“People say, ‘You get great guitar sounds’ and I say, ‘Thank you very much,’ because if you give me a bad guitar sound, I sound like a beginner,” says Peter Frampton on a video call from his home in Nashville.

The 76-year-old musician knows what he’s talking about, of course, having blown our minds with his guitar prowess for the last six decades – and that experience is audible on Carry the Light, his first studio album in 16 years.

Loaded with guitar textures, Frampton’s 19th album ranges from sweet acoustic mellowness to the extravagant but controlled soloing for which he became known in his early band, Humble Pie – and even more so after the impact of his talkbox-heavy, eight-times-platinum solo album Frampton Comes Alive! in 1976.

He tells us that his objective with the solos this time was to sound “sweet and just on the edge of distortion,” delivering the goods via the famous “Phenix” Les Paul, a black 1954 Custom model that was lost in 1980 and returned 31 years later (you’ll know it from the cover of Frampton Comes Alive!).

Elsewhere on the new album, Frampton and a cast of guests including Tom Morello, Sheryl Crow and H.E.R. (aka singer Gabriella Wilson), run through slow-building blues, understated balladry and all-out rock, the latter heard most clearly on Lions at the Gate, which features Morello’s signature choppy riffing.

The long outro of Islamorada is another highlight, featuring a blistering solo outro from Frampton, and yet another is Breaking the Mold, a subtle acoustic piece featuring Crow.

In GW’s chat with the affable veteran we cover a lot of territory, from the abuse of power, via the unlikely strength of an 18-watt amp, to the experience of playing at Star Wars HQ.

We also discuss Frampton’s ongoing struggle with inclusion body myositis, a muscle-wasting disease that may or may not prevent him touring the new album – but never fear, he’s not planning to retire any time soon.

Carry the Light is a hell of a record.

Oh, thank you very much. After not releasing any new material for the last 16 years, I knew it had to be good. I’m not as prolific as the next guy, maybe, so it took me at least six years to find all these songs, and my son Julian and I completed them all in the last year.

There’s a stellar cast of guests on the album. How did you meet H.E.R.?

We met when I played George Lucas’ 80th birthday in 2024 at his place up in California, Skywalker Ranch. Basically it’s a winery, right in the middle of hundreds of acres of wine. It’s just gorgeous. Lucky bastard! But he deserves it…

Anyway, H.E.R. was playing first, and then it was us, and then Don Felder played, and I sat in. It was weird looking out and seeing Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas looking back at us.

What’s your connection with Tom Morello?

I’ve known Tom for a while now – I keep bumping into him. We’re managed by the same person, and I’ve been a huge fan of Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, and – rest in peace – Chris Cornell. I’m a big fan of his.

So a couple of years ago, I said to Tom, “If I had a song, would you…,” and he said “Yes!” I didn’t even get the question out. It was wonderful, and he said some lovely things about Frampton Comes Alive! and how it affected him.

He guests on Lions At the Gate. What’s that song about?

It’s basically about having too much power and money, which come together. It’s about the billionaires and their power and their influence. I didn’t realize it would be so topical, but the first verse is about sending our kids off to war.

The title comes from the first time I went to Los Angeles, which was probably in the late ’60s. We said, “Let’s go to Beverly Hills and look around,” and you’d see all these big mansions with huge lions on their gateposts. To me, that always made me feel like they were showing off their power.

Basically it’s a protest song, saying that we’ve got to stick together. There’s safety in numbers, and we’re a band of brothers, and we’ve got to fight this.

Your son Julian was your co-writer and also the album’s co-producer.

Yeah. The thing is, Julian knows me so well, that it’s like one person writing, which is so cool. I’ll write a song, and then he’ll come in and help if I need a line, or he’ll write a song and I’ll come in and do the same, or we’ll write a song 50-50.

I’m Sorry Elle is an acoustic showcase, for both rhythm guitar and solos.

That was the first song I wrote for the album. That one’s all me. A lot of the inspiration came from Covid and my daughter giving birth in the middle of Manhattan and barely being able to see her husband because of the restrictions in the hospital. I didn’t see her for four or five months because of the travel thing.

Islamorada has an incredible solo section.

Thank you. My son wrote that one. He wrote the verses and brought them here to Nashville because he lives in Los Angeles, and we’d spend three weeks at a time, and then he’d have to go back.

He also brought in the melody and the chords, which I really love, but he said, “I need a chorus,” so we wrote a chorus that same day – and that was it.

Does the Phenix make an appearance on this record?

Oh yes – on nearly all the solos, I think. When I got it back from Gibson in 2011, they had just made it playable. I said, “Don’t take any of the scars on the body away; just make it playable.”

CBS Sunday Morning News came down to the concert that night because they wanted to see it, so I didn’t play it for the whole show, and then right at the end, just before Do You Feel Like We Do, it all went dark. I pulled out the guitar and put it on the stage, and all the lights hit it.

The whole audience stood up and went berserk. I was thinking, “What about me?” [Laughs] No, the guitar was more important than me that night, because everyone knew it had been gone for 31 years. It was an amazing night. I only played it for Do You Feel... for a while, and then I gradually started bringing it back into the set, and I hardly play anything else live now.

Do you still have the Penta-Suhr you played on David Bowie’s Glass Spider Tour in 1987?

The one I played with David went in a major flood here in 2010, but John Suhr is making me another one, which is very similar. I love his work. Nearly all the solos and all the rhythm sounds on the new album come from a Suhr Badger, which is an 18-watt amp.

Only 18 watts?

Yeah! It’s amazing when you think of those huge sounds, isn’t it? I mean, some of them are really huge, but it’s just that amp with a 1x12 cabinet and Neumann and Shure mics, both the same distance from the speaker. That’s the sound, plus a couple of room mics and some pedals that I had laying around.

What about acoustic guitars?

I used quite a few. There were three different Matons, including the Tommy Emmanuel model and a small travel one, which I’ve recorded with before and is so good.

There’s my old Epiphone, and of course I have my own Martin D-42 Peter Frampton model from the Nineties: that’s a long time ago. I think that’s it. Martin, Matons and Epiphone, basically.

Will you be playing live, or does the myositis prevent that?

It’s making it more difficult. I’m not saying there won’t be some dates, but right now we don’t have anything on the cards. I wish there were, but I just have to wait and see how I do.

Because the condition comes and goes?

Well, we call it “progression or plateau.” It’ll progress for a bit and then it’ll plateau, and right now I’m in a plateau. It is what it is, you know. I’m fully aware of where it’s going, and it’s not great, but I’ve always been the most positive person. It mainly affects my legs, but it’s affecting my hands too.

How do you manage that?

In October, we did a little three-week tour, and I was going, “Okay, finger number two ain’t going to make it there in time: finger number three, you’re up!” I hate thinking when I play, but in this situation, I have to. It’s just a case of changing the way I play a little bit.

I can’t play at the speed I once could. Not that I’ve ever been a shredder, you know. It’s always been more about melody, for me. There’s definitely some shredding going on in Humble Pie and Comes Alive! and some of the other albums, but I tell you right now, it’s less notes, more feel.

You look well, though, and the solos on the record sound as dexterous as ever.

Thank you. Long may that continue. I have some great friends who are making music, and if I don’t have anything of my own to work on, I tell all of them, “Send me tracks, because I want to play every day.”

So right now I’m working on three different tracks: that’s what keeps me going. I love, love, love to play so much, and I’m not going to let it go. Until the last second I’m going to be playing solos and rhythm parts on people’s records.

What inspires you these days?

I listen to everybody for inspiration, like this guy. [Holds up Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue] Oh, my God. I’ve vocally learned the opening cut of Kind of Blue, So What, and then I’m going to learn it on guitar.

I’ve seen a woman online who sings Miles’ solos from that record, and it’s incredible, so that’s why I started doing it myself. I said, “If I can learn to sing it, then I’ll be able to sit down and learn to play it.”

Is it true that when you played with Bowie, you used an electric sitar that once belonged to Jimi Hendrix?

Yes, I did. In 1977 I was finishing I’m in You at Electric Lady in New York, which was Jimi’s studio, and as we were leaving on the last night, the studio manager came out with a guitar case and said, “We’ve really appreciated you being here, I hope you had a good time. We have something here that we think Jimi might have wanted you to have.”

I was expecting it to be a Strat, but they opened it up and showed me this electric sitar, and I went, “Oh, my God.” Jimi’s road manager Gerry Stickells once wrote, “Jimi had three electric sitars. I know where two are, but I can’t find the other one.” [Laughs] I’ve got it here!

• Carry the Light is out now via Universal.
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

David Bowie, who left us on January 10, 2016, was a highly accomplished singer, songwriter, performer and actor, and a fine musician too, although he knew his limitations when it came to musical virtuosity.

As he told Guitar Player’s Joe Gore in 1997, “My guitar playing hasn’t moved with the times at all. I use the same chords as always, but I do know a lot of them, and I’m able to put them together in interesting juxtapositions. Any time I did spend being disciplined was learning how chords work together.”

Make no mistake, Bowie knew his way around a fretboard, as a number of stellar guitarists explain to us below – but he had bigger goals in mind than being a virtuoso axeman.

In his 54 years as a recording and performing artist, he managed to redefine the role of the theatrical musician, refining the art of the alter-ego, touring the world in several incarnations and making an impact on the worlds of cinema and finance (remember those 1990s Bowie Bonds?) along the way. To help him achieve those objectives, he recruited some of the most fiendishly talented guitar players in the world.

You’ll already know most, if not all, of the names on the roster. For his first three years as a bona fide star, after he blew the minds of a generation with 1970’s The Man Who Sold the World, Bowie’s guitar partner was Mick Ronson, who also played so memorably on Hunky Dory (1971), The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972), Aladdin Sane and Pin Ups (both 1973), as well as performing on the Ziggy Stardust World Tour.

Listen to the metallic solo on The Width of a Circle, from The Man…, the acoustic textures on Oh! You Pretty Things from Hunky Dory, and the all-out wall of sound on Suffragette City for a taste of Ronson’s magical approach. Sadly, he died in 1993 at age 46, or we’d be talking to him today about that unmatched early catalog.

After the unsung session hero Alan Parker helped out on 1974’s Diamond Dogs, assisting Bowie on the unforgettable main riff of Rebel Rebel, Earl Slick and Carlos Alomar, the latter Bowie’s longest-serving guitarist by some distance, stepped up to the plate for his next five and 13 studio albums respectively.

Both men recorded away from Bowie in extended breaks from his band, but they’re the most prolific of his sidemen by a long shot. Where to start? Check Slick’s performance on 1975’s Young Americans and Alomar’s sterling work on Bowie’s Berlin-recorded landmark, Low (1977), which also featured the late Ricky Gardiner, or any of the early-2000s albums that kept Bowie in the millennial bloodstream.

Let’s not forget the guitarists who played with Bowie’s live band, of course, even if they didn’t record album sessions; these include Stacy Heydon, who held it down on the Isolar Tour 1976; the great Adrian Belew, who graduated from Frank Zappa’s band in time for the Stage live album in 1978 and returned 12 years later as musical director of the Sound + Vision Tour; and the equally great Peter Frampton, who came alive on the Glass Spider Tour in ’87.

It says much about Bowie that many of his guitar players were superstars themselves. Take King Crimson’s Robert Fripp, who recorded Bowie’s best-known lead line on Heroes in 1977; Stevie Ray Vaughan, who guested on Let’s Dance in 1983; and Nile Rodgers of Chic, who played on and co-produced the same album.

Lesser-known session stalwarts played their part, too, notably Chuck Hammer, who played guitar synth on Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps) in 1980. That album also featured a notable guest slot by Pete Townshend of the Who.

In 1988 Bowie took a four-year sidestep off the main drag with Tin Machine, the heavy rock quartet in which Reeves Gabrels carried most of the weight, guitar-wise.

Live, he was assisted by Eric Schermerhorn, who went on to work with Iggy Pop after Tin Machine called it quits; Gabrels later played on Outside (1995), Earthling (1997) and Hours... (1999). In the 2000s, Gerry Leonard played textural guitar on Heathen (2002) and Reality (2003) and on the accompanying tours, joined on those albums by Mark Plati, also an acclaimed producer and multi-instrumentalist who had previously worked with Prince.

Slick, Leonard, David Torn, producer Tony Visconti and Bowie himself recorded guitar for The Next Day in 2013, and for his valiant, multifaceted final curtain, 2016’s still-astonishing Blackstar, jazz guitarist Ben Monder was recruited.

So what memories do these musicians have of their late employer – and what did they think of Bowie as a guitar player? Let’s find out. Belew, Schermerhorn, Leonard, Plati, Frampton and Alomar are grilled on that subject below (Fripp gave us such an expansive interview that we’ve given him his own feature, coming soon).

As for the much-missed Vaughan and Ronson, they’ve been jamming away in the sky since 1990 and 1993, respectively, but we’ll raise our glasses to them in salute.

Was David Bowie a good guy to be around, generally speaking?

Adrian Belew: Absolutely. David wasn’t a person to say bad things. That would be left to someone around him. To me, he was always upbeat. He loved me, we loved each other, and we had a great time together, so there was nothing to be critical about.

It was simple. If he didn’t like something, he’d simply say, “I don’t know about that,” and that was as far as it would go. I never saw him angry. He was too sophisticated. He had so much interest in so many different things.

That’s one of the things I loved about him. He would always discover a new subject matter to start reading about. Once he got into something, man, he knew everything about it. That’s what made him such an interesting person to be with.

Eric Schermerhorn: His bunk was above mine on the bus, and he read books non-stop. I remember talking to him about Philip K. Dick. The best thing David did for me, which really shows his character, was after we played the Budokan at the end of the tour in 1992. I talked to him and he said, “We’re done. The gig’s over. What would you like to do in the future?”

I heard Chrissie Hynde was looking for a guitar player, so I was like, “Well, Chrissie Hynde would be fun.” I get back to New York, and two weeks later, his manager calls me and goes, “Chrissie wants to meet you in London.” I went to London, hung out with her all day at her house, and she was great.

She said, “David says you’re really good. I need a guitar player.” I had already sent Iggy Pop a tape, and he said, “Let’s do something,” and I said yes because he lived in New York, but I look back sometimes and think, “I could have moved to London in 1992, and that would have been fun.”

Gerry Leonard: David was very perceptive and insightful – and he had this gift for reading a room. Everybody that was in his band was there for a very specific reason that he had in his mind. He had this knack of figuring out people’s strengths and really leaning into those strengths. He was very good at pulling together all of those seemingly disparate elements into making art.

Mark Plati: Aside from what a lot of people say about his curious nature, and how he was always trying to stretch his own musical and visual boundaries, he just really enjoyed doing it.

He loved the process and had a lot of fun with it, and that was contagious to anybody in the room, which made these experiences a really wonderful adventure. Sometimes you didn’t know where you were going, but boy, you had a good time getting there.

How did you first meet him?

Belew: We first met when he appeared at a concert in Berlin, when I was playing with Frank Zappa. Two nights before that, Brian Eno had come to the show in Cologne, and Brian knew David was looking for a fresh guitar player, so he told him, “We’ve got to go see this guy that’s with Zappa.”

There was a part of the show where Frank took an extended 10-minute solo, leaving just Terry Bozzio and Patrick O’Hearn on stage, and the rest of us were supposed to walk off the stage at that point.

As I was doing that, I looked over at the monitor guy, and there was David Bowie and Iggy Pop standing there. So I walked over and shook David’s hand and said, “I just want to really thank you for all your music. You’ve really inspired me. You’ve done so much amazing stuff.”

I didn’t even have time to say anything to Iggy before David said, “Well, good. How’d you like to be in my band?” It was an amazing moment. It gave me shivers. Two weeks later, I was in David’s rehearsal.

Schermerhorn: I met Reeves Gabrels in Boston in 1979. We played in different bands together, and we worked at the same music store. We were just guitar buddies, and we were into Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew as well as older guys like Jimi Hendrix.

His wife, Sarah, worked for David as his publicist, so he got the Tin Machine gig around 1988 after she said to him, “Hey David, my husband’s a guitar player” and gave him a cassette. When I was in Boston I was in a band called East Of Eden.

We were on Capitol and we did a record with Roy Thomas Baker, opened for the Psychedelic Furs for a tour and then we broke up. I moved to New York in 1990, and Reeves calls me around April or May of 1991 and says, “Hey, do you want to come out to L.A. and audition? We need a guitar player for Tin Machine.”

I was like, “Whoa… this is life-changing!” So I learned the records in every key, because you never know when you go to an audition; flew out to L.A. and played a couple of songs with the band.

It was great, and at the end Reeves goes, “Hey, Eric, play [Jimi Hendrix’s] Little Wing for David,” because he knew I could play that shit. So I did that, and as we’re packing up, David comes up to me right there, shakes my hand, and goes, “I’m really looking forward to working with you.”

Leonard: David was intrigued by my playing, I think. He came and saw me play live and then asked me to be part of it. I think he wanted somebody to cover the stuff Fripp had done, or Belew had done, or Eno had done, and that was right up my street, because I was a big fan of all those guys.

I didn’t study Fripp or anything, but people would tell me, “You sound like Fripp,” and I would deliberately not listen to him when I heard that, because I didn’t want to be a copyist. Of course, I’ve listened to Fripp since, and he’s got a beautiful tone and a unique style.

Plati: I worked with Prince before I worked with Bowie, which I guess is kind of an odd combo in that you don’t expect one to follow the other in sequence, but that’s David. I can think of a lot of other artists who would have been like, “He worked with Prince – that’s really not up my street.” Not David. If anything, he’d be like, “Wow, what’s this guy about?” because he had an eternally curious nature.

Were you a fan of his music before you played with him?

Schermerhorn: Absolutely. I bought Low and Heroes in high school. Those records were so powerful. When I met David, I said to him, “Those records changed my life,” and he said, “They changed my life, too!”

Plati: My first experience with Bowie’s music was Space Oddity. I most likely heard that on the radio when I was, maybe, 12. If you were a musically aware teenager in the early ’70s, you got to grow with David’s music and with his guitar players.

Station to Station was the first big Bowie record for me that I was aware of as an album and on FM radio. All those tunes were on the radio, and the guitar playing from Carlos and Slicky really stuck with me.

How did you approach the task of being Bowie’s guitar player?

Belew: He really had a fascination for guitar players, and one of the things I noticed is how much his songs were open to guitar playing. Songs like Stay or Heroes are custom-made for guitar. I was his musical director in 1990, and that was a whole other level; it took me months of preparation.

One of the main difficulties was that he wanted just a four-piece band, and yet he was doing a retrospective of all his career. So you had symphonies, you had saxophone sections, you had everything in there.

Fortunately, this coincided with the first sampler coming out. Roland had the first couple of samplers and they sent them to me, so me and my engineer and the keyboard player Rick Fox sat for hours and tried to sample all this stuff.

We kept buying more samplers, so in the end we had two huge racks of samplers. Most of the stuff was played live, but anything that was beyond our ability was Rick Fox just pressing a sampler button, and the stage would fill with beautiful orchestral sounds.

Leonard: I tried not to be too intimidated by the lineage that had gone before me, because hats off, those guys are incredible voices on the guitar.

But, you know, that was David’s thing, too: he was very generous in that way, validating you when you couldn’t do it for yourself. We need that as artists: at times, we need someone to say “Keep doing what you’re doing, because it’s going somewhere.”

Plati: When I met him, he was writing with Reeves Gabrels, and while they would both play guitar when they were composing, Reeves would go off and record the parts, and David was perfectly fine with that because he was always about the people he would bring into the story. He was always about letting them do what they do best.

Carlos Alomar: I’m just fine all over the place, playing what we call rhythm-lead. Because in my world, there’s no lead guitar player. You play a part, I play a part, and we switch off. And if I want to, I’ll play your part too if I need to.

Did Bowie have specific requirements, or was he more about, “Hit me with what you’ve got”?

Peter Frampton: He never said a word apart from, “Just come and be you.” It was such an honor and a relief that he trusted me, you know, and got me there because of what I do. So I wasn’t on Let’s Dance, and I didn’t sound like Stevie Ray Vaughan, but I quoted Stevie and all the other great guitar players. It was a thrill to be able to do that.

Belew: I had just come from working with Frank Zappa for a year, and Frank was very directive. He wanted you to play consistently and correctly, and he really didn’t need you to come up with much of anything. The music was the way he already wanted it to be. David was entirely the opposite.

He was just thrilled to have someone who could play wild and run around on stage with him. At one point he said, “You can be my Keith Richards!” He never really directed me about anything. He was a supporter more than anything else. He just got so excited if you did something really cool.

There’s a video of me playing Stay on the German television show Musikladen, and I launch into the first section where I can play a solo. He’s standing across the stage with his arms crossed, with this big grin, looking at me the whole time. He’s got this look on his face like, “That’s my boy!”

Schermerhorn: I think his genius, probably like Miles Davis, was to ask himself, “Who do I have around me?” Even if he had a guy who could only play two chords, then he’d write something using those two chords. His genius was hearing what you could do.

Alomar: I always say this: if you had Jimi Hendrix as your guitar player, would you tell him what to play? Fuck no. I tried to be inspiring, and I tried to give him what my best was. We always asked ourselves, “What if?” like, “What if we take the amplifier and we put it in the hallway?”

