Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Come on, admit it. If you're my age, you remember
Speaker 1: exactly where you were when you first heard this. That's
Speaker 1: the sound of twenty year old Peter Frampton performing what
Speaker 1: would become one of the top selling live records of
Speaker 1: all time. It was five and Frampton Comes Alive would
Speaker 1: change his life. He was young, but hardly a newcomer.
Speaker 1: By then, he'd already made four solo records for her
Speaker 1: Albert and Jerry Moss of an M Records. Frampton, who
Speaker 1: recorded his first album when he was fourteen, started Humble
Speaker 1: Pie when he was eighteen. Frampton's signature sound is a
Speaker 1: mixture of virtuosic guitar a powerful voice in this electronic
Speaker 1: device called a talk box. As it turns out, the
Speaker 1: talk box wasn't his first successful foray into the world
Speaker 1: of musical gadgets. I realized that I was a techie
Speaker 1: when I was very young. I got my first reel
Speaker 1: to reel tape machine, and then I figured out that
Speaker 1: if I got another one, I could go sound on sound,
Speaker 1: you know, before any multi tracking sort of thing, you know,
Speaker 1: And I figured that out pretty early. I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, ten or eleven. So I've been an engineer
Speaker 1: as long as as long as I've been a music
Speaker 1: that's helped you as a musician. You know, you're talking
Speaker 1: to somebody who your music is like so important to
Speaker 1: me about me growing up when I was a kid
Speaker 1: and you were very young then, I mean humble kid,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, yeah, you know when I was growing
Speaker 1: there was like the Beatles, the Stones, Zeppelin, the Who
Speaker 1: and Humble Pie. You don't want to know what I
Speaker 1: put in my body listening to I mean, you don't
Speaker 1: want to know. But anyway, So but my point is
Speaker 1: that do you think that that work has made you
Speaker 1: a better musician? Because you are such a virtuosic guitarist
Speaker 1: and such a great guitarist. Sound is very inspirational to me.
Speaker 1: I remember the reason that I wanted to learn guitar
Speaker 1: was because I heard the sounds of all these people
Speaker 1: on TV and on the radio electric guitar very young
Speaker 1: and something. I have a very acute sense of sound,
Speaker 1: and I've always had that if I don't have a
Speaker 1: good sound, I can't play very well. So I've always
Speaker 1: worked out what makes a good sound? How do you
Speaker 1: get a good sound technically technically and then one of
Speaker 1: the first sessions I ever did, Bill Wyman of The
Speaker 1: Stones produced it when I was fourteen, and the first
Speaker 1: engineer I worked with was Glynn Jones, who is if
Speaker 1: people don't know, he's one of the most famous engineers
Speaker 1: of all style Zeppelin Eagles that the band everybody Yeah,
Speaker 1: humble by and then being a gadget freak. Early on,
Speaker 1: I just was over like a little birdie on their
Speaker 1: shoulder and I was, what's that? What are you doing there?
Speaker 1: I just learned how to engineers, so I really enjoy
Speaker 1: that part of it as well immensely. How do you
Speaker 1: end up as a fourteen year old and Wyman wants
Speaker 1: to produce your I started playing guitar just before I
Speaker 1: was eight years old. And we're either your parents musical Yes,
Speaker 1: um in England, Yes, about twelve miles south of London
Speaker 1: and Bromley, Kent. And my mother was definitely would have
Speaker 1: been an entertainer. She was, but my parents wouldn't allow
Speaker 1: her to become an actress. She wanted to be an actress.
Speaker 1: Her father was a singer. Yes, we have a lot
Speaker 1: of musical jeans and dad my dad played his teacher artist.
Speaker 1: He played guitar in a college dance band before the war,
Speaker 1: before he was more into his art, but he did.
Speaker 1: He was the one that taught me how to sing
Speaker 1: Michael Rowe the boat, you know, with two chords basically
Speaker 1: and then hang down your head. Tom Dooley was another
Speaker 1: big eeform. Then it was Eddie Cochrane, Buddy Holly and
Speaker 1: our English the Shadows, cliff Ridgard and the Shadows. So
Speaker 1: that's how I started playing guitar because of American music. Obviously,
Speaker 1: that's what we all did, and we were all clamoring
Speaker 1: for American music before the Beatles and then so I
Speaker 1: was known in locally as this young, little upstart, good
Speaker 1: guitar player, very young. Ended up in a semipro band
Speaker 1: still at school that had the drummer that was the
Speaker 1: original drummer of the Rolling Stones called Tony Chapman, who
Speaker 1: introduced Bill to the Stones that he didn't end up
Speaker 1: staying in the Stones, and Bill felt he owed him
Speaker 1: a a favor. I would say said, look, put a
Speaker 1: band together and I'll produce it. And he comes into
Speaker 1: the music shop I'm working on the Saturdays when I'm
Speaker 1: about fourteen and restringing guitars for the guy there. He said,
Speaker 1: I want you to be in my band, you know.
