Peter Frampton‘s road to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was a long one. The former Humble Pie guitarist has been eligible as a solo artist since 1997, but he wasn’t even nominated until this year. “It’s something I never expected,” he told Rolling Stone shortly after getting the good news earlier this year. “It’s because I keep working. I’ve never given up. I’ve kept coming back and doing more stuff, and I’ve kept touring. I’ve re-built a following that is now enormous.”
He gave a lot of credit for the honor to Sheryl Crow, who invited him to perform at her Hall of Fame induction last year. “Sheryl was the first person I called when I found out,” he said. “I thanked her. I think most people in the public assumed I was in… For her to invite me when she got in, that put me in front of a lot of people. She said, ‘Look, this guy isn’t in yet.’ She helped me immensely.”
Frampton has been battling the degenerative muscle disease inclusion body myositis for the past few years, but he continues to play shows and travel the world. He recently wrapped up his Positively Thankful American tour, where he performed from a seated position every night. Read his Hall of Fame speech below.
I can’t believe Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And many, many thanks to Roger [Daltret] for coming all the way over from England. I can’t thank you enough.
It reminds me of him talking about me driving around England with Keith Moon and John Entwistle because it reminds me of that first UK tour. I was in the Herd, and we were supporting The Who. But one night backstage, Keith Moon and John Entwistle decided to show me the rock ropes and take me under their collective wing. Every time, in the Herd’s Dressing room, I went near the window and looked out, all the girls would start screaming down below, and so the next thing I knew, I was being dangled out of the third-story window by my ankles. This was amid the maniacal laughter of Keith Moon and John Entwistle, and they thought I should be closer to my fans, obviously, and I was 17 — Welcome to rock and roll.
I really am, I really am a lucky guy to have had this amazing career, and it’s always been driven by my passion for guitar playing, and that is, as Roger said, that’s my comfy chair. And along the way, I’ve had help from many people, and starting with a Rolling Stone, no less Bill Wyman and he was always and is still like my older brother, and he managed and produced a band before the Herd called the Preachers. When I was still at school, we got to be on British TV’s Ready Steady Go with the Stones. And I was only 14 then, so I was always a huge fan of the small faces as well. So when Glen Johns asked me to play on a small faces session for Johnny Halliday in Paris, I said, “I’ll be right there.” And Steve and I really hit it off straight away. And pretty soon after that, we formed Humble Pie, an incredible period where I found, I found my guitar style, and learned so much from Steve Marion and The Pie. It was a wonderful period for me. And, oh yes, we had a big live album, too, called Rocking the Filmore, and that went gold. That was our first gold anything. So is it okay for me to ask, please, can we nominate Humble Pie?
After I left, without a lot of money, I was able to do some sessions to keep afloat. I became a session guy, and George Harrison asked me to play on All Things Must Pass. And then he told Harry Nielsen about me, and Harry called me and I played on Son of Schmilsson, too. The people I met and played with on these sessions and recordings are some of the most legendary players ever. So I went around with a notepad and took down all their phone numbers, and when I made my first solo album, they all turned up. So I was lucky to learn from all of them and found my voice as a solo artist, having what was then the biggest-selling live album of all time with Frampton Comes Alive. It was a wild ride, oh god. It brought with it such joy and excitement and also immense stress and pressure to follow that big thing up, you know?
So anyway, what goes up must come down. Looking back, my fall from grace was almost predetermined. I’m not the first to learn this lesson, but you never truly know until it happens to you. I’m a positive person, very positive person, but I landed back at the bottom of the ladder. I quickly picked myself up and started fighting my way back. I now believe that this was a necessity for me. There was a gift in all of this, I had time to realize what was most important to me, my family right there, my friends and my reinventing passion for guitar always. The money and the fame was seemingly gone overnight, and that’ll wake you up. But life is full of surprises.
David Jones, or we know him as David Bowie, and I were school chums. My father was the head of the art department and taught David art for three or four years. We were lifelong friends, and David was kind of a family friend, my parents, as well. And in ’86 he asked me to play on his album, and then with him on the Glass Spider tour. The year later, I was absolutely over the moon to play guitar with David on the same stage at the same time. It was absolutely amazing. We never really spoke about it, but he saw how I had lost my credibility, and he had always thought of me as the guitar player first at the time. I had no idea what a huge gift David was giving me. I went back on the road, and I started the journey that I’ve been on ever since. Thank you. David Bowie.
Winning a Grammy for my instrumental album in 2007 was another incredible moment, but my muscle disease, IBM, has given me a completely different outlook on life. When I look out over the audience each night, I see very happy, excited people enjoying an escape through my music, but I have no idea what battles they or you might be fighting. I am now fully aware of what lies behind a hello and a handshake because we have no idea what others might be dealing with in their lives.
Thank you to Jerry Moss, Herb Albert, A and M, my managers, Ken Levitan and Lisa Jenkins, also Gary Haber and my incredible team, without whom I wouldn’t be standing here today, and to all my incredible band members and road crews over the years who played such an important part in this career. And thank you so much to the Rock Hall for this incredible honor. Thank you. It’s something beyond all my dreams, even those pipe dreams. I share it with all of you who’ve been with me on this beautiful journey, especially you, my fans, who have brought me here tonight.
Thank you all so much.
