Peter Frampton Is Still Coming Alive — Here’s What the ’70s Guitar God Is Doing Today
Though his most famous album is synonymous with late ’70s classic rock, Peter Frampton is more than just Frampton Comes Alive! The singer-guitarist’s long career has taken him from a 1960s run with Humble Pie, to teaching Billy Crudup how to act like a rock star on the set of Almost Famous, to his recently-wrapped national tour — a return to the stage after previous health struggles made it seem like Frampton would never play live again.
So if you feel like we do, read on and learn all about what Peter Frampton has been up to.
The Early Years
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A childhood friend of David Bowie, Frampton was born in 1950 and grew up in Kent, UK. He was something of rock ‘n’ roll prodigy, and began forming bands at age 12. By 14, he was playing with a working rock band called Moon’s Train, who were successful enough to be managed by the Rolling Stones‘ Bill Wyman.
By 16, he joined the Herd as lead singer and guitarist; the band had some UK hits and toured opening for the Jimi Hendrix Experience. But Frampton was singled out by the press at the breakout star of the group, and treated as a handsome teen idol — a situation that frustrated him, and led him to exit the group in 1968.
In that same year, Steve Marriott of the Small Faces made plans to have Frampton join the band; he appeared on stage with the Small Faces at a few gigs, but ultimately, Ronnie Lane and Ian McLagan vetoed the idea. Marriott’s enthusiasm for helping Frampton played a role in the Small Faces’ demise; when that band broke up, Marriott and Frampton formed Humble Pie, one of the first rock ‘n’ roll super groups.
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Humble Pie released their debut album, As Safe As Yesterday, in 1969, to immediate UK chart success. A popular live act, Humble Pie saw their greatest chart success with the live album Performance Rockin the Fillmore, which reached 21 on the Billboard album charts. Frampton left the band at this time, to pursue a solo career.
Coming Alive
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Frampton began his solo career with 1972’s Winds of Change. In the years that followed, he toured extensively and released an album each year, but none of them hit the big time … until 1976’s Frampton Comes Alive!
Recorded in 1975 at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom, Frampton Comes Alive! was an unmitigated hit, spending 10 non-consecutive weeks as the Billboard number one album in America. It yielded three top 10 singles that remain Frampton’s biggest hits to this day — “Baby, I Love Your Way,” “Show Me the Way,” and “Do You Feel Like We Do” — and debuted the “talking guitar” effect that is still closely associated with him. By the year’s end, it was the bestselling album of 1976, and was voted Album of the Year by Rolling Stone.
In the following years, things went less smoothly: Frampton was in a near-fatal car crash in 1978, and in 1980, he was thought to have lost all of his guitars, including the “Phenix” guitar used on Frampton Comes Alive!, in a horrific cargo plane crash that killed four people. Musically, the ’80s were a quieter period; though he released several albums, they did not approach the dizzying highs of Frampton Comes Alive!
But as the decade ended, some projects began to pick up speed. In 1986, his song “Lying,” off the album Premonition, gained radio airplay. And in 1987, he reconnected with his old school chum David Bowie, playing on the album Never Let Me Down and the accompanying Glass Spider tour.
In 1991, Frampton and Marriot again joined forces, writing new material and planning a joint tour; however, Marriott tragically died in a house fire in the middle of their planning.
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Frampton on Film
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Though Frampton had dabbled in film in the past (including an appearance in the 1978 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band film), in the ’90s, Hollywood seemed to develop a minor fascination with him. In 1992, he filmed a cameo for Wayne’s World that sadly ended up on the cutting room floor. But other nods to Frampton made it through: in 1994, a reggae cover of “Baby, I Love Your Way” by Big Mountain appeared prominently in the film Reality Bites and on the soundtrack, reaching number six on the Billboard charts.
And in 1996, he made a charmingly self-parodying appearance on an episode of The Simpsons. He later as “one of the most enjoyable things I’ve ever done.”
In 2000, Frampton worked as the technical advisor on Almost Famous, writer-director Cameron Crowe‘s homage to ’70s rock via the story of an imaginary band called Stillwater. Frampton wrote several of the fictional band’s songs, played guitar on the recordings, and coached Billy Crudup, who played the band’s guitarist, on how to, as Frampton put it, “play guitar well enough to look like a guitar god.” He also had a small cameo as Reg, the real-life road manager for Humble Pie.
The next year saw him pop up on another cartoon — this time, Family Guy, where supernatural forces lead him to serenade the Griffins with “Baby, I Love Your Way.”
Frampton released a number of albums throughout the ’90s and early 2000s, including 1995’s Frampton Comes Alive! II, which included live versions of his ’80s and ’90s material. In 2007, he won his first Grammy for Best Pop Instrumental Album, for the 2006 album Fingerprints.
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In 2011, it was discovered that Frampton’s “Phenix” guitar was not destroyed in the 1980 plane crash after all; it had been discovered by a South American musician in a secondhand shop. He had to engage in complex negotiations that involved the Venezuelan government, but eventually, Frampton was able to purchase it for $5000.
From Retirement to ‘Positively Thankful’
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In 2019, Frampton announced “Peter Frampton Finale—The Farewell Tour,” a US tour that would conclude with his retirement from live music. But Frampton’s reason for retiring wasn’t spending more time with his family or tiring of the grueling pace of life on the road; rather, Frampton had been diagnosed with the disorder inclusion body myositis, which leads to muscle atrophy and weakness. As the disease progressed, playing music would become a struggle for him.
However, this story has a happy ending — or at least, a happier one than Frampton anticipated when he announced his retirement. Though the UK dates of his farewell tour were initially canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he played them in 2022, and found that he was still able to perform live. He began performing while seated, but could still play guitar — as he told an interviewer in 2023, “Whatever I have, a muscle disease, it has given me more time, it’s progressing so slowly. It’s quite amazing what an audience and never-give-up attitude will do.” Frampton is still playing live whenever he is able to, and just wrapped up a US tour a month ago. Its name? “The Positively Thankful Tour.”
He’ll be inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame on October 19, 2024.
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