Speaker 1: I said, well, I have to speak to dad, you
Speaker 1: know sort of thing. The first thing I know, we're
Speaker 1: in a van. We pick up Bill Wyman and Penge
Speaker 1: who sits in the front. The van goes very quiet.
Speaker 1: We've got a rolling stone in front seat. We go
Speaker 1: up to London and I meet Glenn John's and we
Speaker 1: make a record like everyone is talking about soul. Did
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Record? It was called A
Speaker 1: Hole in My Soul and it was a cover of
Speaker 1: an American song and what was the name of the band,
Speaker 1: The Preachers. So that was it, and so music was
Speaker 1: your entire life. Yes, you're in the guitar shop and Kent, Yeah,
Speaker 1: fixing strings on guitars from people shining guitars. And the
Speaker 1: next thing you know, Bill Wyman's in the car and
Speaker 1: you're off to go and do Holding my Soul with
Speaker 1: the Preachers. Yes, I mean like he woked around us
Speaker 1: so much. FID what year is this? This is sixty four,
Speaker 1: So the Stones were and the Beatles were in full
Speaker 1: swing by then, Yes, we did that year. The Stones
Speaker 1: were given Ready steady go. They took over the show
Speaker 1: Ready Steady Go for one week, and each one of
Speaker 1: the Stones had their choice of act to be on,
Speaker 1: you know, and of course Bill chose us. So I'm
Speaker 1: on TV when I'm just before I'm i turned fifteen?
Speaker 1: Is there any foot that if anybody's got it, Bill's
Speaker 1: got it because he's he's the historian, you know. But
Speaker 1: that was pretty amazing. Do you miss living in England?
Speaker 1: You're such an American in so many ways. You lived
Speaker 1: here for years, haven't two years? Seventy seventy five, I
Speaker 1: came to New York. Actually I missed my family, my
Speaker 1: brother and his family. I miss friends and stuff, but
Speaker 1: my children are here. When I first came to America
Speaker 1: with Humble Pie and I turned on the radio, I said,
Speaker 1: I'm moving here, it just seemed like this was the place.
Speaker 1: It was all happening with the old and the Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I'd lived through the swinging sixties of London, you know,
Speaker 1: and that was exciting too. And I love England, don't
Speaker 1: get me wrong, I just don't think I would ever
Speaker 1: live there again. I was just I'd be too far
Speaker 1: from my kids. Yeah. So when you finish the hole
Speaker 1: in my soul on the show with Bill Wyman. He's
Speaker 1: your selection there on the show. What happens then? Then, um,
Speaker 1: I'm sixteen. It's school holidays in the summer of big
Speaker 1: local band The Herd come to me and say, we
Speaker 1: saw you in the breaches and we're having a change around.
Speaker 1: Would you come and help us out for the summer.
Speaker 1: So I said, okay. So it gets close to September
Speaker 1: when I'm going to go back to school and they said,
Speaker 1: here's an offer. We want you to be the lead
Speaker 1: guitarist and the lead guitarists going to play bass, and
Speaker 1: we want to be a four piece out of five piece,
Speaker 1: and would you join the Herd? I said, oh, I hear.
Speaker 1: I've got to go back to school, do my sixth form,
Speaker 1: get my A levels and go to Guildhall School in
Speaker 1: the music. That was my plan to go to music college.
Speaker 1: You know, a beard right at least? Yeah, I haven't
Speaker 1: even had a shandy yet, you know. So I went
Speaker 1: to dad and mom and I said, look, I really
Speaker 1: want to do this. It is a professional band. You know,
Speaker 1: they're great, they're big band. And my dad said well,
Speaker 1: and they knew that this was on the cards, you know,
Speaker 1: this was coming up that they knew by this time
Speaker 1: I was going to be a musician, and so he said, well, look,
Speaker 1: if you let tier and you've got a job at
Speaker 1: the post office, you get fifteen pounds a week. I
Speaker 1: want to get an assurance from this band that you're
Speaker 1: going to get fifteen pounds a week. I said, well,
Speaker 1: if he can do that deal, that that'll be great.
Speaker 1: I don't think they earn enough to pay themselves sifting
Speaker 1: both said, well that's what you I'm going minimum wage
Speaker 1: for you. So that was the last deal my dad
Speaker 1: did for me. Because we started to become a little
Speaker 1: better and earn more money. Beginning, they couldn't pay themselves fifty.
Speaker 1: Eventually it was a bargain, yeah, because they paid me fifteen.
Speaker 1: They got up style. So that was the end of
Speaker 1: him as a manager. Everything changed and The Herd became
Speaker 1: had like three big top ten hits and and I
Speaker 1: became very well known in Europe as a guitar player singer.
