Fresh off the massive success of his 2025 best-selling memoir Heartbreaker, rock legend Mike Campbell is turning the page. Today marks the release of Mission of Mercy, the fourth studio album from Campbell and his powerhouse band, the Dirty Knobs.
While he will always be associated with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Campbell’s latest 12-song set finds him pushing into unexpected territory, stretching his electric guitar–driven rock with touches of Brian Wilson–inspired pop, psych-rock excursions and even a beat-poet experiment.
“It’s my go-to project,” Campbell, 76, says via Zoom from his home in the Los Angeles area. “I just like having an outlet for all these songs I write, and they’re just the perfect outlet. We get along really well. They instinctively know me, and they follow really well.”
He adds with a chuckle, “They don’t argue too much. They’re just really good, y’know?”
Mission of Mercy was co-produced by Campbell, George Drakoulias and Martin Pradler and recorded at Hocus Pocus Studios in Los Angeles. It follows the Dirty Knobs’ 2024 release, Vagabonds, Virgins & Misfits.
Campbell formed the group in 2000 as a side project to play Los Angeles clubs and showcase songs that didn’t fit elsewhere. Since Petty’s death in 2017, however, the group has become his primary creative outlet. The current lineup features former Heartbreakers (and Average White Band) drummer Steve Ferrone, guitarist/keyboardist Christopher Holt and longtime bass guitarist Lance Morrison.
The album stretches the band’s formula in several directions, from the manic “Bongo Mania” — featuring Kate Pierson of the B-52’s — to the beat-poet experiment “Vagrant” and the Brian Wilson–inspired title track. At the same time, it remains rooted in the guitar rock that has defined Campbell’s career, with an appearance by Morgane Stapleton on the gentle “More Than Gold.”
The Dirty Knobs hit the road again in July, covering the Midwest and East, while Campbell will also be doing his first orchestral show on September 12 with the Atlanta Symphony -- probably not somewhere the kid who picked up guitar when he was 16 ever expected to be.
Four albums in with the Dirty Knobs, what did you set out to do on Mission of Mercy?
Well, we always set out to have good songs. We look for the good songs and we keep doing them until we get too many, then we narrow it down and try to make sense of it. That’s just how I approach records — What’s the song? What’s the song today? Is there a good song we can record? Let’s give it a shot, and if it’s good we’ll keep it, and if not we’ll throw it out and do another one.
We look for the good songs and we keep doing them until we get too many, then we narrow it down and try to make sense of it. That’s just how I approach records.”
— Mike Campbell
There was no different concept this time, but I did want to expand the songwriting a little bit — not only have the band rockin’ but have a few esoteric, melodic things here and there. I think by the fourth album it’s OK for us to take some chances.
Look no further than the title track, then.
“Mission of Mercy” is definitely a stretch for the Dirty Knobs. It was a demo I had done several years ago, and it showed up in the middle of the album. I thought it was good and worth finishing. It was very different for us, very Brian Wilson–inspired. The song actually didn’t have any guitar in it, per se, just some chords.
There was a point where I felt like, “Well, something needs to happen,” so I picked up the guitar and played some licks at the end, which kind of lifts it up from maybe a pop ballad to more of a guitar song at the end there. So that was an afterthought; the last thing I put on it was the guitar at the end, but I think it lifts the song up and gives it some edge.
What’s your litmus test for a good song, and how has that changed over the years — even from the Mudcrutch and Heartbreakers days?
I have to like it, and I have to think it’s good. It has to move me in some way. I write a lot of songs, and some of them just kind of come and go and other ones resonate deeper, and it’s the ones that resonate on some level that I tend to gravitate toward — like “Mission of Mercy.” But the process is the same for me as it’s always been: just wait for the good songs to come through.
How does the way you write or arrange now open portals for how you use the guitar that might be different than before?
Well, we have a great guitar player in the band — it’s not me.”
