Heartbreaker Audiobook By Mike Campbell, Ari Surdoval - contributor cover art

Heartbreaker

A Memoir

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Heartbreaker

By: Mike Campbell, Ari Surdoval - contributor
Narrated by: Mike Campbell
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A fast-paced, tender-hearted rock ’n’ roll memoir for the ages, Mike Campbell’s Heartbreaker is part rags-to-riches story and part raucous, seat-of-the-pants adventure, recounting Campbell’s life and times as lead guitarist of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

Mike Campbell was the lead guitarist for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers from the band’s inception in 1976 to Petty’s tragic death in 2017. His iconic, melodic playing helped form the foundation of the band’s sound, as heard on definitive classics like “American Girl,” “Breakdown,” “Don’t Come Around Here No More,” “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” “Learning to Fly” and “Into the Great Wide Open.”

Together, Petty and Campbell wrote countless songs, including some of the band’s biggest hits: “Refugee,” “Here Comes My Girl,” “You Got Lucky” and “Runnin’ Down a Dream” among them.

From their early days in Florida to their dizzying rise to superstardom to Petty’s acclaimed, platinum-selling solo albums Full Moon Fever and Wildflowers, Petty never made a record without him. Their work together is timeless, as are the career-defining hits Campbell co-wrote with Don Henley (“The Boys of Summer”) and with Petty for Stevie Nicks (“Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around”).

But few know of the less-than-glamorous background from which Campbell emerged—a hardscrabble childhood on the north side of Jacksonville, often just days ahead of homelessness, raised by a single mother struggling on minimum wage. After months of saving, his mother bought him a $15 pawnshop acoustic guitar for his sixteenth birthday. With a chord book and a transistor radio, Campbell painstakingly taught himself to play.

When a chance encounter with a guidance counselor inspired him to enroll in the University of Florida, Campbell—broke, with nowhere else to go and the Vietnam draft looming—moved into a rundown farmhouse in Gainesville, where he met a 20-year-old Tom Petty. They were soon inseparable. Together they chased their shared dream all the way to Los Angeles, where Campbell would meet his destiny, and the love of his life, Marcie.

It was an at-times grueling dream come true that took Campbell from the very bottom to the absolute top, where Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers would remain for decades, creating an astonishing body of work.

Brilliant, soft-spoken and intensely private, Campbell opens up within this book for the first time, revealing himself to be an astute observer of triumphs, tragedies and absurdities alike, with a songwriter’s eye for the telling detail and a voice as direct and unpretentious as his music.

An instant classic, Heartbreaker is Mike Campbell’s heartfelt portrait of one throwaway kid’s lifesaving love of music and the creative heights he achieved through luck, collaboration, humility and extraordinary talent.

©2025 Mike Campbell (P)2025 Hachette Books
Entertainment & Celebrities Music Memoir Heartfelt Guitar
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Heartfelt Storytelling • Authentic Personal Journey • Authentic Narration • Detailed Musical History • Honest Reflections
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I don't know if I even consider myself a huge fan, although I know a good deal of their catalog, but especially as a musician, this was a fascinating listen. highly highly recommend if you're a musician yourself or have been, but if you're just curious about the band definitely give it a whirl.

fantastic

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Humble, honest and genuine. An exhaustive history of the Heartbreaker’s incredible journey from a bar band in Gainesville to the highest rung on the rock and roll ladder.

Amazing

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Mike Campbell deserves SO MUCH CREDIT FOR TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS he’s the heart and soul of that band what a true musical GENUIS

HONESTY

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Mike Campbell lived all of our dreams. His memoir should be required reading for all bands no matter where they are in their career

Authenticity of the story

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Great American dream story. You couldn’t write a better rags to riches story. Mike is the rare humble rock star.


Unreal story!!

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Mike is not the greatest narrator, but it's all from the heart (of a heartbreaker). There are details here about financial distress, drug use, and the whole idea of fairness. For example, Tom eventually informs the band fairly early-on that he will be getting 50% of all the money. The four Heartbreakers will split the rest. I don't think that applied to song-writing royalties, but instead performance fees. Much of the band was irate. Mike was too, but not for long. Mike Campbell was/is a great guitar player, but there are a lot of those. We hear Mike reason himself toward gratitude that he had found a songwriter and band leader like Tom Petty. Mike knows that no one would have heard of him but for Tom. There is virtually nothing about groupies, so that's kind of a telling omission (maybe). There are huge bits of luck in Mike's life, and Mike knows it. If a guidance counselor had not accidentally called him into her office, Mike would not be famous. You will know what I mean when you listen. It's a great listen with many details of a bygone era of "long-hairs" and "counter culture" and the rednecks who hated them.

Details From A Bygone Era

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Well, let me first say, I am a huge TP & the HBs fan. If you are not, this isn’t the memoir for you. But if you are, well, dig right in! The shortcomings of this book are two-fold, IMO. One, Mike is not a Pulitzer caliber writer…..but who cares? And two, he is not an Obama-esque orator who woos you with his words and cadence. So what? What Mike is here is honest, open and full of detail and color. He tells the story of his life as a founding member of the HBs with passion, intensity and fondness. His love of Tom is so evident, in every story, every anecdote, every exchange. This is a beautiful book that as a fan, I am so grateful MC wrote. Persevere through the first few chapters and Mike’s voice eventually takes you back stage, into the Clubhouse, and his home studio and shares with you all the choice times in between. Thank you Mike Campbell. Yes, we too miss Tom, but we still got you brother!

Mike is still the best lead guitar player on the planet……and….

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Love Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers and was so fortunate to see them at BottleRock in 2017. It was amazing to hear this story and I’m so happy Mike is still going strong. A true legend in his own right and hope everyone appreciates his genius after this. Do not miss the audio version. Very emotional read by Mike.

Amazing!

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This felt like being present on the scenes. it's very well told. I hear more now in each Petty song because Mike detailed their creation. I don't write many reviews but this is exceptional and well narrated.

Like Being There

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I loved the pace of Mike's narration. His honesty and heartfelt recollections made this one of the best autobiographies I've ever read.

Honesty

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