The Dirty Knobs: the band Tom Petty called a “bad impression” of himself
Tom Petty was never one to let his feelings get the better of him in any of his songs. He always wrote how he felt and let the audience share in his pain when working on albums like Echo, but he knew that there were going to be moments when some people took it too far behind the scenes.
For as much as Petty loved the idea of making heartland rock, though, he could never have done it alone, either. The Heartbreakers were never meant to be hired hands, and had there not been that certain chemistry that kept them going up until Petty’s death, he probably would decide to officially call it a day and move on to his solo career. But whereas Benmont Tench and Howie Epstein did incredible things to his songs, Mike Campbell was the official co-captain of every project they worked on.
Before Mudcrutch was fully broken up, Petty already knew that Campbell was irreplaceable, and he would spend the rest of his time working with the guitar slinger everywhere he went. And considering how much Campbell could sound like George Harrison whenever he put on his slide, he seemed to fill in the gaps that Petty needed help with half the time, like coming up with the opening figure to ‘Refugee’ or providing the central hook of the song ‘Breakdown’ with that descending motif.
But making music with the same people all the time had to get exhausting after a while. Petty had already grown tired of the same old formula by the time he began working with The Traveling Wilburys, but even if Campbell was along for the ride during Petty’s solo years working on Full Moon Fever, he knew that there was a lot more room for him to grow in his solo band, The Dirty Knobs.
After all, Petty said that side projects among band members weren’t off-limits so long as it was something that they could all be proud of. Campbell had even made a handful of hits with Stevie Nicks and Don Henley on his own without any of Petty’s help, but as soon as the frontman heard what The Dirty Knobs sounded like, the guitarist remembered being confronted for sounding a bit too close to his other outfit.
Having been told that his band was a bit too similar for Petty’s taste, Campbell remembered being put in his place by the frontman, saying, “[He said] ‘What are you doing? It sounds like a bad impression of me!’. I think I even said: ‘Well, if it sounds like you that must sound pretty good, right?’ ‘Yeah, but you don’t want to do that.’ He asked me: ‘Are these songs great?’ And I said: ‘Well, I don’t know, they’re pretty good.’ ‘Well if they’re really great, why don’t we do them?’ It’s like checkmate once again.”
It’s a fair comparison as well. The Dirty Knobs are by no means a bad band by any stretch of the imagination, but perhaps Campbell wanted to come out of his shell a little bit. He had only sung on one Heartbreakers song throughout their career, but the fact that his voice sounded a lot like Petty’s wasn’t doing him any favours in diversifying his sound.
But in the modern age, hearing Campbell playing his own music and not worrying too much about his legacy as a Heartbreaker is a great way for him to heal after his friend’s passing. It may have taken a long time and a few uncomfortable sessions before he finally felt comfortable, but it’s better to have more of Campbell’s lick out in the world than only remembering the classics.