— MIke Campbell
Well, we have a great guitar player in the band — it’s not me. [laughs] I’m good, but this other guy, Christopher Holt, who we got in the band a couple years ago, is incredible, not only on guitar but vocals and keyboards, and he’s a fine, nice chap. But the Dirty Knobs is a guitar band, and basically we’re a rock-and-boogie band, which allows room for the guitar to express itself.
I like the guitar solos and the guitar parts to be spontaneous, as much as possible. So with Christopher and the rest of the guys, a lot of the time I don’t let them hear the song until they’re recording it. I’ll go, “Here’s the chords, and you play something in this space here, OK? 1, 2, 3, 4, go!” And then we get it and I’m like, “OK, that was good. That was it.” And they try to go, “Wait, wait, no, no, no, I made a mistake!” But that was the real beauty of it, that discovery moment.
Got a good example of that process from Mission of Mercy?
Well, I’m an egomaniac [chuckles], so I play most of the guitar solos. But there’s a song called “Vicious Hangover” which is just a party song; it reminds me of Dick Holler and the Holidays’ “Double Shot (Of My Baby’s Love),” just a gang of fraternity drunk guys having a good time. It’s very simple; it was written 10 minutes before the band arrived at the session.
I handed my Fender Broadcaster to Chris and said, “Here, play this on this song, and when it gets to the solo just do something,” and what you hear is the first take. He was just inspired by the guitar, and he plays an amazing couple of solos in the song.
A couple of the songs, like “Armageddon” and “Wrecking Ball,” sound like somebody was listening to their Led Zeppelin albums during the process.
“Armageddon,” I remember, I did 20 years ago, and I was thinking of “Kashmir.” It’s got a Middle Eastern type of melody in it, which I’ve always been intrigued by, so I’m certainly channeling a bit of the trance vibe of “Kashmir,” sure. And “Wrecking Ball” is just a riff; all of my stuff, if you talk about my riffs, they all kind of have a bit of a Jimmy Page thing in them, or Keith Richards. I can’t help it.
“Armageddon,” and also “No Regrets,” are fairly topical — maybe political, even. Are you comfortable in that arena?
I want to entertain and take your mind off that, hopefully, but it’s hard not to be affected these days by the world we’re living in and everything everybody is feeling right now.”
— Mike Campbell
Well, writers are affected by their environment, so that’s bound to happen. So you put it into your song the best you can, but I do make a conscious effort not to take sides or name names or any specific political points of view. I don’t think that’s my place. I’m not qualified to preach politics; some artists follow that path, and I respect them for that.
Me, I want to entertain and take your mind off that, hopefully, but it’s hard not to be affected these days by the world we’re living in and everything everybody is feeling right now with the confusion and disarray in our government and a stupid war that doesn’t seem to need to be there. Something like “Armageddon” is a perfect example of how things are going horribly wrong, but the sun won’t fade away and somehow we’ll get through this.
You wrote “I Remember” on piano, right?
Yeah. That was fun. It was done very quickly. I like writing on the piano; I’ve written some songs on the piano, like “Woman in Love,” “You Got Lucky,” even Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer.” Occasionally I’ll sit down at the piano; I don’t know much, but I know chords. So (“I Remember”) was just a little thing I was playing and I thought, “Well, what can I sing over this?” and a lyric came and I said, “That’s good — I’ll sing it again!” [laughs]
It’s an interesting song because it starts with the chorus and it goes through a little turnaround. There’s only one verse in the song, in the middle; the rest of it is just choruses repeating, but that just felt good to me.
Back to taking chances — “Bongo Mania”?
Yeah. [laughs] That was a lot of fun. I had this track that was just a burst of adrenaline, for fun — I can’t wait to hear Ferrone play it live. I was thinking in my mind, “Wow, this sounds just like a B-52’s song.” I’d never met them, but I’ve always liked them from their first album. There’s something really appealing about that band, the two girl singers and the guy who talks and the guitar player who was really clever. And really fun songs, party songs.
