UPDATE TO BELOW STORY MAY 14TH, 2024:
There is talk of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers marking their 50th anniversary in 2026.
Guitarist Mike Campbell tells Rolling Stone, "The management said that if we did it, we’d get the original band back together, have some guest singers, and maybe just do a couple of shows.
“But then I always throw my hands up and go, ‘I can’t think about that. I’m not ready to go back and do that.’ And I don’t want to do anything to dishonor the legacy. I’m not sure how that would feel to me, to have a bunch of people singing Tom’s parts. I’m open, but I’m not overly enthralled with the idea...
“There’s something good about leaving like it was. We left on a high note musically, and I don’t know. I have mixed feelings about it.”
Ironically, Campbell has that same Florida drawl like Petty so he can easily pull off the singing, which he does with his band, Dirty Knobs, who do a few Petty songs in their set.
Petty died of an accidental overdose on October 2nd, 2017 at the age of 66.
Campbell and the Dirty Knobs will release their new album, Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits, on June 14th.
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Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell has turned back the clock -- and turned to a few friends for help with the new album Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits with his band, The Dirty Knobs.
The first single is "Dare to Dream," which features Graham Nash, and the video for it was filmed at the late Leon Russell’s Church Studio in Tulsa, Oklahoma. That's where, in 1974, Campbell, Petty and their band Mudcrutch recorded their first demo tape.
Campbell tells Rolling Stone. “It was spiritual. I got a little wistful about Tom because we had been there together, and I stood where we had set up with Mudcrutch originally in that room. I got a lot of flashbacks of sweet memories.”
Campbell says Nash "kind of made it sound a little bit like The Hollies blend on the vocals. He really lifted the song up and it was just a thrill to have a hero of mine singing my song.” Nash was in The Hollies before forming Crosby, Stills & Nash.
Also appearing on the album are Lucinda Williams, Chris Stapleton and Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont Tench.
This is Campbell's third album with The Dirty Knobs following 2020’s Wreckless Abandon and 2022’s External Combustion. “The first record was an introduction to me as a so-called singer and as a writer. I wanted to show off that the band can boogie good, and play aggressively and exciting. But as we went on through the years, our songs grew in depth. I grew better as a writer, and added more situations and characters into the songs. The band grew, but it’s still basically just a boogie rock band.”
Ironically, while he says he's grown as a songwriter, five of the album's 11 songs are from his archives. “Back in the day, I would write songs and then give them to my partner Tom, and that’s all I ever did with them. I gave him so much he couldn’t possibly ever deal with it all. I stuck a lot up on the shelf for future assessment. And so here I am in the future and I pulled them out.”
Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits will be released on June 14th, and Campbell and the Knobs will start their summer tour on June 21st in Skokie, Illinois with Heartbreakers drummer Steve Ferrone in place of Matt Laug, who's filling in for Phil Rudd on AC/DC’s European tour.
Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits track list:
- “The Greatest”
- “Angel of Mercy”
- “Dare to Dream” (feat. Graham Nash)
- “Hands Are Tied”
- “Hell or High Water” (feat. Lucinda Williams)
- “So Alive”
- “Shake These Blues”
- “Innocent Man”
- “Don’t Wait Up” (feat. Chris Stapleton & Benmont Tench)
- “My Old Friends”
- “Amanda Lynn”