“Tom listened to it and said, ‘It sounds kind of jazzy.’ I went back and changed the chorus, and that’s the version I played for Don”: Mike Campbell on writing The Boys of Summer with Don Henley – after Tom Petty passed on it

Mike Campbell may be best known as Tom Petty’s right-hand man in the Heartbreakers, but as the 1980s dawned, the electric guitar icon began working with Fleetwood Mac and Eagles royalty.

With Stevie Nicks, he played on a quartet of albums during that period, and featured on a further four over the following decades. For Don Henley, his songwriting can be heard on 1984’s Building the Perfect Beast and The End of the Innocence, and he also featured on records by Bob Dylan, the Eurhythmics, and Warren Zevon among many others during a restless 10-year-spell.

Yet, despite such a prolific output, he never felt comfortable with the gun-for-hire identity.

“To be honest with you, I never considered myself a session player,” he says in a recent issue of Guitarist. “I was a songwriter and I would write my songs with my guitar style. I didn’t venture out of The Heartbreakers much to do sessions, but if I had a song that Tom didn’t want, I might go to Stevie and she would help me write it and finish it.

“So there’s only a few people I really worked with, like Don Henley, of course, on Boys Of Summer. That was a great moment for me, but I didn’t do it as a session. I wasn’t like a hired guitar player per se. I was mostly focusing on writing songs.”

The shift in perception is key. In the case of Warren Zevon’s Reconsider Me, and his two guitar solos on Eurythmic’s ’85 LP, Be Yourself Tonight, he was simply drafted in to play. But in other cases, he had a more influential role.

“[Producer] Jimmy Iovine was the catalyst,” he says of how he came to play on Henley’s …Beast album, for which he wrote the opening song. “I played the music for Boys Of Summer to Tom [Petty] and Jimmy one day and it had a different chorus. It was the same track, but it went [to a] minor key on the chorus, which was not that good. Tom listened to it and said, ‘Oh, it sounds kind of jazzy because of the chord in the chorus.’

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Don Henley – The Boys Of Summer – YouTube

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“Tom passed on it, but Jimmy liked it and had met Don Henley, who was looking for a song. So Jimmy called me and said, ‘If you’ve got something for Don…’ I went back and changed the chorus chords to a major key, which was more uplifting, and that’s the version I played for Don.”

Following his prolific songwriting streak with Stevie Nicks, Campbell’s Fleetwood Mac connection would go full circle in 2018 when he was asked to replace the outgoing Lindsey Buckingham. Reflecting on the whirlwind world tour that followed, he told Guitar World he could scarcely believe it happened; and it also provided a unique challenge for him.

(Image credit: Chris Phelps)“It was a challenge because I don’t usually play other people’s guitar parts,” he said. “I had to do something I’ve never really done before and try to emulate some of Lindsey’s melodies that the songs need. I don’t play like Lindsey, but I was able to do the songs justice.”

Back in October, Campbell revealed he’d sold over 120 of his guitars and had stopped buying any more, but ascertains he’s as gear-obsessed as ever.

He’s also opened up on the time he got red light syndrome in front of George Harrison and asked the Beatle to take over his own guitar solo spot.

The new issue of Guitarist is out now and features Mike Campbell’s interview in full, as well as a look at the hottest pedals in the world right now, offering plenty of pedalboard tips to boot. Head to Magazines Direct to pick up a copy.