Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs

While 2020’s Wreckless Abandon is their first official release and occasion to tour, The Dirty Knobs first came together 15 years ago after Mike Campbell met guitarist Jason Sinay at a session and liked the way their guitars sounded together. After adding the rhythm section of bassist Lance Morrison and drummer Matt Laug, The Dirty Knobs became an outlet for Campbell to work on some of the other songs he was writing between Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers records and touring. They got together when schedules permitted, playing music without an agenda, expectations or deadlines, without worrying about outcome or hits, pushing boundaries of taste, imagination and genres and playing out here and there, almost incognito, in little clubs in Southern California. Finally, it became clear they should take what they did to the next level. Campbell’s long-time compatriot, friend and bandmate, Tom Petty, had passed away, and after the numbing grief abated some, the guitarist knew the only way to heal some of the pain was to throw himself wholeheartedly back into his music. They recorded the album at Campbell’s home studio in just three weeks’ time, before the guitarist went out on the road in 2018 as a member of Fleetwood Mac. The Knobs tapped legendary producer George Drakoulias, who had also produced Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers’ 2002 LP The Last DJ, to co-produce.