) doing a hard-rocking cover of the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers classic, "Runnin' Down a Dream."

What immediately stands out though, is the band's guitarist, who lets loose with a mind-blowing, four-minute solo almost as soon as the video stars. The shredder—as it turns out—is a man by the name of Father Kenneth Petrie. And no, "Father" is not a nickname, Petrie is actually a man of the cloth.

"Approaching the Catholic Church in Braintree, Martin (Reid, the band's rhythm guitarist) and Tont (Mark Carroll, the band's lead singer) could hear the unmistakable sound of choir practice….but with a difference," the band explains on their website.

"Behind a glorious rendition of 'Amazing Grace' they could hear fantastic licks, picking and soloing on an electric guitar. After listening to such hits as 'Kumbaya' and 'Jerusalem,' Mr. Naylor (the band's bassist) took one look at the others, who both nodded in agreement," the origin story continues. "They’d found their man, Father Kenneth Petrie, or as we know him, The Right Reverend Kenny. All it took to secure his services was a small commitment to attend Mass for a month and never to convert to any other beliefs."

You can watch the amazing video above.

For more on the band, you can stop by their website.

Last winter, after watching the excellent 2007 documentary Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin' Down a Dream on Netflix, I decided it was finally time to see Tom Petty in concert; somehow, I'd managed to stupidly "avoid it" for decades.

So, as soon has the band's 2017 tour dates were announced, I "obtained" tickets to their July 1 show at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. It was billed as a 40th-anniversary, career-spanning tour, so the timing seemed perfect.

While I honestly didn't dig the whole jam-band vibe (the 13-minute performance of "It's Good to Be King" was about 6.75 minutes too long—and you can apply that same formula to all the night's extended jams—and there were many), it was a fine concert, full of fine playing on fine-looking guitar after fine-looking guitar.

Maybe they could've played more of the late-Seventies Damn the Torpedos-era stuff, but that's nitpicking. After all, Petty was never one to reminisce; he was always looking ahead, or at least caring about the now, which is probably why the band seemed most "into it" while performing “Forgotten Man,” a track from their most recent album, 2014’s Hypnotic Eye.

Anyway, that tour—which Petty announced was going to be his last major trek (so that he could spend time with family, especially his granddaughter)—finally wound down late last month on the West Coast, not far from his home. In fact, their final performance took place Monday, September 25, at LA's legendary Hollywood Bowl, the same stage where Petty's Wilburys bandmate, the late George Harrison, made history in 1964 and 1965 with his "other" band.

Below, you can check out a few performances from that fateful night, including "Free Fallin'" and the night's actual final songs, the mega-kickass "You Wreck Me" and "American Girl."

"American Girl" was a fitting, albeit unintentional, farewell; it was, after all, the song that represented the first taste of Petty and the Heartbreakers—at least for a large segment of the population. Enjoy the two clips below; to hear the entire set from that night, step right this way. Farewell, Tom Petty.

Tom Petty's death is a shocking reminder that people and things that we consider "constants" can disappear in an instant—and there's nothing we can do about it.

Petty has been a part of our lives since the late Seventies, just like Saturday Night Live, Jimmy Carter and Burton snowboards. His music has filled our personal soundtracks through the highs and lows—and it magically never seemed old, dated or browned around the edges.

Unlike one of the Heartbreakers' lesser-known song titles, "A Wasted Life," Petty truly got the most out of his time on earth, performing, recording, writing and simply hanging out with this musical heroes, including Johnny Cash, George Harrison, Carl Perkins, the Byrds' Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman, Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, Prince, Eric Clapton and many more.

Notwithstanding his many early triumphs, we can't help but feel he truly hit his stride during his massively successful "early middle period"—Full Moon Fever through Into the Great Wide Open—and then built on those solo successes in his later years, releasing masterful long-players like 1994's Wildflowers and 2006's Highway Companion.

Today, in the wake of Petty's death, we revisit 10 songs from his career that can't be grouped with such well-known tunes as "Refugee," "Free Fallin'," "American Girl" and "Mary Jane's Last Dance." Despite the fact that some of the songs below were released as singles back in the day, they're still under the radar, at least for now.

By the way, for information on one of Petty's final projects, check out our feature on Chris Hillman's just-released Bidin' My Time album, which was produced by Petty, features Petty (and the Heartbreakers) on several tracks and includes a cover of "Wildflowers."