So I’ve always been a fan, and I think Kate probably comes up with a lot of the stuff, and if I had her on the song it would be amazing. It was a long shot, but I had the office call her and she called me back and we had a great conversation ... and she said, “Sure,” and she came up with a great part and made the song 10 times better.
You channel your inner beat poet into “Vagrant,” at the end of the album. That was certainly part of the Heartbreakers’ scheme over the years.
It was a joke. The night before, I was watching TV and bored and just making stuff up. The next day I came in and the band showed up and I said, “Let’s warm up. I’ve got this kind of tone poem; it doesn’t mean anything, but let’s warm up with the chords and I’ll talk over it just to get the sounds up and get everyone comfortable with the room.”
We did it one time and I just read the words off the sheets and had these kind of jazzy chords. We finished it and all had a laugh and I said, “Well, that’s enough of that, let’s get to work.” And then “Vagrant” just kept popping up as we were doing a sequence.
“Are we gonna do this? Nah, that’s a joke. Nobody’ll like it.”
Then it started to grow on me, and I started to think, like, Tom Waits or Frank Zappa might do something like this. It’s a valid approach. It’s got a sense of humor and it’s got a mood. So I thought, “Let’s just stick this at the end and see if people like it or not.”
Like I said before, it’s the fourth album. We have, like, a Brian Wilson tribute. We have a “Bongo Mania” song, and then we have a beat-poet monologue. And there’s plenty of rockers, plenty of guitar, plenty of the usual stuff you expect, but I wanted to push the boundaries a little bit and do some stuff that’s kind of whacky.
Any instruments or gear on Mission of Mercy that are different than before?
We pretty much stick to guitar, bass, drums, piano, occasional organ or keyboards. I’ve got a lot of guitars; occasionally I’d go down to the closet and say, “Here, play this one.” But mostly it was me on a Telecaster and Christopher on a Strat or a Les Paul through two little amps in the other room, and that was pretty much our basic tracking setup.
Then when the track was finished we might put piano on it, or put some guitar lines on it. But we didn’t use a plethora of guitars. It was mostly just the ones that were on hand in the room.
You’ve got a particularly interesting show coming up September 12, with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. What’s that going to be like?
I’m terrified, [laughs] but excited. I always had this idea in the back of my head — in my 20s, 30s, 40s — that someday when I get old and the Heartbreakers retire, maybe I’ll get a bus and get the dogs and get some charts and go around to the colleges and perform some of the catalog with an orchestra, ’cause I love orchestral music and listen to Beethoven and Mozart and Bach a lot.
I got to the point where I looked up and realized, well, the Heartbreakers aren’t here and I am old now. So it’s time. The day has come, and I’m just gonna go for it. We’ve got some charts that are really good. I’ll probably play some guitar throughout the show. I’m gonna do a dry run and work out the kinks with a college orchestra here in L.A. and then go to Atlanta and throw it out there and see what happens.
If it goes really well and I enjoy it, we’ll book some more, but I want to ease into it and see if I can actually do it or not.
This fall marks the 50th anniversary of the first Heartbreakers album. Is that weighing at all on you as you think about set lists and other things you want to do this year?
Well, a little bit. I mean, I’ve got a Dirty Knobs tour. I always do three or four Heartbreakers songs in the encore, usually, just ’cause I love the songs and I can do them the right way and people enjoy hearing them. So I’ll continue to do that. I love my legacy, but I don’t want to live in it.
The last thing out of the vault was July 16, 1978 — Paradise Theater, Boston, MA. Any plans for the next reissues or box sets or anything coming up?
The way that works is the Petty estate controls the catalog, and we’ve got this great engineer, Ryan Ulyate. So they come up with a reissue they want to do, Ryan mixes it, and then he sends it to me to sign off on it — but I have yet to question any of the mixes. They always sound pretty good, so I usually just go, “Yeah, that’s fine.” That’s as involved as I ever get. I’m busy with my own band, y’know?
