Is there a rock guitar player more legendary than the masterful and classy Peter Frampton? Not in my personal opinion! And so it was wonderful to chat with the famous Englishman, who first became known for playing in Humble Pie and then conquered the music world as a young man with Frampton Comes Alive! (1976) and a string of hits including “Baby, I Love Your Way” and “Do You Feel Like We Do.”
Peter Frampton is currently on The Positively Thankful Tour, and among his upcoming concert dates is an appearance at Virginia Credit Union Live in Richmond, Virginia, on Sept. 17. Before the show, Parklife DC’s Mickey McCarter caught up with Peter Frampton for a chat about his guitars, touring with a muscle disease, his friendship with David Bowie, and his famous appearance on The Simpsons cartoon, among other matters.
This interview has been edited lightly for length and clarity.
Peter Frampton: Hello, Mickey.
Mickey McCarter: Hello, Peter Frampton!
PF: It is, yes, how did you know? *chuckles*
MM: How are you?
PF: I’m doing very well, actually. We’ve had our first show in Charleston… and it was fantastic. The crowd was so amazing and unbelievable. So yes, everything’s going really well, thank you.
MM: I just wanna say it is a pleasure to talk to you. I can think of few musicians who make people smile as quickly as you do, particularly with your wonderful catalog. Whenever I hear “Baby, I Love Your Way” I immediately feel better and have a better day. So, I wanted to thank you for that.
PF: You’re very kind. I really appreciate it, thank you.
Watch Peter Frampton perform “Baby, I Love Your Way” live for Howard Stern on YouTube:
MM: Congratulations on being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
PF: Thank you so much. I just continually thank the 500,000 people who voted for me. I couldn’t believe that. It blew my mind. You find yourself sitting at home and thinking, “Wow, I’m gonna be nominated? Well, I wonder if anybody will vote for me.”
You don’t think that you’re gonna end up at the top of the list. I thank the fans more than anybody. Luckily, management has changed in the boardroom of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the inductions from now on are going to be much more realistic. Foreigner should have been in 25 years ago! I’m so thrilled for Dave Matthews finally and *everybody* on the list. I’m thrilled for all of them. Foreigner is very close to me because we share players and I’ve known Mickey Jones since before Humble Pie. It’s gonna be a great celebration when we get there, that’s for sure.
MM: That’s going be a stupendous show in Cleveland this year. Speaking of shows, I want to ask you a little bit about the current tour. You mentioned that it got off to a really good start, The Positively Thankful Tour. We are going to review your performance in Richmond, Virginia. What can we expect when we see the show?
PF: We’ve changed it up; each tour now we change it up a little to make keep it fresh. It’s about two and a half hours, and we do all the numbers that people would hope we would do, plus a couple extras actually. And then we do dig deep. We’ve got a couple of numbers that deep cuts that we have never played before this year. And we’ve got some that we haven’t done for a long time. People really enjoyed the setlist in Charleston, aand we’re probably gonna keep it pretty much the same because it works so well.
MM: The Positively Thankful Tour: Does that refer to the fact that you had anticipated being retired from touring by now?
PF: No, no, it’s for the people. I don’t think I would have done this tour had it not been for the fans. It really is a tour thanking the fans. I wish it was longer, but unfortunately I can’t do longer tours right now because of my muscle disease. But I had to go out again. I just had to do it. And things are going okay. My legs aren’t doing that great, but my hands are not letting me down when I pick up a guitar. It’s different. I have to say, it is different. But I am adapting, I have adapted, and I enjoy playing every night. I am positively thankful that I’m still able to do it!
MM: Without being too intrusive, I did want to inquire a little bit about the health and the muscle condition. And it sounds like as far as things might go, you’re doing well.
PF: I’m very, very lucky. Every patient that has IBM [inclusion body myositis] — which is what it is — progresses at a different speed. I have been super lucky that I am the slowest progressor apparently. I go to Dr. Lisa Christopher Stein, who’s the head of the Myositis Clinic at Johns Hopkins. And so I’m under their care. Even though we don’t have a cure right now, I’m involved with funding and all sorts of things that I did with Johns Hopkins to afford to do more tests and more trials. She says I am one of the slowest ever progressors with the disease. That is something, again, to be thankful for.
MM: That is good news. Before I forget, I have to ask you a bit about my all-time favorite musician. And every time I have an opportunity to talk to somebody who knew him, I have to ask about David Bowie.
PF: Yes!
MM: As a kid, the first album I bought with my own money was Let’s Dance. And I was onboard. A few years later, I loved Never Let me Down. It was a critically panned album, but I love everything he did, and I loved it. And I love your contributions to it. Can you share any memories of making that album?
PF: Oh, yes, because David called me and asked me to go to Switzerland and record there, where he was living. And I was over there for a couple of weeks and I overdubbed guitar on the album. We would go out to dinner and that’s when David said, “I’m doing this tour. It’s called the Glass Spider Tour.” I said, “Oh, sounds interesting!” And so he said, “What would you think about playing guitar on the tour?”
And I said, “Let me think about that… yes!”
I wouldn’t be talking to you now — having just been nominated and to be inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — because he completely put me back in the minds of people. And I can never, ever thank him enough for what he did for me. He had always been like my older brother ever since we went to school together. And he was a very, very caring person, very down to earth. Any craziness was an act; he was a terrific actor. He was salt of the earth. If there was ever a problem, he’d always make sure that I was okay. I couldn’t wish for a better friend.
