By Jason M. Rubin

The former Heartbreaker brings a deepening songbook, a crack band, and new material from Mission of Mercy to Beverly’s Cabot.

In 2000, when Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers were on break, lead guitarist Mike Campbell decided he still had work to do. He had a passel of songs he’d been working on and he needed to hear a band play them, “just to see how they sounded,” he told me. “We played well together so I decided we should play some dates.”

From those humble beginnings rose a side band that eventually turned into a headlining group of its own: Mike Campbell and the Dirty Knobs. They released a single in 2010, but they remained a troupe that performed when Petty didn’t. When the unthinkable happened – Petty passing away in 2017, just two weeks shy of his 67^th birthday – the door was fully and forever opened for the Dirty Knobs. Since 2020, the band has turned out an album every two years; the latest one, Mission of Mercy, came out last June. They play the Cabot in Beverly on September 24.

While the Knobs will likely never reach the acclaim and popularity of the Heartbreakers – few bands ever will – this is no plan B band. They cook and, when they’re firing on all cylinders, they take a back seat to no one. “Right away, as soon as we started playing shows, I could tell it was a valid band,” says Campbell. “Everything seemed to click together. It’s a real joy to play with them.”

For the current tour, Campbell has promised to heavily feature the new album on stage so let’s examine that release.

The opener, “No Regrets,” is the most Petty-sounding track on the album. Campbell’s voice lacks the personality of his former boss, but he sings well and the mix is particularly favorable for his vocals, as if it was important that listeners be able to make out what he’s saying. And indeed, he told me, “I like the words upfront. I hate when I can’t hear the words, when there’s too much music. I want to make them as clear as possible.”

I was shot down, though, when I asked if there was any chance he’d say who it was written about. With an opening verse like, “You loaded up your suitcase and your sleeping bag/Took down all the pictures and your faded flag/The thunderstorm was ragin’ and you were soakin’ wet/And you headed down the road with no regrets,” I assumed it was about someone he knew. Turns out it was nobody in particular, just a fictional character.

That’s followed by a couple of tasty rockers: “Let Me Back in My Dreams” (with the Boomer line, “Livin’ in a digital world and I’m an analog tape”) and “My Mama Told Me,” a tune that evokes Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried” but it is a whole lot rowdier.

“More Than Gold” is a country ballad duet with Morgane Stapleton (wife of Chris). The gorgeous and vaguely psychedelic “Mission of Mercy” is a tribute to Pet Sounds-era Brian Wilson that features a wonderful wah-wah guitar solo.

“I didn’t know Brian well,” he says. “I met him once or twice but he was one of the greats. His music was classical in a way. I dug up an old track from about 20 years ago and started playing around with the possibilities in my studio, trying out a Brian-type chord structure, just trying to emulate his sound. I’m really proud of this song.”

Mike Campbell and the Dirty Knobs. Photo: Sheva Kafai

“Bongo Mania” is a crazy tribute to a lady bongo player, featuring Kate Pierson from the B-52s. You can hear the fun they had in the studio.

“Armageddon” evokes Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” with a touch of doom metal as the singer describes terrible images of the final days, though the song ends on a hopeful note with the line, “But the sun won’t fade away.” According to Campbell, he felt the song needed a somewhat happy ending. “I had a deep, ominous groove and tuned the guitars way down, so it’s not a typical blues or pop scale. I like dark, but not to end dark. I like redemption.”

The album concludes with “Vagrant”, a jazzy spoken-word tune (think Ken Nordine on oxy) the lyrics of which suggest an assonant and alliterative stream of consciousness approach: “The vagrant rides the cable car down Divisadero Street/Spots a shooting star riding in the shotgun seat/Mission district junkies, college drop-out flunkies/Flea-bitten mangy-monkeys.”

Back to the concert. Now with four albums under their belt, I asked if it’s more challenging to put together set lists. “Yes, but it’s a good challenge,” Campbell says. “Obviously, I can’t do all the songs. We’re mostly focusing on the new album, but I always throw in three or four Heartbreakers songs. Fortunately, I have a great band who can do them justice.”

That band includes drummer Steve Ferrone (Average White Band, Eric Clapton) who put in significant time with the Heartbreakers in their latter years and is on the two most recent Dirty Knobs albums. “Steve’s a good friend and a solid drummer,” said Campbell. “He told me wanted his seat back. He’s a thread to my past and always gives 100 percent.” The rest of the band comprises Chris Holt on guitar, keyboards, and vocals, and Lance Morrison on bass.

Campbell, who released his autobiography last year, shared that the next Knobs album might well be a live album. That said, he’s also generating a ton of new material.

“I’m always writing,” he said. “I have plenty of songs for the next studio album. Tom was always great with lyrics so I would give him my songs to finish. Now I’m doing it on my own. This is my life’s work and I’ll do it as long as I can.”

Jason M. Rubin has been a professional writer for 40 years. He has written for The Arts Fuse since 2012. His books include SHORTS: A Sizable Collection of Short Fiction (2025); Villainy Ever After (2022), a collection of classic fairy tales told from the villains’ point of view; and Ancient Tales Newly Told (2019), a pairing of two historical romances, one set in 17th-century England and the other in Biblical Jerusalem and Sheba. Jason also teaches journaling workshops. He holds a BA in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Learn more here.