Peter Frampton rocks Madison Square Garden in May 2019.
Peter Frampton celebrated his seventieth birthday this past April, which seems like an ideal time to release Do You Feel Like I Do: A Memoir, his first ever memoir telling his remarkable life story.
From hanging out with the Rolling Stones' Bill Wyman and meeting Jimi Hendrix as a teenage guitar prodigy and his teenage friendship with David Bowie to his incredible chart-topping run with the record-breaking Frampton Comes Alive, at the time the biggest-selling album of all time, Frampton's journey is told in full for the first time.
I spoke with Frampton about writing the memoir, the moments in the book that gave him goose bumps, how his Inclusion Body Myositis illness helped prompt the book, the co-headlining tour he had to cancel and the legendary British actor who inspired his memoir.
Frampton comes alive at Oakland Stadium in July 1977.
Steve Baltin: In writing this book did you gain a new appreciation for your unusual upbringing? Because other than you and Cameron Crowe it is not normal for a 15-year-old to be sitting in a club with Bill Wyman shaking hands with Jimi Hendrix.
Peter Frampton: (Laughs) It is funny because I did accept it as my reality. I didn't really think when I went back to school the next day that my friends weren't hanging out with one of the Rolling Stones. I didn't think of it as being anything special really. It was exciting, but it was just because I played this guitar all of a sudden a wall has opened up into another part of my life, very, very early. It became my reality and I didn't really think it was strange. I didn't have a placebo me doing what all my other friends were doing, going to soccer practice or whatever, I was playing a gig. Yeah, it was just accepted, I accepted that's what I did.
Baltin: At what point did you decide it was time for this book?
Frampton: My manager, Ken Levitan, who's phenomenal and has really looked after me so well over the many years we've been together and responsible for my trajectory the last few years, knew when I was diagnosed with I.B.M. (Inclusion Body Myositis). Of course we didn't tell anybody because there was no need at that point because I just had to be careful about keeping upright with my legs and everything. But just before I had this final fall on the boat in Maui, we had talked, Ken and I, about the fact we knew there would be an end of touring. But we didn't know just quite how long it's going to be, that this would be the time to do the book and the documentary. And we have both in process, the documentary we've had to hold off on because of Covid. So everything sort of started there. And then when I had this final fall, that's when I said to Ken, "I think we ought to be careful what we book from now on because I think it's progressing to the point where I'm not so stable anymore." So that's when he said we should probably not do my first ever co-headline tour with Alice Cooper. We've been friends for years, I sat in with him. So I had to call Alice and say, "This is what I have, I'm gonna announce it soon now, but I won't be able to do our tour because I think I probably only have a couple of years left of actual touring and I have to do my farewell tour right now." He totally understood and just wanted to know how I was. But that was it. It all sort of came pretty close together as soon as I got the diagnosis, before I announced it, that's when the idea started coming in about doing other stuff like that.
Baltin: Were there emotions triggered by the book, whether writing about your parents or your early friendship with David Bowie?
Frampton: The thing is, being an artist, constantly doing interviews because of new tours, new projects, new albums, everybody is always asking about my entire life. So to be honest, I would have to say, even though there are things in the book that I've never said in interviews because it's my thoughts about life in general, a lot of it I think is pretty much in there forever for me. I haven't forgotten maybe as much as some other people might have because I'm always constantly being tested, if you like. "Okay, so you've got a new album coming out. How was your last six months?" It's like you're on the couch every time you release something (laughs). So I don't think there was too much, just my mindset at a particular moment. It wasn't revealing, but it was interesting to go back and put myself back in that position and feel some of those great feelings and those bad feelings. When the hairs start standing up and you get goose bumps you know you've hit on a part in your life where it means an awful lot to you, good or bad. And the goose bumps cam appear for good or bad. So I think those are special moments and I just yesterday finished reading for 10 days my audio book. I did it myself and really enjoyed it. There's a lot of humor in there obviously, as well as there are huge highs and huge lows. But I did enjoy reading it. And there were moments when my co-producer of this audio book, Eric Stuart, he's the voice of Pokemon, as well as many others, he's a voice actor, so he's my coach. But he's always been my coach and he's just wonderful. So it's just the two of us in my studio. He's in a control room and I'm in a booth. But I could see him take his glasses off a couple of times and wipe his eyes when I was doing the same thing because there were moments where the goose bumps were huge. You know when something means that much to you, whether it be a great feeling or a bad feeling. And we've all got our battles in life. Everyone should know that, there are always ups and downs.
Baltin: What were the moments that stirred up the most emotion?
Frampton: The good is obviously the call for when the album was number one, that call. Bigger goose bumps (laughs) was when I got the call saying it was the biggest-selling record of all time. It's those two, and then there are things about my children. Whenever I talk about my children I get huge goose bumps, good or bad, whatever it is. I think people will grasp which those points are.
Baltin: Were there memoirs or authors you looked to while you were writing this book?
Frampton: David Niven, the actor, wrote a book called The Moon Is A Balloon and it's basically his story, his memoir, and all the people he met. And he had a great sense of humor. And he would find humor in sad things just like I tried to bring to my book because it's the way I feel about certain things. But I love the fact that there were not great things in that book, but he always came back with another story that just had you belly laughing. So there were illuminating stories about certain actors and actresses that I just found to be behind the scenes. And see the humor in it. I think his book, The Moon Is A Balloon, I always said when I read that, "If I ever get asked to do a book I hope it makes people feel the same way I felt when I finished his book."
Baltin: So did you touch upon that David Niven moment for you in writing the book?
Frampton: Not directly, but the book's imbibed with my resilience and my humor. And the two go very well together because you had to find humor in order to get back out of a ditch if you know what I mean. You have to pick yourself up and then you've got to be able to laugh at yourself and say, "Well, you're not gonna do that again, are you?"
Baltin: Was there a favorite book in childhood?
Frampton: For me it was never books, it was always music. I feel now that maybe I was slightly dyslexic. I'm a learner by hearing. I have audio books (laughs). I'm listening to Hiding In Plain Sight by Sarah Kendzior and I think I would have read a lot more and I am reading a lot more right now with audio books.
Baltin: What do you take from this story that you hope others get as well?
Frampton: Ever since I commandeered the family bathroom in our house for an echo chamber when I was about 12, that sort of set me apart (laughs). My parents had no idea what I was doing and were just amazed. I've been a tech-y person. I guess if I hadn't been a musician, I would have just been an engineer or something. I think learning from my mistakes was the biggest lesson, like my career was frontloaded. So much happened between the time I was 14 and 19, it's amazing. You get to about page 150 and I'm still four (cracks up). So I think what I take away from it is that I see the way that I got through my life and the problems and the success, which caused problems, was basically thanks to my parents for bringing me up grounded, finding fun in one's self, never taking one's self too seriously and then from them, the perseverance they gave me, that survivor instinct we all have, but I just got an extra scoop of it.
