Mike Campbell Brings The Dirty Knobs to Farm Aid, Four Decades After Backing Dylan at the Festival’s Debut: ‘It Was Quite a Moment’
Categoria: Musica
With his own band now, the guitarist offers "a great two-hour release from the wicked world."
Por Billboard | 25/09/2026
When Mike Campbell brings his band The Dirty Knobs to the stage at Farm Aid in Virginia Beach, Va. on Saturday (9/26), he’ll be coming full circle. In 1985, at the first Farm Aid in Champaign, Ill., Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers, with Campbell on guitar, played at the debut of Willie Nelson’s festival to support family farmers — as the backing band for Bob Dylan. “It was quite a moment,” Campbell recalled to Billboard , specifically referring to Dylan’s performance of “Maggie’s Farm,” during which — as the guitarist later wrote in his memoir — he heard “someone take a solo, a grinding, dirty, acoustic blues lead that sounded like Link Wrap playing Doc Watson.” Campbell looked over at Dylan, then Petty — ”it sure wasn’t me playing it” — then realized that Nelson had stepped out “digging into Trigger, his battered nylon-string acoustic.” The Heartbreakers’ high-profile gig behind Dylan at that first Farm Aid has been credited to the business relationship between the band’s manager, Tony Dimitriades and Elliot Roberts at Lookout Management, who represented Dylan. In Heartbreaker: A Memoir, Campbell’s compelling biography published in 2025, and in conversation with Billboard , the guitarist remembers the roots of the collaboration differently: “[Dylan] called me up one day. We don’t ever talk on the phone, really. But back then, we were in touch a little bit. And he said he was putting a band together to go on tour. And he said, `I was thinking of using John Cougar’s band,’” referring to the stage name John Mellencamp used at that time. “And me being who I am, I said, `Don’t do that. Get the Heartbreakers! We know all your songs. I think we would be a better fit for you.’ And I guess he agreed with me.” What followed was a historic rock ’n’ roll partnership as the Heartbreakers and Dylan embarked on the True Confessions Tour, playing some 60 shows in Australian New Zealand, Japan and the United States — including two nights at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. and three nights at Madison Square Garden. On the eve of this year’s Farm Aid, however, Campbell is reveling in a more recent performance. The Dirty Knobs are touring behind their widely acclaimed fourth album Mission of Mercy and, says Campbell, the previous night’s show at The Cabot, in Beverly, Mass “was really stupendous.” Six years after the Dirty Knobs released the band’s debut album, Wreckless Abandon — and after four decades as Tom Petty’s sidemade in the Heartbreakers — Campbell is confident in his role as a rock’n’roll frontman. “I’ve got my feet under me,” says Campbell, “and my vocals have improved to where I don’t freak out every time I have to sing. I know my range and I know how to get the songs across and I’m really comfortable engaging with the audience now. I like talking to them and leading the band — and I feel like I was always meant to do that. “We have a lot of rapport with the audience. We crack jokes now and then. An