Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell has announced a memoir, Heartbreaker, which will be released March 18 via Hachette imprint Grand Street Publishing.
“This is my book,” Campbell, who wrote Heartbreaker with Ari Surdoval, says. “It’s the story of a poor kid from Jacksonville, Florida who realized a dream through music. It’s a long journey through hard work, dedication and luck. Playing guitar and writing songs has been my inspiration and purpose. It’s a story of hope, redemption and gratitude, a testimonial that dreams can come true if you believe in yourself and follow your truth. It took two years to write and it’s a labor of love. I hope you enjoy the ride!”
Campbell was The Heartbreakers’ guitarist from their formation in 1976 through Petty’s death in 2017, and co-wrote many of their hits, including “Refugee,” “Here Comes My Girl,” “You Got Lucky” and “Runnin’ Down a Dream.”
Here’s the official synopsis of the memoir:
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. After months of saving, his mother bought him a $15 pawnshop acoustic guitar for his sixteenth birthday. With a chord book and a transistor radio, Campbell painstakingly taught himself to play.
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 looming—moved into a rundown farmhouse in Gainesville, where he met a 20-year-old Tom Petty. They were soon inseparable. Together they chased their shared dream all the way to Los Angeles, where Campbell would meet his destiny, and the love of his life, Marcie.
It was an at-times grueling dream come true that took Campbell from the very bottom to the absolute top, where Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers would remain for decades, creating an astonishing body of work.
Brilliant, soft-spoken and intensely private, Campbell opens up within these pages for the first time, revealing himself to be an astute observer of triumphs, tragedies and absurdities alike, with a songwriter’s eye for the telling detail and a voice as direct and unpretentious as his music.
Check out the Heartbreaker book art below, and you can preorder it now.
Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs released Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits this summer and he’s currently on tour as part of the Robbie Robertson / The Band tribute Life Is A Carnival: Last Waltz Tour that also includes his Heartbreakers bandmate Benmont Tench, plus John Medeski, Don Was, Ryan Bingham, Lukan Nelson, Jamey Johnson, Cyril Neville, Dave Malone, Terrence Higgins, and Mark Mullins.
Dates of that tour include NYC’s Beacon Theatre on November 6, and Port Chester’s Capitol Theatre on November 7 & 8. All dates are listed below.
Life Is A Carnival: Last Waltz Tour
Oct 30, 2024 – Coronado Performing Arts Center – Rockford, IL
Nov 1, 2024 – Louisville Palace Theatre – Louisville, KY
Nov 2, 2024 – The Andrew J Brady Music Center – Cincinnati, OH
Nov 4, 2024 – Count Basie Center for the Arts – Red Bank, NJ
Nov 6, 2024 – Beacon Theatre – New York, NY
Nov 7, 2024 – The Capitol Theatre – Port Chester, NY
Nov 8, 2024 – The Capitol Theatre – Port Chester, NY
Nov 9, 2024 – The Met – Philadelphia, PA
Nov 12, 2024 – Orpheum Theatre – Boston, MA
Nov 14, 2024 – Proctors Theatre – Schenectady, NY
Nov 15, 2024 – Kodak Center – Rochester, NY
Nov 16, 2024 – Meridian Hall – Toronto, ON