SOUL SURMISE

MIKE CAMPBELL - HEARTBREAKER

Mike Campbell has written a rock music memoir full of grace, humility and gratitude.

Near the end of a well written, most enjoyable and gripping read, Mike Campbell describes his feelings around the time of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ final studio record Hypnotic:

There were moments then here I could see it all so clearly. I could close my eyes and see the whole epic story of the band, from struggling to make to all the way to the present. It almost seemed like a myth, like an ancient adventure pulling us all in its wake.

Heartbreaker tells us that epic story. About a young poor boy in Gainesville Florida who made it to the top of the world. From a freezing hut in the countryside of Florida to a beautiful house with a recording studio and animals in the garden, in the heart of LA. Mike Campbell tells rags to riches a Holywood story.

The engine of this story is the young boy’s genius. He can play guitar. However, this boy needed his friend to front the story, to drag him across the world. The Tom Petty in Heartbreaker is a complex kid to steal one of their titles. He’s full of warmth, humour and goodness but also selfish drive, totally focused commitment and a little arrogance.

Campbell’s grace made him a loyal friend to a front man who didn’t always treat him well. Whatever Petty threw at his band mates and however the rest reacted Campbell stayed true. He had a natural inferiority complex which comes across as humility and he stayed ever grateful to the life that he got to live as guitar player with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.

“To me, being grateful was the key to everything. It was what made it possible for me to get through the hardest times in the band. Simple gratitude. Simple thanks for the blessings I had been given. For the life. For the music. For the crew. For the fans.”

Campbell tells the story of the band’s rise with great detail. The way songs came together, how producer Jimmy Iovine worked, how tours went, the management and legal complications and the drug addictions. Closer and more devoted than Petty is, his wife Marcie who has done the entire journey by his side.

Underneath the Petty tower, Campbell became a musician in his own right. Working up tape after tape of song ideas for Petty, a few taken and many discarded he gave one to the Eagles’, Don Henley, and had a massive hit with Boys Of Summer. It all ended with him starting his own band The Dirty Knobs and becoming a guitar player for Fleetwood Mac.

In between, Mike Campbell from Gainesville met and played with all the greatest musicians ever. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers became Bob Dylan’s band for a couple of years and this is perhaps the best writing on the inside track of that relationship. Then there is George Harrison and Jeff Lynne who became part of the family including The Travelling Wilburys. Johnny Cash, Paul McCartney, Joe Strummer… and a beautiful story of how his mother opened the door to Mick Jagger.

You get that feel for the gratitude. Michael Campbell has lived the life and his early years were not pointing to anything like this. Petty putting the old Gainesville mates together in Mudcrutch, thirty years after they broke up is an amazing chapter in the Petty career, as though he’d learned grace from his guitar player.

In the last pages of the book we have to deal with Tom Petty’s death. I hated it coming towards me as I read. There is grief. Yet, Petty’s joy on the 40th Anniversary Tour is consolation. 

Afterwards we hear about how he tried to finally sing a Petty song during a Dirty Knobs’ gig and when he broke down during Southern Accents and the crowd sang it home. Better still is when they did do a Petty Tribute evening and reaching for his lifelong guitar techie Chinner for a guitar as he introduced the next song he looks up and it’s Tom’s wife Dana handing it to him. I burst into tears!

I have admired Mike Campbell since at least Damn The Torpedoes. I knew he was so important to Petty’s sound. I knew he was a great guitar player. When I reviewed the one Petty concert that I am so grateful that I experienced. My conclusion was all about Campbell. 

Something happening on that stage was meeting me in the very depth of my spiritual life. As Mike Campbell dug his fingers deep into the fret board of one of his plethora of guitars and eked out this sound that was loud, melodic and beautifully piercing my soul was raised to a higher plain, ecstatic at living this life and energised to live it more to the full.

I too am grateful. Thank you Mike Campbell for that moment and telling me yours and Tom Petty’s story so beautifully and honestly.

MY TRIBUTE TO POPE FRANCIS - 1936-2025

For Janice and I, Pope Francis was our Pope. The only one that we have had the pleasure to meet and the only one that we ever really wanted to. Janice and I are saddened by his death. We had a wonderful time meeting him and maybe hoped that there would be another chance.   

The strangeness of a Presbyterian minister being so fond of a Pope goes back to the night that the white smoke went up and he was announced as Pope. 

Us Presbyterians from Fitzroy were in Clonard Monastery doing The Gospel According To... Christy Moore. Strange indeed. It was one of the first ever 4 Corners Festival events. It had been postponed in January because of snow but the West Belfast Féile invited us to do it at a mini Spring Féile.

My phone was pinging with texts from Rome. Another Fitzer, Paul Clark, was there with UTV News. He was determined to get the news of a new Pope to Presbyterians first!!! So we could tell our Catholic friends! 

