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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About this listen

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 Heartfelt Guitar

What listeners say about Heartbreaker

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The best!

I loved Mike’s kind honesty. A great story teller. I highly recommend to any Heartbreaker fan.

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Mike Campbell’s inspiring life story

I especially enjoy listening to rock biographies, but Mike’s story, told in his own words, is of a special, higher category.
After listening to Mike tell of his life journey, I revisited his work and have a greater appreciation for the music he has given us and the ways that God can touch our lives, if we make the correct choices, with those opportunities.
Thanks for sharing Mike!

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Wonderful!

Mike Campbell and his co-author Ari Surdoval have done such a good job telling his story. Mike and George Harrison are probably my favorite guitar players of all time so I can't imagine a reality where I wouldn't have enjoyed this book, but it honestly exceeded all of my hopes. Mr. Campbell is a generous and empathetic person. He uses a lot of these pages to describe the contributions that other people have made to his journey. And even though Tom Petty, who is a wonderful talent, seems to have been a harsh person to work with and for at times, Mike does an excellent job explaining his decision to stay and support, even when things got dark and/or hurtful. The music is so amazing and it speaks for itself, but Mike tells how it came together. He is revealing without being salacious and he is always, always, always empathetic. Man, I just loved this book. It's up there with Keith Richards Life in the top five music memoirs I have ever read, and I have read many, many, many. Also want to say what a good narrator Mike is. Just a very likable and relatable guy with other worldly gifts. Thank you for this amazing book, Mike Campbell. I just loved it.

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What a ride!

Wonderfully told story in his own words. Extremely informative and inspiring. So many superstars crossed paths with TP&THB’s.

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Excellent detailed journey of Mike

Mike does an excellent job detailing his origins, developing his skills and pathways in his career. Mike also adds texture and blends in the formation, phases of the Heartbreakers as well as his other band entities and ventures.

A must for any true Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers fans.

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Heartfelt & real

Great telling of their journey. Listened straight through. Very well written. I would recommend to all.

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Loved the stories

Great listen and lesson on the music business and life in a band. Campbell's footprint across the music scene was impressive.

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Stories right from mikes mouth

A touching tale of a great American life lived. Mike is so relatable and genuine. True fans of the heartbreakers will fine some great gems in the stories recounted. The ending we all know is coming is emotional, hopeful and navigated with skillful grace and heart.

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Mike Campbell gives us the secrets of staying in tune

Mike Campbell’s story swells with the gratitude that clearly sustained him through his amazing life. His love for others, and his mindful appreciation of life come through in the telling. Campbell’s voice, in its similarity to Petty’s, is the perfect vehicle for a book about a man who put so much of his heart into the Heartbreakers. When the book concludes, you remember the terminally silent youth that you met in the beginning, and you realize he has told you his whole story in his own, road-worn voice. You forget that you were listening to the story of a rock legend. You hear an aging representative of the American dream, who is his 70s and still marveling at how far he has come. You hear an incredulous old man who is full of gratitude. And you realize that his favorite part of his story is his wife. So yes, the story has it all. I laughed and I cried multiple times. That memoir is just like so many of Mike’s solos: thoughtful, well executed, and often passionately spare.

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Great to hear Mike’s story from his actual voice too.

Miles life account starts in his early childhood, move to Gainesville FL, start Mudcrutch, move to California, Tom’s star takes off, creation of Heartbreakers, late 70’s, struggles through success, solo works, 90’s resurrection, Tom’s death, and Mike’s current gig as leader of the Dirty Knobs. I enjoyed the stories!

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