Watch Mike Campbell Play Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Classic For 1st Time Since 1997

Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs celebrated the upcoming release of Live At The Fillmore (1997) with a concert last night at the San Francisco venue that hosted Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ historic 20-show residency documented on the set. Former Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell started Tuesday’s encore by leading his current band through the Petty-penned “The Wild One, Forever” which marking his first time playing the song since the 1997 Fillmore Residency.

Tom Petty wrote “The Wild One, Forever” for inclusion on the Heartbreakers’ 1976 debut studio album. “I’d like to do a song now that I did not co-write with Tom,” Campbell explained when he returned to the stage last night. “It’s from the Heartbreakers’ first album and Tom wrote this on his own. It’s one of my favorite songs of his and I just want to do it because we’re at the Fillmore.”

“The Wild One, Forever” was performed just once during the residency on January 31, 1997 as per Setlist.FM. Petty & The Heartbreakers previously played the cut back on December 4, 1988 at the second Bridge School Benefit Concert. The song had been shelved since 1980 before that.

Watch last night’s rendition via fan-shot video below:

Live At The Fillmore (1997) is set for release in various formats via Warner Records on November 25. Tracks from the upcoming album were played for fans who attended last night’s Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs concert.

Campbell and band mates guitarist Chris Holt, bassist Lance Morrison and drummer Matt Laug mixed songs from their two albums, 2020’s Wreckless Abandon and 2022’s External Combustion, with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers tunes at The Fillmore. The guitarist delivered a tease-filled solo during “You Got Lucky” that included snippets of “Breakdown,” “Rhiannon,” “Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo,” “Layla” and “Like A Hurricane.”

After an 18-song main set, Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs began the encore by busting out “The Wild One, Forever.” Performances of Petty deep cuts “Fooled Again (I Don’t Like It)” and “When The Time Comes” led into covers of The Isley Brothers’ “Shout” and Bob Dylan’s “Lay Down Your Weary Tune” to end the concert. The group opens for The Who tonight in Sacramento.