Speaker 1: Now by the time you leave the Herd, you leave
Speaker 1: them in what year? The Herd? After the the these
Speaker 1: three big hits and an album, we realized that we
Speaker 1: were losing money still and there was no reason because
Speaker 1: we saw the figures, what was coming in and what
Speaker 1: we were getting paid and all that. So we reached
Speaker 1: out and Steve Merritt and Ronnie Lane of the Small
Speaker 1: Faces said, look, we've been through this. We've been screwed,
Speaker 1: you know, by management or business manager or whatever. They
Speaker 1: clued us in, which was very nice to them, and
Speaker 1: said they helped us produce a track or two on
Speaker 1: on the next album we were going to do, which
Speaker 1: they did. Meanwhile, I'm sitting in with the Small Faces
Speaker 1: now at various functions and and wanted to join the
Speaker 1: Small Faces. That wasn't to be. Steve wanted me to
Speaker 1: join the Small Faces, but they weren't so thrilled with that.
Speaker 1: So in the end Steve called me up and said, look,
Speaker 1: I've left the Small Faces, Let's form a band. And
Speaker 1: that's how Humble Pie basically formed in right at the
Speaker 1: end of in sixty eight. So the two of those
Speaker 1: things closely overlapped at the end of the herd and
Speaker 1: forming the Humble Pie. Yes, And it was basically two
Speaker 1: x teeny bopus does Steve Marratt was like the face
Speaker 1: of sixty seven and I was the face of sixty
Speaker 1: eight sort of thing. And by sixty eight. How old
Speaker 1: are you now? You're eighteen years old and you've been
Speaker 1: doing this professionally since you were fourteen years old, and
Speaker 1: you're in the world of rock and roll, and especially
Speaker 1: as we go from the sixties from sixty and it
Speaker 1: gets a little more grainy, if you will, it gets
Speaker 1: a little more vivid in terms of drugs and sex
Speaker 1: of the culture. Was that difficult for you to be
Speaker 1: the underaged you know, man child? I mean, you're you're
Speaker 1: you're like Mozart, You're like this prodigy, but you're a
Speaker 1: kid and you're in this rule with some pretty I
Speaker 1: would imagine this pretty hard living people. Well, yeah, I
Speaker 1: was pretty much of a late bloomer. I had to
Speaker 1: really learn to drink, you know, people that expect you to.
Speaker 1: I think, so this is yeah, it doesn't matter your age,
Speaker 1: didn't really like you're in the army. Yeah, exact, you
Speaker 1: got to swear and drink, you know, and now do drugs.
Speaker 1: But I passed out so many times from anxiety attacks
Speaker 1: from part I'm trying to get please. But anyway, I
Speaker 1: managed it in the end, but not really. When I
Speaker 1: was with Humble Pie, what changed. I think it was
Speaker 1: my solo career and then getting to the point where
Speaker 1: it was surreal, we're gonna get that. But that was
Speaker 1: the time. So you with humble Pie and you're in England, Yes,
Speaker 1: and you perform with them for how many years? Seventy one?
Speaker 1: Four years? And well, how would you characterize that period
Speaker 1: for stuff? Did you enjoy it? Unbelievable? They were very
Speaker 1: popular Yes, in the States as well. Yes, that band
Speaker 1: brought me to America where that's where we started. I
Speaker 1: met I mean probably one of the first gigs I
Speaker 1: met Bill Graham. You know, you realized now when I
Speaker 1: look back, it was the beginning things of the creation
Speaker 1: of rock and roll shows. Truly. Bill Graham was the
Speaker 1: guy on how to do it live? Where would you
Speaker 1: record humble Pie in London? We recorded an Olympic in
Speaker 1: the famous Olympic where the Stones and Zeppelin recorded, and
Speaker 1: I did all my solo stuff there as well. Either
Speaker 1: there are Island Studios which Chris Black's place. You never
Speaker 1: recorded in the US? No, No, The first thing we
Speaker 1: ever did was record the live album of humble Pie
Speaker 1: at the film All and Why did humble Pie And
Speaker 1: a couple of reasons. I was feeling claustrophobic in the
Speaker 1: band because we started off very democratic and doing it
Speaker 1: all different types of music, and now our our stage
Speaker 1: act was narrowing and we were just doing more more
Speaker 1: of that heavy rock and roll, which I love. Don't
Speaker 1: get me wrong. That's my riff, I don't need no Doctor.
