Tom Petty’s substance abuse issues in the 1990s were a battle he had to fight himself.
Mike Campbell, who was the lead guitarist for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers from the band’s inception in 1976 to Petty’s death in 2017, opened up about his late bandmate in a new memoir and in a new interview, saying Petty was stubborn when it came to life outside the group.
Campbell, 75, told the Independent that when Petty started using heroin in the 1990s, he knew that staging an intervention would fall on deaf ears.
“It would have gone like this. ‘Tom, I’m worried about you. You’re hurting yourself. Maybe you ought to think about cleaning up,’” Campbell said. “[Then] Tom would have said, ‘What the f— does Mike have to say about me? It’s my business. Leave me alone.’ You couldn’t talk Tom into anything.”
The rocker added that the Heartbreakers followed a general rule that “when you’re not onstage or in the studio, it’s your business.”
“We didn’t have touchy-feely talks,” he said. “We’re dudes.”
Petty first revealed his struggle with addiction in the 2015 book Petty: The Biography by Warren Zanes. In the book, Zanes writes that Petty felt the drugs had played a “dirty trick” on him, and he avoided talking about his heroin use for years, as he feared the example he’d be setting by making the news public.
Petty says in the book that he was a “clandestine drug addict,” and that he once grew angry with Rick Rubin for telling his children about Petty’s drug use.
“You realize one day, ‘S—, I’ve lost myself,’” he says. “I wanted to quit. Using heroin went against my grain. I didn’t want to be enslaved to anything… Tried to go cold turkey, and that wouldn’t work. It’s an ugly f—ing thing. Really ugly. I fear that if I talk about it, people will think, ‘Well, I could do it and get off.’ But you can’t. Very few people do. Very few.”
Eventually, Petty confided in a doctor, and was hospitalized and put through a detox program that helped him kick the habit. He credited the support of his wife, Dana, with helping him get through the difficult period.
The “American Girl” rocker was 66 when he died in 2017 of an accidental overdose of drugs including fentanyl and oxycodone. His family said in a statement that he was dealing with a number of health problems including a fractured hip, and that the “unbearable” pain of the injury “was the cause for his over use of medication.”
Campbell, who is now the frontman of The Dirty Knobs, described Petty’s death as “very hard” to The Independent, and said he was “still grieving.”
The musician released his book Heartbreaker: A Memoir on Tuesday, March 18.
“This is my book,” he said in a statement. “It’s the story of a poor kid from Jacksonville, Florida who realized a dream through music. It’s a long journey through hard work, dedication and luck. Playing guitar and writing songs has been my inspiration and purpose. It’s a story of hope, redemption and gratitude, a testimonial that dreams can come true if you believe in yourself and follow your truth. It took two years to write and it’s a labor of love. I hope you enjoy the ride!”
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.
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