FLIRTING WITH TIME
Tom Petty | Highway Companion | 2006

This Jeff Lynne-produced gem proves that Petty could write a catchy pop song at any stage of his career. Highway Companion is so packed with quality tunes that we could've picked just about anything. And, as proven during a 2008 cross-country trip, this album truly is a worthy "highway companion."

YOU AND I WILL MEET AGAIN
Tom Petty | Into the Great Wide Open | 1991

Since his earliest days, Petty was a master of channeling his sometimes long-in-the-tooth musical influences into modern, majestic tunes (as the Byrds-inspired "American Girl" and "Listen to Her Heart" will attest). He did it again in 1991, with Jeff Lynne at the helm. Let's hope this song title holds true.

CALIFORNIA
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers | She's the One | 1996

The Heartbreakers' ode to Petty's adopted state is one of the lesser-known gems from his She's the One soundtrack album. If you missed the movie, um, don't worry about it.

SOMEWHERE UNDER HEAVEN
Tom Petty | Wildflowers (outtake) | 1994 (released 2015)

"Somewhere Under Heaven," an unreleased Petty/Mike Campbell composition from the Wildflowers sessions, was released as a standalone single—and included in the Entourage moviesoundtrack—in 2015. So yes, this powerful 12-string tour de force was a castaway for 21 years, proving that Petty simply threw away songs that were this good.

YOU TOOK MY BREATH AWAY
Traveling Wilburys | Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 | 1990

Of the two Traveling Wilburys albums, 1988's Vol. 1—the one with "Handle with Care," "Last Night" and "End of the Line"—was a bona-fide hit and even caught the attention of bubblegum-chewing teenyboppers. Its 1990 followup, however, although just as good, turned out to be more "for fans only," which is nice—because we get to enjoy "secret" masterpieces like this. I've always suspected Petty's fellow Wilbury George Harrison was the brains behind this tune (the chord changes, the use of the very Beatle-y phrase "middle bit"). Or maybe it was Jeff Lynne, who sings the bridge. Either way, Petty owns it.

DON'T FADE ON ME
Tom Petty | Wildflowers | 1994

To quote the Chicago Tribune (from a story they posted 54 minutes ago), "Petty has never sounded more vulnerable than he does on this acoustic track." The Rick Rubin-produced Wildflowers will go down as Petty's "Nineties masterpiece."

ROOM AT THE TOP
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers | Echo | 1999

This Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album was largely written during a period when Petty was going through a painful divorce (influencing the lyrics of songs such as "Lonesome Sundown" and the title track), and Petty has cited that as the reason for his preference not to play any songs from the album in concert. However, "Room at the Top" has made many concert appearances and can be found on Petty's The Live Anthology.

OH MARIA
Mudcrutch | Mudcrutch | 2008

"Oh Maria," which features Clarence White-style B-bender guitar by Mike Campbell, is one of many standouts from the long-awaited debut album from Petty's pre-Heartbreakers band. We also love "Shady Grove," but of course we do.

KINGS HIGHWAY
Tom Petty | Into the Great Wide Open | 1991

This knockout track from Into the Great Wide Open might be one of Petty's best "album tracks" ever, and it's actually hard to believe it wasn't released as a single. Of course, when you consider that the album also featured the title track and "Learning to Fly," it starts to make sense. "Oh, I await the day good fortune comes our way, and we ride down the Kings Highway."

GOOD ENOUGH
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers | Mojo | 2010

If this Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers tune were released in 1972, it'd be a classic-rock staple. Mike Campbell's masterful slide guitar sucks you in instantly and Petty's vocals—as always—finish the job. Side note: Mojo represents the first full Heartbreakers album since 1981's Hard Promises to feature bassist Ron Blair.

It's hard to find an artist who was more universally admired than Tom Petty.

Though some may have sold more records than him, or won more Grammys perhaps, his pitch-perfect songwriting, tireless work ethic and fearlessness in standing up to the music industry on behalf of both listeners and artists made him a uniquely beloved figure.

His death on Monday night at the age of 66—after suffering cardiac arrest in his Malibu home on Sunday night—brought forth a remarkable wave of tributes from guitarists and musicians across the musicial spectrum.

Below, you can read some of the many tributes to Petty, without question one of the greatest American songwriters of all time.

