<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When we left Part I, Mike Campbell was living his rock \u2018n\u2019 roll dream playing in the band Mudcrutch.\u00a0 Mike\u2019s first band in Gainesville (Dead or Alive) had broken up when their lead singer \/ bass player quit and sailed to Hawaii to be a surfer dude.\u00a0 Mudcrutch had come to the farmhouse to audition Mike\u2019s drummer friend Randal Marsh but after Marsh suggested they let Campbell jam <\/span>Johnny B. Goode<\/span><\/i> with them, it became a two-for deal. After they were both asked to join Tom Petty\u2019s band, Mudcrutch\u2019s reputation grew steadily as they played six week blocks at Dub\u2019s Steer House.\u00a0 When Mike dropped out of school to join the band, he lost his draft deferment (which Tom had told him not to worry about because \u2018we will take care of that\u2019).\u00a0 At the end of Part I, Campbell\u2019s future in the band became extremely murky when his draft notice arrived at the band\u2019s farmhouse residence \/ band house.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Mike\u2019s sudden bout of anxiety about being drafted coupled with lack of sleep, poor diet, and amphetamines dropped his slender 160 pound frame to a skeletal 125.\u00a0 By the time he got to the final interview session at the induction center, the doctor focused on his decreased hearing (\u201cDo you play music loud?\u201d) and his drug use, particularly his consumption of marijuana and LSD.\u00a0 Campbell had been a frequent user of both but had long since gotten away from LSD after having a frighteningly bad trip.\u00a0 He was sent home after they classified him 1-Y:\u00a0 <\/span>Registrant qualified for military service only in time of war or national emergency <\/span><\/i>– in other words, he was considered a \u2018bottom of the barrel\u2019 candidate.\u00a0 In retrospect, he was fortunate that he didn\u2019t do permanent damage to his own health trying to escape being drafted.\u00a0 He was glad to be sent home, but Mike never could shake the feelings of sadness he had for those who never came back from the war or came back but were never the same.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0An aborted trip to Birmingham (they were fired after three weeks) and almost losing Mike to the draft shifted the band\u2019s focus.\u00a0 The gigs at Dub\u2019s continued and when Dub wasn\u2019t paying attention, they began slipping in a few of Tom\u2019s originals.\u00a0 Campbell began writing more himself but always turned the tapes over to Petty to see if he could find lyrics to go along with the music.\u00a0 They branched out by expanding more of the songs with jams a la The Allman Brothers.\u00a0 When they played anywhere but Dub\u2019s, they could concentrate on their original songs.\u00a0 Mudcrutch\u00a0 decided to organize their own small festival at the farm.\u00a0 It was advertised as <\/span>Mudcrutch Farm – Turn left about 1 block past Dubs.\u00a0 Everyone invited.\u00a0 Come enjoy yourself.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 The first one attracted at least 600 kids and the local police.\u00a0 The officers came to check it out but it was over by then so they didn\u2019t shut it down.\u00a0 The second Mudcrutch Farm party was bigger than the first but it had a more significant impact:\u00a0 they were evicted.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0After their living arrangements at the farm were disrupted, they drifted apart a bit as each found new living quarters.\u00a0 In 1972, they finally found another place where they could all live and rehearse again.\u00a0 Tom Leadon\u2019s brother Bernie kept them abreast of what was happening out in Los Angeles.\u00a0 Bernie had left the Burrito Brothers and hooked up with a guitar player from Detroit, a drummer from Texas, and a Nebraska farm boy on bass.\u00a0 First, they played together backing Linda Ronstadt and now were going out on their own as the Eagles.\u00a0 The Mudcrutch boys were still playing all over Florida by this point and had some wild encounters with fans, bar owners, and bikers.\u00a0 One of the strangest was with Petty\u2019s father Earl.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Earl and some female companions showed up unannounced at the band\u2019s house and he was well into his cups.\u00a0 Earl was slurring his words and as he greeted the other guys in the band, he asked Mike to play <\/span>Wildwood Flower.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 Tom was mortified and paralyzed;\u00a0 he stared at the floor as his father danced drunkenly around the room.\u00a0 Petty finally told his dad that the band needed to get back to practicing and maybe it was time for him to go.\u00a0 Earl stepped toward his son, grinned, and told him, \u201cDon\u2019t you do me like that, boy.\u00a0 Don\u2019t do me like that, son.\u201d\u00a0 They left but Tom\u2019s embarrassment hung in the air for many days.