Mike Campbell: New Tom Petty Album Is Coming Soon

Follow up to 2010's Mojo is well on the way   04-Jun-13

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell says that the new album could be on the way soon. Campbell and Petty are one of the greatest and most prolific singer/guitarist combinations in rock and roll history, and their new album could be on the way next spring.

Mike Campbell, in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, said that the band are currently writing the album during their US Tour, but currently need to write more material.

Campbell said:

"We are working on it. We need to write some more songs. It's similar to the Mojo album, playing live and blues-based songs. There's great songwriting and great lyrics. He really surprised me this time with some of the stuff he came up with. We hope to have it out next spring."

But the highlight of the interview was on the subject of a problematic rendition of 'Carol' by Chuck Berry at a recent gig. Here's a great anecdote:

"I'm going to get technical here, but the song is in the key of G. Tom always starts it out with his signature riff and then the band falls in. For some reason, a roadie handed him a guitar that was tuned up for a different song. So he started in what he thought was G and the band came in on G, but his guitar was in A flat. We panicked and just looked at each other. We said, "OK, it's in A flat," and the band shifted into that.

"But Tom was kind of left holding the wrong guitar, so he went back and changed it back, but he realized "Oh shit, the band is in A flat now." He looked at me and said, "You gotta play the riff, man. I don't know where I'm at."

"I love that you brought that up, because our band thrives on spontaneity. We were able to pull it together, and we played it in A flat. It was fun. It was beautiful. I saw that the band was able to pull a train wreck into something good. On this whole tour, that will probably be the moment you remember as something special."

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