I didn’t realize at the time what a gift he was giving me to bring me on tour. [I began to realize] when we did a press conference in New York, I believe at the Cat Club, and we played a couple of numbers. I was listening to the radio on the way back to the hotel afterward, and everyone was going nuts that David and I were playing together. It made me realize that this was such a big deal. He could have chosen any guitarist and the world, and he chose me.
I think he did it for two reasons — one, because I’m damn good — and secondly, he knew what I’d been through and what I’d done to myself by the post-“Comes Alive” era and the fall from grace that followed.
The guitar player with credibility from Humble Pie and the live album and all my solo career before that got turned into a teen idol. And we know what happens then. A teen idol’s career is 18 months, if they’re lucky, and a musician’s career is a lifetime. David turned me back into being perceived as a musician rather than any specific image. And I thank him again.
Watch Peter Frampton play “Rebel Rebel” with David Bowie on Bowie’s Glass Spider Tour via YouTube:
MM: That’s extraordinary. What a story.
Could you get a little bit nerdy about your guitars, and the evolution of playing as a teen idol as a soloist as a member of team, then and now? And now playing with IBM? Have you changed up your guitars over the years? Are you loyal to an old guitar? What do you prefer these days?
PF: I like old guitars. I like vintage guitars. My Phenix guitar — now named so because of its rise from the ashes of the plane crash in South America, 1980. I didn’t know it existed for 32 years. [The guitar was on a cargo plane that crashed in Venezuela, and Peter believed it lost.]
For the first five numbers in the show, I don’t put it down. It’s quite amazing that it still has that sound for me. It’s the best for playing live. [Indeed, it appears on the cover of Frampton Comes Alive, the seminal 1976 album!]
I wouldn’t say I’m a collector, but I have one of each type of guitar. I have a couple of Strats — one would be the Buddy Holly ’58 two tone coloring. I have a ’62, which is the three color with the Rosewood neck. I have a ’59 Telly, which is beautiful. I play everything! I don’t play only Gibsons. I am more partial to a humbucking pickup than a single coil, but they have their place at time and place and I use them. And yes, there’s my Martin D-42 Frampton’s Camel edition, and I can never thank Martin enough for doing that for me.
I’ve still got my Epiphone [Les Paul] guitar that is the same as same model as the Texan. It is the same model and year as Paul McCartney’s. He did “Yesterday” on his, and I did “Baby, I Love Your Way” on mine. If there was a competition, he won, though! Yes, I do like the older guitars. I’m not too thrilled with off-the-rack guitars, as it were. I’ve had some beautiful guitars made for me, and in fact, John Suhr of Suhr Guitars has been a friend for — gosh — 35 years. He’s recreating the guitar that I lost in a Nashville flood in 2010. I lost 44 guitars in that!
Instead of having multiples of different guitars now, I decided that I’m going to get one *good* one of every different type of guitar that I don’t have. And that’s what I’ve done over the years.
Watch Peter Frampton play and discuss The Phenix guitar on YouTube:
MM: Wow. Well, when I told my friends that we were going to chat, everyone said, “Oh my god, you have to ask him about appearing on The Simpsons.” And so I would be remiss if I did not take our last few minutes here to ask about that infamous famous episode of The Simpsons cartoon [“Homerpalooza,” Season 7, Episode 24]. I rewatched the episode recently, and you appear in a music festival with Sonic Youth and The Smashing Pumpkins, and it was a great episode! How did it come about?
PF: I was living in LA at the time. My career was sort of floundering at the time in the early ’90s. I got this call from a lady from The Simpsons show, and she was the casting director. She said, “I would like to ask you: Would you be up for doing a spot on The Simpsons?” And I almost said, “Do you have the right number?” I thought, “Why would they want me at this point in my career?”
I said, “What’s the premise?” She said, “You are headlining a Lollapalooza-type concert.” There was a pause, and I said, “But I wouldn’t be.” But then I get it. It’s a joke. I said, “I think I’ve got it now. You want me to play the old crusty rock star, who has been there and done that, and complain a little bit?” And she said, “Yes, that’s exactly how the script goes.”
I did hear they wanted Bob Dylan to do it! I don’t know how many people turned it down, but I didn’t turn it down. And I’m so glad because it was one of the most exciting, enjoyable things I’ve ever done. I had never done anything like that before.
It took me 50 minutes to do the whole thing. They knew exactly what they wanted. It was very professional, and it was very enjoyable. I did the scripted part, and then they said, “There is this moment where you walk off the stage past Homer, and we need an ad lib! What would you say?” They rolled it. I walked past the microphone, and as I walked past, I said, “25 years in this business and I’ve never experienced anything like this!” They used my ad lib. That was the trill: The line that I liked most was the one that I made up. It was very cool.
I got feedback from Harry Shearer and the rest of the cast saying that they thought it was one of the better guests, which was very nice.
MM: Thanks so much for your time, Peter. You’ve been so generous, and I appreciate it. We will see you at the Richmond show!
PF: Absolutely!
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Peter Frampton plays in Richmond, Virginia, on Sept. 17!
Peter Frampton
Virginia Credit Union LIVE!, Richmond, VA
Tuesday, Sept. 17
Doors @ 6:30pm
$67-$115
All ages