I am not sure how the timings worked but I do remember that we did indeed announce the new Pope. I think everyone was taken by him choosing the name Francis. Everyone loved Francis Of Assisi. May I Be A Channel Of Your Peace for goodness sake.

It was no surprise when one of his major encyclicals was Laudato si, an appeal for us all to consider the planet. Very Francis of Assisi.  Followed up with a film The Letter that we showed at 4 Corners Festival this was all widely discussed and hopefully acted upon. I remember being invited with Fr Martin to an evening at Queen’s with John Barry and Jonathan Hanson.

Watching his time as Pope, as I did from a distance, I was taken by Pope Francis. He seemed to be quite evangelical. I would later meet Austen Ivereigh who wrote books with the Pope and Austen’s first book about him was called The Reformer. 

It did seem like a Reformation when he went to all the synods of the world and asked the opinions of every Catholic. This is not Magisterium pontificating down but the hierarchy bending down and listening to the pew sitter. I wonder if we are doing that in our so called Reformed denominations?

I was asked, as a Presbyterian, to review his book (with Austen) Let Us Dream. I found it powerfully prophetic. On hyper, individualism, on care for the poor, on rigidity being the sing of a bad spirit, and the need to walk together.

Even more needing to be heard, for these days we are living was “I criticise the self-evidently fictitious idea that wealth must be allowed to roam unhindered in order to provide prosperity to all.” Instead he sees the secret of a better day “to put the economy at the service of the people to build peace and justice and defend mother earth.”  This is Biblical stuff. Jesus preached.

The chance to meet him was a thrill for Fr Martin, Janice and I when in celebrating 10 years of 4 Corners Festival we were invited to a private audience along with a bunch of students celebrating 50 years of the Catholic Chaplaincy at Queen’s University Belfast. Our hour with Pope Francis was unforgettable. His humility. His welcome. His passion for Jesus. His genuine interest in us. His willingness to engage with us. 

He was mentally very sharp at then 85 years of age. He opened the floor to questions that meant he was confident to answer quickly whatever came his way. I was immediately impressed.

When we got talking about relationships across denominational lines Pope Francis was warm in his respect for those of us who weren’t Catholic. He asked that we work together. He also suggested that we should send those who were divided over theology to an island to fight it out while we get on with IT.

That struck me. What was his IT? IT was not theology. Oh he was not dismissing theology. Of course not. He understood too that our theology was different. BUT it shouldn’t get in the way with getting on with IT.

I can only go by what else he shared with us in that library. His big but gentle preach that morning was that we would read the Gospels of Jesus so much that we would start to wear Jesus. “The soul is moved by witness”, he said. If that is IT, then I am in.

I was asked on to different radio programmes today. Before I went on I wanted to capture Pope Francis in a few words, so that I'd have something when I didn't know what the next question was. It was easy to trot them out.

He was welcoming. He welcomed us warmly into his private library.

He was committed. I found it beautiful that the day before he passed, he was working on resurrection Sunday. People have said that they felt sorry that they made him work when he was so frail. From meeting him I know that he would have wanted to be out there saying even just a few words. He walked across a room to the door and back to welcome us, on very painful knees.

He was humble. His humility seemed to not just be in words. He was a no frills Pope. No limousines or fancy shoes. There are so many stories of this and his posture in our presence was of deep humility. He always asked people to pray for him. He was the Pope for goodness sake.   

He was Jesus centred. I have had my fill of the theologically centred, the legalist centred and the denominationally centred. The only times I find authenticity of Christian faith is when I am with someone who exudes the Jesus who they are clearly mesmerised by and are attempting to stumble and tumble after. Pope Francis was one of those. 

My biggest regret in life was that the he asked me to pray for him, as we said goodbye in his private library, that I promised I would but didn't just put my hand on his shoulder and pray for him right there in the Vatican.

So, this Presbyterian Manse is heartbroken at the news the death of Pope Francis. Janice and I are so very grateful that we got to meet him and are so sorry that our daughter Jasmine will not get to meet him on her trip in July. 

SURMISES ON HOLY SATURDAY

Easter Saturday has fascinated me for some years. It is difficult to find yourself in that day without our 2000 years of hindsight. We can put up with such a horrific day because we know about the day after. 

I put it like this: 

The great idea is buried

We walk in the day between

What we watched on Friday

And a Sunday no one’s seen

 

On his first album, Life After Death, a collection of songs written about his father’s death, my friend Doug Gay has a song called Saturday Train and puts it like this:

 

I’m in a tunnel of grief 

On a Saturday train

Hurtling along 

In the echoing dark

 

Til it slams to a stop

And the train powers down

So they dim all the lights 

And I wait in the gloom

 

What if I never get out of here?

What if I never can reach the light?

What if this Saturday train never moves again?

 

My friend Alex Wimberly posted a prayer for Easter Saturday that begins to make sense of it. I am particularly taken by the lines

 

To rush from Friday to Sunday,

from death to resurrection,

wouldn’t do either justice.