One time, Tony Visconti found a chandelier and threw a rope over it and then hoisted a microphone up there. These types of outlandish ideas, and that curiosity, will keep you young forever.

What did you think of Bowie as a guitar player?

Belew: This is an interesting thing. All the time I worked with David, I actually never saw him play much of anything. Not piano, not guitar. When I was his musical director in 1990, I just about managed to talk him into playing saxophone for one song, just because I thought it would be a cool look for David.

All those years I never thought about it, but when I ask myself when he sat down and wrote all these great songs, I don’t know the answer. He must have done it privately.

Schermerhorn: I thought what was cool was he never did barre chords. He did the E shape and slid that up and down the neck. He was letting the other strings ring on the 12-string. That’s how I remember him playing, and his timing was great.

Leonard: David wasn’t virtuosic or anything like that. He didn’t have any aspirations in those ways. He had a kind of caveman instinct with the guitar of what he wanted to do in a broad sense.

For instance, when we did The Next Day, he’d say, almost apologetically, “Do you mind playing this part?” And he’d play me a part from the demo, which was a stabbing chord or something like that. It was great, so raw and punk rock.

He’d say, “Take it and do what you want with it,” so sometimes I would modify it, but I would always be very careful to try and keep the intention. So he got people to do the things that he wasn’t able to do himself, but he had good instincts; he could write on the guitar and he could play a mean riff, too.

Plati: In the Spiders, he was basically the second guitarist for a while and he had chops, but once he started incorporating two guitar players in the band, then he didn’t have to be that any more; he became more of a frontperson.

Alomar: Bowie, like John Lennon, was a great rhythm, acoustic guitar player. Basically, they played triads, and they could play chords, but they couldn’t play chords and bass-lines together in opposition, so the bass couldn’t go down when the chord was going up. You always have to hit the root: you never hit an inversion. It’s what we call metronome playing. They could keep the rhythm down for the whole song.

Frampton: David played the riff on Rebel Rebel, so we know he was a great guitarist, but I think he used guitar and keyboard in order to write. He was like me in the sense that I can play piano enough to write a song, but I’m not a piano player, whereas I am a guitar player.

When were you last face to face with Bowie?

Belew: A long time ago. I don’t know. He called me several times, though. One time he called and asked, “What are you doing?” I said, “I’m out in my garden.” He said, “You’ve got a garden?” I said, “Yeah, I’ve got a garden. You could have a garden, too, if you want. You’re David Bowie!”

Schermerhorn: I ran into him a few times in New York, and he was always so nice to me.

Alomar: About a year or so before he died. It was Tony Visconti’s birthday, and he was there. I didn’t know he was sick. He seemed a little pale and rather frail, but it was mostly just about renewing old times, tying up loose ends, and rededicating our passion and love for each other as well as celebrating Tony’s good fortune and health.

Later on, I found that it was more of a pleasant goodbye. But one of the things that we have in Buddhism is that we don’t look at death as being death. It’s like when you call somebody after a long period of time.

You’re just calling to see how they are, to make sure that they know that you remember them and cherish them. As a Buddhist, I feel that if I don’t make that phone call to check up on you, then you’re still having a good old time. I know you’re fine.

What is your best memory of him?

Belew: Oh, man. There were so many. I feel like I have my own private film in my mind of everything that went on. Maybe the Sound + Vision tour. That was 108 shows, and it went for a year, and we played in 26 countries.

That’s when I really got to know David and befriend him. I got to experience a side of him that few other people did, because I spent time with him at night in his room, just talking about things, or having dinners or whatever. We were pals, so everything comes out. All kinds of joyful things happen.

Leonard: The whole experience was life-changing, and I feel very lucky. It was a little bit of “right place, right time” for me.

Alomar: I love the Scary Monsters… album. We had this period where we were so locked in. We could do anything; we were flipping beats and doing split-rhythms, and it was just amazing.

When we got together, our intent matched the level of our efficiency, so satisfaction was guaranteed. As a traveler in time, every one of us has that moment where you can hitch a ride to a star, and I think Bowie did a pretty good job of that.

• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Peter Frampton has looked back on how he got his hands on one of Jimi Hendrix’s most experimental instruments – which he later used in David Bowie’s band

The Humble Pie legend often finds himself at the heart of intriguing gear stories. The tale of how he ended up with one of only three electric sitars that were once owned by Hendrix is no exception.

“I was finishing [1977 solo album] I’m in You at Electric Lady in New York, which was Jimi’s studio,” Frampton recalls in the new issue of Guitar World.

“As we were leaving on the last night, the studio manager came out with a guitar case and said, ‘We’ve really appreciated you being here; I hope you had a good time. We have something here that we think Jimi might have wanted you to have.’”

Plenty of Hendrix’s gear has ended up in the hands of notable players, often as gifts. Frank Zappa acquired the Strat Hendrix charred at the Miami Pop Festival in 1968, Vito Bratta recorded a White Lion classic with his black Strat, and even My Chemical Romance’s Ray Toro has gotten in on the action.

But when the studio manager opened up the case that day, Frampton was caught off guard.

“I was expecting it to be a Strat, but they opened it up and showed me this electric sitar, and I went, ‘Oh, my God,’” he recalls. “Jimi’s road manager Gerry Stickells once wrote, ‘Jimi had three electric sitars. I know where two are, but I can’t find the other one.” [Laughs] I’ve got it here!”

Stickells can consider that mystery solved, then, and Frampton later put the sitar to use in Bowie’s band. It’s believed that Bowie himself used it to track Zeroes, from 1987’s Never Let Me Down, with Frampton taking it to the stage.

Frampton’s tenure with Bowie came at a key point in his career. A chance to join the Who fell through at the time, with Frampton telling GW in 2022 that Bowie helped him regain his “credibility”.

Elsewhere in the interview, Frampton revealed how he met his new favorite guitar player at George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch during a private all-star party.

To read Frampton’s interview in full, grab a copy of Guitar World magazine today. Paul McCartney is the cover star, with the feature tracing 60 years of his finest riffs.

Copies can be ordered from Magazines Direct.

Peter Frampton has looked back on the time he first crossed paths with H.E.R. – one of the many A-list guest guitarist on the Humble Pie legend’s latest album.

There’s a smattering of collaborators on Frampton’s Carry the Light. The addition of H.E.R might be the most surprising. They met in surprising circumstances, too.

The record is Frampton’s first release in 16 years. He tells Guitar World that he “knew it had to be good” to satisfy the wait for new material. Speaking in the mag’s new issue, he reveals the writing process spanned six years, and the final tracks were pieced together across the last year with his son, Julian.

Fender signature artist H.E.R plays on Islamorada and is part of an all-star cast that includes Tom Morello, Graham Nash, and Sheryl Crow. Frampton crossed paths with her just months before she starred at the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games.

“We met when I played George Lucas’ 80th birthday in 2024 at his place up in California, Skywalker Ranch,” Frampton reveals. “Basically it’s a winery, right in the middle of hundreds of acres of wine. It’s just gorgeous. Lucky bastard!”

When you’ve made your fortune with Star Wars, hiring out the local Cheesecake Factory for a private function won’t do. Not wanting to let his birthday pass him by, Lucas hired some top-quality guitarists to entertain his guests.

“H.E.R. was playing first, and then it was us,” Frampton explains. “Then Don Felder played, and I sat in. It was weird looking out and seeing Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas looking back at us.”

Frampton further elaborated on his first encounter with H.E.R. during an album breakdown on YouTube.

“We watched H.E.R. play her show, and I was blown away,” he says. “She's a great singer, songwriter, guitar player – incredible guitar player... Honored that H.E.R. brought he incredible guitar playing to [the record].”

Either way, Frampton was impressed by what he saw of the five-time Grammy-winning R&B star. The instrumental track Islamorada opens with some genteel acoustic guitar and percussion, over which the pair trade licks and harmonize guitar lines. It’s sonically gorgeous and seems to bring out the best in both talents.

Frampton was recently the subject of a new feature-length documentary, in which he discussed nearly joining the Who.

Frampton’s full interview features in the new issue of Guitar World, which is out today. Print and digital copies can be ordered from Magazines Direct.

As a songwriter, David Bowie’s legendary status is undisputed. But what was he like as a guitar player?

The chameleonic rock icon produced 26 solo albums during his lifetime, with one posthumous album following in 2021. Over the course of his prolific career, he partnered with a number of incredible guitar players, who often took on the lion's share of six-string duties.

Bowie could play guitar, and wasn’t opposed to strumming an acoustic or electric guitar on stage – especially early into his career – so what did the stars he worked with make of his playing?

“This is an interesting thing,” Adrian Belew – who featured on Lodger, the live album Stage, and later served as his musical director on the 1990 Sound+Vision tour – tells Guitar World when asked exactly that. “All the time I worked with David, I actually never saw him play much of anything. Not piano, not guitar. He must have done it privately.”

Thankfully, come the early 2000s, Bowie was a little less cloak-and-dagger with his playing, as Gerry Leonard recalls.

“David wasn’t virtuosic or anything like that. He didn’t have any aspirations in those ways,” he notes. “He had a kind of caveman instinct with the guitar of what he wanted to do in a broad sense.

“For instance, when we did The Next Day [2013], he’d say, almost apologetically, ‘Do you mind playing this part?’ And he’d play me a part from the demo, which was a stabbing chord or something like that. It was great, so raw and punk rock. He’d say, ‘Take it and do what you want with it,’ so sometimes I would modify it, but I would always be very careful to try and keep the intention.”

Bowie, then, perhaps knew his craft – it was raw and emotive rather than technical and virtuosic – and so he entrusted his foils to bring some nuance to his parts.

“He had good instincts,” Leonard says. “He could write on the guitar, and he could play a mean riff, too.”

Speaking of riffs, Peter Frampton, who played on 1987’s Never Let Me Down, had an interesting story to tell.

“David played the riff on Rebel Rebel, so we know he was a great guitarist,” he nods. “But I think he used guitar and keyboard to write.”

Mark Plati worked with Bowie in the 1990s and believes once his band pivoted to having two guitar players “he became more of a frontperson”, but he had chops to embolden his creative process.

Expanding on that, Carlos Alomar, who was Bowie’s most-used guitarist in the studio, said: “Bowie, like John Lennon, was a great rhythm, acoustic guitar player. Basically, they played triads, and they could play chords, but they couldn’t play chords and bass lines together in opposition. It’s what we call metronome playing. They could keep the rhythm down for the whole song.”

As Frampton says, the guitar, for Bowie, became a vehicle to create, and he could lead his cavalry with real class, but when he needed a little, he knew he wasn’t the man for the job.

The full interview with Bowie’s rich lineage of guitarists is the cover story in the latest issue of Guitar World. Copies can be ordered from Magazines Direct.

The forthcoming Peter Frampton documentary has thrown up another fascinating ‘What if?’ moment in rock history, revealing that the guitarist was once offered a spot in the Who.

Frampton’s namesake documentary debuted at the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City yesterday, June 4, and People has reported on an exchange that’s detailed in the film.

As the story goes, the talkbox-loving musician was down and out. His label had dropped him, and he was broke. Pete Townshend, hating life on the road, made a proposition.

Frampton recalls: “He said, ‘I’ve got this idea. I don’t want to tour anymore, but I still want to write and be in The Who. I’ll write the songs, and I wonder what you thought if you took my place in The Who on the road.”

In 1976, the live album Frampton Comes Alive! had turned Frampton into a legend, but his fortunes were waning by the turn of the decade. Needless to say, Frampton was tempted.

“I said, ‘Really? Have you spoken to Roger [Daltrey] and John [Entwistle] about this?” Frampton then says in the film. Townsend’s response was, “I’m gonna talk to them tomorrow about this.”

Then Townshend went quiet. Weeks went by without a call passed, so Frampton took the initiative.

“It took me about five or six calls… and I found him at the studio,” he recounts. “I said, ‘You never called me back, I got nothing going on in my career…you left me in the lurch.’ I berated him. I was feeling so perturbed at the fact that it was there, right in the palm of my hand, and [then it was] gone.”

Yet, hindsight is a funny thing. Looking back at that strange low point in his career with Guitar Player, Frampton seems glad things didn’t work out.

“I didn’t think it was a great idea,” he admits. “I was laughing as he was talking about it, to be honest. I wanted to say, ‘You must be kidding! First of all, I can’t jump that high. Secondly, I’m not you, and you’ve got an awfully large pair of shoes to fill, live.’

“I really didn’t think it would happen,” he adds. “But when the leader of the Who says, ‘I think I want you to play with the Who now,’ you go, ‘Well, that’s crazy... But I don’t have anything going on, so maybe it is a good idea.’”

Frampton has been detailing his desires to keep on playing as long as his body allows, with a new album and a tell-all documentary both soon to be released.

Released on the heels of Peter Frampton’s new album, Carry the Light, and premiering June 4 at New York City’s Tribeca Film Festival, the new Frampton documentary began as a career retrospective but rapidly evolved into a candid, funny and at times wrenchingly honest character study.

Guitar World asked director – and Frampton’s long-time bandleader – Rob Arthur about putting the great guitarist on the big screen.

What was the spark for the Frampton doc?

I've been his bandleader for 20 years. I've heard thousands of bus stories. He’ll suddenly say, “I just remembered this thing I did with Bill Wyman back in 1960-whatever.” I’m always like, “I've never heard you talk about that in interviews.” And he’s like, “They always ask me the same five questions!”

So the original goal was a career retrospective, but it ended up being much more. He’d been the subject of a [VH1] Behind the Music episode, and, nothing against those people, but every story is kinda the same, and his life wasn't that. The more we filmed, the more we talked, it became so personal.

What’s your favorite scene?

When we were in Abbey Road Studios in London, we were there just to film him and producer Chris Kimsey at the console going through the original recordings of [Frampton’s 1972 album] Wind of Change, which had just been discovered.

That was our goal for that day, so all we booked was the one studio to do that – to film that. While we were there, Peter was like, “Right down there in Studio One was where I did George Harrison's All Things Must Pass.” I said, “Yeah, we weren't able to book that.”

But I met the studio owner and he was super-cool. I said, “Hey, man, you know, Peter played on the Harrison record. Is there any way…?” He says, “Sure, go ahead and film down there.” He just let us go into the place where Peter recorded All Things Must Pass.

In the film you can see the emotion on Peter's face – of being right there where he had this experience with George Harrison and Phil Spector. It's one of my favorite parts of the film.

What were the hardest subjects to talk about?
Peter was extremely let down by his manager during [1976’s] Frampton Comes Alive! The guy pretty much ripped him off of so much money. To get Peter to talk about that, it’s not his favorite topic. He said, “I understand we have to,” but it was very painful.

He was broke just a few years after putting out one of the biggest-selling albums of all time. And that story of him borrowing money from [Atlantic Records co-founder] Ahmet Ertegun… first of all, it says a lot about [Ahmet’s kindness]. And for Peter to admit in the film, “This is how low it got” – it’s the real story. I don't think he's ever talked about that in an interview.

Did Peter seem to have any regrets?
I'd say some of his choices post-Frampton Comes Alive!, like the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band film [1978] and rushing out the follow-up album, I'm In You [1977].

But, you know, Sheryl Crow says it in the film: “When you're Number 1 in the world, there's only one way to go. It's gonna happen; it's about how you recover from that.” I think, at his age now, Peter would probably say all this stuff happened for a reason.

Obviously, Peter has some serious health issues. How did you approach that?

He wanted to be totally transparent. He said, “The more open I am about my struggles, the more it helps people who are going through this disease.” We see him throughout the film with a cane, you know, struggling to get upstairs.

But his attitude of how to persevere and survive this is a huge part of his character. We have his doctor from Johns Hopkins University in the film. She calls Peter her model patient because he's doing everything he possibly can to fight the muscle degeneration.

Why do you think this documentary will appeal to guitarists?

Well, a huge thing I wanted to cover and tell right was Peter’s approach to playing. He's got this unique guitar style, and where does that come from? So we talk about his roots. Django Reinhardt and the Shadows is where Peter learned all of his basics. Which is different from, let's say, Eric Clapton or Keith Richards, which is more blues-based.

Peter is not blues-based. He loves the blues, but he has this other vocabulary as well, which is jazz, Django Reinhardt, Miles Davis and Jaco Pastorius. All this stuff is in Peter's playing, but it’s served up through this kind of accessible rock lens.

Do you think we’ll see more tours from Peter?

It’s hard to say. As he deals with the disease – and it is progressive – it's getting harder for him to get in and out of tour buses and venues. So the issue about any upcoming tours is how physically hard it would be for him to just get around. That’s it. He still sings great. And he's playing his ass off.

• Frampton debuts on June 4 at Tribea Film Festival.

At 59, Peter Frampton’s life changed dramatically when he started experiencing the first symptoms of Inclusion Body Myositis, a rare inflammatory muscle disease in which, according to the Muscular Dystrophy Association, “inflammatory immune cells invade the muscle tissue and concentrate between the muscle fibers.”

“Julian [his son] said, ‘Let’s run up this hill.’ Normally, I would beat him, and I didn’t,” Frampton tells The New York Times as he reflects on that faithful day and eventual diagnosis. “It felt like there were insects in my legs, like they were vibrating.”

Frampton didn’t let the diagnosis stop him, however. If anything, it has made him even more prolific. On May 15, the guitarist is releasing Carry the Light, his first album of original tracks since being diagnosed with IBM, and the first he’s worked on with his son.

“In my mind, I’m more successful than I’ve ever been – because I like myself, I like what I do,” he says.

“I’ve always been someone that didn’t think I was good enough, but I’ve reached the point where I don’t care what anybody else thinks. I should have felt that way a long time ago.” His Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction in 2024 didn’t hurt, either.

Aside from this upcoming album, the diagnosis spurred him to craft his own versions of familiar tunes.

In the span of just a few years, he released three albums of reimagined songs: 2016’s Acoustic Classics, 2019’s All Blues, and 2021’s Frampton Forgets the Words. Writing wholly original songs took a bit longer, as it also involved finding the right producer, which turned out to be his son.

“I’ve never wanted to work with a producer, because I’m a control freak. It ends up not being me,” Frampton quips. “Whereas with Julian, it ends up being twice as much of me, because he knows who I am, what makes me tick, what I can do, what I can’t do.”

As for his philosophy moving forward, well, you can rest assured Frampton has much more to offer to the music world.

“People say, ‘Oh, you must be so upset,’ and, yeah, I am. But you can fix the little things,” he asserts.

“But big things never worried me, because the big things you can’t do anything about. If I don’t accept what I have, I’m going to be mad for the rest of my life.”

There was a time when Peter Frampton very nearly joined Suzi Quatro’s band. In September 1971, Quatro packed her suitcase and headed to England, chasing the promise of famed record producer Mickie Most to make her a star.

It took more or less a year of trial and error for the formula to work out, but eventually the two settled on a song – Rolling Stone – that Quatro had written with Hot Chocolate’s Errol Brown.

Most’s reputation meant that he was able to hire some very promising names as session players, including a post-Humble Pie Frampton.

“We were making a song called Rolling Stone for my debut album,” Quatro recalls in an interview with Classic Rock. “Mickie said to me: ‘I’ve got this guitar player coming in and I’ve kind of earmarked him for your band.’

“I didn’t have a band yet, and Peter was a very sweet, unassuming guy, and a good guitar player who’d gone solo after being in Humble Pie. When the session was over, Mickie said, ‘Nope, Peter can’t be in your band. There’s only going to be one star, and that’s you.” Who knew Peter would be so successful? Mickie had picked up on it.”

Despite only making waves in Portugal, the song would serve as a launching pad for Quatro, as she was able to form a band and support the likes of Slade and Thin Lizzy.

“When I first put the band together in early ’72, and we started to do college gigs, Mickie put us out on the circuit, got us an agent, and helped to buy equipment,” she recalled of those heady days in an interview with Bass Player.

“I remember him saying to the rest of the band, and it’s quite funny when I think about it, ‘You guys are gonna have this amp and that amp, but Suzi has an Acoustic amp because it’s her band and she’s the star. She gets the best equipment because she’s the most important.’

“I thought, ‘Thanks a lot, Mickie – the band are really gonna love me now!’ But he was looking after me, he really was.”

In more recent Suzi Quatro news, the bass legend, who has just released her 18th studio album, Freedom, also revealed that she once jammed with Jeff Beck and Cozy Powell, all while playing James Jamerson’s bass.

When Detroit prog rock band Tiles went on indefinite hiatus in 2018, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Chris Herin started writing new songs to keep himself busy.

At first, Herin had no intention of recording a solo album, but as months turned to years and his catalog of new songs grew, he began working with longtime collaborator and producer Terry Brown.

Over several years of on-and-off work, the two assembled Hiding in Plain Sight, a musically diverse record based on the battle Herin’s father underwent with dementia before he died. “I wanted the music to trace the path my father took from the point where his behavior started getting odd and all the way through the trajectory of the disease,” Herin says.

For years, Herin didn’t even want to think about his father’s disease, let alone write songs about it. With time, the memories became less painful, and working on Hiding in Plain Sight helped provide closure. To provide contrast to the sobering subject matter, Herin wrote in a variety of styles, including ’80s power rock, pop, country-folk, classic rock and, yes, prog.

“I like that there’s an odd inconsistency between the music and lyrics,” Herin says. “We wanted the music to offset some of the more depressing content and bring more dimensions to the album.”