Speaker 1: That's me jamming the sound check in Madison Square Garden
Speaker 1: and Steve just jumped up on the stage and started singing,
Speaker 1: I Don't need no Doctor over that riff. He and
Speaker 1: I were very much singing, yeah, yeah, he's the one
Speaker 1: that says it's been a gas. Yeah, we go home
Speaker 1: on Monday. On Monday. But what I'm tell that he
Speaker 1: was probably a couple of years old, and when you
Speaker 1: feel claustrophobic white because we want I wasn't being able
Speaker 1: to do the music, all of this music that I
Speaker 1: wanted to do. Humble Pie started off really split between
Speaker 1: acoustic and electric. And also I was coming into my
Speaker 1: own and Steve and I fought like brothers. Yes, that's
Speaker 1: which we is why Humble Pie was so fiery, I
Speaker 1: think because musically it was phenomenal. You know, sometimes we
Speaker 1: degree and sometimes we just wouldn't agree. It was very
Speaker 1: sad for me because I knew it would upset them,
Speaker 1: but I just felt that I had to. It was
Speaker 1: time to go on. And did you know where you
Speaker 1: wanted to go? No idea, I knew that I was.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to form another band. I wanted to
Speaker 1: become a solo artist. Why because I wanted to make
Speaker 1: all the decisions, because I'm a complete control freak. Did
Speaker 1: you feel you wanted Yeah, you want to try things that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I wanted to try things that maybe other people wouldn't
Speaker 1: want to try. You know, I wanted to do it.
Speaker 1: And I have to say that it wouldn't have been
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have had a solo career had it not
Speaker 1: been for Humble Pie. I learned so much from working
Speaker 1: with Steve Marriott. I have to hand him a lot
Speaker 1: of the credit for the sort of things that he
Speaker 1: introduced me to listen too as well, music blues and
Speaker 1: built black combo and stuff like that. That was really
Speaker 1: influential to me. So that's why it was a bitter
Speaker 1: sweet thing leaving. I wanted to leave, but I didn't
Speaker 1: want to leave. And then, of course, as soon as
Speaker 1: I left, the live album that I had a big
Speaker 1: hand in mixing because I'm the Gadget Freak in the
Speaker 1: Engineer with Eddie Kramer rock in the film or comes Out.
Speaker 1: I've left right at that point, and it zooms up
Speaker 1: the charts. It's Humble Pie's first gold record, and I'm going,
Speaker 1: holy crap, that's it. It's the first big blooper of
Speaker 1: my career. You know, I've made a big mistake. Seems
Speaker 1: like Dad's back on the job in the office game.
Speaker 1: I frammed him at this time, Yes, absolutely so. Then
Speaker 1: it was four studio albums before we did Comes Alive,
Speaker 1: you know, and a lot of a lot of touring
Speaker 1: and where are you living then? You still I was
Speaker 1: still living in England until seventy five, when I finished
Speaker 1: the fourth solo record in England and then moved over.
Speaker 1: I actually moved to New York and stayed at the
Speaker 1: Mount Kisco Holiday Inn on New Year's Eve. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: was beautiful, and found Bob Mayo Bob Mayo on keyboards
Speaker 1: from the live record in the band at the holiday
Speaker 1: and it's it's a long story, but yeah. So basically
Speaker 1: the first day of seventy five was I was now
Speaker 1: living in America. When you do Comes Alive, how much
Speaker 1: of the music on that is new music on an album.
Speaker 1: How much of it was stuff you mind from the
Speaker 1: previous four solo albums. It was basically all stuff that
Speaker 1: came from the four studio albums, and rock On from
Speaker 1: shine On was a humble Pie track that I had written.
Speaker 1: It was actually from five albums, So it's like six
Speaker 1: years worth of work mining that went into that one
Speaker 1: live record. And for people who don't know that live
Speaker 1: performance was recorded in multiple locations, are in one. Most
Speaker 1: of it was one location, which was winter Land in
Speaker 1: Sanrancisco of Bill Graham gig where The Last Wolves was
Speaker 1: filmed two nights before we'd played the Marine Civic Center
Speaker 1: and we've done two shows there, so we recorded that.
Speaker 1: I think a couple of numbers came from there, do
Speaker 1: WI I think comes from there, maybe one of the
Speaker 1: acoustic songs. But winter Land was the first big headline
Speaker 1: show we'd ever done, I'd ever done with my name
Speaker 1: on the ticket people were coming to see me for
Speaker 1: because the album right prior to Comes Live Just Frampton
Speaker 1: was the biggest one so far, biggest sellery had done,
Speaker 1: sold like three hundred thousand copies, which was mega for me.
Speaker 1: That was better than all things in that four album run.
Speaker 1: Prior to the live album in winter Land, things were
Speaker 1: getting better than the same that they were, but that
Speaker 1: one was definitely I'm setting me up. It was setting
Speaker 1: me up for something. How many nights at winter Land
Speaker 1: on one show? Okay? Okay, so stop, so let's cut
Speaker 1: the bullshit. Let's cut the bullshit. You're in winter Land,
Speaker 1: and would you say, and the show goes on what time?