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A friend of Randall\u2019s had a pepper farm on the outskirts of town.\u00a0 After he harvested a bumper crop, he offered to fund a Mudcrutch single.\u00a0 Using vans provided by a couple of fans, they hauled their gear down to Criteria Studios in Miami.\u00a0 Recording the resulting disk (<\/span>Up In Mississippi <\/span><\/i>backed with <\/span>Cause Is Understood<\/span><\/i> both written by Tom) was an interesting experience for the band but, as Mike put it, \u201cHaving a single with our name on it wasn\u2019t the handful of magic beans we thought it would be.\u00a0 We sold some on consignment at head shops and record stores around town.\u00a0 We dropped a copy off at the local station, but they wouldn\u2019t play it.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0After a four hour drive to a gig in Macon, Georgia, they dropped off a copy of their single at Capricorn Records, the Allman Brothers\u2019 label.\u00a0 \u201cThey said we sounded too English,\u201d Campbell recalled in his book <\/span>Heartbreaker – A Memoir <\/span><\/i>(Mike Campbell with Ari Surdoval, Grand Central Publishing, 2025).\u00a0 Still, the band was thrilled when they finally heard themselves on the radio.\u00a0 Mike said, \u201cEverything was amazing, but it still felt like nothing much had changed.\u00a0 Until it did.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The change Mike referred to started slowly and rolled over the band.\u00a0 Mudcrutch was getting louder and jamming more.\u00a0 Tom Leadon wasn\u2019t a fan of their new direction or the drudgery of the long nights at Dubs.\u00a0 His brother\u2019s success out west was tugging him toward making a move to L.A..\u00a0 The last straw happened one night when Dub himself came on stage to announce the club was closing for renovations.\u00a0 The way he said it rubbed Leadon the wrong way:\u00a0 \u201cWe will be back open soon and better than ever.\u00a0 Hotter girls.\u00a0 A longer bar.\u00a0 A nicer stage.\u00a0 More bands. [Dub looked back at Mudcrutch and continued] <\/span>Better <\/span><\/i>bands.\u00a0 <\/span>Real<\/span><\/i> bands.\u201d\u00a0 Leadon was livid.\u00a0 Randall and Petty tried to talk him down, \u201cWho cares what Dub says?\u201d but as the band returned to the stage after their break, Leadon wasn\u2019t with them.\u00a0 He had gone down to Dub\u2019s office to confront him.\u00a0 Mike figures Dub liked Tom so he didn\u2019t have his bouncers break his fingers.\u00a0 Dub did like Tom, but he still fired the band on the spot.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the aftermath, Petty was livid.\u00a0 \u201cI told him to drop it, didn\u2019t I?\u201d TP told the band.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s it.\u00a0 He\u2019s gotta go.\u00a0 That\u2019s it.\u201d\u00a0 When he dispatched their roadies \/ fans to collect the P.A. from Leadon\u2019s house, he told Mike to go with them:\u00a0 \u201cTell Leadon he\u2019s out of the band.\u201d\u00a0 Leadon was apologetic and told Mike he had tried to call Petty but he wouldn\u2019t answer.\u00a0 Leadon said, \u201cMaybe I should quit for you guys.\u00a0 I am sure I could go over and apologize to Dub.\u00a0 I mean, we only had two more nights there.\u201d\u00a0 When Mike told him he was supposed to tell Tom he was out of the band, Leadon acknowledged, \u201cIt was a very poor decision on my part.\u201d\u00a0 Devastated to have lost his band and friends, Leadon waited three months for the Eagles to return from a European tour before he left for L.A.\u00a0 He showed his character by offering to take tapes of Petty\u2019s songs to show around when he got there.\u00a0 Bernie introduced his brother to Don Felder (also from Gainsville) and Tom gigged around with some local cover bands.\u00a0 Bernie even took him to meet the singer the Eagles had backed before they went on their own.\u00a0 Tom soon found himself in Linda Ronstadt\u2019s touring band.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In the fall of 1973, Tom Leadon drove down from a Ronstadt show in Atlanta to visit.\u00a0 He told the guys in Mudcrutch about the burgeoning scene in L.A. and encouraged them to make the move.\u00a0 They were playing the same old dive bar set and were amazed when Leadon told them about the venues they had played and some of the acts they had opened for.\u00a0 \u201cHe was so humble about it,\u201d Campbell recalled, \u201cHe told us not to be discouraged.\u00a0 He told us to come out to L.A.\u201d \u00a0 He then left to open for the Eagles, Beach Boys, Humble Pie, and the Electric Light Orchestra while Mudcrutch, \u201cstumbled along from gig to gig, wondering what to do next.\u201d\u00a0 Petty thought about all the Gainesville musicians who were \u2018out there\u2019 in L.A. and he got a little panicky – they might end up stuck in the rut they were in.\u00a0 What they needed to do was to make the move – now – but first they needed a demo record to shop around.