OPEN MIKE

LONGTIME TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS “CO-CAPTAIN” MIKE CAMPBELL UNLEASHES WRECKLESS ABANDON, THE DEBUT ALBUM BY HIS VERY PATIENT SIDE PROJECT, THE DIRTY KNOBS

- RICHARD BIENSTOCK

SURE, WRECKLESS ABANDON IS THE DEBUT ALBUM FROM THE Dirty Knobs, but the band, headed by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Fleetwood Mac guitar great Mike Campbell, is hardly a new concern. Rather, they’ve existed for going on 15 years now; it just took a while for the four-piece — Campbell on guitar and vocals, Jason Sinay on guitar, Lance Morrison on bass and Matt Laug on drums — to find the time to cut a record.

Explains Campbell, “The Knobs started out as a project to do between Heartbreakers tours. I met the guys very organically, and I didn’t really intend to audition a band, per se. But I had some songs and we just hit it off. I thought the music was really good and deserved to be heard, but out of respect to Tom I never felt comfortable doing it while the Heartbreakers were active. I was loyal to my partner. But in the back of my mind I always thought, Someday, if the Heartbreakers wind down, I’ll focus on the Dirty Knobs.”

The Heartbreakers, of course, did wind down, and in the most unexpected and tragic of ways, when Petty passed away October 2, 2017, at age 66, after accidentally overdosing on the prescription drugs he was taking to treat a fractured hip, emphysema and knee problems, among other health issues. When Guitar World spoke to Campbell roughly a year later [for the January 2019 issue], the guitarist was still reeling from the loss of his longest and closest musical collaborator. But he also reported that he had reconvened with his friends in the Knobs and had begun laying down tracks for an album with producer George Drakoulias.