Vision Quest: Guitarist Mike Campbell Discusses the New Tom Petty Album, 'Hypnotic Eye'
FThe incredible success story of Mike Campbell, best known as the lead guitarist of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, started with a little Japanese Guyatone electric solidbody guitar and a lot of talent. But if it hadn't been for the latter, the Guyatone might have prevented that story from ever happening at all.
"My band's drummer, Randall Marsh, auditioned for Mudcrutch and became their drummer," Campbell recalls of that life-changing day in Gainesville, Florida, back in 1970. "Mudcrutch had just lost their guitar player, and Randall told them that he had a buddy who plays guitar. They called me up to audition, so I went over there with my little Guyatone. When they saw my guitar, they all laughed at me and went, 'Oh, great.' They asked me what I knew how to play, and I suggested 'Johnny B. Goode.' When I started playing, they all changed their tune really quickly. That was the first time I ever met Tom [Petty]. We hit it off immediately, but one of the first things he said to me was, 'We've got to get you a good guitar.'"
That humbling but triumphant moment led to a career that has thrived for more than four decades. Since then, Campbell and Petty have made more than a dozen chart-topping albums together, and Campbell has recorded and performed with an incredible assortment of artists that includes legends like Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Roy Orbison, and Carl Perkins. He even co-wrote and recorded most of the backing tracks to Don Henley's massive solo hit "The Boys of Summer." Needless to say, Campbell got some good guitars in the years that followed (about several hundred by unofficial count) and quite a few great ones, too.
Campbell was just a child when he developed a love of guitar-oriented music. "My dad was a big Elvis and Johnny Cash fan," he recalls. "That was probably the first time I noticed the guitar and what it was doing in music. Then the Beatles came along, and that changed everybody at my school. I wanted to learn to play guitar, but I couldn't afford one for a very long time."
Read more» |