Bob Dylan—Petty's bandmate in the Traveling Wilburys, and an artist for whom Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers opened for in the mid-Eighties—shared a statement with Rolling Stone, saying “It’s shocking, crushing news.” “I thought the world of Tom," Dylan continued. "He was great performer, full of the light, a friend, and I’ll never forget him.”

God bless Tom Petty peace and love to his family I'm sure going to miss you Tom pic.twitter.com/CktFyhBdxT

— #RingoStarr (@ringostarrmusic) October 2, 2017

Shocked and so sad at the passing of Tom Petty. RIP. Bri

— Dr. Brian May (@DrBrianMay) October 3, 2017

RIP #TomPettypic.twitter.com/Dhw7bFLXeC

— Alice Cooper (@RealAliceCooper) October 3, 2017

I loved Tom Petty and I covered his songs because I wanted know what it felt like to fly.

“you belong somewhere you feel free.”

— John Mayer (@JohnMayer) October 2, 2017

Wow. Another legend departs. You belong among the wildflowers Tom. Thank you for the music.

— Aaron Dessner (@aaron_dessner) October 2, 2017

Tom Petty has died at the age of 66 after being found in full cardiac arrest at his Malibu home Sunday night. The singer was rushed to UCLA Medical Center, but could not be revived.

His death was confirmed—after hours of conflicting reports regarding his passing—by Tony Dimitriades, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' longtime manager.

"He died peacefully at 8:40pm PT surrounded by family, his bandmates and friends," Dimitriades said in a statement, posted on the band's Facebook page.

Petty—the frontman of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and author of rock classics like "American Girl," "Breakdown" and "Free Fallin'," had been on a 40th anniversary tour with the Heartbreakers as recently as last week.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have announced the first dates of their 40th Anniversary Tour.

Petty announced the tour on SiriusXM’s “Tom Petty Radio” this morning and also on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last night.

The primarily U.S. tour, produced by Live Nation, will begin April 20, 2017, in Oklahoma City and will continue throughout the summer with more dates, including on the West Coast, still to be announced.

Joe Walsh will appear on many of the dates announced today, and Chris Stapleton will appear at Chicago’s Wrigley Field and for two nights at the Marcus Amphitheater at Milwaukee’s Summerfest.

Tickets for all of the newly announced shows, except for two concerts at New York City’s Forest Hills Stadium, will go on sale to the general public 10 a.m. local time December 16. Special pre-sales for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Highway Companions Club members will begin 10 a.m. local time December 14. To sign up for the Highway Companions Club, whose membership includes exclusive pre-sale access and other perks, fans should visit the club’s website.Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are releasing two companion vinyl box sets featuring their entire studio album repertoire. Both box sets are available today via UMe and Reprise/Warner Bros. All LPs in the limited-edition box sets have been pressed on 180-gram vinyl with replica artwork. Several of these albums have been out of print on vinyl for years and most albums have been re-mastered for this release.

Further details on the band’s 40th Anniversary Tour and vinyl box sets are available at tompetty.com.

TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR
April 20 Chesapeake Energy Center Oklahoma City, OK*
April 22 American Airlines Arena Dallas, TX*
April 23 Verizon Wireless Arena Little Rock, AR*
April 25 Bridgestone Arena Nashville, TN*
April 27 Philips Arena Atlanta, GA*
April 29 Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion Houston, TX*
May 2 Frank Erwin Center Austin, TX
May 5 Perfect Vodka Amphitheatre West Palm Beach, FL*
May 6 Amalie Arena Tampa, FL*
May 8 FedEx Forum Memphis, TN*
May 10 StateFarm Center Champaign, IL*
May 12 Scottrade Center St. Louis, MO*
May 13 Klipsch Music Center Indianapolis, IN*
May 29-30 Red Rocks Amphitheatre Morrison, CO
June 2 Sprint Center Kansas City, MO*
June 3 Xcel Energy Center St. Paul, MN*
June 5 Wells Fargo Arena Des Moines, IA*
June 7 Schottenstein Center Columbus, OH*
June 9 PPG Paints Arena Pittsburgh, PA*
June 10 Quicken Loans Arena Cleveland, OH*
June 12 US Bank Arena Cincinnati, OH*
June 14 XFINITY Theatre Hartford, CT*
June 16 Prudential Center Newark, NJ*
June 17 Mountain Jam Festival Hunter, NY
June 29 Wrigley Field Chicago, IL†
July 1 Wells Fargo Arena Philadelphia, PA
July 2 CMAC Performing Arts Center Canandaigua, NY
July 5-6 Marcus Amphitheater-Summerfest Milwaukee, WI†
July 15 Air Canada Centre Toronto, ONT
July 18 DTE Energy Music Theatre Detroit, MI
July 20 TD Garden Boston, MA
July 23 Royal Farms Arena Baltimore, MD
July 26-27 Forest Hills Stadium Queens, NY‡*with Joe Walsh
†with Chris Stapleton
‡on-sale January 14

The Fender Custom Shop is proud to introduce the Mike Campbell Limited Edition "Heartbreaker" Guitar.