Speaker 1: Eight o'clock, nine o'clock, nine o'clock, yeah, probably probably somewhere,
Speaker 1: and so somewhere between you pull up to winter Land
Speaker 1: and you go out of quarter to nine, the devil
Speaker 1: came in your room and made a deal with you. Correct,
Speaker 1: you signed a deal with the devil, showed up, poured
Speaker 1: himself a drink, sat down, said Peter. Peter, Peter, Peter,
Speaker 1: let's cut, let's cut. It was Peter Cook. Actually it
Speaker 1: was Peter Cook, and he's and he said, let's make
Speaker 1: a deal. And the devil makes this deal with you.
Speaker 1: Because what happened, First of all, there's probably, if I'm
Speaker 1: not mistaken, there wasn't people out there then. I thought
Speaker 1: they were set, but it's it definitely sounds like it.
Speaker 1: It's a big room. They go nuts when we walk
Speaker 1: out and it just takes you to a different level.
Speaker 1: You know. It felt good. It was one of those
Speaker 1: shows when you come off and you look at the
Speaker 1: band and you just go, I wish we'd recorded that.
Speaker 1: That was like so good man. And then we went
Speaker 1: who we did? You know? We did record that? We
Speaker 1: forgot we were do you see? The event was so
Speaker 1: much more important than the recording. I don't even remember
Speaker 1: the truck being there. The recording is June of five Minutes,
Speaker 1: released when we're still mixing right up for Christmas, and
Speaker 1: then it comes out, I believe on like January seventeenth
Speaker 1: or something like that, January nine or what happens? Well,
Speaker 1: I knew we were going to tour the whole year,
Speaker 1: so right after Christmas, I went down to the Bahamas
Speaker 1: for ten days and relaxed. Before I left, we had
Speaker 1: put one show on at Cobo Hall in Detroit, which
Speaker 1: is a big rum and that's all I knew. And
Speaker 1: so I go away and I don't call anybody. I'm
Speaker 1: just on the beach and snorkeling or whatever. I come back.
Speaker 1: We've sold four shows out, and I said, what happened?
Speaker 1: You know? And the album has just started to be
Speaker 1: on the radio, you know, and that's when everything just
Speaker 1: went went through the roof, you know, after all this time.
Speaker 1: People think it is overnight, but it's not overnight in
Speaker 1: the scheme of things. But but it's a huge leap
Speaker 1: for you. Yes, but it's not overnight success, but it is.
Speaker 1: It's a heady experience. Is it still the highest selling
Speaker 1: live album of all time? It's in dispute, yeah, but
Speaker 1: up there, yeah, because my record is only counted as
Speaker 1: one one album. Certain other artists had it made so
Speaker 1: that you could count um, if you released six CD
Speaker 1: live set, you can count it six times, while they
Speaker 1: didn't do that retroactively. So in my mind it's still
Speaker 1: the biggest selling and eventually how many albums did yourself?
Speaker 1: We're up in the seventeen million now seventeen million records
Speaker 1: of right, this is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to
Speaker 1: Here's the Thing back with more of Peter Frampton. When
Speaker 1: you come out of that experience and having this huge thing,
Speaker 1: I want to talk to you not about how it
Speaker 1: affected your career wise, because obviously that wasn't important. How
Speaker 1: did it affect you personally? Were you married at the time.
Speaker 1: I had a girlfriend at the time. I don't think
Speaker 1: anybody can be ready for that kind of success, and
Speaker 1: I'm pretty down to earth person. I take things as
Speaker 1: they come. As I said earlier to you, I was
Speaker 1: a late bloomer when it came to dulling anything. You know,
Speaker 1: it was almost unbelievable the amount of success. Get these
Speaker 1: phone calls in quick succession, your number one in in
Speaker 1: the charts, you know, and I'm going, wait a second,
Speaker 1: say that one more time, and who are you? And
Speaker 1: then within three or four weeks of that, I get
Speaker 1: the call saying it the biggest selling record of all time.
Speaker 1: You've just outsold Carol King's tapestry and it's um was
Speaker 1: that the time you thought of you had to start
Speaker 1: them in yourself? Yeah, it was crazy because people just
Speaker 1: wanted how to deal with that. No, it was very
Speaker 1: don't know how to deal with how people treat you
Speaker 1: differently exactly, and being always being respectful and and never
Speaker 1: really thinking of myself as anything special because I've never
Speaker 1: been That's just not my do you. I felt embarrassed
Speaker 1: that I was that this entity became it was me
Speaker 1: over here, you know. Yes, it was very hard to
Speaker 1: deal with. What were you proud of the record. Oh
Speaker 1: my god. Yeah, I'm still because it's one thing when
Speaker 1: people become famous and have, regardless of their of the
Speaker 1: ramp up, regardless of the whole timeline of their career,
Speaker 1: and then they have some sizemic event like that and
Speaker 1: they don't really deserve it. And me, in your case,
Speaker 1: you're great, I mean you really are phenomenal. But aside
Speaker 1: from your own gifts, who helped really really make the
Speaker 1: record roll out that way? Jerry Jerry deaf Well. I
Speaker 1: have to say Jerry and Hub for sticking with me
Speaker 1: as they stuck with Humble Pie too. They stuck with police.
