Heartbreaker cover art

Heartbreaker

A Memoir

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Heartbreaker

By: Mike Campbell
Narrated by: Mike Campbell
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About this listen

 THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

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 counsellor inspired him to enrol 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 twenty-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 gruelling 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 these pages 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 Michael Campbell Entertainment & Celebrities Music Memoir Guitar Heartfelt

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Critic reviews

[Campbell] shares warm praise for his bandmates, and offers fascinating insights into the alchemy of songwriting, encouraging longtime Petty fans to listen with fresh ears to decades-old material. The result is an exemplary music memoir
Part of the power of [this] book comes in offering a rare glimpse into the delicate dynamics that underpin any great band supporting a superstar
This deeply moving memoir is an exhaustive look at the musician's life in rock 'n' roll . . . [Campbell's] eye for detail and unsparing introspection makes for lovely, wise lyrical prose
An exceptionally well-written and highly readable book . . . one of the best music autobiographies I have ever read - and I've read dozens - if not the best of the lot
Heartbreaker immediately becomes an indispensable history of Campbell's band. More important, it is a stirring and tender portrait of a life realised through rock 'n' roll
[Campbell's] likeable memoir resembles his guitar-playing, full of character but not self-aggrandising, with neat riffs
All stars
Most relevant
As a long term fan of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers I knew I was going to enjoy this, but Mike has really delivered here. An absolute masterclass in the genre. Gripped from start to finish.

#1 favourite audiobook I’ve listened to

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Brilliant autobiography
A must for anyone with even an ounce of interest in Mike and his partnership with the late great Tom Petty
Thank you Mike

The truth and authenticity of Mike Campbell

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A beautifully told story that filled in so many gaps, as well as providing a lot of surprises. Lots of lovely vignettes about all sorts of people, famous and less-known, and an overall arc that provides many happy and funny moments along with the inevitable sad ones. Mike's narration is a pleasure, too. My favourite listen in some time.

Humble, touching, compelling

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Really enjoyable audiobook. Great stories. If you’re a fan there’s so much insight it’s amazing. If you don’t know the story it’s a really great listen.

Amazing

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It took a while to get into as the narration was quite stilted but I decided to pretend I was listening to a mate at the pub and it worked perfectly. Few things missed here and there and no mention of Neil Finn which was odd. Many many times I was shouting at him to stand up for himself - Petty struck me as a hypocrite and a petulant child who needed that band (particularly Mike and Tench) and believed the fawning press. I think he knew it deep down. However, humble to the end I love Mike and his account of Petty's passing was very moving.

Warmth

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