Meticulously reproduced by the team of Dream Makers at the Custom Shop, led by Master Builder Dale Wilson, this guitar is nearly indistinguishable from the original.

The guitar will provide players with Campbell’s years of loving use to experience for their own. From the nail scratch on the front of the lower horn to the soldering iron burn near the output jack and chipped nut, this guitar is visually and sonically comparable to Campbell's trusty companion. This historic collectible is available in extremely limited quantities, and each will include a small number of Campbell's personal guitar picks.

In addition to the release of the guitar, artist funds from the limited edition reproduction will go to Tazzy Animal Rescue Fund, a nonprofit organization that's close to Campbell and his wife. The organization operates as a fullyfunctioning animal rescue and works to provide homes for those animals in need.

"It's a notable cause and if you want to buy one of these guitars not only do you get a great guitar, but you are literally saving lives of dogs," Campbell said.

For more information on the animal rescue organization and Fender Custom Shop, visit tazzyfund.com and fendercustomshop.com.

When Labor Day came and went early last month, it reminded us of the American labor movement and the contributions American workers have made to the strength, prosperity and well-being of the good ol' U.S. of A.

However, since we're Guitar World people, we couldn't help but apply those sentiments to music and the American people who made and make it—bands!

This, in turn, led to thoughts and theories about the greatest American band of all time, which led us to our latest readers' poll—the Best American Rock Band Ever! Yes, the gangs from Guitar World and Sweetwater want to get GW readers—you people!—involved as we attempt to crown the Best American Rock Band Ever!

Although we had thousands of bands to choose from, we decided to narrow things down to 32, which is perfect for a month's worth of intense—and fun (it's supposed to be fun, people!) matchups. All the bands were carefully selected by Guitar World's editorial staff.

Note that this poll includes current bands and bands that disappeared into the woodwork years ago. Also, if you're wondering why the Jimi Hendrix Experience aren't on this list, they weren't an American band. Hendrix was American, but he's not a band. Band of Gypsys were American, but they simply didn't make the cut based on the music released under the "Band of Gypsys" moniker. It's one of many tough sacrifices we had to make along the way. Speaking of which, be sure to read "How the Bracket Was Compiled" at the bottom of this story.

Anyway, here are our 32 American bands, which are presented in alphabetical order. You also can check out the entire 32-band bracket below.

Aerosmith, Alice In Chains, the Allman Brothers Band, the Beach Boys, Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Doors, Eagles, Foo Fighters, Grateful Dead, Green Day, Guns N' Roses, Heart, Kiss, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Metallica, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Queens of the Stone Age, Ramones, Red Hot Chili Peppers, R.E.M., Soundgarden, Steely Dan, Steve Miller Band, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, Styx, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Van Halen, the White Stripes and ZZ Top.

Enjoy our Best American Rock Band Ever Poll, which is sponsored by Sweetwater!

Today's Matchup

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Fronted by one of the greatest songwriters the U.S. has ever produced, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have been crafting a uniquely American brand of rock and roll for almost 40 years. They’ve channeled Bob Dylan, country, blues, soul and the Southern rock of their native Florida into a swampy brand of music that's all their own. “American Girl,” “Refugee” and “Learning to Fly” are all radio mainstays to this day. Petty’s songwriting and Mike Campbell’s sterling leads simply never get old.

• Grateful Dead

The definitive jam band. There’s a reason these guys had the most fiercely devoted fan base in rock history. Although they weren’t the most aggressive or ground-breaking band on the planet, the Grateful Dead were more than a band. They were a much larger community, and by extension, a way of life. They never played the same set, or even the same song, the exact same way twice. Unpredictable, and gifted with unparalleled musical chemistry, the Grateful Dead were truly a unique entity in American music.

Vote Now!

