(Credits: Chris Phelps)
Wed 12 November 2025 22:00, UK
With a band name like Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, it was perhaps quite normal for one man to get all the acclaim while all the others somewhat faded into the background.
But at the end of the day, rock and roll is not a game for wallflowers – and if you have any chance of lasting for the long haul, you have to make your mark.
As much as the setup of the group might have suggested otherwise, with the frontman taking up the majority of the spotlight, Mike Campbell knew exactly when to strike to ensure that the Heartbreakers were not the forgotten half of the equation.
As Petty’s long-serving right-hand man over the course of half a century, Campbell and his compatriot knew precisely how to bring out the best in each other, just the same as you might imagine they also occasionally brought out the worst. But at the core of their relationship was a bedrock of trust and equality – in themselves, each other, and most importantly, the music, which made them a dream team beyond any amount of rock recognition.
Within this, it was a slightly slow-burning process for Campbell to unleash the full might of his talents for the benefit of the band, mainly because, with a maestro as masterful as Petty in his midst, it was difficult to compare himself to. Eventually, though, once the floodgates opened, the guitarist was unstoppable, writing some of their most seismic hits such as ‘Refugee’, ‘Here Comes My Girl’, and ‘Runnin’ Down a Dream’. However, it was the song that prompted the dam to burst that always made Campbell the proudest.
In many ways, if you were to define the history of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ discography, Campbell’s influence bore its most striking self literally from the very beginning of their journey, as the first track on their first ever album. To this end, ‘Rockin’ Around (With You’ became pivotal to their trajectory, with Campbell very much steering the ship at the helm as the writer.
Retrospectively, as the moment which began it all, it left him beaming. Explaining the song in a nutshell, the guitarist later mused: “I had been dabbling in writing, but we were working on the first record and I had a little cassette player”.
Adding, “I wasn’t think of anything per se, I was just playing that on the guitar and kind of strung in a couple of extra chords that we didn’t need, but Tom liked the riff and we needed a fast song so he simplified what I had, kept the riff and a few of the chord changes, and he wrote the words to it.”
Of course, he makes it sound all too easy, but the reality was that Campbell was “thrilled” that his “little germ of an idea” heralded “this great song”. He grinned. “I could do this forever.”
In a lot of ways, that was exactly what he did. No one could have anticipated that one little riff would change a life and kickstart the career of one of rock’s greatest artists, but the fact that Petty kept Campbell glued to his side throughout it all was testament to the fact that he knew he had him to thank.
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