First published 2025
Mike Campbell grew up poor in Jacksonville, raised by a single mother who scraped together fifteen dollars for a pawnshop guitar on his sixteenth birthday. With only a chord book and transistor radio, he taught himself to play. A guidance counselor's encouragement led him to the University of Florida, where he moved into a crumbling Gainesville farmhouse. There he met twenty-year-old Tom Petty, and the two became inseparable friends chasing the same musical dream. Together they headed to Los Angeles, where Campbell found both his destiny as lead guitarist for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and his future wife, Marcie. The band's four-decade journey produced hits like "American Girl," "Refugee," and "Learning to Fly," plus collaborations with Don Henley and Stevie Nicks. Campbell reveals the grueling path from rock bottom to the top, offering his first public account of a life shaped by music, friendship, and the creative partnership that sustained both men until Petty's death in 2017.
Genres: 20th-century, american, biography-memoir, music, 21st-century, musicians
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, found-family
Setting: Gainesville, Jacksonville, Los Angeles
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
448 pages · Hardcover · Da Capo