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Back in the \u2018good old days\u2019 at Dubs, a young keyboard player named Benmont Tench sat in with them.\u00a0 Eventually, Tom P convinced him (and his parents) that he should drop out of Tulane University and join the band.\u00a0 Their roadie\u2019s friend had a mobile recording set up in a van which they parked outside Benmont\u2019s home.\u00a0 There they recorded eight tracks while his folks were on vacation.\u00a0 They mailed copies to every record label they could find ads for and only one didn\u2019t reject it outright – Playboy Records.\u00a0 The Playboy rep actually listened to it and told them what they were doing wrong, wished them luck, but he still rejected it.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Tom decided he, Danny (the new guitar player who owned a van), and roadie Keith would drive out to L.A. to shop for a label in person.\u00a0 Before they left, Petty showed Campbell a chorus he was fooling around with.\u00a0 The song hadn\u2019t actually been written, but over the progression of G to F to C to D, he sang \u2018<\/span>Don\u2019t do me like that.\u00a0 Don\u2019t do me like that\u2019.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>Mike asked what it was but Tom waved it away saying, \u201cThat\u2019s my dad\u2019s line.\u00a0 That\u2019s what he always says to me.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A few days after their arrival out west, Tom called Mike and said, \u201cStart packin\u2019.\u00a0 We got three record deals to choose from.\u201d\u00a0 Campbell was skeptical but Petty insisted they had offers from Capitol, MGM, and London Records.\u00a0 Mike was right to think it was too good to be true.\u00a0 The advanced party were crashing at Bernie Leadon\u2019s cabin with Tom Leadon and their grand plan was to visit the offices of record companies.\u00a0 Petty had found a list with addresses and phone numbers discarded on the floor of a telephone booth.\u00a0 \u201cThat,\u201d Mike remembered, \u201cwas the full extent of the plan.\u201d\u00a0 When Tom came back to Florida, he told the band London Record\u2019s advice:\u00a0 \u201cRecord a demo of Top 40 songs and play bowling alleys to develop the band and they would re-evaluate.\u201d\u00a0 They gave it a brief try (the recording part) and then gave up.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Another decision was made:\u00a0 They would all go to L.A. and sign the London Records deal just to get a foot in the door.\u00a0 Before they left, Tom went to Benmont\u2019s parents (his father was a Judge) to convince them their son\u2019s future was in music.\u00a0 Benmont had not actually told his folks he had already dropped out of college.\u00a0 They listened to what Tom had to say.\u00a0 To his surprise, they gave their blessings for Benmont to chase fame with Mudcrutch and even gave them the family station wagon for the second trip out west.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Just before they left, Denny Cordell called from Tulsa, Oklahoma.\u00a0 Cordell was a famed producer of hit pop records.\u00a0 He and the keyboard player of the famous Wrecking Crew, Leon Russell, had joined forces and founded Shelter Records.\u00a0 He said he wanted to record Mudcrutch.\u00a0 Cordell told them they could be the American Rolling Stones.\u00a0 Tom had not mentioned dropping their demo off in Tulsa on the way to L.A. the first time.\u00a0 Cordell did listen to it but the call was probably from their head of A&R, Simon Miller Mundy.\u00a0 Mike points out that Petty was always pretty good at telling stories as he thought they should play out, but maybe it was Cordell who had called.\u00a0 They were already running late so two more days to swing by Tulsa and meet Cordell seemed a prudent course of action.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Cordell\u2019s credentials are too long to present here.\u00a0 Suffice to say his royalties from producing <\/span>A Whiter Shade of Pale<\/span><\/i> for Procol Harum and Joe Cocker\u2019s <\/span>With A Little Help From My Friends<\/span><\/i> were used to start Shelter Records.\u00a0 Mudcrutch had a great discussion with Denny and when he asked how they were fixed for cash (they had driven into Tulsa on fumes), he handed them three grand to get them to L.A.\u00a0 Randall thought they should have listened to London Records\u2019 pitch first, but in the end, they signed on with Shelter\u2019s L.A. office for ten thousand dollars.\u00a0 The band hung around Tinsel Town long enough to know it wasn\u2019t going to work.\u00a0 They opened a couple of shows at the Whisky A Go Go for Dick Dale, but they were not playing much.\u00a0 Their recording efforts sounded flat and Cordell told Tom he needed to show up with more than one song in his pocket, \u201cWrite – all the time – write a LOT!\u201d he told him.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They were shuffled back and forth to \u2018recording bootcamp\u2019 in Tulsa a couple of times but the band started to get discouraged.