To enhance their enjoyment of the creative process, Herin and Brown recruited more than two dozen guest musicians, including Peter Frampton, Alex Lifeson, Martin Barre (ex-Jethro Tull), Randy McStine (Porcupine Tree), Kim Mitchell (Max Webster) and Jeff Kollman (Alan Parsons Live Project).

While all of the soloists met or exceeded Herin’s expectations, two went above and beyond. Lifeson radically reworked the stripped-down Second Ending into a melancholy mélange of sparse plucked notes, effected guitar swells and weeping strings.

“He’s not doing any of the lead work he’s known for,” Herin says. “He came up with 10 tracks of textures and atmospheres that all could have worked, and Terry integrated them all into the song, which was amazing.”

Similarly, Barre turned The Darkest Hour from a basic prog song into a layered, musically ornate folk-imbued number. “I had just asked him for a quick solo,” Herin says. “Not only did he do an incredible solo that interlocks with everything, but he added extra guitar that’s orchestral on its own – and then he recorded flute and mandolin, which takes the song to a completely different place.”

Proceeds from Hiding in Plain Sight will be donated to Alzheimer’s charities.

• Hiding in Plain Sight is out now via Laser's Edge.
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Peter Frampton has announced his first new album in 16 years.

Carry the Light was co-written with his son, Julian, and features an intriguing cast of guest musicians, including H.E.R., Tom Morello, and Sheryl Crow.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is continuing in spite of his inclusion body myositis (IBM) diagnosis in 2015. That's seen him adapt his playing style to counter the generative disease's effects, while (semi) recent live showings shredding the Beatles with Grace Bowers and Trey Anastasio, and soloing with Pearl Jam in Nashville, prove that the Les Paul-toting legend still has plenty of licks in him yet.

Consequently, Carry the Light extends that sentiment, and Frampton hopes it can usher in a new era for him.

“It was one of my most enjoyable projects ever,” he says. “I got to work with my son Julian – writing and producing together. A first of many for us, I’m sure.”

Its lead single, Buried Treasure, is a tribute to the late Tom Petty, with the song’s lyrics littered with references to the singer-songwriter, and it even features Heartbreakers keyboardist Benmont. It’s a driving song, but laid back all the same, with ample space for Frampton’s tasteful lead lines to weave in and around his rasping, thankful vocals.

But Benmount isn’t the only guest on the album. Tom Morello, fresh from working with Måneskin guitarist Thomas Raggi, Fender signature artist H.E.R., Sheryl Crow, Graham Nash, and saxophonist Bill Evans have all heeded Frampton’s call for extra firepower.

“This may be the best album Peter’s ever made,” claims engineer, co-producer, and longtime Mark Knopfler collaborator Chuck Ainlay. “The songs are just so poignant, and his voice has matured in a way that really delivers what he's trying to get across.”

The 10-track album releases on May 15 via UMG Recordings in a host of formats, including 180-gram yellow vinyl and in hi-res, Dolby Atmos audio.

Recently, Frampton has been busy celebrating 50 years since the release of his seminal live album, Frampton Comes Alive! by revealing that, not only did Kiss’ Alive! take inspiration from its name, but it also features a raft of his equipment.

Kiss have never been a band to follow trends. When they looked to capture the extravagance of their live shows after their first three studio releases failed to capture the band at their best, the chaos of their performances meant a little in-studio doctoring was needed to get the tracks sparkling.

Its title is a not-so-subtle nod to Peter Frampton’s mega-selling live record, Frampton Comes Alive!, and the man behind the album has revealed it wasn’t just its name the band lifted. Frampton’s gear was on the menu, too.

“Kiss was a new band and the effort they put out in those shows was monumental, so we did a bunch of guitar and vocal overdubs at [Jimi Hendrix’s] Electric Lady Studios,” Kramer tells Guitar Player in a new interview.

Both live records were being worked on simultaneously within Electric Lady’s walls, and Kiss looked at Frampton’s collection of electric guitars, amps, and beyond to sweeten their fumbles and foils.

“They kept on coming to us and asking if we had guitars, amps, or basses, as they were doing some fixing on their live record,” Frampton told GP in 2005.

“They just kept on coming in and borrowing all sorts of different stuff. So my equipment is on that album – but not me!”

The Kiss gang mainly had eyes for Frampton’s mid-1950s Les Paul Custom “Black Beauty.” It features on the cover of his iconic live album, and before that was used on Humble Pie’s 1971 live record, Performance: Rockin' the Fillmore.

Five years later, it was renamed “Phenix” after it survived a plane crash. He’s lost and recovered 44 guitars across his storied career, but the Les Paul’s survival is widely considered the most remarkable.

Kramer, meanwhile, says, “I remember Peter’s amps in Studio A other than the Marshall stacks that Ace and Paul had,” with more of Frampton’s rig borrowed.

The fact Alive! was treated to quite extensive post-production magic – owing to audio being marred by “bombs going off, Gene spitting fire, rockets from Ace’s guitar”, as Kramer has explained – was controversial upon its release. However, fans didn't seem to mind as it became the band's biggest success to date, and has since gone multi-platinum. Half a century on, Paul Stanley believes the band made the right call.

“We never claimed to be virtuosos, we were virtu-no-sos, he told Guitar World. Call them overdubs or call them replacing things that weren’t up to snuff. I make no apologies.”

He adds that the band had felt “unstoppable” during the tour, as well as revealing that Frampton’s work in Humble Pie was a big reason he played Gibson guitars during that era.

Meanwhile, Frampton continues to defy his health issues by playing guitar. He recently joined Pearl Jam for a guest spot in Nashville after taking on a Beatles classic with Grace Bowers and Trey Anastasio, making the most of his numbered playing days.

Inspired by Frampton's ability to overcome adversity, Andy Timmons wrote a song in tribute to the guitarist – and his hero ended up playing on it in a poetic twist of fate.

Pick up a Gibson Murphy Lab guitar, and you probably won’t be the first one to be fooled into thinking that it’s genuinely vintage.

Masterminded by the godfather of guitar relic’ing, Tom Murphy, each Murphy Lab model is a testament to the team’s skill in expertly aging guitars. After first introducing the Murphy methodology to electric guitars, the firm later segued into the acoustic guitar space and continued to hoodwink even the most seasoned guitar connoisseurs.

“Tom Murphy created his finishes to make the electrics feel and look like road-worn instruments. Then Gibson said, ‘Hey, let’s do some acoustics this way, too,’” senior product development manager Robi Johns tells Guitarist.

“That was about four years ago. My initial thought was, ‘I don’t know if people are looking for beat-up acoustics.’ But we released five models with light aging in 2023.”

Turns out, these test models managed to capture many a guitarist’s imagination...

“Now, I hear from the connoisseur artists: ‘I was down in Nashville and I ran into this Murphy Lab Light Aged Jumbo, and I can’t sleep any more because I just gotta have it. But they said they couldn’t sell it because it’s a display model. Please can you pull some strings so I can buy it?’”

He continues, “Last year, we announced the Murphy Lab Heavy Aged Acoustic Collection, and they’re just starting to hit the market. I actually said to Tom, ‘Thank you, you’ve created a time machine for us.’”

One such guitarist who was fooled by the Murphy Lab models was Peter Frampton, who requested his own custom build. “He has a 1939 L-00. He wanted an L-00 from the Murphy Lab because he’s heard these things are magic. So I put together the design for him. We used a Light Aged finish.”

Frampton's response after trying out his brand new (yet heavily relic'd) guitar? “I have his message on my phone: ‘Robi, I don’t understand, this sounds better than my ’39.’ I knew that he was right.”

As Johns succinctly puts it, “With all of the elements that we’re doing today, we’re finding out that the overall effect is that they might sound even better than the ones from that era.”

For more about Gibson Murphy Lab, plus new interviews with Joe Bonamassa and Chris Buck, pick up your own copy of issue 526 of Guitarist at Magazines Direct.

Duane Eddy. The very name is synonymous with a sound: simple melodies played on the low strings, enhanced with tremolo, deep reverb and a feathering of the whammy bar. In a word – the word that became Eddy’s badge of distinction for over 60 years – twang.

On a chilly April night at the Opry House, the iconic home of Nashville's century-old Grand Ole Opry radio show, a star-studded roster is taking to the stage for the Titan Of Twang: A Celebration of Duane Eddy.

Guitar World is here to pay our own respects, following his death last year and to try to figure out what it is about Eddy”s playing that can still draw together a line-up of guitar greats classic and contemporary.

The bill sees the likes of Peter Frampton, Vince Gill and Albert Lee rubbing shoulders with Grace Bowers and blues-rock firebrand Toby Lee. Joe Bonamassa is in the building, as is Steve Earle, JD McPherson, and a host of other musical talent.

The glowing image of Eddy watches proceedings from above, and at stage right, in a spotlight, his trademark Gretsch 6120 sits with his fedora on the headstock.

“His sound was really compelling because it was not a ton of information,” Vince Gill says ahead of his performance. “It was minimal, part-driven and always memorable. For guitarists it’s a great lesson to relearn, over and over again, how important the melody is.”

Many in the audience are of a vintage who can remember buying Eddy singles like Rebel Rouser and Peter Gunn in the ‘50s and ‘60s.

Yet what unfolds over the next two-and-a-half hours is a testament to how his influence has not only cut across genres, but generations.

Those thundering Eddy lines have become a key part of the DNA of rock guitar and, whether modern players remain conscious of it or not, his playing is a building block for the instrument.

Eddy was born in New York in 1938 and started playing guitar at age five. When he was a teenager his family moved to Phoenix. The vastness of the surrounding desert set him dreaming of how he might convey it with his guitar.

Later, working with producer Lee Hazlewood, that’s exactly what he did – scoring a staggering 34 Top 40 hits in the US and UK, including Rebel Rouser, Cannonball and Movin’ and Groovin’.

It’s easy to forget the sheer scale of his success – and that he did it all through instrumental tracks, letting his guitar do the talking. Indeed, he remains the most successful instrumentalist of the rock era.

The Titan of Twang show is both a tribute and a timely reminder of his legacy. Covers of those early hits conjure up a lost era of beach parties (McPherson on Yep and Ramrod) drag races (Albert Lee on Forty Miles Of Bad Road) and spy capers (Henry Mancini’s Peter Gunn).

While songs inspired directly by Eddy – Steve Earle’s Guitar Town, Bill Lloyd’s Whoa!, Toby Lee’s Stingray and Molly Tuttle and Grace Bower’s White Rabbit – show that his sound still reverberates through country, blues, psychedelia, rock ’n’ roll and even jazz.

The latter is evident in Joe Bonamassa’s swinging cover of Bye Bye Blues, taken from Eddy’s 1967 album The Roaring Twangies. Lacing the melody between stair-stepping horn lines and walking bass, Bonamassa cops Eddy’s signature sound, with a touch of Les Paul thrown in. “I’ve been practicing that all week!” he tells the crowd.

“Duane Eddy was one of those incredibly rare guitar players who didn't need a vocalist to sing a song,” is how Bonamassa puts it, direct to Guitar World.

“His use of space, sound, vibrato, and songwriting transcended anything that could have been sung over those songs – Peter Gunn doesn't need a vocal – and he created a sound that we all copy today.

“Before he created that sound, nothing sounded like it. He just used simple gear to create this wonderful twang that had never been done before. None of the musical instrument manufacturers envisioned that their equipment would be used in such a way to create such a sound."

The blues ace is followed tonight by Gill (who’s flown in from the Eagles’ residency at the Las Vegas Sphere) trading tasteful, steel-like licks with Bowers on country weeper Making Believe and his own hit Whenever You Come Around.

Of all the accomplished players on the bill, the one who sounds most in tune with Eddy’s spirit is Albert Lee. He knew him first as a fan, then as a friend.

“I saw him play the infamous concert at the Lewisham Odeon,” Lee tells Guitar World, referencing Eddy’s breakthrough show in England, in 1960.

“He was opening for Bobby Darin and the audience were going, ‘We want Duane! We want Duane!’ Poor Bobby was backstage, almost in tears – from there on, Duane finished the shows out.”

Music paper Disc said of that show: “The twang flooded the auditorium until the very walls vibrated. Duane tried at first to announce the numbers, but the roar of applause was as unstoppable as Niagara Falls.”

It’s not surprising the moment left an impression. Years later – following his dismissal from Eric Clapton’s notorious late ’70s band – Lee got to know Eddy through his work with mutual friends the Everly Brothers, and fondly remembers Eddy stopping by his house with his old Gretsch.

“Later I did a gig with him at the Baked Potato in LA,” Lee recalls. “Eric was in the audience with Jeff Beck and Jan Hammer; they were there digging us! They’d come to see Duane, not knowing I was playing second guitar with him.”

Eddy made being a guitarist look cool to a generation of teenagers – Clapton, Beck and Albert Lee, included.

On the cover of his 1958 debut Have Twangy Guitar Will Travel, he’s perched on a hardshell case, quiffed and staring pensively, looking like a cross between James Dean and Jack Kerouac – he’s the hipster troubadour.

The instrument inside that case, an orange Gretsch 6120 hollow-body, still holds sway over guitarists. In the Opry lobby there’s a long line at the Gretsch Guitars booth, players waiting to try the latest DE series reissues. Along with Chet Atkins and George Harrison, Eddy is probably the best salesman the brand have had.

Speaking of Harrison, the show is interspersed with video messages from artists and fans, one of whom is Harrison’s widow, Olivia.

She recalls how George was excited and nervous when he got to record two songs with for Eddy’s 1987 self-titled album – The Trembler and Theme For Something Really Important. “He was like a kid meeting his hero,” she recalls.

In turn, it reminds me of a great quote from Harrison: “When The Beatles played a low E, it sounded like a low E. When Duane plays it, it sounds an octave lower!”

Another message of love is beamed in from Bruce Springsteen. Holding his Telecaster backstage before a show, he says, “Without Duane Eddy, there’d be no…” He picks the low-string riff from Born To Run and signs off with: “Duane, rest in peace, and play on in that big house of a thousand guitars. We love you.”

The Opry House feels a fitting venue for the tribute given its poignant location in the city Eddy called home from 1985. The ace backing band includes local session cats who’d collaborated with him, including guitarist-producer Richard Bennett, E Street Band bassist Garry Tallent and Linda Ronstadt’s steel guitarist Dan Dugmore.

After Frampton closes his set with Rebel Rouser and While My Guitar Gently Weeps, everyone gathers on stage for the finale of Peter Gunn. and we see what’s surely the best part of Eddy's legacy: the pure joy of playing a riff on the guitar.

Buddy Miller perhaps describes it best: “Duane was the master of cool. His sound had such elegance and tone. But really, it was all in his hands – and in his heart.”

• Titan Of Twang: A Celebration of Duane Eddy will be aired by NPT in the near future.

Less than a week after Eddie Vedder donned Jack White’s signature Acoustasonic for a rampaging deep cut, Pearl Jam welcomed Peter Frampton to the stage for a fresh rendition of Black.

The band's Nashville stop on May 8 provided the ideal opportunity to link up with one of their earliest guitar heroes, with Frampton and Mike McCready trading licks as Eddie Vedder teased Frampton's mega-hit, Do You Feel Like We Do.

“This gentleman was someone we looked up to before the Ramones,” Vedder told the crowd prior to Frampton’s arrival. “Some of our first guitar heroes, [like] Jimmy Page and Pete Townshend, he was right up there.

“It was one of [the] reasons why we loved live records, and later we decided to release bootlegs because of his influence,” he adds, alluding to Frampton’s celebrated live LP, Frampton Comes Alive!

“He’s such an incredible human being on top of it. It is our honor because at this point he’s become a good friend to the group. He’s recorded with Mike [McCready] and [drummer] Matt Cameron [the pair guested on Frampton's 2006 album, Fingerprints, covering Soundgarden's Black Hole Sun] and we get to play with him tonight.”

The Les Paul-loving guitarist, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year, is having to adapt his playing as he battles a degenerative disease, but he has said he will continue to play guitar for the rest of his life – and as this spot shows, he’s still got oodles of class.

Frampton takes the first solo, delivering soulful licks with a tender sprinkling of overdrive before McCready – wielding an all-white Stratocaster for the occasion – weaves the song's motif around his improvised playing. And Frampton looks to be loving every second of it, with the Nashville crowd in full voice throughout.

The guitarist will embark on one final tour later this year, having made a surprise appearance at NAMM 2025. In March, he played a Beatles classic with Grace Bowers and Trey Anastasio and there were guitar solos galore.

“Every note I play now is so much more important because I know one of the notes will be the last I play,” he commented of his playing.

His diagnosis of inclusion body myositis (IBM) – a degenerative condition that affects the legs, arms, wrists, and fingers – has already forced him to perform seated, and prompted him to announce a farewell tour in 2019. But the pull of the stage is strong, and Frampton is proving defiant in the face of adversity.

It’s a quality Andy Timmons has been quick to acknowledge – “Even in the face of adversity he still plays with complete joy,” he has said – and, after penning a song in tribute to him, Frampton ended up guesting on it.

Grace Bowers is showing no signs of slowing down. Peter Frampton recently named her as one of his favorite rising guitar stars, calling her “a wonderful, wonderful talent” – now, Bowers has continued to build her already hefty résumé by playing alongside the veteran electric guitar legend himself, as well as Phish's Trey Anastasio, at the Love Rocks NYC benefit concert at The Beacon Theater on March 6.

The three guitarists joined forces for a heartfelt rendition of The Beatles' While My Guitar Gently Weeps – which, as one might expect from such a powerful trio, was anything but short on guitar solos.

“[I'm] a huge, huge fan of both of them. One is a lady that is going to be on your mind for the rest of the weekend because she is an incredible player, [and] one of the up-and-coming phenomenal players. I've known her for a while now, and her name is Grace Bowers,” Frampton says in a fan-recorded video.

“This gentleman that I've always wanted to meet and play with, he has an album called Hampton Comes Alive,” Frampton continues, referring to Phish's live album, whose title is a play on 1976's Frampton Comes Alive! “Please welcome Trey Anastasio.”

What followed was a 10-minute-plus guitar extravaganza of the Beatles classic, which Anastasio and Frampton kicked off with an improvised duet before Bowers joined in.

Armed with her trusty Gibson SG, she delivered a masterclass in soloing, visibly impressing both Anastasio and Frampton. From their end, Anastasio and Frampton showcased their staying power, taking turns flexing their unique approach to solos – Anastasio on his Languedoc and Frampton on his Phenix Les Paul – before culminating in a soaring crescendo that saw all three guitarists bursting into a jam.

Frampton's performance in New York follows his recent appearance at NAMM, where he continued to open up about his decision to tour despite his inclusion body myositis (IBM) diagnosis back in 2015.

However, in order to do so, Frampton revealed to Guitar World the ways he has evolved his playing to overcome the challenges posed by the condition.

Peter Frampton has opened up on how his approach to playing the guitar is continuously evolving and adapting as he battles inclusion body myositis (IBM).

The rock legend was diagnosed with the degenerative disease in 2015, and in 2019 Frampton announced he would be hitting the road for a farewell tour.

The tour was delayed until 2022 because of Covid, but was eventually followed by another tour – Never EVER Say Never – last year, and now, just a few weeks ago, Frampton confirmed he’d be performing live once again this spring for a series of North American dates.

The decision to continue touring stems from Frampton’s documented desire to savior and prolong his remaining playing days, but in order to do so, the guitar great has had to alter the way he approaches the instrument.

Speaking exclusively to Guitar World following the Martin press preview event at NAMM 2025, Frampton discussed how his playing has had to evolve in order to overcome the challenges that are posed by his IBM.

“It’s hard to say, really. My style is always going to be the same,” he explains when asked how his technique has changed. “Maybe a few less notes, and more soul. I think about what I’m playing a little bit more before I do it.

“I try not to think at all when I’m actually soloing or playing things I’m making up in a spur of the moment, but it’s getting a little bit more difficult.

“I just don’t have the pressure that I had,” Frampton continues. “Bends are getting a little bit more difficult and stuff like that. But, you know what, I just work around it.

“If I can’t use my first finger, I’ll use my second finger, and third, and whatever. My little fingers are probably the weakest because it starts there apparently, but I’m still enjoying playing.”

Frampton’s continued love for the instrument is apparent. Not only is he working on his 19th solo album – his first since 2021’s Frampton Forgets The Words – he’s also remaining active on the session circuit, recently racking up credits with some notable artists.

“I’m still doing sessions. I just did a track with Buddy Guy,” Frampton reveals. “His part was already recorded and they sent it to me and I just did it at home. It was phenomenal, but it had to be really good, because I’m playing with guess who? Buddy Guy!

“I also did a version of Baby, I Love Your Way with Deborah Silver. They did a 1945 version of [that]. It’s phenomenal, and I did a solo on that.”

Prior to speaking to Guitar World, Frampton was the guest of honor during Martin’s NAMM 2025 preview presentation, during which the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer reassured fans he's not planning on putting the guitar down anytime soon.

“I will keep doing music for the rest of my life,” he said as the audience applauded. “What I have is not life-threatening, thank God, but it's life-changing, and I'm going with the flow.”

Frampton will hit the road for the Let’s Do It Again! Tour this April. Head over to his official website for a full list of dates.

Last Saturday's 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction ceremony in Cleveland was full of memorable moments. However, one definite standout was Peter Frampton's performance alongside Keith Urban. Long considered overlooked by Rock Hall, Frampton finally received his honors at a critical moment for the inventive guitarist, who is currently battling a degenerative disease.

