Mike Campbell Announces The Dirty Knobs’ Debut Album And Tour Dates

Mike Campbell, the lead guitarist for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, will release his first solo album with his band the Dirty Knobs on March 20th, titled, Wreckless Abandon. Rolling Stone reported Campbell, who currently performs with Fleetwood Mac, posted the band's first video for the album's title track.

Campbell and the Knobs kick off their 20-date club tour on March 10th at Minneapolis' Fine Line Music Hall and wind things down on April 28th at Tampa's The Orpheum.

Mike Campbell, who was Tom Petty's primary musical collaborator starting in 1971, formed the Dirty Knobs 15 years ago, said in a statement, “Over the years, the Knobs became an outlet for me to play some of the other songs I was writing and to keep the creative juices flowing in between working on albums and tours with Tom & The Heartbreakers. . . Losing Tom was earth-shattering for me. It was a total shock. It had felt like we would be playing together forever.”

Regarding hitting the road on his own, Campbell added: “For a while it was hard to imagine playing in my own band again, let alone one where I’m the frontman. Tom was always my beacon. But everything I’ve been doing since Tom passed, including this album with the Dirty Knobs, is in the spirit of honoring what we did together.”

During Dave Grohl's 2013 documentary Sound City, Mike Campbell recalled his earliest musical influence: “My first musical memory; my day would play Johnny Cash and Elvis (Presley) records. He would come home from the Air Force every day, take off his uniform, lay on the couch, and put on a Johnny Cash record. I just loved it, y'know? And I once asked him, 'Why do you like Johnny Cash so much?' And he said, 'Because he sings the truth.' And Elvis, too, y'know, (guitarist) Scotty Moore and those guys. Those were the records that, he just wore 'em out.”

JUST ANNOUNCED: Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs tour dates (subject to change):

March 10 – Minneapolis, MN- Fine Line Music Hall
March 11 – Chicago, IL – Park West
March 13 – Indianapolis, IN- The Hi Fi
March 15 – Nashville, TN – Brooklyn Bowl
March 17 – Alexandria, VA – Birchmere
March 18 – Philadelphia, PA – World Café Live
March 20 – Ridgefield CT – Ridgefield Playhouse
March 21 – Derry, NH – Tupelo Music Hall
March 23 – Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall
March 26 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Bowl
April 7 – San Francisco, CA – The Independent
April 10 – Los Angeles, CA – The Troubadour
April 14 – Boulder, CO – Fox Theatre
April 15 – Denver, CO – Bluebird Theatre
April 17 – Dallas, TX – Blue Light
April 18 – Austin, TX – Antone’s
April 21 – Houston, TX – Warehouse Live
April 24 – New Orleans, LA – One Eyed Jacks
April 26 – Gainesville, FL- High Dive
April 28 – Tampa, FL – The Orpheum