Speaker 1: They stuck while police happen pretty quickly. But there's a
Speaker 1: lot of acts in those days that needed nurturing, needed nurturing,
Speaker 1: and it was like a club, you know, you come
Speaker 1: over here, and Jerry and Herb never told us what
Speaker 1: to write or what to record. They let us do
Speaker 1: our thing and find ourselves. And I have to say
Speaker 1: the Anthony the manager, was a great promoter. He wasn't
Speaker 1: terrific with finances, but especially mine. And then Frank Barcelona,
Speaker 1: the agent, who was if you want with Frank, you
Speaker 1: weren't anybody you know that was premier talent was the
Speaker 1: city handle everybody Springsteen, let's up, I mean everybody, the who,
Speaker 1: the lot? Everybody? Did that plague you with the I'm
Speaker 1: about finances? Did you find that that that you didn't
Speaker 1: get what you thought was fair? Well? I was ripped off,
Speaker 1: I mean. But but I would go back and talk
Speaker 1: to Bill Wyman, you know, because he's sort of like
Speaker 1: my mentor my my older brother. He said, we all
Speaker 1: get ripped off Stones the Beatles, we all got ripped off,
Speaker 1: you know, and then you learn and go and do
Speaker 1: it again. You know. I'll tell you why it happens.
Speaker 1: It's because I'm a musician. I'm a creative person. I've
Speaker 1: never done what I do for money. I'm stupid when
Speaker 1: it comes to money, you know. And you had a
Speaker 1: lot of money on the table, yes, so I trusted
Speaker 1: people to look after things for me, and they didn't.
Speaker 1: They took it. Did that change after you had the
Speaker 1: number one selling album in the world. But that's when
Speaker 1: it happened, That's when it started. And some people don't
Speaker 1: happen to over and over again. But I have a
Speaker 1: team now that I wish I had then, obviously, but
Speaker 1: and I become I actually treated myself in math a
Speaker 1: little bit after No, But it's you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: I have to blame myself as much as I blame
Speaker 1: everybody else. I mean, you most want to believe as
Speaker 1: I do, that that I couldn't do. You might not
Speaker 1: have been able to do the work you did on
Speaker 1: the level you did if your mind was on something else. Yeah,
Speaker 1: when something really big hits in the entertainment business, it's
Speaker 1: like feast or famine. It's either it's not a hit movie, record, whatever,
Speaker 1: and nothing comes in, or it's like a blockbuster and
Speaker 1: all this money comes in and it all comes into
Speaker 1: one place. And when you see a pile of money
Speaker 1: like this, it brings out thoughts that people didn't normally
Speaker 1: have before, you know what I mean. It's the the
Speaker 1: availability of all that cash all at once. You know that. Well,
Speaker 1: especially in the music business, because it's nothing like the
Speaker 1: music business for making money except for the fact that
Speaker 1: music is free. Now well, it's it is different now, yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean, you used to tour to promote the record,
Speaker 1: and now you make the record to promote the tour.
Speaker 1: The record is a giveaway, the c D is a giveaway.
Speaker 1: The dollars are in the live performing. Yes, that's how
Speaker 1: it is for you. Well, yeah, that's that's start. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And luckily my reputation is as a live performer, so
Speaker 1: it's been phenomenal for me. But it's hard work touring,
Speaker 1: but I love it, so that's not hard work for me.
Speaker 1: You came into New York recently and you did that
Speaker 1: at the Beacon here in New York. Yes, And how
Speaker 1: many shows did you do? For most of thirteen months,
Speaker 1: we were doing five shows a week, and it's a
Speaker 1: three hour show, so we were doing Comes Alive first,
Speaker 1: which is an hour and forty and then we were
Speaker 1: doing excerpts from everything else in my career as well
Speaker 1: for another hour and fifteen or you know, so it
Speaker 1: was we were killing ourselves. How did it feel? Well?
Speaker 1: It felt great. The first show we did was in
Speaker 1: New Jersey, the first time you did Comes to Live,
Speaker 1: first time we played it since seventy six, you know.
Speaker 1: And then the second show was the Beacon, the place
Speaker 1: one nuts. You know, they just went berserve. You know
Speaker 1: you're gonna do it again. I don't know whether I'll
Speaker 1: do the entire thing again, Comes Alive again, Not for
Speaker 1: a while anyway, damn it. No, No, you. We filmed
Speaker 1: it and the film it Yeah, at the Beacon and
Speaker 1: in what are youna do with that? Where is that going?