Frampton was introduced by The Who's Roger Daltrey and promptly treated audiences to a stellar rendition of Baby (Somethin’s Happenin), complete with a blistering guitar solo on his Gibson "Phenix" 1954 Les Paul Custom.

“This is fantastic, thank you. I wanna bring on a dear friend of mine for a very long time, a great singer-songwriter and guitar player,” Frampton said with a smile, as Urban joined him on stage.

The country star was fully equipped with his 40th Anniversary Fender Telecaster for a solo-dueling Do You Feel Like We Do, featuring a shortened version of Frampton's signature talk box solo – which typically stretches up to 20 minutes in his concerts.

“That’s the one everybody wants to hear,” Frampton told Billboard, “so we edited that down, and that includes jamming with Keith as well.”

Urban added: “When he called and asked me if I’d play that song, of all songs, I was very happy to get to do it. It was amazing getting to play with Peter. He’s just got such a control over sensitivity and dynamics and intents. He makes it look easy, but it’s really hard to do what he does. He’s like a black diamond (trail) skier making it look like a green. It’s insane.”

Meanwhile, Daltrey gushed about Frampton's pioneering work and performance, noting: “It was fabulous to hear the sound of real guitars instead of all the fuzz box shit that they put out these days, detuned. It’s not rock ‘n’ roll. It’s not music… and it was wonderful to hear Peter’s guitar sound and Keith and the band work together, and the sensitivity in (Frampton’s) voice.”

In recent news, Frampton claimed he was forced to cancel a live show after Megadeth damaged the stage during their soundcheck a few nights before his scheduled performance.

Megadeth have fired back at Peter Frampton, who recently claimed he was forced to cancel a live show because the heavy metal outfit had damaged the stage during their soundcheck a few nights before.

It truly is the guitar beef that has taken everyone by surprise. Both acts were scheduled to play at the Virginia Credit Union Live! at Richmond Raceway earlier this month, but both were forced to cancel at the last minute.

At the time, both parties remained tight-lipped over the cancellation. Megadeth cited “unexpected and unpredictable circumstances”, while blues rock guitar great Frampton ambiguously pointed the finger at “unforeseen circumstances”.

However, a few days later, Frampton seemingly shed more light on the situation, alleging it was actually Megadeth’s fault that the shows couldn’t take place.

“We had a show canceled the other day because of the weather," Frampton informed the crowd at a subsequent show in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. "And also Megadeth did a soundcheck, I think a couple of days before our show, and after they finished their soundcheck, there was structural damage to the stage.

“I'm not blaming them – could have been another band – but it looks pretty like it. So, sorry, Megadeth. I had to rat on you.”

Camp Megadeth, clearly unhappy with Frampton’s onstage remarks, have now fired back with a strongly worded statement, with Dave Mustaine accusing the guitarist of, erm, talking out of his “ass”.

“It seems Frampton was misinformed about our show being cancelled,” Mustaine says. “The decision was purely based on safety. It's disappointing when someone you admire talks out their ass about you.”

In a longer statement, the band’s reps said: “Megadeth did not even get a chance to sound check at all in Richmond, Virginia contrary to what Peter Frampton reports.

“Megadeth’s rigger was in the venue's steel grid system above the stage getting ready to hang the lights when he noticed there was damage to the venue's grid. He pointed this out immediately to the promoters and the venue.

“It was determined that it was unsafe for Megadeth to hang their production or put the band on stage at the risk of in-house grid failure to support the weight of the touring lighting and sound which could fall on the band, crew members, or audience, as it could cause serious injury or death.

“Therefore, Megadeth, the local promoter, the venue, and booking agents had no other option than to cancel the show.”

Mustaine recently sat down with Guitarist for in-depth discussion about his guitar collection, during which he discussed the guitars he most misses, his amp philosophy, and why he's now smitten with the amp modeler.

Peter Frampton is being honored by the Les Paul Foundation's Les Paul Spirit Award for his innovative contributions to the music industry. The prestigious event will take place on June 9 at the Gibson Garage Nashville, on what would have been Les Paul's 109th birthday. 

The annual award is presented to an individual who embodies the spirit of the late Les Paul through their innovation in music and music technology. Frampton is particularly popular for experimenting with new technologies and music trends, with his singles Do You Feel Like We Do and Show Me the Way, synonymous with his use of the talk box. Previous award recipients include Nile Rodgers, U2's The Edge and Bob Weir.

“I cannot think of anyone more fitting to be honored with this year’s Les Paul Spirit Award than Peter Frampton. Not only is he an extraordinary talent who has given us an amazing array of extraordinary music, but he is an innovator who understands music, technologies, and the spirit of Les Paul,” said Michael Braunstein, Executive Director of The Les Paul Foundation. 

“If Les were still alive today, I have absolutely no doubt that he and Peter would be experimenting together at Les’ house.”

The Les Paul Spirit Award also continues to honor Les Paul's legacy, as the actual award is made from hand-carved acoustic boards, designed and built by Les Paul, that he used in his home studio.

Peter Frampton was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, alongside Ozzy Osbourne, Cher, Mary J. Blige, and Kool & The Gang, to name but a few. In addition, he recently guested on a new track by Andy Timmons amid his battle with the degenerative disease inclusion body myositis (IBM). 

Peter Frampton, Foreigner and Dave Matthews Band are among the names to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for 2024, it has been revealed. 

The Class of 2024 also includes Ozzy Osbourne, Cher, Mary J. Blige, and Kool & the Gang. The MC5 are included in the Musical Excellence Award category, with legendary blues rock guitarist John Mayall included in Musical Influence. 

Peter Frampton has enjoyed a prolific career, producing 18 solo albums along the way. He’s been described by the Hall of Fame as an “exceptional guitarist, and cultural touchstone”.  

Frampton's induction feels especially well-deserved, and comes at a very fitting time. The guitarist has recently discussed how he's had to change guitar playing as he battles a rare degenerative disease, and revealed he's decided to continue touring to savor his last remaining playing days.

He also guested on a new track by Andy Timmons earlier this month, which was originally meant as a tribute to the guitarist. Now, he joins a distinguished list of Hall of Famers, including Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Prince, and B.B King. 

Speaking to Billboard after the announcement, Frampton said, “I think I’m a little bit in shock, and speechless. I never expected this. 

“People always said, ‘You should be in.’ I said, ‘Eh, what is to be,’ y’know? So mixed emotions, because it’s something that I just never expected, whereas other people did for me. It’s wonderful.”

Frampton also name-dropped the artist he'd like to play with at the induction ceremony on October 19: Sheryl Crow, who included Frampton in her own induction performance in 2023.

As mentioned, Frampton shares the induction list with an array of music royals. Foreigner wrote nine albums between 1977 and 2009, selling more than 80 million copies, while the Dave Matthews Band's 10-album career included a Grammy win for 1997's So Much to Say.

Elsewhere, this is Ozzy Osbourne’s second induction after Black Sabbath joined the elite club in 2006, while the MC5 are being honored for their contribution to punk and heavy music in general. In fact, we ranked Kick Out the Jams as no. 4 on our roundup of the 20 heaviest songs before Black Sabbath.

Previous inductee Lionel Richie announced the 2024 additions during Sunday’s American Idol alongside Ryan Seacrest. The induction ceremony is set to be streamed live on Disney+ on October 19. 

The 2023 induction ceremony featured Jimmy Page's first live performance in eight years as he covered Link Wray's Rumble on his iconic Gibson EDS-1275.  

Other notable induction events throughout the years include Dave Grohl teaming up with Lionel Richie in 2022, and Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, and Joe Perry joining Metallica for a pulverizing Train Kept A-Rollin' in 2009. Only time will tell what guitar-playing exploits the 2024 ceremony has in store for us...

Not every artist can resist the pull of the stage, even after a farewell tour – just ask Kiss and Mötley Crüe.   

Peter Frampton can also be put in that bracket, but as a new interview with the electric guitar legend reveals, his reasoning for pursuing more shows is wholly justified, as he looks to make the most of his playing days while he still can. 

Having been diagnosed with inclusion body myositis (IBM) – a rare degenerative condition that weakens the legs, arms, wrists and fingers – the Baby, I Love Your Way guitarist announced a farewell tour in 2019. 

The tour was delayed by COVID until 2022, though was followed by another raft of live dates last year, with Frampton playing under the banner of the Never EVER Say Never Tour. 

Frampton, who now needs the aid of a cane to walk and performs seated, has just completed that tour’s spring leg. During that run, he sat down with the San Diego Union-Tribune to discuss why he’s not calling it quits any time soon.  

“Every note I play now is so much more important to me because I know one of the notes I play will be the last I play within my lifetime,” says Frampton. “But what I have to do now is create new ways [to play] because I’m a fighter, and I’m not giving up. 

“I have weakness in my fingers, but I have created different paths to get to the end point of what I want to play.”

“I am inspired by all the musicians I’ve read about that don’t have full use of their left hand on the guitar, or any instrument, and how they have altered their way of playing, and fingering and, stuff like that,” he adds. 

Frampton was recently nominated for Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s class of 2024 and features on Dolly Parton's latest album, Rockstar, released last November.  

The Kent-born guitarist has 18 studio albums to his name from a career spanning over five decades. And, despite the challenges he now faces when playing guitar, Frampton says he’s “always looking for an upside”.

“For the things I think of that I can’t play,” he says, “I quickly work out what I can do at that point, and it’s different and I like it. 

“I think: ‘Wow, I wouldn’t have played it that way [before].’ And if the end result I want is not there, it’s very sad. But right now, I’m having the time of my life. 

“I can’t believe the audiences and I can’t believe where I am at in my career at this point. I never thought I’d be back playing at this level. So, every day is a great day for me.”

When Andy Timmons sat down nearly five years ago to write a tribute track for his childhood hero, Peter Frampton, he probably didn’t think the electric guitar great would end up playing on the song – but that’s exactly what has happened.

Timmons has shared The Boy From Beckenham, a new single dedicated to Frampton, whose music had a formative influence on a young Timmons. 

As Timmons explains, the Humble Pie guitarist’s work on records such as Frampton and Frampton Comes Alive! represents “a huge part of my musical foundation” – “Peter has a singular style and melodic sensibility that flows through his guitar playing, singing and songwriting,” he adds.

After seeing him play live in September 2019, the fusion maestro set to work on a song that would aim to channel Frampton’s melodic and chord movement in honor of his hero.

The track remained in development for a few years, with Timmons recording everything except for the solo. Then, when he bumped into Frampton almost four years later, an idea crossed his mind.

“I saw Peter in July 2023, and somehow got the courage to ask him to play on it,” Timmons recalls. “I was quite hesitant as I knew of the issues he is dealing with from having Myositis. I was quite inspired (and relieved!) that he heartily agreed to record the solo.”

The results of the collaboration can be heard on The Boy From Beckenham. Timmons takes the lead for the first minute or so with a galloping hook, before an ES-335-wielding Frampton enters the fray with a sultry, soulful solo that highlights some of the best aspects of his playing.

“He put a lot of time and care into the recording and his solo has all the hallmarks of what makes Peter so unique: amazing tone, beautiful note choices, and a jazz sensibility that blends chromaticism and melodic voice leading of the highest order,” Timmons gushes. “Even in the face of adversity he still plays with complete joy and positive intent.”

In fact, Timmons was so moved by the project that he labeled The Boy from Beckenham – named after the town Frampton grew up in – as “one of the most meaningful recordings to me personally I’ve ever created”.

“Inspired. Joyous. Driven. Inventive. Determined. Thankful. Funny,” he goes on. “So many words and emotions come to mind when I see Peter Frampton do what he loves to do. 

“Easily one of the greatest guitarists I've ever seen. Despite incredible adversity, he plays with more intent, love, joy and wonder than anybody.”

The adversity Timmons refers to is Frampton’s ongoing battle with inclusion body myositis – a disease that weakens the legs, arms, wrists and fingers, and has affected his ability to stand on stage with the guitar.

For his part, Frampton says he was “honoured” to have been involved in the track: “Thanks, Andy,” he says. “I had so much fun doing this.”

Gibson TV has released its latest episode of The Collection – a web series that sees the firm sit down with big name players to pick apart their vintage guitar gear, and reflect on the stories behind each historic piece.

For its newest hour-and-a-half installment, Gibson’s Mark Agnesi visited Peter Frampton to explore the guitars behind some of his most iconic cuts – as well as recount the tales of loss and recovery that have defined the rock master’s collecting career.

As far as guitar collections go, Frampton’s is especially steeped in history. Not only did he effectively have to restart his guitar collection after losing 44 individual guitars – and numerous pieces of other gear – in a flood in 2010, he also experienced what has become one of the most famous tales of lost-and-found guitars in history.

To that end, the most notable instruments in Frampton’s episode of The Collection are the ones whose histories are interwoven with such stories.

The “Phenix”, for example, takes center stage. The mid-’50s era triple-humbucker Black Beauty Les Paul Custom needs no introduction: as seen on the cover of Frampton Comes Alive!, it is one of the most iconic Les Pauls of all time, and made its way on “just about every track [Frampton] recorded between 1970 and 1980”.

However, in 1980, the “Phenix” went down in a cargo aircraft – which crashed while taking off from Curaçao – and it was believed to have been lost forever. Miraculously, 31 years later, the Les Paul was reunited with its rightful owner after it had been picked up and played over the years by a local musician.

“It was just one of the best feelings in the world,” Frampton recalls of being reunited with the “Phenix”.

Frampton’s 1964 Epiphone FT-79 Texan is another guitar that had once courted tragedy. The acoustic had been locked away at SoundCheck in Nashville, and was one of the only guitars that survived following a devastating flood in 2010.

“I didn’t realize how bad it was,” Frampton reflects. “They said they were going to have to open the dam, because it was getting crazy – it would have broken. They said it would probably get to the bottom of the steps of SoundCheck. It didn’t. It went all the way up.

“My Marshalls were just above the water line. So many people lost their guitars. I lost 44 guitars.”

As such, the Texan serves as a reminder of the flood, complete with water damage on the body and headstock. But its significance stems beyond its near-death experience: Frampton used it to write “just about every track” that made it onto the live record – including Show Me The Way and Baby, I Love Your Way.

As Agnesi succinctly sums it up: “This is equally iconic [as the “Phenix”]. This wrote some of the biggest hits in the history of rock ‘n’ roll.”

Elsewhere in the video, the pair peruse a stunning 1960 Gibson Les Paul Standard – which is brighter than the Phenix, according to Frampton – a 1959 ES-175D, and, as a pleasant surprise, lots of Fenders. That list includes a ‘58 Strat, ‘58 Jazzmaster, ‘59 Telecaster and ‘68 Bass VI.

Head over to Gibson TV to watch the full episode.

Throughout rock and metal history, there have been many overlooked players. Especially bassists. And given his untimely passing this year, on April 7, 2023, one that immediately comes to mind is John Regan.

Of course, when I dialed in with Regan on Tuesday, April 4, 2023, I had no way of knowing that it would be for the last time. As far as I knew, despite being 71 years of age, John was in good health. And during our call, it was clear that his spirits were even better.

“It's good to talk with you,” Regan said. “I'm always happy to look back. It's been an incredible run, and I'm thankful for all of it. If you had told me back when I was a kid that I'd play with Peter Frampton and Ace Frehley, I never would have believed it. My career has been a dream come true. I hope people know that despite whatever challenges have come my way over the years, I'm thankful for all of it.”

Looking back on it all, it's not hard to see why Regan harbored so much pride. It's not every day that a relative unknown gets to hop on tour and record with the likes of Peter Frampton and Ace Frehley. But then again, given his talent and relentless drive to succeed, perhaps Regan's career was pre-destined for greatness, albeit on a low-key level.

“My career has been a mix of hard work combined with expecting the unexpected," Regan laughs. "Sometimes, I'd look around and think, 'How the hell did I get here?' But then, I'd remember the hundreds of sleepless nights and thousands upon thousands of hours spent practicing.

“But I know that there's a ton of people who can do what I do,” Regan admits. “But I'm not sure there's the same amount of people who worked as hard as I did. I made the most of what was given to me. I knew that if I didn't make my own breaks and take each and every opportunity handed to me, I'd never make it.”

Just days before his untimely passing, bassist John Regan dialed in with Guitar World to dig into his earliest musical hours, touring with Peter Frampton and the origins of his friendship with Ace Frehley.

What did your musical origins look like?

“Being Sicilian, there was music playing in my house constantly. I was very close with my grandmother, who lived upstairs. I'd go up and visit her often, and she'd play me stuff by Frank Sinatra and all those guys. And then my mother always had the radio on it, so that would have been a lot of what you can imagine was popular in the '50s and '60s.

“Those things set the tone for me to be a lifelong lover of music. But like many kids my age, and you've probably heard this before, The Beatles' performance on The Ed Sullivan Show was the turning point. That instantly opened a whole new musical world for my entire generation. Without that event, I can't imagine putting bands together and being able to become a musician.”

How did you progress from local bands to being a professional musician?

“I worked my way up through various garage bands. Back then, kids didn't have social media and all that. So, you basically either played sports or were in a garage band. I guess you could say I chose the life of rock 'n' roll from a young age [laughs]. And by the time I was in high school, I'd been in a bunch of bands that were all aimed at getting girls and all that. I never really had a plan or an idea in mind where I was plotting my next move. Things just sort of happened from one thing to the next, and I just held on and stayed along for the ride.”

Was that essentially working the club scene and trying to be seen?

“Yeah, that's pretty much it. I started playing clubs, and before long, I was earning a living doing this thing that I found interesting. This was after high school, mind you. Anyway, by the mid-'70s, I was in a group called Easy Street, and while we never made it big, that was a huge education for me. I stayed with Easy Street all the way until getting my break with [Peter] Frampton in 1979. But I'll never forget the feeling of playing with the guys in Easy Street. It was the feeling of a band firing on all cylinders. No amount of money can buy that feeling. I wish we'd made it.”

How did you land the gig with Peter Frampton?

“Like I was saying, I was with Easy Street. We were playing clubs and gigging around the Hudson Valley in Upstate New York and did well. We were to the point where we were kind of patting ourselves on the back because we'd become one of the bigger local bands in that area. Sort of how Talas formed a cult following up there in the early '80s; it was the same thing with Easy Street.

“But here's the thing: I loved playing with Easy Street, but I also knew that nobody was coming up to the Hudson Valley to discover me, you know? But there was this guy called 'Crazy' Joe Renda, who Kiss fans will know because he was involved with Ace Frehley later when he did the Eugene record in 1980. Anyway, Joe built a studio in Westchester about an hour south of me. He was very connected, and we became friends.”

So, Joe introduced you to Frampton?

“Yep, it was Joe. So, one night in September of '79, Joe called me and said, 'Hey, Peter Frampton's guy, Bobby Mayo, came through here and was talking to me about the tour. He needs a bass player for the last leg. Can you do it?' Now, this was a random Tuesday night, and I was by no means ready to travel. But Joe said, 'If you're up for it, you've got to get down here and meet Bobby Mayo.'

“So, I climbed into my car at midnight and booked it to Westchester. And when I got there, I was handed a stack of records and told to learn the set. Long story short, I didn't sleep for several nights, and by Friday, I was playing my first show with Peter Frampton. It was the beginning of a lifelong musical friendship.”

From there, how did you hook up with Ace Frehley?

“Well, like I said, I started with Frampton in '79, and we toured relentlessly until around 1983. It was around that time that we took a break, and he also left A&M Records. So, in early '84, 'Crazy' Joe called me again because he heard I was off the road. He asked me to come down and do some session work, so I did. But while I was down there, I took a break and went to the kitchen to get something to eat, and as I walked in, Ace Frehley was lying on the floor.

“So, Ace looked up at me and said, 'Oh, hey, how's it going?' He was so unassuming and didn't seem to think it was weird the way we were meeting [laughs]. We hit it off straight away and got to talking. It didn't take long for us to start chatting about getting together and playing some music.

“But there was no talk of anything serious. I knew Ace was in a weird place in life, so this was just two guys who had some free time talking about doing something just for the sake of doing it.”

Do you remember your first jam session with Ace?

“I do. Ace had invited me to his house in Connecticut. You've probably heard before that he had this amazing studio there, and that's where we ended up. It was great because, yes, this was Ace Frehley from Kiss, but he was just a regular guy at that point. He didn't act like a rock star; it was more like we were two kids in the garage having a good time. And we did have a great time. We knew immediately that we'd be able to work well together.

“So, at the end of that first day, Ace said, 'Wait a minute… why don't we try putting a band together?' And I felt the same way, so I said, 'Okay, let's do it.' From there, we hung out a lot. We started sifting through Ace's old tapes, looking for things we could build off and turn into legitimate material for a potential record. Not long after, we got Richie Scarlet on guitar and Anton Fig on drums, and the first version of Frehley's Comet was launched in 1985.”

A lot of what ended up being on Frehley's Comet was played live for a few years, right?

“Yes, that's true. And then, we took a lot of those songs, demoed them, and shopped them around. The result of that was a deal with an independent label out of the U.K., but before we could even make an album for them, they went bankrupt. So, the two years that we spent putting that music together were all for nothing.

“At that point, we started to panic because some of us had young kids, and we all had bills to pay. If it wasn't for Eddie Trunk convincing Jon Zazula and Megaforce to take a chance on Ace, I would have left and joined John Waite on tour, who I had an offer with.”

