Author Description

"One of the most respected and influential rock and roll guitar players of all time, Mike Campbell was the guitarist for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers from the band's inception in 1976 to Petty's tragic, sudden death in 2017. His melodic and iconic playing formed the foundation of the band's sound, as heard on definitive classics like "American Girl," "Breakdown," "Listen to Her Heart," "Even the Losers," "Don't Come Around Here No More," "Mary Jane's Last Dance," "Learning to Fly" and "Into the Great Wide Open." But he wasn't just Petty's guitarist--he was also Petty's lifelong songwriting partner. Together, they wrote countless songs, including some of the band's biggest hits: "Refugee," "Here Comes My Girl," "You Got Lucky," and "Runnin' Down a Dream." From their scuffling early days in Florida to their dizzying rise to superstardom to Petty's acclaimed, platinum-selling solo albums Full Moon Fever and Wildflowers, Campbell was a constant co-writer, co-producer, and confidant, and Petty never made a record without him. Their work together is timeless and loved by millions--as are the career-defining hits Campbell co-wrote with Don Henley ("Boys of Summer" and "The Heart of the Matter") and Stevie Nicks ("Stop Draggin' My Heart Around"). But few know of the less-than-glamorous background from which Campbell emerged--a hardscrabble childhood on the north side of Jacksonville, often just days ahead of homelessness, raised by a single mother struggling on minimum wage to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. After months of scrimping and saving, his mother managed to buy him a $15 pawnshop acoustic guitar for his sixteenth birthday. With a chord book and a transistor radio, Campbell taught himself to play, lost in a love for music and hiding from the hardships of a life on the margins. When a chance encounter with a guidance counselor inspired him to enroll in the University of Florida, Campbell--broke, with nowhere else to go and the Vietnam draft lo