October 19, 1999 From the old wallofsound.go.com site...
Heartbreaker Considering Solo Album
After nearly four years off the road, it's starting to sound like Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers never want to leave. The veteran rock outfit is currently pumping its latest release, Echo, with its second North American tour, hitting mostly towns they didn't play during the summer and making a few repeat visits. And now guitarist Mike Campbell says the band is considering a string of college dates for early 2000.
"I'm totally into it, and I think Tom's almost into it," says Campbell, who grew up with Petty in Gainesville, Fla., co-founded the Heartbreakers and co-produced Echo. "For him it's either a college tour or go back and write songs, and songwriting is a lonely, hard vigil. You have to be geared up for that, and I don't think any of us are ready to go back in the hole just yet."
In fact, Campbell says, "the last thing we want to do is go back in the studio right now. We're really enjoying playing. We're in a good band groove right now."
So good, in fact, that Petty has said he no longer has desires to record solo albums, as he did with Full Moon Fever in 1989 and Wildflowers in 1994.
Campbell, however, says he might consider a solo album when the time is right. "I've got a lot of songs Tom doesn't need or wouldn't want, and I'd like to find a home for them," says the guitarist, who co-wrote Don Henley's 1984 hit "The Boys of Summer" and sings lead on the Echo track "I Don't Wanna Fight."
"After all these years of being in the group, I'd like to find something on a smaller scale, just for creative reasons. So that's what I would be looking at if there's a break in the band schedule, kind of like how Jerry Garcia had his couple of side bands he could go and play in during the two or three years between tours. I would like to have something like that, someday." — Gary Graff