Frehley's Comet was a success, but Second Sighting didn't fare as well. It's been documented that Ace was starting to go off the rails again around that time. How detrimental was that?

“There were a lot of factors at play. The first record went great, and Ace, to his credit, showed up. But that all changed very quickly. Ace was not in great shape by the time Second Sighting was happening. It was clear that his drinking was out of control, and he was back to his old tricks again. Honestly, Ace was not in any shape to make a record.

“The other thing was that Anton was offered a once-in-a-lifetime gig with David Letterman, which meant he wouldn't be available for full-time band duty anymore. Anton was huge not only because he was a great drummer but because he was very close with Ace, dating back to the '70s.

“So, we were left with an album that sounded much different because Ace wasn't around, and our drummer was gone. But I'm still proud of the record. Tod [Howarth] and I worked endlessly on it. What can I say? Some records work. Some don't.”

But Ace did pull it together for Trouble Walkin'. Considering you landed a production credit, I can only assume you were instrumental.

“After Second Sighting sort of bombed, Megaforce/Atlantic decided we needed to rebrand. This meant they wanted the 'Frehley's Comet' band name to be dropped and for Ace to record under his name only. This also meant Tod was out, and Richie Scarlet was back in. I chose to stay and play bass, and thankfully, Anton had time to come in and play drums. The other big thing was we wisely brought Eddie Kramer back to produce. 

“Eddie had produced the first Frehley's Comet record but was notably absent during Second Sighting. After Eddie came in, I worked closely with him on a lot of tracks. Ace was in better shape than during Second Sighting and was more focused, but he wasn't totally sober. But he was trying. I was sad that Tod was gone, but I have to say… bringing Richie back was a God send. He wrote some of the best material for that record. Trouble Walkin' was a real team effort.”

Ace is well-known for his cover songs. And as I understand it, you're the one who suggested he record ELO's Do Ya.

“Yes, I brought that one in for no other reason than I felt Ace would do an awesome job with it. I also was the one who brought in Russ Ballard's Into the Night for the first Frehley's Comet album in 1987. I knew Ace had done covers like New York Groove and 2,000 Man with Kiss. And I knew that the fans loved those songs. So, to me, it made all the sense in the world to have covers on his solo records. So, I was always looking for old songs that I thought the band could take on and make our own.

“So, Do Ya was another one of those songs. The funny thing was that Ace didn't want to do it. He fought me tooth and nail on it, tried to tell me, 'I don't feel up to it,' and even didn't show up for a few days to avoid doing it. Ace just didn't have the same faith in himself at that point that I did. But I'm glad I caught him on the right day and got Ace to do it because it's one of the best tracks on Trouble Walkin'.”

Frehley's Comet ended up doing some reunion shows not too long ago. Were those one-offs, or are there more shows in the works?

“Well, it's hard for me to really call it a true reunion. The only times that me, Tod, Anton, and Ace actually got on stage together was during two Kiss conventions in 2017 and 2018. It was cool, but Ace wasn't especially prepared for it. But it was the first time the four of us had played together since 1988, so it was special. 

“We did a couple of songs like Breakout and Rock Soldiers, and it was sloppy but fun. But beyond that, I can't really see it happening again. At least, not on a full scale. Ace is so busy with his solo career, and he's constantly touring. And whenever he's asked, Ace, for whatever reason, says he has no desire to do it. I don't know what his reasons are. I do know the fans would love it. We'd sell out any theater or hall. Of that, I'm sure.”

What's next for you in all lanes?

“I've been keeping busy. During the pandemic, I laid low because things were pretty dodgy there for a bit. But things seem better now. Tod and I are still good friends. We got together in 2016 and did the Four by Fate record [Relentless]. And we've done the Return of the Comet thing, too. Other than that, I've got a few projects.

“One of those is a newer project called Déjà vu All Over Again. It's a celebration of the music of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, which I've always loved. We'll also play stuff by The Byrds, The Hollies, and Buffalo Springfield. All bands that are adjacent to CSNY. I'm working with some great people and look forward to playing more shows. It's been a long career, but music is still a huge part of my life.”

Earlier this month, Seymour Duncan kicked off its summer with a bang with the debut of four new pickup sets – the Eddie Van Halen-inspired Little '78 single-coil set, a new humbucker called the Exciter, a signature bridge humbucker for hair metal electric guitar hero Warren DeMartini, and a signature set for thrash (and jazz) guitar titan Alex Skolnick.

Not to be outdone, though, the company has now followed those up with a trio of limited-edition pickup sets that celebrate the 40-year tenure of the manager of Seymour Duncan's Custom Shop, Maricela “MJ” Juarez.

Most prominent of these is the Frampton Comes Alive humbucker set, which – aside from, of course, the blockbuster album of the same name – channels the unmistakable guitar sound of Peter Frampton.

The Frampton Comes Alive units feature the same specs as Frampton's own pickups, with Alnico 2 magnets and a "vintage" output. The first 160 sets were signed by Frampton and Juarez, with each set ringing up at $375. 

A portion of the proceeds from the Frampton Comes Alive pickups will be donated to The Peter Frampton Myositis Research Fund as well as Notes for Notes, an organization that provides young people with free access to musical instruments, instruction, and recording studio environments.

The second of the MJ40th sets, as they're officially known, also pays tribute to a top-selling '70s rock album.

The Joker Strat set salutes the Steve Miller Band's best-selling 1973 album, The Joker, and features a trio of single-coil pickups wound – in the same manner that Juarez has been winding Miller's own custom pickups for decades – for vintage output around Alnico 2 magnets.

Miller's signature is printed on the cover of each pickup, while a "Joker" mask adorns each unit's bottom plate. The pickups are available, as a full set only, for $355.

Rounding out the new offerings from Seymour Duncan is the Pete Anderson Working Class Tele set, a recreation of the pickups in the country guitar dynamo's 1959 Telecaster.

The Working Class pickups feature a vintage output wind and Alnico 5 magnets – the first 160 have been aged, and signed by both Anderson and Juarez. They're available now, as a complete set only, for an even $300.

A portion of the proceeds from both the Miller and Anderson sets will go to Notes for Notes.

For more info on all three new pickup sets, visit the Seymour Duncan Custom Shop.

George Benson really wants to talk about the new album he’s cutting. It’s his first studio recording since 2019’s Walking to New Orleans, and as he says, “It’s going to be something really special.”

He starts to divulge a detail or two, then abruptly stops. “Well, that’s about all I can say right now,” he says. When pressed for any kinds of tidbits, he laughs and relents every so slightly. “I can't let out exactly what it is, but it's something different from anything I’ve ever done, and I’m working one of the top arrangers of our time. That's about as far as I can go with that. I’m keeping it under my hat for now.”

In actual fact, musically speaking, there isn’t much that the 80-year-old guitar legend hasn’t done. After cutting his teeth in organist “Brother” Jack McDuff’s jazz band in the early ‘60s, Benson struck out on his own and released The New Boss Guitar of George Benson. From there, he never looked back.

His virtuosic chops and artful sense of style, combined with an unshakable taste for adventure, quickly established him as one of the most exciting and original jazz guitarists since Charlie Christian. But Benson – also blessed with a smooth and soulful tenor singing voice – wouldn’t limit his gifts to the strictly jazz market, and over the years he spanned pop, rock, R&B, disco, blues and Latin music (his 1976 crossover smash, Breezin’, hit number one on Billboard’s Top 200 and bagged him a pair of Grammys).

“Anytime somebody says, ‘What’s George doing playing this kind of music?’ I want to say, ‘Well, why shouldn’t I?’” Benson says. “I like to challenge myself.” It would seem that he’s never at a loss for new avenues to explore – just last year, he contributed velvety solos on funk master Bootsy Collins’ groove slammer The Power of One.

Speaking of his 2018 collaboration with the virtual band Gorillaz on their trippy single Humility, Benson says, “When I heard their name, I said, ‘Gorillaz? I don’t know, man.’ Then I found out they were a rock group or a pop group from London, and I said, ‘Well, let me hear what they’ve got.’ At first, I didn’t know what to do, but I hate to disappoint people. Finally, I told the engineer, ‘Tell you what – put me in the middle of that band. Turn the big speakers on like I'm in a live situation.’ When he did that, I knew what to play.”

As he enters his ninth decade, Benson reveals that the guitar still holds the same allure as when he began playing. “I’ve never gotten tired of the sound of the instrument,” he says. “It’s such an incredible thing – the relationship of wood and strings, how you can create tones and project a vibe. The guitar speaks to me. When I play a note, I can shape the sound. I can make it thin, skinny and harsh, or I can warm it up and make it sound very enticing and romantic.”

A longtime resident of Englewood, New Jersey, Benson kicks off his summer tour in the Garden State with a concert at the NJPAC in Newark on June 2.

“I’ve always loved playing for Jersey crowds,” he says. “I remember coming over to New Jersey a long time ago, back when I was in Jack McDuff's band, when I was 19 or 20 years old. I played at the local clubs; it was a learning ground for me. It taught me what people like and what they don’t like.” He laughs. “So I got rid of all of the bad stuff and kept the good stuff.”

You started making records at the age of nine. Did you know back then that you had a gift?

“People told me that all my life, but I didn't know what it meant. I just knew that music was important to me. I liked the feeling it gave me. My mother was a singer. I learned the classics from her because she was always humming along to something. I thought I was quite ordinary, in fact. I thought everybody was ordinary. [Laughs]”

Among your influences was Hank Garland, who wasn’t jazz per se – he played on a lot of country and rock ‘n’ roll hits. What was it about his playing that you tried to absorb?

“Power. His command of the guitar. Everything was so deliberate, and he had so much energy. He had that country thing in that he sounded very honest and straight ahead. There was no hesitation in how he played. He was very, very powerful. He also had great command of harmony and theory. His chord progressions were straight ahead but still very effective.”

I’m curious – during the ‘60s, did any of the big rock guitarists make a dramatic impact on you?

“There’s a few from that era. Eric Clapton was one, and Jimi Hendrix was another one. There were others, but those two guys were very influential back then. People were like, ‘Hey man, have you heard what Clapton is playing?’ I said, ‘Who?’ ‘Clapton, man.’ So pretty soon it became something you had to do. You had to find out what he was doing, and then you find out what he was doing was important.”

Did you ever meet Hendrix?

“Of course. I met Hendrix before his career blew up. Everything I heard him play was special. He came by to see us one night when I was playing in Harlem, down the street from James Brown at the Apollo Theater. He was playing with the Isley Brothers at the time. They told the story about that night a few years later in an article. They said, ‘Man, George Benson wouldn't even let Hendrix sit in and play.’ And Ronnie Isley said, ‘It's a good thing, because nobody can beat George Benson on the guitar.’ [Laughs]”

This was before you hooked up with Ibanez. Back then, you favored Guild guitars.

“I was using mostly Guild guitars. These two brothers owned the company, and one of them said, ‘Man, I heard a young guy play guitar the other night. He is spectacular. You’ve got to sign him up.’ So they did. They signed me up and they gave me several guitars – beautiful instruments. I was with them for a few years until I ran into Ibanez.

“By that time I had soured my deal with Guild because they saw me playing another guitar and they got incensed by it. They wouldn't even talk to me after that. I couldn't get anybody on the phone anymore – until Breezin' came out and Ibanez hooked me up. Then they started calling me.”

Miles Davis tapped you to play on his album Miles in the Sky. What was he like? Was he tough?

“[Laughs] Everything you heard about him is true – all of the crazy things, the quirks and all that. He did one interview in his whole career. One. He signed one autograph that I know of. One. Different kind of guy.”

I take it he was intimidating in the studio.

“Yes, somewhat. I didn't do anything to make to get him off of the center, but I knew a lot of people who did and they didn't like the result. I stayed away from all of that. We were actually friends. I used to see him places, and he always acknowledged me and we had good conversations. I think he was trying to get me to join his band at the time I did the album with him. My manager said, ‘You can't do that.’”

Did Miles direct you how he wanted you to play?

“That's what made him great – he didn’t do that. When I was doing the record with Miles, [drummer] Tony Williams tried to tell me what to play, and Miles said to him, ‘Tony, play your drums, man. Stop telling George what to play. And on second thought, take your drums and set up in the corner out there. You’re too loud.’ He put Tony way in the corner of the studio. [Laughs]”

The legendary A&R man John Hammond signed you to Columbia Records. I imagine that you two had some great musical discussions.

“All the time. He was probably the greatest A&R man I've ever met – I think in history, to tell you the truth – because he didn't try to tell you what to play. He just said, ‘Play it. Let’s hear what you’ve got. Play it.’ If he heard two bars that he liked, he said, ‘I’m turning the recording button on now.’

“I used to go up to his office on Sixth Avenue and sit with him. He told me all these wonderful stories about the people he discovered – Billie Holiday, Charlie Christian, Count Basie.”

John had an ear for brilliant singers and songwriters, but he also loved guitarists. He signed Stevie Ray Vaughan and, as you mentioned, Charlie Christian.

“He told me about Charlie Christie. Somebody told John, ‘The greatest guitar player in this country is up in Oklahoma City.’ So he jumped in his car and hopped over to Oklahoma City until he caught up with Charlie Christian, who was playing with his brother on bass. John loved Charlie and tried to get him to leave the band to come to L.A. with him. Charlie refused – ‘I ain't going nowhere without my brother.’

“Well, John stayed there a few days, took Charlie shopping, and finally he convinced him to go to L.A. John went to see Benny Goodman and said, ‘Man, this kid is the baddest cat in the world on guitar.’ And Goodman said, ‘It doesn't make any difference. I cannot put another African-American in my band. I'm having problems booking the band now in the South.’

“So one night John snuck Charlie Christian into the band. He snuck a stool and an amp onto the bandstand when Benny Goodman was taking a break. Benny came back and saw Charlie on his bandstand. Rather than make a fuss, he called out for Rosetta and pointed out the solos – ‘Horns, all right, now guitar!’ Charlie started playing and everybody jumped out of their seat – they never heard anything like that. They ran over to the bandstand and they wouldn't let him stop playing. That's how he got into Benny Goodman's band.”

That’s a great story. I’ve always loved your tribute to the Beatles, The Other Side of Abbey Road. Did any of Fab Four comment to you about it?

“All the time. When that record came out, the industry hated it. All the jazz people hated that. But Paul McCartney sent word back to me – ‘Man, we love what you did with our music.’ That was great compensation. I knew that the album would mean something one day.”

A few years later, your album Breezin’ hit number one. What on earth did you think at the time?

“That it was impossible! [Laughs] I’ll tell you, the guy who probably helped me get there was Peter Frampton. Remember, he had the biggest record ever at the time; he was dominating the covers of magazines. He was the one you had to defeat in order to get the cover of Record World and all those magazines. But he said something in an article that really spurred me on. He said, ‘I listen to George Benson records all the time.’

“I was like, ‘What? You mean this genius, this kid selling all these records, listens to my music? I don't sell no records!’ [Laughs] But that's what he said. So I said, ‘Let me listen to his records and see what he's doing that makes his music so outstanding.’ I started listening to his music, and I thought, ‘OK, he’s got percussion over here, and he’s got that going on. Let me try some of that.’”

You became something of a pop star. You also did some disco tunes. Did you get flak from any of your early jazz fans?

“Always. But one thing I understand about this world, if you go left, they'll say, ‘You should have gone right,’ and vice-versa. That's common stuff, and it happened to a lot of my friends. It broke Wes Montgomery's heart when he went home to play in Indianapolis. He was a star by then, and he was playing at a local arena downtown. Every time he played a pop tune, his older fans would boo. Then he would play the jazz tunes and they would go crazy. He was caught in the middle of all of that. I understand how that works.

“The greatest thing that happened to me in that regard was when I did a record with Frank Sinatra. He asked me to sit beside him, and he said, ‘George, your guitar playing, we all know what that is, man. You're fantastic. But I love your voice.’ After he said that, I couldn’t listen to people talk about my vocals anymore. I didn’t even hear them.”

Speaking of vocals, what about scatting? Many listeners never heard you do that until you came out with On Broadway and This Masquerade. How does scatting inform your phrasing on the guitar?

“It’s all the same brain. They both have their physical limitations. When one cannot do a certain thing, the other one can. It took me years to figure. When I was a kid, I’d listen to Charlie Parker’s Just Friends. His solo – I couldn’t play it, but I could sing every note. 

“When I started doing that on my records, I found that was easy. Of course, what I was doing was lightweight compared to Charlie Parker, but I did like improvising.”

How many signature models have you had with Ibanez?

“I think we’ve got about 15 signature guitars, maybe more. What I really like is that they offer refinements for guitar collectors and people who are trying to find something different to play. It gives them options, and every now and then they'll come up with a gem like the GB10, something very special that you’ve got to have in your collection.”

You’ve been with the company for over 40 years. Is there some sort of refinement on any of the guitars you haven’t done yet?

“No, I'm taking information from people who play guitar. The new up-and coming people are still giving me information. The company takes that information to make the best guitars they can.”

Dolly Parton has shared details of her upcoming rock album – aptly titled Rockstar – for which she’s recruited a suite of high-profile guitar stars.

Parton’s out-and-out rock album has been hotly anticipated ever since the country icon confirmed her plans to release a rock ‘n’ roll LP in a bid to “earn her keep” as a newly anointed Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee.

What we didn’t know, though, was just how monumental the studio record would be, with Parton now revealing Rockstar’s mega 30-track setlist, as well as the names of those that were recruited for the outing.

The roles of John 5 and Nikki Sixx were already confirmed, but now Parton has revealed Peter Frampton, Richie Sambora, Warren Haynes, Melissa Etheridge, Sting, Steven Tyler and Steve Perry will also be involved in proceedings.

Joining the above are Brandi Carlile, Ann Wilson, Chris Stapleton, Joan Jett, Mick Fleetwood, and Stevie Nicks, as well as Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and John Fogerty.

The late Gary Rossington will also feature on Rockstar, with the Lynyrd Skynyrd legend set to feature on a cover of the band’s 1973 hit, Free Bird.

A handful of other pop icons and vocalists will be joining the fray, with Parton tapping P!nk, Miley Cyrus, Lizzo, Elton John, Emmylou Harris and many more to feature on Rockstar.

This mammoth collection of A-list musicians will be spread out across Rockstar’s generous tracklist: the two Beatles will feature on a cover of Let It Be, Frampton will play on a rendition of his own Baby, I Love Your Way, and Haynes will feature on a cover of I Want You Back.

Likewise, Sambora will perform on the album’s original title track, while Stapleton will be heard on a version of Night Moves. From a non-guitar perspective, more eyebrow-raising tracks include a cover of (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction featuring P!nk and Brandi Carlile, and a rendition of Stairway to Heaven with Lizzo and Sasha Flute.

The full tracklist – along with the names of each guest star and their respective spots – can be found below.

1. Rockstar (special guest Richie Sambora)
2. World on Fire
3. Every Breath You Take (feat. Sting)
4. Open Arms (feat. Steve Perry)
5. Magic Man (feat. Ann Wilson with special guest Howard Leese)
6. Long As I Can See The Light (feat. John Fogerty)
7. Either Or (feat. Kid Rock)
8. I Want You Back (feat. Steven Tyler with special guest Warren Haynes)
9. What Has Rock And Roll Ever Done For You (feat. Stevie Nicks with special guest Waddy Wachtel)
10. Purple Rain
11. Baby, I Love Your Way (feat. Peter Frampton)
12. I Hate Myself For Loving You (feat. Joan Jett & The Blackhearts)
13. Night Moves (feat. Chris Stapleton)
14. Wrecking Ball (feat. Miley Cyrus)
15. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction (feat. P!nk & Brandi Carlile)
16. Keep On Loving You (feat. Kevin Cronin)
17. Heart Of Glass (feat. Debbie Harry)
18. Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me (feat. Elton John)
19. Tried To Rock And Roll Me (feat. Melissa Etheridge)
20. Stairway To Heaven (feat. Lizzo & Sasha Flute)
21. We Are The Champions
22. Bygones (feat. Rob Halford with special guests Nikki Sixx & John 5)
23. My Blue Tears (feat. Simon Le Bon)
24. What’s Up? (feat. Linda Perry)
25. You’re No Good (feat. Emmylou Harris & Sheryl Crow)
26. Heartbreaker (feat. Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo)
27. Bittersweet (feat. Michael McDonald) 
28. I Dreamed About Elvis (feat. Ronnie McDowell with special guest The Jordanaires)
29. Let It Be (feat. Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr with special guests Peter Frampton & Mick Fleetwood)
30. Free Bird (feat. Ronnie Van Zant with special guests Gary Rossington, Artimus Pyle and The Artimus Pyle Band)

“I’m so excited to finally present my first rock 'n' roll album, Rockstar,” Parton commented. “I am very honored and privileged to have worked with some of the greatest iconic singers and musicians of all time and to be able to sing all the iconic songs throughout the album was a joy beyond measure. I hope everybody enjoys the album as much as I’ve enjoyed putting it together.”

Rockstar's lead single, an original titled World on Fire, will drop tomorrow (May 11), with the album itself set to arrive on November 17.

Parton's rock renaissance kicked off when she was nominated – and later inducted, despite her attempts to withdraw – into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Soon after, the country legend flexed her heavy chops during the show's ceremony, wielding a $99 mini guitar for an original track, Rockin'.

