Mike Campbell

“Because we recorded in the studio, basically live, when we went to rehearse, we kind of already knew how to play the songs. But I also will take liberties with the Dirty Knobs. If I want a solo to go on longer or if I want to throw in a song thats not in the setlist, we can do it.”

“I think I've improved in the finesse and the tone and compositional skills. But I think I basically still kind of play the way I did back then, too. You sort of get to a point and that's how you play.”

“Its hard to explain if youve never done it, but youve got five guys in the studio, and youve got high expectations. Youve got a log of money involved, and your life and your dreams and all of your desires fall to making this song sound great for three minutes.”

“I tell people to listen really closely to the song when they're working out their guitar parts.”

“I have about 10 or 12 guitars, some of which are in non-standard tunings. Mostly I play a clone of my 59 Les Paul. Gibson made that for me when I first got mine, and I take that on the road. Its really great.”

“Ive always respected Lindsay Buckingham and I took it on as a challenge to do justice to the songs the best I could. Im not Lindsay and hes not me, but I learned the best I could to support the songs as they were on the record.”

“Those are the things that are in me, even going farther back, to Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley. I dont consciously pull from them, but they tend to come out in different ways in everything I do.”

“When I go see AC/DC, if they dont play 'Back in Black' Im gonna think, 'Well, that was good, but man, I just shelled out $400. I would have liked to have heard songs I like.'”

“Generally, I wouldnt spend a lot of time on a solo. Id try to catch something out of the air spontaneously.”

“Sometimes when you start writing a song, you dont know where theyre going to lead you. You just kind of follow the ideas that come in. Its all kind of stream of consciousness. Thats whats so fascinating about songwriting. Its kind of magical.”

“I like songs that can be dark or threatening or dangerous, but its a better song if you can keep that and somehow stick a little bit of that things are going to be okay at the end, were going to work through this, and theres a brighter light on the other side of the road.”

“Thats the great thing about the Dirty Knobs over the years. Wed play these relatively small places and we wouldnt have any hits. Wed try to win them over in the moment.”

“I have a band called the Dirty Knobs that Ive had for probably 15 years now, and Ive worked with them between Heartbreakers tours, mostly just playing clubs and little theaters around L.A.”

“I believe strongly that you just take whatever the gift has given you that day. You dont say, Oh, this is the wrong well, so Im not going to take it! You take what youre given, and hope its from a good place.”

“I think that the future of the world isn't something you can ignore.”

“If you're really careful to keep the monitors not too loud, if you're lucky, you get a little bit of nice bleed between the instruments. The guitars might spill a little bit into the drums, or the drums might spill a little bit onto the piano. Just a little bit of that makes a glue for the whole thing to sound more real.”

“My very first guitar was pretty much unplayable. I was 14 or something. My mom went to a pawn shop and got me a Harmony acoustic. I didn't know any better!”

“We went back to England later on with Bob Dylan, and we met George Harrison and Jeff Lynne. That was a pretty big deal to me. George was so kind. We understood each other mutually, and same with Jeff.”

“You never know if its gonna be a big hit, you hope for the best.”

“But in the back of my mind I always thought, Someday, if the Heartbreakers wind down, Ill focus on the Dirty Knobs.”