Before going solo, he was in the bands The Herd, Humble Pie, and Frampton's Camel.
His concerts sold well, but his albums did not. He took advantage of this in 1976 by releasing a live album, Frampton Comes Alive.
Frampton Comes Alive, recorded at Winterland in San Francisco and released in 1976, claimed the title of best-selling live album of all time when it was certified for 6 million copies in 1984. Eric Clapton bested it when his album Unplugged notched 10 million in 1996, and Garth Brooks blew past those totals with Double Live, which was certified for 20 million in 2020.
Frampton played Billy Shears in the 1978 movie Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. It's considered one of the worst movie musicals ever, despite appearances by The Bee Gees, Aerosmith, Earth, Wind & Fire and Billy Preston.
Frampton was an advisor on the 2000 movie Almost Famous. He had a cameo as the tour manager for Humble Pie, his actual former group.
He was in a group called The Preachers when he was 15. Bill Wyman from the Rolling Stones was their manager.
He's played guitar on albums for George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and David Bowie.
He appears in cartoon form in the 1996 "Homerpalooza" episode of The Simpsons, where he gets hot and bothered after Homer sets loose his inflatable big, bought at Pink Floyd's yard sale.
Peter's dad was Owen Frampton, who taught David Bowie at a technical arts school in the '60s. Peter followed him in school a few years later, and ended up playing guitar on Bowie's 1987 Glass Spider tour.
"I made it before Bowie," Frampton told Uncut magazine. "In fact, the story goes that he was watching Top of the Pops one day, he hadn't yet had a hit himself. The Herd come on Top of the Pops. He looked at the screen and went, 'Oh my, that's Peter! Why isn't he at school?'"
Peter Frampton announced on February 22, 2019 that's he's been diagnosed with inclusion body myositis (IBM), a a rare and incurable inflammatory condition which causes muscles to weaken slowly. He keeps performing but in 2022 has to begin doing so while seated.
In 1978, Peter Frampton had a life-altering car accident in Nassau, Bahamas, crashing into the wall of the James Bond house famously featured in the shark pool scenes of Thunderball. The crash was so severe that doctors initially feared they might have to amputate his right arm - a devastating prospect for the legendary guitarist. Frampton suffered multiple fractures across his body and endured a harrowing recovery. Reflecting on the incident, he described it as a "sobering moment" that ultimately marked a turning point in his life, leading to his eventual sobriety and a revaluation of his career and personal priorities.
Frampton was 74 when he was finally inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2024, 26 years after he first became eligible. He was inducted by Roger Daltrey of The Who, who said, "This guy's voice takes his music to another level. He's got a sensitivity that matches his guitar playing. It all comes from his heart and it's played with a smile on his face."
Some of his most famous songs, including "
Show Me The Way," were inspired by his girlfriend, Penny McCall. When they met in 1972, both were married, but that didn't stop them from moving in together a year later. Frampton's divorce wasn't finalized until 1976, so he didn't talk much about McCall in the press, although he did include a song about her called "
Penny For Your Thoughts" on his 1975 album
Frampton.