• Rockstar is available to preorder now.

John Regan, a veteran bassist who spent a number of years touring with Peter Frampton as a member of his band – in addition to a notable tenure in Frehley's Comet – has died at the age of 71. 

A family friend – via Regan's wife – confirmed the news in a Facebook post. No cause of death was given.

Born in Wappingers Falls, New York in 1951, Regan picked up the bass at a young age and began playing in local bands in his teens. His first prominent gig was with Frampton, with whom he began touring in 1979.

Regan's work with Frampton opened up a number of other doors for him, including an opportunity to play with Ace Frehley in his post-Kiss band, Frehley's Comet. Regan would play with the group on both of their full-length albums – 1987's Frehley's Comet and 1988's Second Sighting – and on Frehley's 1989 solo album, Trouble Walkin'.

Regan's work with Frampton also made him an in-demand session bassist. Notably, he played on The Rolling Stones' 1986 track, Winning Ugly, and David Bowie and Mick Jagger's phenomenally successful 1985 cover of Dancing in the Street. 

Regan's session career also included work with Billy Idol, and with David Lee Roth on the Van Halen frontman's 1994 solo album, Your Filthy Little Mouth.

More recently, Regan formed the band Four by Fate, who released their debut LP, Relentless, in 2016.

"There might only be a handful, if that, of people who come into your world and truly enrich your life. I have lost one of my closest buddies," Frampton wrote of Regan on Twitter. "He certainly enriched my life because of the person and the great player he was. John Regan was the best of us. He went out of his way to help people when things weren’t right. It didn’t matter who you were, prince or pauper.

"I know there are many of you out there who knew him. He was a friend to all. Always musically inspiring and one of the funniest people on the planet.

"My thoughts are with his wife, Cathy, his children – Christopher and Jeness – and his grandchildren," Frampton continued. "I love you my brother, you will be missed by so many. Rest in peace."

Peter Frampton has announced he’ll be returning to the stage once more for a “one night only special performance” later this month.

Set to take place on January 22 at the Tucker Theatre on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University in Nashville, the concert will be free to attend, with fans currently able to reserve free general admission tickets.

According to a post published by Frampton on social media, the concert will also be filmed for later viewing as part of a “special broadcast presentation” presented by Sky Arts.

It will be Frampton’s first live performance since the completion of his farewell world tour last November, with the electric guitar hero signing off his prolific live career with an emotional cover of The Beatles’ While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

Frampton was forced to retire from extensive touring as a result of his inclusion body myositis (IBM), which he was diagnosed with back in 2015. Due to his condition, he performed the last remaining Finale: The Farewell Tour shows sat down, as playing standing up left him “liable to fall over”.

The guitar icon’s welcome return to the stage comes after Frampton teased the possibility for future live shows upon the conclusion of his Beatles cover, after which he told the crowd, “I want to let you know I’m going to keep fighting this, so let’s never say never.”

For more information and to reserve tickets, head over to MTSU Arts' website.

“It’s three Marshall cabinets, dry/wet situation. It’s a stereo rig, it’s enormous. I feel embarrassed that it’s so big… but you need to have a big rig to be able to do all that, and lots of effects. 

“There are about eight or nine guitars that I’ll use in a show, acoustics as well as electrics. Basically, I have an old ’70s Marshall head that’s been modified to drive all the effects and to come out in stereo either side of the one Marshall cabinet, which is dry in the middle. It’s very involved, but it sounds godly. 

“I’ve worked on it for years and years until I got to what I really liked. I could just as well come up there with a little 2x12 combo and a couple of floor effects and do the same thing, but why when I’ve got all that beautiful stuff? I want it to be good.”

Is your Les Paul Custom still your main electric guitar?

“Yes and no. Yes, for the numbers that it recorded with Somethin’s Happening and Lines On My Face, Do You Feel [Like We Do], [I Wanna] Go To The Sun, numbers like that are on the live record. But on numbers I’ve done since, I have the ’64 ES-335 Gibson, the Freddie King year, which is an incredible guitar. 

“If I could only have one guitar other than the Custom, that would be it. A 335 just about covers every aspect of what a guitarist does. It’s not a Fender, but I don’t use Fenders that much – I’m a humbucker guy.”

There has been some talk on the internet recently about the switching system on your Custom. Does it differ from a standard three-pickup Les Paul?

“It’s very simple. Forget about the middle pickup for a minute. If you think about the bridge and the neck pickup and the selector switch, the selector switch still works exactly the same way with those two. You can have one on, the other on or both on. They are then only wired to the top volume. They’re both wired to one volume and one tone.

“Then the middle pickup is just wired directly to the bottom volume. There is no switch for it, but I can blend it in. It changes it from a Gibson to a fat Strat because you bring that middle pickup in like a Stratocaster. It’s in and out or it’s on its own because I can turn the other two off and just use it, which is another sound. You don’t have time to get bored with it. You can change the sound on a whim.”

• Peter Frampton on the highs and lows of his remarkable guitar journey, meeting George Harrison, and how David Bowie made him cool again

Peter Frampton is currently on a farewell tour having been forced into retirement owing to the onset of Inclusion Body Myositis, a degenerative condition that affects the muscles and looks to end his playing career for good. However, rising above the tragedy, he’s in high spirits when we strike up our Zoom call. 

We mention that it’s been a long time since we saw him perform on this side of the Atlantic: “We were supposed to be there in May 2020,” he says ruefully. “Then, of course, the pandemic shut us all down…” And thus the performances rescheduled for this November in the UK take on an extra level of significance. 

Once hailed as the most famous artist in the world, he tells us how those heady peaks were a mixed blessing and very nearly his undoing. But every story has its beginnings and Peter’s starts in the late 1950s…

What got you interested in playing guitar in the first place?

“Probably Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochran and Lonnie Donegan first. Lonnie was the first person I saw on TV doing skiffle, then when he came out with Rock Island Line, it was starting to be more rockabilly. Then Cliff and The Shadows: I became obsessed. 

“I wanted to be in The Shadows from when I was eight years old. From Living Doll on, it was like every kid that was musical wanted to be Hank Marvin. They were the instrumental Beatles. I can still play just about any Shadows number you’d care to mention, note for note.”

What was your first instrument? Obviously, you would have wanted a Strat, but they wouldn’t have been available in Britain at the time.

“No. I mean, the most I could have hoped for at the very beginning was a Höfner, a Futurama III or something. But no, when I was seven, my dad and I went up to the attic to get out our summer holiday luggage and I noticed this little leather case. I didn’t know whether it was a violin or what it was. 

“I said, ‘What’s that?’ and he said, ‘Oh, your grandmother gave me this – she thought you might want to learn to play it one day. It’s a banjolele.’ My dad got it out and played a couple of chords on it, then I think we left it up there for a few months until I said, ‘Dad, can we get that instrument down?’ 

“That’s when I started. He showed me Hang Down Your Head Tom Dooley, Michael, Row The Boat, that kind of stuff. Once I’d mastered those pretty quickly, my parents thought, ‘Wow, he picked that up quick.’ I think they knew pretty early on they were in for trouble.”

And it was from here that you progressed onto guitar?

“Yes, when it was time for Christmas – it would have been 1958 – I asked Father Christmas for a guitar. I got a guitar and the world was my oyster at that point. I wanted to electrify it as soon as I could. I got all the magazines, the Selmer magazines, the Hofner, the ‘this, that, whatever’. 

“I looked and there was a pickup that you could get to amplify an acoustic so I got one. Once I got the pickup, I said, ‘Dad, I need an amplifier.’ He said, ‘Well, I think we can plug you into the living room radio.’ He found out that even in those days there was an auxiliary input in the back. Bingo. I had an electric guitar – that was it.”

Were you eventually caught up in the British blues boom?

“Oh, yes. When I was in my teens, before The Herd, I was going up to see John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton. I saw Graham Bond with Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce and Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band with Andy [Summers] on guitar. It was just a phenomenal time for music then because it was all so new, so there were no rules. 

“We relied on the seamen coming in from America to bring albums because the BBC obviously wasn’t playing what we wanted to hear. You’d have Mantovani and then something else and then you might have a Cliff Richard track or something. I think we all relied on everybody saying, ‘Have you heard this album? I’ll lend it to you.’

“You’d have to give it back, but unfortunately I still have George Underwood’s Coral Records’ Buddy Holly, the very first album, George being David Bowie’s best friend for life and mine, too. I better bring that album with me [to the UK] to give it back to him. It’s only been 60 years…”

You ended up joining The Herd in 1966. How did that come about?

“Andrew Brown and Gary Taylor from The Herd came to see me play. We knew each other anyway because I’d sat in with The Herd when I was a little upstart. After the show they said, ‘Look, we’re reorganising the band. Would you come and play rhythm guitar for the summer?’ Then when I joined the band, it seemed like it changed almost overnight. 

“They put me on lead guitar. Gary switched from lead guitar to bass. At the end of the summer they asked me, ‘Would you join the band?’ I said, ‘Well, my dad’s a teacher and my mum works in a school, so I don’t think that’s going to be happening,’ because I’d planned on going to music college, going back to the sixth form and all that stuff and getting my A Levels. 

“Anyway, I really wanted to join the band so I popped the question to Mum and Dad together. Dad had smoke coming out from his eyes, his ears, his mouth, everywhere. Mum was going, ‘Leave it with me.’ They came back to me a little later and said, ‘Okay. We know this is what you’re going to do anyway so we’re going to say yes.’ My dad said, ‘But you’ve got to earn £15 a week minimum otherwise the deal is off.’”

After quite a lot of success with The Herd, you joined Humble Pie.

“When I saw the Small Faces on Ready, Steady, Go! doing What’cha Gonna Do About It live, my jaw was on the floor because you couldn’t help but catch the fact that Steve [Marriott] was amazing. I said to myself, ’I want to join the Small Faces.’ Anyway, that wasn’t to be, but I left The Herd and I did get to go and do this week of sessions in Paris for Johnny Hallyday with Glyn Johns being the engineer/producer and Small Faces being the band and me being another guitar player. I think at that point Steve really wanted me in the band. 

“Anyway, we flew back from Paris with Glyn and he said, ‘Let me just play you this album. We just recorded and mixed this in 12 days. It’s a new band, but you might know the guitar player, Jimmy Page.’ He puts on Led Zeppelin I in his living room. Again, jaw to the floor but not so much for the guitar – it was Bonham that just floored me. 

“As it got to the end of side one, the phone rang. It was Steve. He’d just got off stage at the Alexandra Palace and had done his last gig. He said, ‘Can I join your band?’ We had Greg Ridley and Jerry Shirley, and with a snap of the fingers we had a band. That was it. Humble Pie was formed. By the next week we were in Jerry Shirley’s parents’ front room with little tiny amps, practising.”

It must have been a tough decision to leave Humble Pie.

“Little things really are hard for me. Big things, I can really make a decision. I don’t think I’m cold-hearted or anything; I think that I’m able to change on a dime if I have to, if pushed. I just felt that the way we were going, which I loved, was a little harder-edged. I was riding the riffs just as much as Steve. I mean, I Don’t Need No Doctor is my riff. 

“Stone Cold Fever, my riff, One Eyed Trouser Snake Rumba, my riff; Steve’s lyrics, though. Steve and I were starting to butt heads a little bit. I think I was coming into my own. Even though I knew that [Performance] Rockin’ The Fillmore would be our biggest record so far, I had no idea it would be their first gold record because I’d done a lot of the mixing with Eddie Kramer in New York for that album. 

“But no, I just decided in the end that this would be the best time, before they really break. Otherwise, if I had stayed in the band, I would have still been in Humble Pie, I think. It was just I wanted to be in charge of my own destiny finally and not have the band.”

After four solo albums, you released the phenomenally successful Frampton Comes Alive! in 1976. It must be difficult to put into words the impact that had on your career.

“I have to use the word ‘surreal’ because four or five years beforehand I thought I’d made the biggest mistake of my career by leaving Humble Pie because Rockin’ The Fillmore was jumping up the charts all over the world. I thought, ‘This is it. I’ve done well so far, but this is it.’ 

“But it was all up to me at that point, I realised. I thought, ‘If I play my cards right and I go out and do a lot of touring for this, maybe this will be my first gold record.’ A week later it was a gold record. It came out and just exploded. 

“All of a sudden I realised that I had a lot of friends that I didn’t have before. Everybody had their two cents to put in, especially the people that were rubbing their hands together like this because I suddenly became the hen that laid the golden egg.

“I went away over Christmas to the islands just to get some sun as I knew we’d be touring all year. I came back and not only did we have one show at Cobo Hall [Detroit], which I think is 8,000 capacity, we had three. Within 10 days it had gone from one to three shows. Then we sold out two shows at Madison Square Garden. Then I got the call: ‘Are you sitting down? The album is No 1.’ I couldn’t believe it. But on the next call I was told that I’d broken Carole King’s Tapestry album record and I was now the biggest-selling album of all time. And that’s when I got nervous…”

Why was that? 

“Because I knew that I couldn’t follow it. That album took me six years to write; it was a live ‘best of’ up until that point. There is a number from Humble Pie, Shine On, I cherry-picked Wind Of Change, Frampton’s Camel, Somethin’s Happening… I felt I’d lost before I’d started after that phone call. That was when I think I started to over-imbibe and wanted to numb myself. The golden hen was now constipated… 

“When I heard that the album was No 1, I think I went and sat down and wrote I’m In You, which is a great song. It shouldn’t have been the first single [of the album of the same name], but it’s a great song. It’s a great ballad because I was so up on everything. Then once I’d heard that I was the biggest, I hated hearing that. I think it shut me down creatively more than anything. 

“Truth be known, I should have probably commissioned every great writer there is and sat down and written with all of them. That would have been the only way to have dealt with that situation. I didn’t want to make [the album] I’m In You. I didn’t even want to hand it in. I didn’t like it. I knew it wasn’t good enough, but everybody was ‘rush, rush, rush’.

“Everybody, one by one, would come to me with their own hidden agenda and say, ‘The longer you wait, the harder it’s going to be,’ and all that stuff. I wanted to wait until I had the best material I could come up with, however long that would have taken. It could have taken a year, it could have taken two years.

“Various things happened. I lost a cassette tape that had a load of ideas on it – that was devastating to me. I remembered some of them but not all of them. The bulk of my new material that I had up until that point disappeared. It was a painful record to make.”

Was I’m In You critically well received, do you remember?

“I don’t believe so. I don’t read a lot of reviews, especially when I know they might not be good. Even though I’m In You was a huge single in the States and the album went right up the charts straight away, things dropped off pretty quickly. The I’m In You tour was fine, that was good. Then after that, when that had sunk in, I think that’s when I started to lose a lot of audience. That was the situation. I felt like I was in a sinking ship.”

Looking back, what was that level of fame generated by Frampton Comes Alive! like for you?

“It’s very enjoyable to start with because you go to the front of the line, you get into the club, now you’re a celebrity or whatever you are. But it was the biggest album in the world so I guess that comes with it. Everybody wanted a piece of me, whether it was an autograph or whether it was some money. 

“I was glad that we were on the road as much as we were at that time because I had the guys around me. But at that point, management was trying to separate me from my band so my band didn’t give me any bad info as far as they were concerned. My band was threatened and all kinds of stuff. Crew members were threatened, basically, not to talk to me. It was a lonely period. 

“I remember my brother came to see me on the I’m In You tour in ’77. I was sitting in this ginormous suite. One of the high roller suites, whatever, somewhere in Vegas. I’m there with my tiny room service tray and all I hear is the knife and fork on the plate. It reminded me of that scene at the end of [the movie] 2001: A Space Odyssey. 

“That was me now. Then my brother came in and sat on the other side of my table, and I started crying. I didn’t want to be on this tour, even though I’ve just said I loved being around the guys. But I could feel it slipping away. I was so tired. I was exhausted.”

How did you deal with the vacuum that happened after that time?

“It was a very difficult period for me because I had it in the palm of my hands, as it were. But once you experience it, you go, ‘Oh, well that’s good. I like that.’ Instead of going and working with as many writers as I could and getting a great producer in or having a different producer for every track on the next record, I just went back and thought, ‘Well I’ve done it all myself, I’ll do it all again.’ But I didn’t have the material. 

“We were doing a lot of covers on the next record, Where I Should Be. It was hard. I got let go by A&M in ’80/’81, after The Art Of Control, which was obviously done by an artist who had no control over himself. I bottomed out there – I’m sure substances didn’t help. I have a family history of depression, it all comes into it. When you go that high, there is a pretty good likelihood that you’re going to go that low. I felt like I was starting again from a negative position.”

How did you come to do the tour with David Bowie?

“I did a record for Atlantic called Premonition [in 1986]. It still wasn’t a great record. It had much better material, but wasn’t where I should have been. That’s the album David Bowie listened to. He would check me out and he said, ‘Can you come and play some guitar for me?’ 

“That’s when I went to Switzerland and we recorded Never Let Me Down. Then he asked if I would be one of the guitar players on the Glass Spider tour, which blew me away. Finally, having been on the same stage the same evening many times before, I was going to be Dave’s guitar player. 

“He could have chosen anybody. He’d had Stevie Ray Vaughan the album before, but he chose me. I can never thank him enough for that. He knew what he was doing for me before I knew what he was doing for me. It was a Dave plan.”

It sounds like you were much happier in that role.

“Oh, yes. That’s my comfy chair. I’ve always been more comfortable playing guitar, not singing – maybe the occasional song like in Humble Pie – but playing behind a great singer, a great frontman. But I wanted to do everything myself. It’s a juxtaposition between being in a band and following the consensus, and being a solo artist and making your own mistakes. I wasn’t doing very well at it and I think it was because the shock and awe of …Comes Alive! was always on my shoulder going, ‘Remember this?’ I’ve said it before, but it was a blessing and a curse. 

“In the end, I’m so proud of it. It was a definite blessing because it made me fight for my career. It made me get up, brush myself off and do it again, work myself up the ladder. David inviting me to do the album and tour changed my credibility; I got my credibility back that I felt I’d lost when I’m In You came out. A teenybopper star, his length of career is about 18 months, whereas a musician’s career is a lifetime. I’m a musician first and foremost. David gave me back that credibility to continue and bring people back to me.”

After such a long and varied career, is there a moment that you’ll always remember if you could just pick one?

“Meeting George Harrison. I’m up in town at The Ship Pub on Wardour Street [in Soho, London] with Terry Doran, who was John Lennon’s assistant for years, and we’re just catching up. He said, ‘Do you want to come and meet Geoffrey?’ I said, ‘Geoffrey who?’ He said, ‘Harrison.’ I said, ‘Oh, they’ve all got code names, have they?’ I was shaking, literally. My first Beatles sighting or meeting. 

“We walked into Trident Studios and there was George. He looks up from the console and he goes, ‘Hello, Pete.’ It was unbelievable that he knew who I was – a Beatle knew who I was. He comes round and we start talking. He goes, ‘Hey, do you want to play? We just wrote a song downstairs for Doris Troy. I’m producing her first album in a while. Come down and play.’

“I thought I was going to wake up and it was a dream. He gave me what I now know was Lucy, the red Les Paul that he used, but, more importantly, it was the one that Eric Clapton played on While My Guitar Gently Weeps. As I went to move my chair, I looked round and sitting right next to me was Stephen Stills. He had just written the song with Doris and George. Now I’m totally nervous.

“Anyway, we start it and I’m playing a very quiet rhythm. George goes, ‘No. Pete, I want you to play lead.’ I thought, ‘Oh crikey.’ I just played all these licks in the intro and between the vocals and everything. After the session, he came over to me and said, ‘Can you make the rest of the sessions?’ It blew my mind.”  

Best of 2022: Way back in June 2019, electric guitar icon Peter Frampton announced Finale: The Farewell Tour – a mammoth stint around North America, the UK and Europe that would bring the curtain down on his prolific live career.

Forced into live retirement as a result of his inclusion body myositis (IBM) that he was diagnosed with in 2015, Frampton was able to conduct the majority of his farewell tour before the Covid-19 pandemic stopped it in its tracks.

After a few years' wait, Frampton was finally able to recommence proceedings earlier this month, and brought an end to Finale: The Farewell Tour – and thus his live career – on Wednesday (November 16).

The historic show took place at the Mitsubishi Electric Halle in Düsseldorf, Germany, and saw the Gibson Les Paul-wielding hero make his way through songs such as Baby, I Love Your Way, (I’ll Give You) Money and The Lodger.

Frampton also included renditions of Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun and Hoagy Carmichael’s Georgia (On My Mind) in the first part of his set, before returning for a three-song encore that was composed entirely of covers.

After delivering renditions of Ida Cox’s Four Day Creep and Nickolas Ashford’s I Don’t Need No Doctor, Frampton eventually arrived at the last song he’d ever play as part of a solo tour, which just so happened to be The Beatles’ While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

The 10-minute version featured a fair amount of intro solo noodles, with Frampton clearly on a mission to savor every last second he had left on the stage. 

Thanks to the extended runtime, there’s plenty of opportunity to hear Frampton’s farewell guitar work in action – guitar work that took the form of embellishing licks, improvised melodies and a handful of barnstorming guitar solos that Frampton loads with every bit of emotion he can.