\u00a0 Denny got Tom voice lessons and seemed to recognize what Campbell was bringing to the partnership, songwise.\u00a0 Leon took a special interest in Tom, tutoring him, introducing him to the likes of George Harrison, and sending a white limo around to pick him up.\u00a0 They managed to record a single called <\/span>Depot Street<\/span><\/i> and it flopped.\u00a0 The only truly good thing Mike got out of the end of 1974 was a serendipitous meeting with his future soul mate and wife, Marcie.\u00a0 They met at a party he almost didn\u2019t go to and they have been together ever since.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As 1974 drew to a close, Denny had given up on Mudcrutch.\u00a0 Shelter had invested a lot of time and money in the band but had nothing to show for it.\u00a0 Tossing in the label\u2019s own financial troubles and the tension that was building in the band and their future became clear.\u00a0 The label wanted to sign Tom Petty and ditch the rest of them by the roadside.\u00a0 It was not an amicable break up by any means.\u00a0 Mike was married and continued to write and consider his options.\u00a0 Randall and Benmont scraped by playing in cover bands.\u00a0 Randall eventually landed in a power trio called Code Blue who were courted by Clive Davis himself.\u00a0 Marsh decided to move on from the music business after he was beaten within an inch of his life at a party he attended.\u00a0 He survived and moved to Ojai to live a different life.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Tom Petty began to find that making music with session players and not his Gainesville posse wasn\u2019t all it was cracked up to be.\u00a0 Mike was asked to add guitar to some recordings Benmont was working on that included another Florida ex-pat named Stan Lynch on drums.\u00a0 They invited Petty to come by one of the sessions and their lives were forever changed.\u00a0 Petty heard what they were doing and literally poached Benmont\u2019s new band.\u00a0 There are three or four other story lines that this new situation created, but those are stories for another day.\u00a0 Suffice to say, from the ashes of Mudcrutch came a musical phoenix that would come to be known as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The one part of Mike Campbell\u2019s story that I didn\u2019t really understand was his deference to Tom Petty in just about all things.\u00a0 Petty was the star of the show and a creative genius in the songwriting area, but many of the songs Tom penned lyrics to were created by Mike Campbell.<\/span><\/p>\n When Mike himself had the same kinds of thoughts about how Petty treated him, he explained why he stayed in his own lane:\u00a0 \u201cTom and I were like brothers.\u00a0 Even when we disagreed, I decided that the best way to deal with things was to be grateful.\u00a0 I am forever grateful for the life my association with Tom has given me.\u201d\u00a0 Petty was a little less kind in his assessment of Mike\u2019s efforts to write his own material.\u00a0 Tom adjusted his thinking somewhat when a tune Mike had offered him (and he turned down) turned out to be a big hit for Don Henley.\u00a0 It was called <\/span>The Boys of Summer.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0With Petty\u2019s passing in 2017, Campbell was adrift for a while until he got a call from drummer Mick Fleetwood.\u00a0 He asked Mike to tour with Fleetwood Mac in place of Lindsay Buckingham who had either quit or was fired from their band (choose which version you like).\u00a0 The tour and encouragement from Stevie Nicks to step up and sing gave Campbell new purpose.\u00a0 He has dusted off his side project (The Dirty Knobs) who have just released a second album and are touring.\u00a0 Yes, the venues are smaller than the arenas TP and the Heartbreakers filled back in the day, but Mike Campbell is still grateful to be doing exactly what he has done since he arrived in Gainesville – creating music.<\/span><\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 TP was less than encouraging about Mike Campbell’s efforts to write his own songs – until he turned this one down and Don Henley turned it into a world-wide hit.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When we left Part I, Mike Campbell was living his rock \u2018n\u2019 roll dream playing in the band Mudcrutch.\u00a0 Mike\u2019s first band in Gainesville (Dead or Alive) had broken up when their lead singer \/ bass player quit and sailed to Hawaii to be a surfer dude.\u00a0 Mudcrutch had come to the farmhouse to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-from-the-vaults","category-new-music","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3620"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3620\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3623,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3620\/revisions\/3623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}