Nor would it dignify the life of those

whose daily pain and grief

and constant pleas for justice

go unanswered in the world’s daily rhythm

 

This Easter weekend is missionally, pastorally and theologically full. Stopping, taking time, reflecting on it can be helpful in a plethora of ways. My companion in spiritual subversiveness  Fr Martin Magill sent me this:

 

The silence of Holy Saturday speaks to the mystery of death and the unknown. It reminds us that there are moments in life when we are forced to wait and trust in God’s plan, even when we don’t understand it. It also serves as a reminder that in the midst of life’s struggles and uncertainties, God is present, even if He seems hidden from our sight.

 

So, let us not rush right through. Oh it is so easy to start thinking about the empty tomb of tomorrow but we would miss something we need to hear on this cold dark day between. Tomorrow can wait. Often times it will have to.

PRAYER AROUND THE CROSS

 

Holy God

Creator and Sustainer

Victim of our desire for independence

Hurt in heart by our pushing you away

God tonight our independence

Throws the world into perpetual suffering

Our desire for things unhealthy to us

Sends the world into constant pain

Yet, against all this

Your eternal grace has come looking for us

Your lavish love has given your all for us

Your tender mercy has embraced and forgiven us

God we thank you for Jesus

For this cross

That while we were still sinners Jesus died for us

God you have died for our injustices

For all that we have done to your world

For all that we have done to one another

For all that we have done to ourselves

So, around this cross

We gather

And cry out to you

How long must we sing this song

How long must we pray these prayers

Lord, give us a new song

A song of peace and shalom 

And a just and loving world

And so gathered here

We ask that you will take us

Broken too

Damaged

Lord, on this Good Friday

May we die to the old ways

And be grafted into the new

God, heal us at this cross

Repair us

Save us from each other and ourselves

And then send us out into this world

With love and peace and justice

Make us Kingdom bringers

Peace builders 

Lovers of God and humans and earth.

In Jesus dying name we pray

AMEN

BONO ON EASTER

Bono on Easter…

Michka Assayas’s book Bono In Conversation came out the day my updated version of Walk On was to be with the publisher. We hit Vancouver stores around midnight to get a copy. We did. It was a revelation. 

French journalist Assayas is the perfect interrogator. He is a trusted confidant of Bono. Yet he is also secularist and agnostic who cannot quite accept that a man of Bono’s intelligence and cultural sharpness could believe this Christian stuff. It is ideal provocation that allows Bono to nail his theological perspective. From there it is clearly seen that his life is lived in the light of how he identifies Christ and his identification with Christ.

When Assyas suggests that is Christ among the world’s great thinkers maybe, but son of God might be a bit far fetched, Bono is on it with CS Lewis-like apologetic: “But actually Christ doesn’t allow you that. He doesn’t let you off the hook. Christ says: No I’m not saying I’m a teacher, don’t call me a teacher. I’m not saying I’m a prophet. I’m saying: “I’m the Messiah.” I’m saying: “I am God incarnate.”… So what you’re left with is: either Christ was who he said he was – the Messiah – or a complete nutcase. I mean we’re talking nut case on the level of Charles Manson.”

Bono also defines God’s view of the world. He says he loves “the idea that God says: ‘Look, you cretins, there are certain results to the way we are, to selfishness, and there’s mortality as part of the sinful nature, and, let’s face it, you’re not living a very good life, are you? There are consequences to actions.’” 

No hint of the usual modern political correctness or tolerance from an anything and everything goes rock star. Where Bono brings grace to the human condition is exactly there – grace. His relationships with fellow rock stars, no matter how hedonistic or political figures no matter how right wing is laced with a love and mercy that he himself finds in the grace of God. He says: “Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which is in my case very good news indeed.”

That grace is centred on Christ’s cross; “I’m holding out that Jesus took my sins onto the Cross, because I know who I am, and I hope I don’t have to depend on my own religiosity.” Bono’s self deprecation is evident throughout which again is neither the regular disposition of rock stars in general or for some who don’t look carefully enough, Bono in particular. 

A closer look at the songs and performances and you’ll see that any egotistical celebrity poses Bono throws are a role play with the absurdity of his occupation. Finishing many gigs on the Vertigo Tour with Yahweh, a prayer of commitment, that ends with a pleading that God would take his heart and make it break is a little upside down in a music world more renowned for its selfish indulgence. 

Bono tells Assayas that it is at the Cross where he gets humbled: “The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world, so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death. That’s the point it should keep us humbled…It’s not our own good works that gets us through the gates of Heaven.”

At the end maybe too influenced by Eugene Peterson whose paraphrase The Message Bono endorsed he says, “’Be silent, and know that I am God.’ That’s a favourite line from Scriptures. ‘Shut Up and Let Me Love You’ would be the pop song. It’s really what it means. If ever I needed to hear a comment, it might be that.”