It was an apt song to end on. Not only is it a track he performed numerous times throughout his career, it’s also a track that was written by his close friend, George Harrison. Frampton famously worked with the Beatle on the latter’s 1970 solo album, All Things Must Pass.

At the end of the song, Frampton addressed the audience with an emotional farewell, and refused to rule out the possibility of future performances after declaring he will continue to “fight” his condition.

“Thank you very much,” he said. “I want to let you know I’m going to keep fighting this, so let’s never say never.

“I have to thank all the people you don’t see but make us sound good and look good,” he continued. “I have to thank my entire crew, from the bus driver all the way to lighting and sound… everything. They have done an incredible job and make everything work every night.”

As per his previous announcement, Frampton performed the last remaining Finale tour shows sat down due to his IBM. Speaking to Classic Rock, the Comes Alive! mastermind revealed, “My legs are not good. I can’t stand. That would be dangerous for me now, because I get so carried away when I’m playing that I’m liable to fall over.”

Though Frampton’s touring career has come to an end (for now), the guitar titan will still make an appearance at Joe Satriani’s G4 V6.0 in January.

In the late ‘80s, Peter Frampton was recruited by David Bowie to play guitar on his 17th studio album Never Let Me Down, with the electric guitar star also staying on as part of Bowie’s band for the vocalist’s 1987 Glass Spider tour.

Unbeknownst to many at the time, the Glass Spider experience proved to be a pivotal time for Frampton, who at the time felt like he was “in a sinking ship” and struggling for “credibility” following the release of his own solo album, I’m In You.

In the latest issue of Guitarist, Frampton reflected on the career crossroads he came across in the late ‘80s, saying that Bowie’s faith in him helped him get “the credibility back I felt I’d lost”.

Frampton recalled, “[Bowie] said, ‘Can you come and play some guitar for me?’ That’s when I went to Switzerland and we recorded Never Let Me Down. Then he asked if I would be one of the guitar players on the Glass Spider tour, which blew me away. 

“Finally, having been on the same stage the same evening many times before, I was going to be Dave’s guitar player. He could have chosen anybody. He’d had Stevie Ray Vaughan the album before, but he chose me. “

As for what exactly the move meant for his career, Frampton says recording Never Let Me Down and touring with Bowie gave him “the credibility to continue” as an artist and helped “bring people back to me”.

“David inviting me to do the album and tour changed my credibility; I got my credibility back that I felt I’d lost when I’m In You came out,” he went on. “A teenybopper star, his length of career is about 18 months, whereas a musician’s career is a lifetime. I’m a musician first and foremost. David gave me back that credibility to continue and bring people back to me.”

Though I’m In You – which followed his iconic 1976 live album, Frampton Comes Alive! – became one of Frampton’s most commercially successful album, the guitarist admitted he remembers the record as the time he “started to lose a lot of audience”.

“Even though I’m In You was a huge single in the States and the album went right up the charts straight away, things dropped off pretty quickly,” Frampton explained. “The I’m In You tour was fine, that was good. Then after that, when that had sunk in, I think that’s when I started to lose a lot of audience. That was the situation. I felt like I was in a sinking ship.”

Frampton went into greater detail surrounding the making of the album, saying he “didn’t want to make” it and that “it was a painful record to make”.

“I didn’t want to make [the album] I’m In You,” he admitted. “I didn’t even want to hand it in. I didn’t like it. I knew it wasn’t good enough, but everybody was ‘rush, rush, rush’.

“I wanted to wait until I had the best material I could come up with, however long that would have taken. It could have been a year, it could have taken two years. Various things happened. I lost a cassette tape that had a load of ideas on it – that was devastating to me.

“I remembered some of them but not all of them. The bulk of my new material that I had up until that point disappeared. It was a painful record to make.”

Given the feelings Frampton harbored over I’m In You, it’s no surprise the guitar legend says he could never thank Bowie enough for helping him revitalize his career.

“I can never thank him enough for that," Frampton said of his Glass Spider experience. "He knew what he was doing for me before I knew what he was doing for me.”

To read the full interview with Peter Frampton, head over to Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Guitarist.

Peter Frampton has revealed he will perform the rest of his farewell tour seated as a result of his ongoing health issues.

While in conversation with Classic Rock, the electric guitar hero discussed how his playing and performances have been affected by his battle with inclusion body myositis (IBM) – a progressive degenerative disease that weakens the legs, arms, wrists and fingers.

According to Frampton, the disease has worsened in recent times, and has particularly affected his ability to stand on stage with a guitar.

As such, he has elected to perform the final European dates of his farewell tour sat down, as he says it is too “dangerous” for him to stand with a guitar for long periods of time.

“Well… my legs are not good, and I’ve decided I am going to sit down on these upcoming tour dates in Europe,” Frampton replied when asked about his IBM. “I can’t stand. That would be dangerous for me now, because I get so carried away when I’m playing that I’m liable to fall over [laughs].” 

Of how the disease is affecting his ability to actually play the guitar, Frampton continued, “It’s starting to affect my hands, but not enough yet, so I can still play a good lick. But I’ll be honest, I’m anxious about it. I haven’t played over there in so long, and I have progressed in my disease.”

The move from standing to seated has already taken place, with Frampton going on to reveal he recently performed sat down “for the first time ever on stage” during Buddy Holly’s 85th Birthday Celebration event.

“Well, I sat down for the first time ever on stage,” he continued. “And… it felt very comfortable [laughs]. Better than leaning on a piano. It was me, Steve Cropper, Albert Lee, Duane Eddy, a few others.”

Frampton was first diagnosed with IBM in 2017 after falling twice on stage, and later revealed his condition in 2019 when he announced he would be embarking on a farewell tour that year.

The tour was halted halfway through due to the pandemic, though is scheduled to continue this November for a string of European dates – a run of shows that will mark Frampton’s last-ever live performances.

“The American-Canadian portion was the most moving tour I’ve ever done,” Frampton reflected. “It’s very emotional for me saying goodbye to anybody, let alone ten thousand people a night.

“I’m a live performer above all, so that’s the most moving thing for me. I don’t know what to expect in the UK and the EU, but I’m hoping it’s going to be along the same lines, because we had a blast.”

Elsewhere in the interview, the guitarist also revealed he is currently in the process of putting together a documentary that will chart his prolific career.

“We are in the process of making a documentary,” he revealed. “Covid messed with us, obviously. We stopped, and now we’re waiting for the final funding to be able to continue. There was a rush on music documentaries and it kind of slowed down. 

“I haven’t been approached to do a biopic. I think it’s a story that’s been told before. But I might be wrong. If they ever do, I hope that Cameron [Crowe] would direct it. He knows me so well.”

Frampton’s farewell tour will pick up on November 5 at Stoke-on-Trent, England, and will conclude on November 16 at the Mitsubishi Electric Halle in Dusseldorf, Germany. He is also slated for an appearance at Joe Satriani’s G4 V6.0 next January.

For a full list of dates, visit Peter Frampton’s website.

To read Classic Rock's full interview with Frampton, head over to Magazines Direct.

Joe Satriani has announced the lineup for the star-studded 2023 G4 V6.0 Experience, which will take place early next year at the Hilton Lake Las Vegas Resort and Spa in Las Vegas.

Satch has enlisted a wealth of electric guitar A-listers, encompassing a huge range of heritage names and more contemporary players.

Chief among them are Peter Frampton, Steve Lukather and Steve Morse, who will be on hand to offer instruction, share their knowledge with attendees, and provide intimate advice in a series of classes and workshops.

Joining them will be players of all styles, including Alex Skolnick, Eric Gales, John 5, Mateus Asato, Cory Wong and Nili Brosh, all of whom will partake in a variety of clinics, jams and intimate breakout sessions.

Satch will also be hosting nightly live performances with his longtime backing band – comprising drummer Kenny Aronoff, bassist Bryan Beller and keyboardist/vocalist Rai Thistlethwayte – for which he will be joined by his guests.

The four-day event takes place on January 3-7 2023, and will see guest tutors address a range of topics, from songwriting and soloing to gigging, gear and more.

Of the G4’s inception, Satch said, “When I first put together the G3 concerts, it was to create a camaraderie that is often missing in the general day-to-day competition of the music industry.

“From there we came up with the concept of the G4 Experience,” he added. “I didn’t want to do a traditional clinic, just getting up in front of people and giving impersonal lessons to a room full of people – I thought, what can we do that will truly reflect my values as a teacher? 

“With the G4 Experience, we create an interactive community where I’m joined by these other stars that have been making amazing music and pushing the art form of guitar forward for decades. From all stylistic approaches and musical walks of life.”

He continued, “We bring together this eclectic mix to show all the different sides of playing guitar. They’re all brilliant musicians with styles that are all over the map. They all have such different jobs, they’ve made millions of people happy with their playing, and yet they do it so differently.”

According to the website, all backline gear is provided, meaning attendees just need to bring their guitars. They will also have access to accommodation, food, and meet and greet sessions with their guitar heroes.

“The G4 Experience is all about the community,” Satriani went on to say. “I can’t state that enough. Everyone is not only there to enjoy the music, they’re trying to learn everything they can. 

“There’s a lot of information stored up in this head that I want to give to the fans and I’m very much looking forward to sharing it with everyone who attends.”

To find out more, head over to G4 Experience.

In an age where many electric guitars sport similar specifications – from body shapes to headstock designs, and pickups to general aesthetics – there is one design innovation that will only ever be found on the fretboard of a PRS guitar: the bird inlay.

And, while most folk familiar with six-string lore will no doubt be accustomed to the unique fretboard adornments, guitarists may not be as knowledgeable about the first-ever six-string to sport them – or the fact it was made for Peter Frampton.

It’s this historic axe – and the innovative inlays it arrived with – that forms the focus of PRS’s latest From The Archives episode, which sees Smith trace the origins of the debut Frampton-owned birds guitar.

Dated April 1976, the double-cut was first built after Smith studied Frampton’s own personal guitar collection, and was modeled on what the young guitar builder believed to be the Humble Pie player’s ideal instrument.

“I got permission from him to play all his guitars,” Smith recalled. “And so when I got to play them I had an idea of what he liked, and I made it for him and took it to him, without finish on it, when he was playing at an American university. 

“And he played it and he really liked it,” he continued. “I had to take it back home to finish it, and when it was done I took it to Newark to show it to him.”

Notable appointments on the guitar, aside from the Bird inlays, include a message that reads, “Hand-made for Peter Frampton by Paul Reed Smith,” and a bird motif on the neck heel – a fixture that Smith says was “a bad idea”.

Perhaps the most eye-catching, though, is the big bird headstock inlay, which was crafted from two separate piano keys that had been glued together.

On why he favored a bird over his own name, the guitar guru continued, “I thought the name Smith was a terrible name for a guitar, so I put the bird in the headstock instead. It turned out Smith means ‘maker of things’ – goldsmith, silversmith, you know.”

But why birds? As Smith explains, “My mother was a birdwatcher, and I never thought about it. I had this guitar to make and I needed inlays for it. It was never even a thought, I just went down and did it. From thought to inlay was so fast.”

Of course, the bird inlay that Smith pioneered with this build stuck around. In fact, many of the designs first introduced on the Frampton guitar are still used on PRS models to this day.

Slash, Joan Jett, Peter Frampton, Nile Rodgers and Richie Sambora are among the names of music industry leaders who will head up the Les Paul Foundation’s newly established Advisory Council.

The Foundation, who aim to honor the legacy of the late Les Paul, has assembled its new group of advisors in a bid to further strengthen and support its mission, with an emphasis on promoting music education, engineering and hearing health.

According to the Les Paul foundation, these three values were “priorities for Les during his lifetime”, and the new Advisory Council will continue Paul’s work by offering its insight, ideas and guidance.

Joining the electric guitar stars listed above is multi-platinum producer Alawn, CAA Nashville President Rod Essig and bass guitar player Brian Hardgroove, as well as music executive Don Was, multi-instrumentalist Jeff Peretz and Middle Tennessee State University’s John Merchant.

The Advisory Council lineup will be completed by Les Paul’s godson and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Steve Miller, and TMWRK Management CEO Andrew McInnes

Of the new cohort, the Foundation’s Executive Director Michael Braunstein said, “The individuals who have joined the Les Paul Foundation Advisory Council are a prestigious and influential group of music industry artists, educators, executives and friends. 

“The names we announced today are a fitting tribute to Les,” he continued. “We look forward to their ideas and are thankful for their commitment to helping us share the historic legacy of such a great man, our friend Les Paul.”

To date, the Les Paul Foundation has headed up a number of charitable initiatives and has awarded over $4 million to non-profit organizations.

For more information, head over to the Les Paul Foundation.

The story of Peter Frampton’s fabled Gibson “Phenix” Les Paul is perhaps the most well-known tale of lost-and-found electric guitars in the whole of guitar lore. Given to him by his friend Marc Mariana during a four-show stint at Fillmore West in 1970, the  beloved ‘50s Black Beauty was separated from the Humble Pie icon following a deadly plane crash a decade later.

Then, over 30 years after the incident, Frampton was miraculously reunited with the triple-humbucker six-string, which was promptly restored prior to the Frampton Comes Alive! shows in 2012.

Now, the mythical model’s story in its entirety has been retold in a comprehensive new 23-minute video posted to Frampton’s YouTube channel, which is pieced together from interviews new and old, archive material, and live video footage.

“I don’t think I stopped smiling from ear to ear the entire night,” Frampton said of the first time he played the “Phenix”. “When I got off stage, I said to Marc [Mariana], ‘I don’t know how to ask this: you’d never think about selling it, would you?’ He said, ‘No. I’m going to give it to you.’”

From that point on, it became Frampton’s number one guitar. Not only did he play it religiously for 10 years, the “Phenix” also featured heavily on Frampton Comes Alive! in ‘76, and made its way on “just about every track [Frampton] recorded between 1970 and 1980”.

However, the "Phenix" was almost lost forever in 1980 after it went down with a cargo aircraft, along with the rest of Humble Pie’s gear, which crashed while taking off from Curaçao. The damage was immense, and Frampton believed his beloved Les Paul Black Beauty to be gone for good.

Unknown to him at the time, though, the “Phenix” had actually survived the crash, and was taken by someone at the scene. Years later, pictures of an eerily similar Black Beauty began to circulate – and with them, reports that it had been used extensively by a local musician.

As chance would have it, the guitar eventually crossed paths with Donald Balentina – a local luthier and immigration officer – who immediately knew its origins, and sought to return it to its rightful owner.

“It will still be a mystery to me as far as I’m concerned,” Frampton notes in the video. “How it left the plane, and why it wasn’t returned to me at the time. But, 31 years later, I got it back. It’s a long wait, but I got it back.”

After he was reunited with his Les Paul, Frampton – with the help of the Gibson team – then had the small task of restoring it to its former glory. No mean feat, as you can tell from the documentary above.

“It’s got to be played. People have to see it. I want to show it off,” Frampton comments, before the video diverts its attention to the guitarist’s Comes Alive! anniversary shows in 2011/2012 – a historic occasion that featured the “Phenix” in all its glory for the first time in three decades.

In 2021, Frampton's lost-and-found Les Paul was reimagined as the Gibson "Phenix" Custom VOS guitar.

A legion of the guitar world’s biggest stars have penned touching letters of tribute to Electro-Harmonix founder Mike Matthews, who celebrated his 80th birthday yesterday (December 6).

Included in the list of individuals who sent letters to Matthews – who founded the ground-breaking pedal company back in 1968 – were John Frusciante, Jack White and Emily Wolfe, as well as Noel Gallagher, Vernon Reid and Adrian Belew.

Electric guitar icon Peter Frampton also sent Matthews a letter wishing the pedal pioneer a happy birthday, as did Bill Kelliher, Guthrie Govan, Yvette Young, John McLaughlin and more.

In his own letter, Frusciante reflected upon the time he met Matthews at NAMM, writing, “Dear Mike, you’ve been making my favorite effects as long as I’ve been playing guitar.

“I don’t know if you remember, but when I was 14 I was an Adrian Belew fanatic and I hung out with you at NAMM, and we talked for quite a while,” he continued. “You answered questions I had about Adrian and your effects, and you made a very big impression on me.

“I would always speak of you with the utmost reverence. I never stopped using your stuff. Thanks for being you!”

King Crimson guitarist and EHX champion Belew was equally praising in his letter, saying, “Your accomplishments are so very meaningful and legendary. I would never have become the musician I am without you. You truly changed my life.”

“Thank you for making music what it is today,” wrote Emily Wolfe. “The Big Muff is such a go-to sound for me, along with so many artists. We truly owe you the world for changing music as we know it and giving us artists a way to create the sounds we hear in our head.”

In his own letter, Kelliher revealed his three favorite Electro-Harmonix pedals – “the Ravish Sitar, Pitch Fork and, of course, the Holy Grail” – while Gallagher joked, “Thanks for making our shit sound better than it actually is!”

Matthews, founder and CEO of Electro-Harmonix, is the brains behind some of the most iconic effects pedals in music history, including old-school classics such as the Memory Man delay and Big Muff Pi – favored by David Gilmour, Billy Corgan, Carlos Santana and J Mascis.

Other modern day EHX favorites include the John Mayer-favored Q-Tron+, which was recently joined in the brand's envelope filter range by the downsized Q-Tron Nano.

To browse the entire collection of letters, head on down to Electro-Harmonix.

Peter Frampton has partnered with online music gear marketplace Reverb.com to sell a selection of his used gear.

Coinciding with the release of the paperback version of his book, Do You Feel Like I Do? A Memoir, the Official Peter Frampton Reverb Shop features a range of acoustic guitars owned by the former Humble Pie guitarist, including the Maton SRS808C that he used on his Finale: The Farewell Tour.

Other items include a Guild Aristocrat electric guitar that Frampton was inspired to buy after seeing Keith Richards play a similar model on the Rolling Stones' debut album, and a Gibson Hummingbird which he acquired when he was “collecting acoustics like crazy” before he embarked on his Raw: An Acoustic Tour in 2016.

Also featured is a stage-used Marshall 1974X RI guitar amp. “This amp was on the road with me on my co-headlining tour with Steve Miller,” Frampton says. “It's been out there with me, making my sound.”

Other items include a Gitane DG-255 gypsy jazz acoustic and Marshall JMP 2061X amp head – both of which he used, the latter with his signature talk box – on his Grammy-winning 2006 album, Fingerprints.

“I've over-collected, and while I'm sad to part with some of these instruments, I'm exited to hear how a new crop of musicians might use and cherish this gear,” Frampton says.

Peter Frampton joins a growing list of guitarists who have partnered with Reverb.com for official guitar stores. Earlier this year, both Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge – current and former members of Blink-182, respectively – teamed up with the marketplace to sell their used gear.

The Official Peter Frampton Reverb Shop goes live on October 13. For more info, and to preview the gear that will be available, head to Reverb.

Jam-packed with James Hetfield’s angst-y electric guitar explorations and some of the most masterful guitar parts ever recorded, Metallica’s repertoire of riffs is up there with the very best in metal history, celebrated for its brutal high-gain tones and fierce fretboard-spanning constructions.

Who’d have thought, then, that the dizzying, rapid-fire opening riff of Fight Fire With Fire, or the riotous, chug-heavy opener from Sad But True, were written when Hetfield was in a “really happy, good mood”?

Not us, that’s for sure, though that’s exactly when they were written, according to the Metallica frontman himself.

The revelation came during a video message Hetfield recorded for Road Recovery – a nonprofit organization that provides support for young people battling addiction by empowering at-risk youths and teaching them comprehensive life skills.

“I know we’re going through some rough times,” said Hetfield in his message. “[I’m] just here to send a message of hope and that you're not alone... That we’re all living this together and we’ve been given a gift of music, which is a great thing to lean on and rely on.

“Gosh, I’ve been writing a lot of riffs, writing a lot of lyrics,” he continued. “Obviously at this time, a lot of feelings come up, you know? 

“When I get really emotional, that's when I write lyrics. When I get in a really happy, good mood, that's when I start writing riffs.

“That’s just what I do and you'll find your own thing,” he continued. “But yeah, you’ve been given the gift of music, so utilize that in great times and in struggle.”

Hetfield was one of a number of members of the metal and rock royalty to have joined forces with Road Recovery, with guitar legends Slash, Tom Morello and Peter Frampton all recording video messages of their own.

“I’ve been hanging out with Road Recovery for a while now,” said Slash, “and I’ve always found it a really enriching experience jamming with the kids. It’s just really inspirational, and it’s great to see how people can get inspired by the arts to be able to get out of a funk and turn your life around.”

To find out more about the charity’s mission, head over to Road Recovery.

Peter Frampton's new album – brilliantly titled Frampton Forgets the Words – sees the British guitar legend tackling songs by Radiohead, Lenny Kravitz, George Harrison and David Bowie, using his instrument to replace the well-known vocal melodies of the originals. 

As he explains, there’s an art to making the guitar talk. And he should know; it is, after all, what he’s been doing for decades.

One of the covers is Isn’t It a Pity from George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, an album you played on. Harrison, along with Pete Drake, is sort of responsible – even indirectly – for introducing you to the talkbox. 

“That’s true. It’s on YouTube, actually, the audio from when Pete Drake put that tube into his mouth after setting it all up, and the pedal steel started singing to us. You can hear George talking and me laughing, I think. It was just jaw-dropping. When I first heard Stevie Wonder’s Music of My Mind, he was using The Bag, made by a company called Kustom, for background voices and ad-libs. 

