At home in Nashville, Peter Frampton’s playing guitar. “Someone else’s songs,” he tells MOJO. “I’m enjoying myself!” His last two records were all-covers affairs, but now comes Carry The Light, his first album of originals in 16 years. It coincides with some notable anniversaries: 60 years ago he joined The Herd, scoring hits before he joined Steve Marriott in Humble Pie. 50 years ago brought Frampton Comes Alive!, the lightning-in-a-bottle double-album that sold eight million copies in the US and thirteen million worldwide. “I felt a bit like a Rubik’s Cube,” says the Bromley-born Frampton of mega-fame and its aftermath. “Remember the time when everybody had one, and then it wore off? That’s where it gets interesting.”
Why so long for an album of new material?
I started writing songs six years ago. I throw away so much; the percentage of what I keep is very low. Then there was Covid. And you could see things weren’t going well for the general public in this country - it’s sickening to be honest. I’ve never really blatantly written about what I feel, and I guess this is the first time I’ve actually felt confident enough - or angry enough - to put it down in words. My son Julian helped me immensely.
How did having a hit as huge as Frampton Comes Alive! change things?
I went from virtual obscurity to being the most recognized person on the planet. Your life changes in a lot of ways. Normal things, like eating at a restaurant and going to a record shop - you’re a star and girls are going to be all ‘Beatlemania’ with you! The shock of it, you know?
Was it impossible to follow?
That was going through my mind. When it hit number one, I was so excited, but the scariest thing was when I was told that we’d broken Carole King’s Tapestry (sales) record, and it was the biggest selling record of all time in America and Canada. How do I follow this up? I’d noticed that music that people were completely berserk about, it disappears after a while… what does it do to somebody who’s in it for a lifetime?
As a kid, you jammed with David Bowie and George Underwood in a schoolroom your art teacher dad procured for you?
My dad said, ‘you guys are so into music, leave your guitars in my office and play them at lunchtime.’ For three years it was the three of us. They were teaching me Buddy Holly songs and I was teaching them the latest Shadows record.
The Herd: what's the first picture that comes to mind?
Having a residency at the Marquee right before we made it. I was 16. We had a hit with I Can Fly, a minor rumble, but it put our name up there.
Your most vivid Humble Pie memory?
Being in Shea Stadium with 60,000 people going berserk. Steve Marriott’s guitar neck broke and a friend glued it back together, but when it started to rain, the glue was giving way and he was in a completely different key from the rest of us.
How was it playing with George Harrison on All Things Must Pass?
He was at Trident Studios. In the control room, there was George and he goes, ‘Hello Pete’ - I thought Pete Townshend must have walked in behind me. I mean, a Beatle knows who I am? Ridiculous. He said, ‘You want to play? Stephen Stills is downstairs.’ Klaus Voormann was playing bass, Ringo was playing drums, and George gives me this guitar, which I find out later was the guitar Eric Clapton gave him which he played on While My Guitar Gently Weeps. George said, ‘Here’s the chords, let’s go…’
Are you able to tour given your muscle-weaking condition, Inclusion Body Myositis?
|It’s become dangerous for me because if I fall I really do hurt myself, and going into a hundred hotels where everything’s different? Whereas I know every square inch of my house. But mentally, physically and otherwise, everything’s fine. It sounds weird but I’m the happiest I’ve ever been.
Tell us something you’ve never told an interviewer before.
Oh, this is disgusting. But in the 70s, with the satin pants, there was no underwear underneath.
Peter Frampton’s new album Carry The Light is out now on UMG.
This article appears in the latest issue of MOJO Magazine. Featuring a world-exclusive interview with Paul McCartney, King Crimson, Throwing Muses, Cream, Rickie Lee Jones, Spencer Davis Group, a CD of Can rarities handpicked by Irmin Schmidt, and more! More info and to order a copy HERE!
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