The polls are closed! Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have advanced to the next round. Be sure to check out today's matchup at GuitarWorld.com.

Behold the Latest Bracket!

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How the Bracket Was Compiled

Here's how the bracket was—very unscientifically—compiled.

We drew the artists' names out of a hat (It was, in fact, a smelly Quebec Nordiques baseball cap) to help us create our bracket, which is available for your viewing pleasure below. Obviously, none of these of bands are ranked or come from a previously compiled list, so we chose purely random matchups to have as little impact as possible on the final outcome. We're actually pretty pleased with the way the bracket turned out.

Remember that, as with any poll, genre might occasionally clash against genre, so you'll just need to decide which artist has (or has had) the most to offer within his/their genre, perhaps which one has or had more natural talent or technical skill, which one had the biggest influence on other live acts, etc.

As always, you can vote only once per matchup (once per device, that is), and we'll be posting match-ups pretty much every day of the month, sometimes more than once per day, just to give you an early warning.

“I hope he does this every year, like the Allmans,” said one of the two fans rocking out in front of me toward the end of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers’ triumphant show Tuesday night (May 21) at New York City’s Beacon Theater, referring to the Allman Brothers Band’s yearly residency there.

Everyone within earshot nodded in agreement.

The show, the second night of a five-night run at the 2,894-capacity, 74-year-old theater on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, was relaxed but intense, with the band fluidly delivering one scorcher after another with peerless sound and trademark guitar interplay.

While hardly a greatest-hits set, the set list, which paired classics such as "Wildflowers" and "Woman In Love" with vintage album cuts "When a Kid Goes Bad" and "When the Time Comes," covers like "Green Onions" and "I Just Want to Make Love to You," and the live debut of the Traveling Wilburys’ "Tweeter and the Monkey Man," allowed the band to stretch out on deep cuts that left the faithful feeling as though they’d seen a truly special show.

And they had.

Looking and sounding half of his 62 years, Petty led the Heartbreakers for two solid hours through the kind of show that fans of the band might put together on a playlist for a long drive. After an opening salvo of "Rock’n’Roll Star," "Love Is a Long Road" and "Here Comes My Girl," the band settled in for a remarkable night of musicianly magic.

Much like the fabled 1990s Fillmore West residency that Petty fans have traded on bootlegs over the years, the concert showed how strong the Heartbreakers are as a unit, with Petty and lead guitarist Mike Campbell, along with keyboardist Benmont Tench, pushing the band effortlessly forward even on songs that had the tentative but refreshing feel of having only been rehearsed a handful of times.

A stripped-down "Rebels" was a highlight, as was the one-two-three punch of "Crawling Back to You," "Friend of the Devil" and "It’s Good to Be King." By the time the band hit the final stretch with "I Should Have Known It," "Refugee" and "Running Down a Dream," the crowd, which had been on its feet throughout the night, was clamoring for more.

Obliging with an encore of "Listen To Her Heart" and "American Girl," Petty closed with a sincere thanks from the stage and disappeared into the New York night. The talk on the way out of the theater among the crowd was mostly about how to score tickets for the remaining three shows of Petty’s Beacon visit.

Jeff Slate is a NYC-based solo singer-songwriter and music journalist. He founded and fronted the band the Badge for 15 years beginning in 1997 and has worked with Pete Townshend, Earl Slick, Carlos Alomar, Steve Holley, Laurence Juber and countless others. He has interviewed and written about everyone from the Beatles and Kiss to Monty Python and rock musicals on Broadway. He is an avid collector of rock and roll books and bootlegs and has an encyclopedic knowledge of all things Dylan and the Beatles.

For the third time in a month, the gang at Danelectro has listed artist-autographed Danelectro guitars on eBay — with all proceeds going to a good cause.

This time, two guitars are on the auction block; one is signed by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers and one by John Mayer. One hundred percent of the proceeds from the sale of the guitars will go to the SKJ Orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya. The orphanage is home to 135 children and includes a school that educates children from the orphanage and the local community.

Petty & Co. signed a Lime Green Danelectro 1967 model. Mayer signed a Midnight blue Danelectro 1967 model while backstage at the Wiltern in Los Angeles.

Check out both individual eBay auctions — plus photos of the guitars — below:

• Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers guitar

• John Mayer guitar

For more about the SKJ Orphanage, check out this story by NPR. And be sure to head here for more about Danelectro.