“I thought, 'Now there’s a sound!' Then I heard Jeff Beck do a Beatles number [She’s a Woman] with it, and after that I was sitting in front of Pete Drake at Abbey Road – and I see it. He completed the circle for me. And of course the next thing out of my mouth was, ‘Where do I get one?’”

What was the answer?

“Well, he didn’t know because there weren’t any commercially available ones back then. It turns out he made it himself. After that, his wife lent that exact one to Joe Walsh, who used it on Rocky Mountain Way. I’ve spoken to Joe about this and it’s absolutely true. He went to Bob Heil, whose PAs we used in Humble Pie when starting out in America; Joe was good friends with him because they were both HAM radio enthusiasts. 

“Joe asked Bob to make one even louder because, as we all know, we guitarists like to turn themselves up – 'More of me!' So Bob Heil set about making one and put a much stronger driver in it so that it was capable of supporting a 100-watt Marshall for a few minutes, before it blew up. [Laughs]“

Looking back now, getting your hands on it was a life-changing decision. 

“Definitely. But I still think the quintessential solo, the best of the best, is Joe Walsh coming in on Rocky Mountain Way. It’s phenomenal. When it goes to the four chord, he switches to slide and takes it over the top. I’m getting goosebumps just thinking about it. The talkbox was something I had to have. 

“As soon as I got it, my agent told me I had to move up from the opening spot to the middle spot on a three-act show. Which was fantastic, up the ladder another run. And then I found out I was playing underneath Joe Walsh. So guess who played the talkbox first that year? I don’t think Joe was too thrilled, but we’ve laughed about it since. That was the first tour I used it on, before I’d even had a chance to record with it.“

What’s the secret to getting a guitar to replicate vocal melodies?

“I’m a melodic player at heart. Looking all the way back to the beginning, my first hero band was the Shadows. They were the first thing I listened to and learned how to play, all the hits and album tracks. I went from that to Django Reinhardt and jazz, which is very lyrical. 

“My guitar became another voice of mine. For example, Avalon by Roxy Music is one of my all-time favorite records. I would use it to EQ my speakers on my sound system – that’s how good the album is. So the cover is my tribute to them, because the vocals on that album are so laid black and flown away. 

“It feels like that’s the track I got the closest on, as a guitarist replicating vocals. And Reckoner by Radiohead, no one knows what Thom Yorke was singing about anyway. He’s a bit like Michael [McDonald] from the Doobie Brothers – you can’t understand what that guy’s saying!“

You worked closely with David Bowie during parts of your career. On this album you’ve covered Loving the Alien, which was on the setlist for the Glass Spider tour you did together.

“Exactly! That’s why I chose that track. I loved the song, but I loved most of David’s stuff anyway. That was the number he gave me for a stretched-out solo – it was my party piece on that tour. I wanted to pay tribute to David for giving me this incredible gift, reintroducing me to fans around the world as the musician, not the pop star. It was cathartic to go back to. There was a lot of passion involved on that track.“

There are some jazzy moments, too, like on the cover of Sly and the Family Stone’s If You Want Me to Stay.

“I don’t really think about or even want to know what I’m going to play. I blank my mind out and let it happen. This album was all done together live, but when I do any overdubs, we usually choose the first take or the first of a series in between breaks and cups of tea. 

“I’ve never been one that relied on or wished to be a shredder of speed, because the notes go by so quickly you don’t enjoy them. For me, it’s about the choice of notes. There’s no guitar on the Miles Davis records I listen to, but it doesn’t matter because I’m listening to his choice of notes. And he’ll play one note over seven chord changes, but it’s the right note. It’s so important to me – not how many notes I play but which ones. Some people have told me I never play the same thing twice and I always say, 'I hope I never do!' That’s what I want to achieve as a guitarist.

“Every time I play a solo, even if I’ve been playing it for 20 years, I want a fresh canvas. I want to go somewhere I haven’t been before; otherwise, what’s the point? I guess I’m a jazzer at heart.“

Well, we did notice a few diminished runs on that track!

”I’m glad you noticed! That all probably comes from Django. He couldn’t go 30 seconds without playing a diminished line. I just sat down one day and said, 'Let me just learn this!' and figure out what he was doing. Since then, even on tracks like Georgia on My Mind from my All Blues record, I’ve stuck them in. I find when you are on the five chord – which is the dominant – just before you back to the one, you can throw that diminished idea right in there and have some fun.”

You’ve been reunited with your 1954 Phenix Les Paul Custom for a while, having spent three decades thinking it had been destroyed in a cargo crash. Did that get used on the album?

“I used it for the solo at the end of Reckoner. It’s all over the album, actually. A lot of the time I would do the melody on my ’59 ES-335 and then do the solo with the Phenix. And my goodness, what a story. Things like this don’t normally happen. After 30 years, you don’t expect to see an instrument you thought went into the earth. 

“We were told it went up in the fireball of the crash, but it was removed from the tail of the plane, which broke off and didn’t have as much fire. It singed, and instead of the Gibson inlay on the headstock, the bits that are left make a lucky seven. I find that very interesting! Right now I have the great Tom Holmes pickups in there and I love them, but it doesn’t matter… whatever pickup you use will sound like the solo from Lines on My Face. Gibson and I had tried for some time in the '90s to recreate it from memory. 

“I tried to tell them every detail I could, like the neck size and weight. We came up with a beautiful guitar that looked exactly the same, but of course it wasn’t. I was very happy and had about three or four of them. Then I got the original back and it doesn’t sound anything like those ones.“

And you’ve generally been using three 100-watt Marshall Super Leads – one original and two built by John Suhr.

“In the '80s, I got in touch with [amp modder] Jose Arredondo. He said, 'Find me an early-'70s Marshall and I’ll make it sound great for you.' So he did, then unfortunately we lost Jose and I needed some backups. John Suhr took the Jose and reverse-engineered it for me. John is an incredible luthier, amp maker, pedal maker… he never ceases to amaze me.“

• Peter Frampton Forgets the Words is out now via UMe.

First announced – with few supporting details – back in January, Gibson has launched its new Peter Frampton signature “Phenix” Les Paul Custom VOS electric guitar.

The new Phenix is a dead ringer (minus the dings and wear) for Frampton's legendary Phenix Les Paul Custom – which is pictured on the cover of his star-making, bazillion-selling 1976 album, Frampton Comes Alive!, and was thought to be lost forever in a 1980 cargo plane crash, only to be miraculously recovered in 2011. 

Like the original, the new Custom Shop Phenix features a mahogany body and neck, and an ebony fingerboard with custom pearl inlays.

The guitar boasts a trio of open coil Gibson Custom humbuckers, with custom wiring, a 3-way toggle switch and volume and tone knobs for the neck and bridge pickups, and another pair of knobs specifically wired to the middle pickup, for greater tonal versatility.

The guitar's other appointments include gold hardware, Grover tuners, Schaller Strap Locks and Frampton's signature on the headstock.

“My brand-new Gibson Les Paul Custom VOS has arrived, and boy is it good,” Frampton said in a statement. “I couldn’t be more pleased with the look and sound.

"Gibson has gone that extra mile in every area to make this feel and sound the closest to my original, storied Phenix Les Paul Custom guitar. The neck and weight of this mahogany guitar will amaze you at how great it feels and how light it is (and it’s even a hair lighter than the Phenix). This is the real deal.”

The Gibson Peter Frampton signature “Phenix” Les Paul Custom VOS is available now for the top-of-the-line price of $6,999.

For more info, stop by Gibson.

As the release date for Peter Frampton’s upcoming instrumental cover album rapidly approaches, the electric guitar great has shared the latest track from the highly anticipated Frampton Forgets the Words – a cover of Roxy Music’s Avalon.

Frampton’s take on the track, which you can listen to above, sees the legendary axeman pick up a Gibson ES335 to offer up a tasty instrumental reimagining of Roxy Music's 1982 hit.

Avalon follows up Frampton’s rendition of Radiohead’s Reckoner, which was released last month as the album’s lead single.

“This album is a collection of ten of my favorite pieces of music. My guitar is also a voice and I have always enjoyed playing my favorite vocal lines that we all know and love," Frampton explains. "These tracks are my great band and me paying tribute to the original creators of this wonderful music.”

On Avalon's inclusion, said Frampton, “The original is such a perfect piece of music. I really wanted to get as close to the vocal inflection as I could and I think I almost did it!”

“It’s a sexy kind of guitar sound, like Bryan Ferry’s vocal,” he continued. “I’m very proud of it.”

The rest of the album, which also boasts covers of David Bowie and Lenny Kravitz hits, is available for preorder now ahead of its release on April 23.

Gibson recently teased a Peter Frampton “Phenix” Les Paul Custom VOS, a recreation of the artist’s famous triple-pickup LP. But if you want to hear the real Phenix in action, look no further than the forthcoming Frampton Forgets the Words.

The new covers record, due April 23, finds the electric guitar legend paying instrumental tribute to David Bowie (Loving the Alien), George Harrison (Isn’t It a Pity), Lenny Kravitz (Are You Gonna Go My Way) and more alongside the Peter Frampton Band, with whom he last released 2019’s all-covers record, All Blues.

You can check out the first single, Frampton’s take on the 2007 Radiohead track Reckoner, above.

Frampton Forgets the Words was co-produced by Frampton and Chuck Ainlay, and recorded/mixed at Frampton’s own Studio Phenix in Nashville.

“This album is a collection of ten of my favorite pieces of music,” Frampton said in a statement.

“My guitar is also a voice and I have always enjoyed playing my favorite vocal lines that we all know and love. These tracks are my great band and me paying tribute to the original creators of this wonderful music. So much fun to do and I really hope you enjoy it too.”

Frampton Forgets the Words is available to preorder now. The full tracklist is as follows:

1. If You Want Me To Stay 
2. Reckoner 
3. Dreamland 
4. One More Heartache 
5. Avalon 
6. Isn’t It A Pity 
7. I Don't Know Why 
8. Are You Gonna Go My Way 
9. Loving The Alien 
10. Maybe

NAMM 2021 isn't taking place in the physical realm this year, but you'll find all the hottest January gear launches in our guide to the biggest guitar, amp and pedal releases of 2021 so far.

Gibson has announced a string of new signature guitars for 2021, including fresh models for Marcus King and Peter Frampton, Jerry Cantrell, Sergio Vallin and Slim Harpo.

Details on the new models are scarce – there are no full specs listed yet – so treat this as a teaser of sorts, before the full announcements later in the year.

We’ll start with the Marcus King ES-345, which has long been in the works. Based on his original ’62, the model features a sideway Vibrola tailpiece, split parallelogram inlays and “Custom Made” plaque behind the bridge – the below image is the final signature model.

The Peter Frampton “Phenix” Les Paul Custom VOS, meanwhile, will most likely be a reissue of the limited-edition model first released in 2015, of which just 35 were produced – albeit minus the wear and tear.

So, we’d expect the same triple-pickup configuration that appears on the cover of Frampton Comes Alive!, a mahogany body and neck, ebony fingerboard, custom pearl inlay and ’54 Les Paul Custom holly veneer headstock.

As has become customary with Gibson’s NAMM launches, the guitar giant has also announced the names of several future signature models, but has yet to provide any further information.

Most tantalizing among these teases is a signature Les Paul for Jerry Cantrell, who signed on as a member of the Gibson family this time last year.

His first collaboration with Gibson is listed as the “Wino” Custom, which will most likely be a recreation of his ’90s Wine Red Custom Shop Les Paul.

We’re hoping this is the first in a new lineup of Cantrell models, because we’d love to see a replica of his hand-burned “D-Trip” LP at some point down the line.

Other teased models include an ES-330 for swamp-blues icon Slim Harpo, as well as a 1955 Les Paul Bigsby for Sergio Vallin, guitarist for Mexican rock heavyweights Maná.

These teases follow Gibson’s already-announced 2021 signature models, including the “Captain” Kirk Douglas SG, Slash “Victoria” Goldtop and Gene Simmons G² Thunderbird Bass.

As soon as we have more info on any of these models, we’ll let you know…

Like Rick Beato, we’ve all asked ourselves the question, ‘What would it sound like if Eric Johnson played Jimmy Page’s iconic electric guitar solo in Stairway to Heaven?,’ right? Right?

Well, unlike Rick Beato, when we do ask ourselves this question, we don't just say, “So I thought, well, why don’t I call Eric Johnson and see if he’s into it?” But that's exactly what Beato does in this video.

That’s only the beginning – or, as you’ll see, the end – of the sheer awesomeness on display here.

Beato also takes a stab at the solo himself, only playing in the style of Peter Frampton, and he ropes in Bon Jovi guitarist Phil X to offer his own interpretation of how Eddie Van Halen would attack the part.

In typical Phil X manner, he goes all out, procuring a Frankenstrat for the proceedings and crafting a solo in which, he explains, “My approach came from, I was thinking 1981, 1982, after Fair Warning. Less phaser, less gain. I didn’t want it to sound like a quilt of Eddie Van Halen licks. It had to have a flow and everything had to make sense.”

That said, Phil continues, “if you listen closely you will recognize licks. You recognize, ‘This is from Push Comes to Shove, this is from Eruption, this is from Beat It,’ stuff like that”.

It all ends with the pièce de résistance – Eric Johnson playing the Stairway to Heaven solo in the style of, well, Eric Johnson.

Explains Beato, “One of the reasons I asked Eric to do this is because he has such an unmistakable style. I thought to myself, what’s it gonna sound like? And then in my brain I’m thinking these cascading lines, he’ll throw in some bass notes, chord forms, things like that. And it will be really melodic.”

Yeah, Rick, that’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like. And it’s ridiculously awesome.

To hear for yourself, check out the video above. And for more great Rick Beato vids, head to his official YouTube channel.

In other Stairway news, the copyright battle over the iconic intro to the song, which the estate of late Spirit guitarist and songwriter Randy Wolfe (aka Randy California) accused Zep of lifting from the 1968 Spirit instrumental, Taurus, has been settled in Zeppelin’s favor. More on that in Guitar World’s report.

Most farewell tours are not to be trusted. From KISS to Mötley Crüe, long-time observers of rock will know the routine: the valedictory arena shows, the two-year itch, the reunion album, then business as usual. But when Peter Frampton says goodbye to the live stage, the veteran guitarist truly means it - however desperately he wishes he didn’t.

News of Frampton’s situation can’t have escaped you. Nine years ago, the guitarist was newly into his 60s, and hiking up a mountain with his son when he found himself strangely fatigued. Back then, he dismissed it as the inevitable wear-and-tear of aging. But when the guitarist began struggling to climb stairs and lift suitcases, then fell down repeatedly on stage in 2015, he visited a neurologist and had his fears confirmed. 

Inclusion Body Myositis (IBM) is a muscle-wasting condition that weakens limbs and threatens mobility. The symptoms grow progressively worse and there is currently no cure.

“It was a devastating period,” reflects the 69-year-old family man, “for us all.” But those same observers of rock will also know that Frampton is not a man to shrink from a battle. From his teenage band, The Herd, to the visceral blues-rock of Humble Pie with Steve Marriott in the late 60s, and onto a solo career that peaked commercially with 1976’s 11-million-selling Frampton Comes Alive!, there have been plenty of triumphs. 

But as Frampton reminds us, if he can return from car crashes and career wilderness, then he can fight back from this diagnosis and keep making music, somehow, somewhere.

Every live show you play must mean so much to you now?

“Yes, and the audience really add to that feeling. We did about 50 shows here in the States, and there’s an incredible warmth that’s coming from them towards us on stage. It’s like they’re trying to heal me. There are no words to explain that particular feeling. It’s sad. It’s happy. It’s everything. 

"But I can’t lose it on stage, because I have a whole show to do. So I don’t say goodbye at the end. I wave. And I think that’s the moment. When I turn my back and walk off the stage - I don’t have a dry eye at that point.”

Will you be strict with yourself when the time comes to stop?

“Well, most artists are perfectionists, or think they are. For me, I’ve never gone on stage unprepared or feeling like I needed to practice more. I’ve always gone on stage at the top of my game. Or tried to. Done everything possible. 

"Last year, I said to my manager that I don’t want to be the guy that goes out on stage and people say, ‘Well, he’s not as good as he used to be.’ I’m not that guy. I know that poor Keith Emerson - who was a dear friend - had some hand problems, and that was awful, that he started getting criticized for his playing. 

"I don’t want that for me. I can’t ever go on stage knowing that I’m not going to be able to play my best.”

When it comes to your playing, can you feel the effects of the IBM yet?

“Very, very slightly. It’s more the fretting hand that’s affected. The left side is ahead in the progression of the disease, more than the right. Luckily, my left hand is doing really well, and I’m sure for the rest of this year, I’ll be okay. 

"Also, when you’re playing guitar, you don’t stand on two feet: you tend to favor one leg or the other. Well, the leg I’ve always favored is my left. So even though IBM affects the left side more, that leg is still pretty strong. 

"So I’m doing good. I’m on a drug trial. I’m in a control period right now. I’ve had testing done and then, in March before I come over to see you, I start taking the test drug. That’s for 10 months. So we’ll see how we do.”

Which guitar techniques is your condition likely to threaten?

“I think, actually, some chords are becoming a little temperamental for me. It’s because you use more fingers on the chords than you do on single notes. That’s the only area where I’m slightly [concerned] - but I have another guitarist to play the chords. Adam Lester is wonderful.”

Couldn’t you find a way to adapt your guitar parts?

“Well, they are what they are. It would be difficult to simplify them. I think my playing has become more soulful - I don’t know if that’s because I treasure every moment I can play, or if it’s just that I love playing.

"And I’m going to go on playing. I might not be able to play in front of an audience in a couple of years, but I’m going to be battling on and recording. And with recording, you can touch things up a bit. So I think I’ll have a longer recording life than I will a ‘live’ life, as it were. I feel positive about the future.”

The Les Paul Custom is pretty bulky - might you need to make a change?

“Well, it’s funny you should say that, because most Les Pauls are beasts. My Custom - which is actually a Black Beauty from ’54 or ’55 - is all mahogany, no maple top. So it should be so heavy, but it’s not. It’s much lighter than most Les Pauls, so I lucked out.”

Have you been bringing that famous Custom on tour?

“Yeah. People say to me, ‘You’re not gonna take that on the road, are you?’ I laugh and say, ‘Well, it survived an air crash!’ It would be so wrong not to play it. Y’know, to leave it at home after all it’s been through.”

Do you think you’ll adapt your rig to offset the condition?

“Well, the rig’s been the same for 20 years, so it’s very hard to change at this point. I mean, when I record, I’ll use anything -  a Pignose, a Marshall 200-watt, anything in between - it doesn’t matter, whatever the sound needs. But on stage, I have to approximate all those different sounds from the records, because I’m a sound guy. I’m just so fastidious about sound.”

What gear have you been using live?

“Well, the backline is wet/dry/wet - three Marshall 4x12 1960BV cabs with the Celestion Vintage 30s. I have an early 70s Marshall 100-watt head that basically is my main sound. But then I have other preamps that I switch in, like an Egnater M4 modular preamp, which is a clean sound, and a ’65 Bassman head. 

"So their preamps go through the Marshall back-end, and I can choose or have all three at once 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 adrenalized 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 Comes Alive!?

“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 one-trick-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?”

You’ve never taken yourself too seriously, though, have you?

“You know, making fun of myself, that’s my humor. 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.”

Did you enjoy the adulation heaped on you during that Comes Alive! 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 realized 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 favorite 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.”

The fifth installment of Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival took place at the American Airlines Center in Dallas this past weekend, September 20-21.

As would be expected from a show that featured Billy Gibbons, Jeff Beck, John Mayer, Joe Walsh, Bonnie Raitt, Derek Trucks and Gary Clark Jr. among others, the electric guitar highlights were many.

One of those standout moments came on the first night, at the end of Peter Frampton’s three-song set, when the guitar legend welcomed Clapton himself for a rendition of the Beatles’ White Album classic, While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

Clapton, of course, lent his guitar skills to the original, while Frampton recorded his own version for his 2003 album, Now, and has made the song a staple of his current farewell tour.

While Frampton handles the lead vocal and main guitar solos here, the real treat comes roughly five minutes in, when he and Clapton begin to trade off lead licks, leading to an explosive guitar climax. Great stuff.

Frampton can be seen playing his legendary ’54 Les Paul during the performance, while Clapton strode out with an unusual guitar – a new “Crashocaster” painted by graffiti artist John “Crash” Matos, who has finished several guitars for Clapton over the past two decades. 

Regarding the guitar, created especially for the Crossroads Festival, Matos explained to Where's Eric!, “The new idea came about by chance. I was looking at some old ideas from the mid-Eighties involving the dripping tags, which we did using very watery inks or paints. 

"So when Eric asked me to create something new, I was already in the mindset, and I went with it. As always I tend to hide imagery and letters in my work, creating hidden meaning, such as Jasper Johns, the American painter. And as usual, I am not shy with colors, so I went with bright and bold colors.”

Regarding the Crossroads performance, Frampton noted onstage that, amazingly, the While My Guitar Gently Weeps duet marked the first time he and Clapton had ever paired up. “It’s been a dream of mine for many, many years, decades, and I can’t believe it’s gonna happen right now,” he said. 

“But I’m going to invite out a friend I’ve known a long time but we’ve never played together – Mr. Eric Clapton.”