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a DVD. In fact, that's where I'm
Speaker 1: going on Sunday to go back home to my studio
Speaker 1: to mix the audio. What are you gonna do when
Speaker 1: you're gonna release it as a dis is a DVD? Now?
Speaker 1: Probably just be a DVD. And I don't want to
Speaker 1: do this on TV. Oh i'd love to. Yeah, have
Speaker 1: you got an in there? Maybe? Oh? I can't believe
Speaker 1: if it's a doctor. Are there any backstage footage? I've
Speaker 1: got the story and it's filmed of when my guitar
Speaker 1: was returned. What happened to that guitar? What's the story? Well, Um,
Speaker 1: first of all, we're talking about the guitar that's on
Speaker 1: the front cover of Comes Alive, which I got given
Speaker 1: to me by Mark Marian in seventy when I was
Speaker 1: playing the film or West with Humble Pie, and I
Speaker 1: was having a terrible time with the guitar that I
Speaker 1: had at that that night and Mark said to me,
Speaker 1: you know, I could see you having problems with that.
Speaker 1: You want to try my less Paul tomorrow. I said, well,
Speaker 1: I'm not really big on less pause, but okay, all right,
Speaker 1: anything is better than this. So he brought it to me.
Speaker 1: I played it. I don't think my feet touched the
Speaker 1: ground the entire That's the best guitar I've ever played.
Speaker 1: Fifty So then I played that guitar on Rock On
Speaker 1: and also of Humble Pie and also Rock in the
Speaker 1: film or that's the guitar I use on there. Basically
Speaker 1: I used that exclusively. It's the only guitar I play
Speaker 1: all the way through all my solo records and including
Speaker 1: Frampton Comes Alive. And you were never attempted to put
Speaker 1: that down. And that was it. That was married that. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: it was just this one. I had a fifty five
Speaker 1: strat that I would always use for Show Me the
Speaker 1: Way because I needed a cleaner sound, you know. So
Speaker 1: that was that was on Show Me the Way. So
Speaker 1: then we get to touring South America. We just finished
Speaker 1: playing Caracas, Venezuela, and we had a day off, and
Speaker 1: so we flew commercially to a Panama waiting for the
Speaker 1: gear to arrive on a cargo plane. While it never
Speaker 1: got off the runway in Caracas, it crashed on take off,
Speaker 1: my road manager came to me. I'm having this huge
Speaker 1: meal on my day off with my wife at the time,
Speaker 1: and he said, I got some bad news and he says,
Speaker 1: the plane crashed on takeoff. I said, my guitar, he said,
Speaker 1: and like six people loading people, the pilot, co pilot, loading, inspector,
Speaker 1: all that. So I mean, yeah, people died. So that
Speaker 1: took precedent over everything. Then it put it in perspect
Speaker 1: div you know, and there's the pilot's wife sitting at
Speaker 1: the bar who doesn't know yet. It was horrendous. So anyway,
Speaker 1: we limped through the end of that tour basically with
Speaker 1: borrowed equipment. Sent someone down my guitar tech at the
Speaker 1: time a week later to see what was left. Nothing
Speaker 1: was left, supposedly, and what had happened. The tailor had
Speaker 1: broken off. Guitars were actually in a trunk in cases,
Speaker 1: and the way the story goes is they had a
Speaker 1: guard to guard the crash site the debris sid until
Speaker 1: the insurance people came down and he decided that the
Speaker 1: guitars would be much safer at his house. Yes, and
Speaker 1: then Caracas. Yes, in Caracas two years ago, which is
Speaker 1: thirty years thirty years later, I opened my info at
Speaker 1: Frampton dot com email because anybody can email me and
Speaker 1: I see them all. I opened up this one and
Speaker 1: there's a picture, a photograph of my guitar slightly singed,
Speaker 1: but but it's my laly sing right at the top,
Speaker 1: you know, slightly singed, but but there it is. There's
Speaker 1: a picture, and I thought could picture where in an
Speaker 1: email to me from someone who would got ahold of
Speaker 1: the guitar. As it happens in Kurasau, which is a
Speaker 1: little island off the coast of Caracas. Someone had sold
Speaker 1: it to this gentleman and he took it to someone
Speaker 1: who fixed guitars, and they knew what it was. And
Speaker 1: it took two years of a very gray area and
Speaker 1: was he's saying like, I don't want to get proceed.
Speaker 1: I want to get this guitary, but I want to
Speaker 1: go to jail. That was the thing. No one wanted
Speaker 1: to actually come money. It wasn't he wanted to. There
Speaker 1: was money involved, but he would have appreciated a gratuity.
