The aging rock star exercises his fingers on a guitar for more than an hour almost every day.
It is difficult for him to find the strength in his hands to lift the guitar, an instrument that accompanied him to the apex of worldwide fame in the mid-1970s. A disease called inclusion body myositis slowly wastes away the muscles in the rock star's hands.
But once that axe is in his lap, Peter Frampton, 76, can still shred a lick or two. He even released a new album in May, "Carry the Light," produced by his son and co-writer Julian Frampton. He's not done making music quite yet.
"The more power I lose in my fingers, the more I play," Frampton said in an exclusive interview with The Tennessean, adding that he is keeping close tabs on the development
of three drugs at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine that could be relevant for his condition. "There is new medicine on the way pretty quickly. Hopefully, one of them is going to be the miracle drug... I live on hope."
Frampton, who has lived in Nashville for 14 years, is scheduled to attend the opening night of the Nashville Film Festival for the screening of "Frampton" on Sept. 24. The documentary features interviews with Ringo Starr, Roger Daltrey, Sheryl Crow, Alice Cooper, Tom Morello and many others.
Frampton will watch as he ("It feels like another person," he said) rises from a band too few people heard of (The Herd), to being the founder of a supergroup (Humble Pie), to being a heartthrob and international star. As writer/director Cameron Crowe said of Frampton's career, the guitarist was "on the rocket where no other rocket had gone."
No one was more famous than Peter Frampton in 1976.
That's when his album "Frampton Comes Alive!" shot to the top of the music charts. The album spent 10 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard charts between April and October, selling 8 million copies in the United States alone. Frampton, who had flowing hippie hair down to his shoulders, used a "talk box," which made the chords of his guitar sound almost like vowels and consonants. The album featured three smash singles: "Show Me the Way," "Do You Feel Like We Do" and "Baby, I Love Your Way."
The documentary will chronicle the ups and downs of Frampton's story.
The career that took him all the way to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame also had him releasing an album he didn't want to make, accepting a movie role he shouldn't have taken and getting into a car crash that nearly took his life. He also experienced enough fame, fortune, drinking and drugs for several lifetimes.
The highlight of his life, Frampton said, was not what you might expect. The sellout concerts, adoring fans, magazine covers were great, but a quiet moment was the best.
In 1970, he got a call from his friend George Harrison. It was just at the end of the Beatles' reign. Harrison invited Frampton to Abbey Road Studios, which the Beatles had made famous.
"That was one of the most incredible moments," Frampton said. "For everybody else it's always been about my looks, the hair and all that. But, before all that, I was playing as a session musician with George Harrison, a dear friend. That has to be the best. Me and George sitting on two stools at Abbey Road Studios over-dubbing acoustics."
He added the moments that are now his most precious memories are when he gets to become someone else, not Peter but "the guitar player" lost in his music.
There are also three low moments featured in the documentary that Frampton wishes he could do over again, several of which happened in the summer of 1978.
The first was appearing in what he called "the worst rock 'n roll movie of all time" — "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." That film has an 11% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. One critic said "Frampton has no future in Hollywood." Despite the Beatles' success, the movie flopped.
"That was the lowest, doing that movie," Frampton said. "I should have never done the movie. My stomach said no. Everybody else around me said yes."
The second low moment Frampton recalled was the release of his next album after "Frampton Comes Alive." It was called "I'm in You," and it was released in May of 1977. Rolling Stone called it "ultimately forgettable."
"I didn't like it," Frampton said. "I wasn't thrilled with it. I didn't want to release it. I wasn't ready to do another record at that point."
Then, on June 29, 1978, Frampton lost control of his car driving in Nassau, Bahamas. His injuries were so severe he nearly had to have his arm amputated. Frampton called the accident a "sobering moment."
"This is the worst that can happen," Frampton said.
In the 1980s and 90s, Frampton became known as a top-notch studio musician. He worked with David Bowie and Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings.
Eventually he became a star again. However, this time he was behind the scenes more often than on the stage.
In 1999, writer Cameron Crowe asked Frampton to be an advisor on the film "Almost Famous." Frampton helped create the fictional band "Stillwater," teaching actor Billy Crudup how to play guitar and look like a rock star.
"I had to teach Billy Crudup how to play the solos," Frampton said. "I whipped him into shape."
He also acted in the film, playing the road manager of Humble Pie. Frampton is actually the bad guy in the movie's famous poker scene.
"It's the best rock movie ever," Frampton said. "Cameron and I had been friends since before 'Frampton Comes Alive.' He called me and said he wanted to make a rock movie. I said, 'You can't. We've always agreed that rock movies suck.' They're never right."
That was precisely why Crowe asked Frampton to be the film's authenticity advisor. The film became a hit.
Out of all of his friendships with entertainers and creatives, Frampton especially loves to talk about his connection to Dolly Parton.
When she made the "Rockstar" album, she called Peter Frampton. She wanted to sing "Baby, I Love Your Way."
They exchanged vocal tracks to put on the album. Frampton still remembers getting a call from Dolly about the collaboration, and how her gracious approach illustrated what he loves most about the creative community in Music City.
"I got this incredibly excited lady on the phone," Frampton said. "She said 'thank you for letting me do your song.' She was one of the most wonderful people in the world. To have this saint call me up and want to work with me ...That kind of sums up Nashville for me."
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Peter Frampton tells all before Nashville Film festival | Exclusive
