DO YOU FEEL?
Peter Frampton takes stock with insightful memoir
Peter Frampton is excited about revealing his life story. And terrified.
“I’m dreading it coming out!” Frampton — whose “Do You Feel Like I Do?: A Memoir” publishes Tuesday — declares over the phone from his home in Nashville. Then he laughs. “Obviously I’m joking, but there is a nervousness of ‘What have I done?! My life is not an open book for your enjoyment. What am I doing here?!’
“But, yeah, I’m very pleased it’s done. It’s a long process. It’s much more difficult than I would ever have imagined, and it takes a lot of work. But I’m happy with it.”
“Do You Feel,” co-writtenwith music journalist Alan Light, is not a particularly long book (341 pages), but the season’smost anticipatedmusicmemoir this side ofMariahCarey’s does smoothly condense Frampton’s lengthy and impactful (and, supporters would say, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-worthy) career at a time when it’s nearing an end. He was diagnosed in 2017 with inclusion body myositis, a slowmoving degenerative condition that’s causing hismuscles to atrophy. He’s notwaving thewhite flag — he recently started a new experimental therapy, “a ray of hope” at Johns Hopkins Hospital— butwiththe disorder starting to affect the guitar player’s fingers, Frampton figures it’s an appropriate time to take stock of things.
“I never wanted to do a tellall book. This is just basically my story,” explains Frampton, 70, adding that his approach was inspired by British actor David Niven’s 1971 memoir “The Moon’s a Balloon.” Frampton
does chronicle his struggles with substance abuse and depression, as well as a mid-career malaise. But the book seldom dips into easy sensationalism.
“I didn’t want it to be about this relationship or that relationship,” the British-born father of three says. “My family comes in and out of it, but it’s really a book about my career.
“There’s everything in there. My sense of humor, I think, comes across. And also I don’t let up or stop at a certain point. I tell the whole story. When it’s something that wasn’t so great for me, it’s in there, and I think that was important.”
Showing the way
More than anything else, the anecdote-packed “Do You Feel” illuminates those who may know him only from the blockbuster “Frampton Comes Alive” album to the fact that there’s a great deal more Frampton has accomplished since he started playing in bands at the age of 12. In fact, it establishes Framptonas a kind of rock ’n’ roll Zelig or Forrest Gump, continuallycrossingpaths with a who’s-who of the British rock scene — as a schoolmate of David Bowie (backing him on the 1987 “NeverLetMeDown” album and accompanying Glass Spider Tour), asamember of bands such as theHerd andHumble Pie, and as a gun-for-hire playing on sessions for GeorgeHarrison, Harry Nilsson, the Who’s John Entwistle and others.
There are plenty of victories, especially creative, as well as pitfalls such as an ill-advised shirtless cover photo for Rolling Stone magazine and starring in the illfated filmadaptation of the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” But it’s almost dizzying as Frampton pops up everywhere from British teen magazines in the ’60s to later animated appearances in “The Simpsons” and “Family Guy,” a tenure with Ringo Starr’s All-StarrBand and a consulting role (and cameo) in Cameron Crowe’s film “Almost Famous.”
“My son Julian, after he read the first of my edits, said, ‘Dad, what band weren’t you asked to join?’” Frampton, whose 2000 “Live inDetroit” albumand video came from a show the previous summer at the Pine Knob Music Theatre, says with a laugh. “I lived it, so I don’t think about it that way, but I guess for other people it’s pretty amazing. I think it’s something about my playing that appealed to these people, and I’m not a bad dude. I’m a pretty nice guy as well, but it had to be the playing.”
Among the book’s revelations is an early ’80s invitation from the Who’s Pete Townshend for Frampton to take his place in the band. Townshend would still write material for the group, but Frampton would step in for the live shows. “I love Pete dearly and we’ve alwayshadagreat relationship, but itwas a ridiculous idea,” Frampton says now. “Obviously no one could fill those shoes. I’ve always loved the Who and I’ve known them all for most of my life, since I was 17 or 18, but. ...
“At the time, though, mycareer was in the toilet, so it started to go from a ridiculous offer to ... ‘Yeah, maybe this could work...’ Butnothingcameof it, whichwas probably all for the better.”
Other eyebrow-raising stories concern Dee Anthony, Frampton’s manager with Humble Pie and the early part of his solo career, and his ties to organized crime. It became clear at certain points that Anthony had accumulated considerable debts with the mob and counted on his clients’ revenues to help him square accounts — though Frampton says he never felt in danger himself.
“I just thought that’s theway it