Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell opens up about Tom Petty's last days and his first days in Fleetwood Mac in a lengthy new Rolling Stone interview that was posted over the weekend.
Speaking about Petty, Campbell reveals:
- how Petty looked the final time he saw him last October, hours before his death -- "They had his hair straight. He was medicated and very still, but he looked like an angel.”
- that the last thing he and Petty said to each other was that they loved each other.
- that he's "at peace with the way that [they] left things."
- that from the first day Petty answered Campbell's ad looking for a band, “It was more than friendship. It was almost like destiny or a divine power that brought us together. If he hadn’t called that day, our whole lives would have been different.”
- that debating whether getting Petty off the road and into a hospital during his final tour with the Heartbreakers is futile -- “What’s the point of hindsight? All I know is he did what he wanted to do, and we backed him up. We were there for him. And he was having the time of his life. I’m not jiving you. He was loving that tour.”
- that he and Petty had things they disagreed about, but they "kept it private...That type of friction was good for the music. It drove us to put a little more juice into our songs.”
As for his recent decision to join Fleetwood Mac, he says:
- “When [we] start playing a song, I think to myself, ‘Wow, how did I get here?’”
- that although he didn't know Mick Fleetwood well at all, the drummer called him and asked him to join the band, saying, "I’ve been listening to your music a lot. Would you be interested in joining the band?"
- that despite his objections, Stevie Nicks talked him into performing Petty's "Free Fallin'" on Fleetwood Mac's upcoming tour -- "I love that song, but I’ve just played it so much. I said to her, ‘Do we have to?’ She said, ‘The crowd will love it. It’ll be a moment.’ So I’m getting into it again.”
- that they've rehearsed a version of Fleetwood Mac's 1969 British hit "Oh Well" with him on lead vocals for the tour.