“If I don’t accept what I have, I’m going to be mad for the rest of my life”: Peter Frampton on accepting his illness and continuing to play guitar
It’s been more than six years since guitar legend Peter Frampton first revealed his diagnosis with inclusion body myositis (IBM), the progressive muscle disease that has since changed the way he moves, lives, and plays the guitar.
In that time, the guitarist has hardly slowed creatively. Since going public with his diagnosis in 2019, Frampton has released multiple records – including instrumental covers album Peter Frampton Forgets the Words – while continuing to write and record new material with his son Julian.
Now, in a new interview with the New York Times, Frampton opens up about adapting to life with IBM, explaining that learning to accept the condition has become a crucial part of moving forward.
READ MORE: Peter Frampton teams up with Tom Morello on new protest song about the ultra-powerful
Discussing the physical realities of the condition, Frampton details the adjustments he’s had to make as a guitarist, and why he still spends nearly every night playing music.
The musician traces the earliest signs of IBM back to a 2009 songwriting trip with Julian.
“Julian said, ‘Let’s run up this hill.’ Normally I would beat him, and I didn’t,” Frampton recalls. “It felt like there were insects in my legs, like they were vibrating.”
Years later, after a series of unexplained falls onstage and at home, Frampton was diagnosed with IBM, which causes gradual muscle deterioration in the arms and legs. The disease has forced him to rethink parts of his playing technique, with riffs and solos that once came instinctively now sometimes taking multiple attempts to complete.
Still, music remains embedded in Frampton’s everyday routine. He continues writing and recording with Julian – who he says “knows who I am, what makes me tick, what I can do, what I can’t do” – and reveals the pair already have a half-dozen new songs underway.
He also describes a nightly ritual of getting into bed, smoking “a little weed” and playing guitar for around an hour before revisiting the recordings the next morning to see if any ideas stick. While he admits he still doesn’t know whether he’ll tour again due to the fall risks associated with IBM, he says he hopes he can.
“People say, ‘Oh, you must be so upset,’ and, yeah, I am,” Frampton admits. “But you can fix the little things.”
“But big things never worried me,” he adds, “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.”
Frampton is set to release his new album Carry the Light on 15 May. The record marks his first collection of new songs since his IBM diagnosis, as well as the first and the first full-length project he’s created alongside his son Julian.
Listen to the latest single Lions At The Gate, featuring Tom Morello, below.
The post “If I don’t accept what I have, I’m going to be mad for the rest of my life”: Peter Frampton on accepting his illness and continuing to play guitar appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.
Source: www.guitar-bass.net
