Heartbreaker

A Memoir

De: Mike Campbell, Ari Surdoval - contributor

Narrado por: Mike Campbell

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

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.

Awesomeness

This is an amazing autobiography. I knew many of the stories, but not from this point of view.

Mike, I'm so glad you wrote this. Thank you for all your music. Its made a huge difference in my life.

Best book on the Heartbreakers

I felt like this was a little more true and insightful than the authorized Tom Petty biography. Well told, but not the most interesting reader. Great guitar player, though!

Thank you so much, Mike

Absolutely Incredible! I will remember Mike’s words, thoughts and stories always. A true, timeless classic.

Fascinating, honest, recollections and reflections told with humor

Loved the book! Mike Campbell tells the Heartbreakers story with honest, reflections, humor and love. A great read.

Thanks, Mike!

I’m a Petty and the Heartbreakers fan. Unfortunately I never got to see him live, but Mike Campbell has been the closest musician to seeing them live. I truly enjoyed hearing about how the group started, stories and how the band grew to such great success.

Heart warming and honest.

Honest and heartwarming account from one of the best guitar players who’ve ever rocked a stage.

What a ride!

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

Mike is the real deal.

Mike is a really genuine guy. This is a story that needed to be told from this humble guy’s perspective. It’s full of behind the scenes stories that don’t get told—even TP couldn’t have told them. Thanks Mike for sharing it.

Great story

This might be the best book on a rock and roll band I’ve heard. Sure I’m a little bias it was the first rock band I loved.