Speaker 1: There was a reward talked about, but every time it
Speaker 1: would get close to someone coming in, they'd find something
Speaker 1: reason why they couldn't come in so that's why it
Speaker 1: took two years. And then in the end the guy
Speaker 1: actually checked to see if we had booked him a
Speaker 1: hotel because he just saw himself in handcuffs at Miami Airport.
Speaker 1: You know. He knew who had it, and the person
Speaker 1: who hadn't needed some money, and so he went to
Speaker 1: the tourist Bureau of Curasao and said, look, if you
Speaker 1: lend me the money or give me the money to
Speaker 1: go by this, I can find this. This is really
Speaker 1: great tourism story for Curasao. And and they did, and
Speaker 1: they came and the two of them, the tourism president
Speaker 1: of the tourism board from the government, and the gentleman
Speaker 1: who found the guitar, knew where it was, brought it
Speaker 1: to Nashville. We had three cameras as soon as he
Speaker 1: waited in waiting, and what happens while the two gentlemen
Speaker 1: walk in and he's got it in this probably one
Speaker 1: of the worst looking gig bags I've ever seen in
Speaker 1: my life, cheap, old plastic. He puts it beside him,
Speaker 1: you know, and he tells the story in broken English
Speaker 1: of how this person had it and the whole thing.
Speaker 1: He hands it to me and he goes Philip to
Speaker 1: Peter Philip so and I know that he knows because
Speaker 1: it was the lightest les Paul I'd ever played. So
Speaker 1: I just felt it in the case and who this
Speaker 1: could be it? You know, opened it up. I just
Speaker 1: looked at it and I just feel it like that.
Speaker 1: I go, it's my guitar. How badly was it cinched?
Speaker 1: Where just round the very top it lost the binding
Speaker 1: around the head stock? You get that replaced? No, I didn't.
Speaker 1: I left it. I've left it with its battle scars.
Speaker 1: Gibson made it playable, so we refreshed the caracas kiss
Speaker 1: and there is this sound the same. Does it feel
Speaker 1: the same. Yeah, And when I first played it at
Speaker 1: rehearsals with the band, everybody had this like cheshire cat
Speaker 1: grin on their face because it has the sound and
Speaker 1: it sounds like Frampton comes alive. You know, you don't
Speaker 1: have to try too hard. And you got that back
Speaker 1: when I got it back. Just before we started touring
Speaker 1: in February and March for the last American leg, I
Speaker 1: used it a little bit at rehearsals, and then I
Speaker 1: brought it out for the first night at the Beacon.
Speaker 1: I think the guitar is more famous than I am now,
Speaker 1: So you were meant to play that music with that guitar. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I remember saying someone that before I went out
Speaker 1: that night. I just hope emotionally I'm going to be
Speaker 1: able to play it. And I brought it out for
Speaker 1: Do You Feel? And I messed up the first leg
Speaker 1: because I couldn't believe I was playing how can you
Speaker 1: fumble dead? Or me? I did? It was like meant
Speaker 1: to be, you know I And once I got it
Speaker 1: was saying to me, come on, get it together, you know,
Speaker 1: And yes, it's I'm now get over it, you know.
Speaker 1: Peter Frampton has just completed his thirty fifth anniversary tour
Speaker 1: of Frampton Comes Alive, and says he plans to release
Speaker 1: the DVD this fall. In addition to celebrating his past,
Speaker 1: he's also busy with new projects, including a collaboration with
Speaker 1: the Cincinnati Ballet, which will debut next spring. What music
Speaker 1: do you listen to? Now? Who do you like? Um?
Speaker 1: Right now? This week? Band of Skulls. My son telled
Speaker 1: me onto and daughter tell me onto them. And I
Speaker 1: went to Coach Ella I saw Radiohead. I still I'm
Speaker 1: a Radiohead fanatic. I just loved them. I think they're
Speaker 1: so not mainstream, but they became mainstream because they're just
Speaker 1: so unique. It was an eye opener for me to
Speaker 1: go to Coach Allen with my daughter who's sixteen, and
Speaker 1: just have fun. MH, this is Alec Baldwin. And if
Speaker 1: you haven't figured this out by now, I'm one of
Speaker 1: Peter Frampton's biggest fans. H. You know, I haven't said
Speaker 1: this too many people who come and down this show,
Speaker 1: but I can't thank you enough because your music is
Speaker 1: so important to me. Thank you, and I have listened
Speaker 1: to you and I have loved your music, and you're
Speaker 1: playing for so long. I mean, it's like it's such
Speaker 1: a part of my life. You are great, great, welcome. Thanks.
Speaker 1: Here's the Thing is produced by Emily Boutine and Kathy Russo,
Speaker 1: with support from Jim Briggs, Brian Cosgrove, Wendy Door, ed Herbstman,
Speaker 1: Melanie Hoops, Monica Hopkins and Arianna Pacari. This is Alec
Speaker 1: Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing.