LOST & FOUND
Frampton on how his LP Custom came home...
“We played South America in 1980, and before we left Venezuela we flew on ahead to Panama and the gear went on a cargo plane. They think it wasn’t loaded properly and as the nose came up for take-off, the straps broke and the gear all slid down the fuselage, the wing touched and it blew up on the runway. All the equipment was in there – PA, guitars, backline, the lot. My guitar tech went down there and the guard said,‘No guitars made it. They were all burnt.’ He was mistaken.
“So in 2010, I get this email and there’s a dozen shots of my Custom. It had survived. I almost fell off my chair, because I’m thinking this thing has gone back to the earth – and there it is. When I got the guitar back, I asked Gibson,‘Don’t take away the scars, just make it playable.’ So we changed the electronics, the tuning pegs and the nut – but that was about it.”
if I want – which is overkill, you wouldn’t do it often. I’ve always had Leslies, but I’ve got two now, so they’re in stereo, which sort of freaks me out, it sounds so good. Then I have a lot of pedals [including Klon Centaur, Fulltone OCD and Electro-Harmonix POG] and an Axess FX-1 MIDI switcher pedal.”
It’s impossible to forget Humble Pie – which albums are you most proud of? “Well, I still think Rock On was the best record we made, and the live album, Rockin’ The Fillmore [both 1971]. That’s where my guitar style came together – that period. Due to Steve being more into blues, country and gospel, that opened my eyes, and I got much more into blues, mixing it with my lyrical jazz influences that I’d studied with The Herd.
“Steve and I were both huge fans of each other. Ever since I saw him with the Small Faces doing Whatcha Gonna Do About It on Ready Steady Go!, I wanted to play guitar with that guy. And be careful what you wish for, y’know? Obviously, we have the other side of Steve that wasn’t so easy to get along with. But you kind of pushed that away and just concentrated on the good. Which was phenomenal. I’ve never played with anybody that can sing like that. I don’t know where it came from. This tiny, diminutive figure with this huge personality and voice. It was all‑encompassing. There was so much to learn from him.”
How rocking were those Fillmore shows from your onstage perspective? “We were a very adrenalised band. We rocked from the second we walked on stage to the second we walked off. It was the best experience of being in a band ever, for me. People probably don’t think this, but I enjoyed every moment I was there. I had to move on and do my own thing [in 1971]. But Humble Pie was definitely responsible for me putting my guitar ideas together. I remember, after one show with them, saying to myself, ‘I’m actually me now. I’m not just me copying everybody’. Which is a great feeling.”
Fillmore West was also where you discovered the Custom, right? “Yeah. We were doing four nights in 1970. I’d just swapped an SG for a 335, thinking I wanted a more ‘brown’ sound. I didn’t try it with Humble Pie before I went on stage. And the levels were so loud that when I turned up for my solo, it just fed back. So my solo was ‘woo-woo!’ Very avant-garde. My friend Mark Mariana came up after and said, ‘I couldn’t help noticing you were having trouble up there. Would you like to try my Les Paul tomorrow?’ I said, ‘Ah, I’m not big on Les Pauls. But anything would be better.’ So we met at the hotel next morning. Incredible guitar. I played it that night, my feet didn’t touch the ground, and when I came off, I said, ‘There’s probably no chance, but would you sell this guitar?’ He said, ‘No, I want to give it to you.’”
Do you still rate the playing on Frampton ComesAlive!? “Oh, of course. I occasionally have to listen to it, because it’s on the radio, and there’s some good playing on there. Why did my trademark talk box never become a mainstream effect? Well, it’s a onetrick-pony. A little goes a long way. It’s not something you want to overdo. It was a fad, but when I use it today I still get the same effect from the people. It’s funny, it’s comedic. It’s not meant to be serious. I mean, how can that sound be serious?”
“From when I was 16… it’s been up and down, but it’s been a lengthy career. I have to be thankful for the incredible time I’ve had”
You’ve never taken yourself too seriously, though, have you? “You know, making fun of myself, that’s my humour. People say, ‘Oh, you’re this legend…’ What? No, I’m a regular guy. I’m not big on being put on a pedestal. I never felt comfortable with that. I just enjoy playing guitar and seeing the smiles on people’s faces. That’s how I’m still able to do the hits – the ‘chestnuts’, shall we call them? – from years ago. Because I see the enjoyment in the audience. They just lap it up. It’s something that reminds them of a particular time, a particular person. Music turns on our memory.”
“I might not be able to play live in a couple of years, but I’m going to be battling on and recording… I feel positive about the future”
Did you enjoy the adulation heaped on you during that ComesAlive! period? “I mean, there’s nothing like the feeling that everybody knows who you are, overnight, it seems. For the first three weeks, I had a big head. But after that, it gets difficult to do things when wherever you go you’re chased. But all that dies down. Now I live in Nashville and there are so many famous people here. Y’know, The Black Keys live here. Jack White. John Oates. And the great thing about here is everyone’s very respectful of everybody, because they know you’re going to run into Keith Urban one day in a Starbucks. It happens.”
Are there any periods of your career that you’re not so proud of? “The early 80s were not a great period for me. Because I’d had the car wreck in ’78, and everything sort of came to a screeching halt – literally. I started taking stock and that’s when I realised I was being screwed financially. When I did the last record for A&M, The Art Of Control [1982] – I had no control. So it’s quite ironic that I called it that. It’s one of my least favourite records, because I’m fastidious about sound and I just remember not caring how it was mixed. So I knew there was something terribly wrong. I think I just needed to not record that album, go away for a couple of years, regenerate and work out – where was I? I was very lucky to get back on an upward curve in the last 10 years. I think it was the Grammy for Fingerprints [awarded in 2007] that put the foot on the accelerator and made people more aware of me again. And it was for playing guitar, not singing. So that felt really special.”
The touring may stop, then, but what’s next for you? “We’ve done three-and-a-half albums. We’ve done two blues albums. We released All Blues [2019] and there’s another one in the can; I don’t know when that’s coming out. We just finished an instrumental album of covers. Then there’s the solo record that we just started. There are some introverted lyrics about where I am, definitely. There may be some frustration on there, probably. But I don’t think it’s angry. There’s gratitude. I think it’s thankful. If you think about it, from when I was 16 in The Herd, until now – I mean, it’s been up and down, but it’s been a lengthy career. I have to be thankful for the incredible time I’ve had.”
AllBlues is out now on UMe. Peter Frampton’s UK tour starts on 24 May in Edinburgh. See the website for tickets and details www.frampton.com