Features

I’m In You: Peter Frampton Still Feels Like We Do

You’ve done a tremendous amount of charity work. Any more planned?

There’s always things in the works. Whenever it’s something for children, whether it be in this country or worldwide, that’s basically what I’ve done. I started off working with pediatric AIDS and it’s just sort of developed from there really. I’ve often wanted to work, someday, with UNICEF as well. Whenever we can, always there to do a show or sign something, whatever it takes. A silent auction for people. Those things help tremendously, so always involved with that.

How humble was Humble Pie? I mean you were 19 and a rock star…

We were all… I left just before Rocking the Fillmore came out and did not enjoy the success, the record’s success, with them. They’d moved on and I’d moved on. We were pretty much your regular English rock band come over to rape and pillage. [laughter] Not me though, the other three. [more laughter]. It was a great time to be in a band and touring. We were still making the rules up as we went along. These are the days you would fly… we couldn’t afford a bus. In those days it was cheaper to fly to the gigs commercially. But your road crew would be down on the tarmac giving the loading guy like fifty bucks to put all the band gear on. And we’d fly the equipment as well. That doesn’t happen anymore. It always surprises me that more planes didn’t go down due to too many Marshall cabinets loaded. [laughter] I just remember we had no cases, no cases for anything, the drums were in those fiber cases. It was a fun time, it really was. You could do things then that you couldn’t do now. Interesting.

What has eluded you that you still want? Grammy?

Oh yes, I’ve been nominated a couple of times, most recently a year or two ago for an instrumental. Yeah, that would be nice, but it’s not really a big thing with me. If I get one, it would be nice. The thing that had eluded me so far and it’s my own doing is that I’ve been talking about doing an instrumental record, for years now. Got a slue of people who I’ve asked along the way if they’d make a cameo appearance on it. So that is something that has eluded me, though it won’t be much longer. This record we’re doing now is the first record in the new studio in the new house here and so now I’ve got it. It’s the first time I can write the song, record the song and mix the song in the same place. We went the whole way, so I’m self-sufficient in making records. So now it’s not a matter of if, but when. After we get this record this finish, as well as going out this year, we’ll come out in January, the first quarter and probably do another major city tour next year. The next thing after that will be Pete’s at home busy in the bunker. He’s back in the bunker! Send food quick! And he’s doing his instrumental record. So that’s what I’ll be doing I’m sure.

Have you ever serenaded your wife with “Baby I Love Your Way?”

No, we tend to have a nix on the “Baby I Love Your Way” at home. I’m very appreciative of the wonderful value… [laughter] the wonderful value that a song like “Baby I Love Your Way” has to a person’s career, especially the person who wrote it, but it’s something… it’s getting a little hard to play. “Show Me The Way” I think we’re going to maybe rock that up a bit [more laughter]. I did that with Foo Fighters when we ended up on Letterman at the same time. I was playing in the band with Paul [Shaffer] and the guys. So we were doing my numbers into the commercial. Well, after the Foo Fighters did their new song off the last record, they wanted to play “Show Me The Way” with me. So both bands going into commercial did “Show Me The Way.” And we did the heavy metal Foo Fighting version of “Show Me The Way.” They came to Nashville and they invited me up to jam with them. We did “Show Me The Way” live, sharing the vocals with Dave [Grohl]. That was a heavier version and it kicked, so I’ve thinking of doing a Foo Fighting version of “Show Me The Way” this tour, just a little heavier.

If Humble Pie actually were a variety of pie what type of pie would it be?

It would be… um… let’s see. I’m trying to think of a pie that is diametrically opposed halfway through the middle. Something that is completely one thing, then it’s something else. Help me, help me….

I’m think of meringue…

No, that’s too scquiggey. [laughter]. I think it would be spotted dick which is an English pie. It’s not a dessert pie, it’s like um… I believe it has sausage in it. It’s an old English recipe, spotted dick.

Spotted dick?

Yes.

And it’s a kind of breakfast pie?

Mmmm, no. I should look it up, mum would know. Such a great name that I think that’s what it would be. [laughter].

Some of our younger readers (Junior Jammers) are big fans of your work with Tigger. Any future plans to collaborate?

No, not at the moment. If Disney calls, I’m there. How could you not be? Having been through the Disney thing myself and all my kids, they’re great people to work with. They go the extra mile with everything. I had a great experience working with them and would love to do something else for them.

What do you think of moe. guitarist Chuck Garvey’s talk-box technique? Never heard of moe.?

I’ve heard of them. I wish I’d heard it now. I’ll check that out.

I saw a documentary called Black Man’s Land about the Mau Mau revolution that took place in Kenya. You did an amazing, haunting soundtrack to it. How’d you get involved and is it possible to get that music on disc anywhere?

The music is not available anywhere. I have the old, old two track that I did. A mutual friend of the people that were making the movie as well as me, a photographer, asked me if I would be interested in meeting with these people. This must have been ’69, ’70, round about then. I think I had just joined Humble Pie, about the Town and Country, round then. “It’s a documentary about Africa and we’d like to see if you like it.” So I saw it and thought it was great. Just the fact, to do my first film score as it were… there was no budget, so it had to be done at home with two tape recorders and sound-on-sound. It was pretty low-fi. My buddy from The Heard, Andy Bowm, helped me out, played some organ on it for me which is in a lot of the little pieces there. That’s how I got involved in it. Never even published music. I never thought anything would happen with it at all and then I realized it did do… it was on PBS quite a bit. Over the years, it’s been seen quite a bit. It was so interesting to see… it was the first little insight that I had got into how the Englishmen has to go to another country and build himself houses as if he is just outside Brighton, you know, in England and virtually have no respect for the people whose land they were stealing. It goes on and on and on, all the different stories of the different countries who have done that. It was definitely insightful for me because I wasn’t quite aware at point, I was about 19 and it was a big eye opener to me. I really enjoyed working on it a lot too. Maybe one day… I still got the two track in storage. That’s a good idea, I could probably just put it out on the website or something.

It’s great. I mean it’s a pretty heavy subject and your score just works. Not bad for the first time.

Thank you. We knew we couldn’t do a full band situation because we wouldn’t have been able to afford to pay everybody. So it had to just be me, basically, on most of it and ask a favor.