Good Life Project - Peter Frampton | Do You Feel Like I Do

Episode Date: January 7, 2021

When I think about Peter Frampton, I’m immediately transported back to my teens when Peter’s musical juggernaut of a live-album, Frampton Comes Alive, took the world and my life by storm with anthemic songs like Do You Feel Like We Do, Show Me the Way, Lines On My Face and Baby, I Love Your Way. I cannot think about those songs without also hearing what became his signature voice-box sound vibrating through my body.Known in his earlier years for his fierce talent as a guitarist and musician, co-founder one of the first rock-supergroups, Humble Pie, and a collaborator with everyone from George Harrison, David Bowie, and Jerry Lee Lewis, to then Stones bassist, Bill Wyman, and Ringo Starr, that album changed everything. Frampton Comes Alive became a global phenomenon and bestselling live album for decades. Following on the heels of the album came an equally iconic, shirtless cover of Rolling Stone, shot by Francesco Scavulo and accompanied by a feature story written by a then-young Cameron Crowe, Peters ascendency, powerful as it was, also came with a very dark side. It recast him as a pop-star, an idol or sex-symbol, and icon in an industry that was built to take advantage of just such a phenomenon. The years that followed took Peter, his life, mental health and career into some very scary and lonely places, before his childhood friend, David Bowie, would step in with an invitation that set in motion a certain reclamation, a renewed sense of self, and passion, and direction that fueled Peter to step back into music in a way that nourished, rather than emptied him. Much of Peter’s story is beautifully shared in his memoir, Do You Feel Like I Do, (https://amzn.to/33lAflE) which I devoured, actually in audio, hearing him tell it in his own voice. In our conversation, we explore many of the pivotal and wonderful moments and stories along the way, as well as some new revelations. As we spoke, Frampton, now 70, also shared his experience living with an incurable degenerative muscular disease - Inclusion Body Myositis - and how, as he described it, he’s got 3 clocks running that are essentially ticking away as he’s unable to travel, hoping to be able to make it to the final few stops of a farewell concert he’d planned to play, back where he grew up, while he’s still able. You can find Peter Frampton at:Website : https://www.frampton.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrpeterframpton/Check out our offerings & partners: Freshly: freshly.com/GOODLIFE - Get $40 off your first two ordersTalkspace: Talkspace.com - code GOODLIFE - $100 off your first monthBeachbody: To get a special FREE trial, no-obligation membership, text GOODLIFE to 303030. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey, so my guest today is Peter Frampton. When I think about Frampton, I am immediately transported back to my teens. When Peter's musical juggernaut of a live album, Frampton, comes alive, it took the world and my life by storm with these anthemic songs like, Do You Feel Like We Do, Show Me The Way, Lines On My Face, and Baby I Love Your Way. I cannot think about those songs without also hearing what became his signature talkbox sound vibrating through my body. Known in his earlier years for a fierce talent as a guitarist and musician, co-founder of one of the first rock supergroups, Humble Pie, and a collaborator with everyone from George Harrison, Bowie, and Jerry Lee Lewis to then

Stones bassist Bill Wyman and Ringo Starr. That album, Frampton Comes Alive, it changed everything. It became a global phenomenon and best-selling live album for decades. And following on the heels of that album just months later came this equally iconic shirtless cover on Rolling Stone shot by Francesco Scavullo and accompanied by a feature story written by a then young Cameron Crowe. Peter's ascendancy, powerful as it was, came with a very dark side. It recast him as a pop star, an idol or sex symbol, an icon in the industry that was built to take advantage of just such a phenomenon. And the years that followed took Peter, his life, his mental health, and his career into some pretty scary and lonely places.

Before that childhood friend, David Bowie, would step back in about a decade or so later with an invitation that set in motion almost a reclamation, a renewed sense of self and passion and direction that fueled Peter to step back into music in a way that nourished rather than emptied him. Much of Peter's story is beautifully shared in his memoir, Do You Feel Like I Do?, which I devoured actually in audio, hearing him tell it in his own voice. In our conversation, many of the pivotal and wonderful moments and stories along the way, as well as some new revelations, drop into the conversation. And as we spoke, Frampton also shared his experience living with an incurable degenerative muscular disease, inclusion body

myositis, and how, as he described, he's got these three clocks running in his life that are essentially ticking away as he's unable to travel, hoping to be able to make it to the final few stops of a farewell concert that he planned to play back where he grew up and while he's still able. Really excited to share this conversation with you. I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is Good Life Project. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman.

I knew you were gonna be fun. On January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're gonna die. Don't shoot him, we need him! Y'all need a pilot? I knew you were going to be fun. Tell me how to fly this thing. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die. Don't shoot him, we need him! Y'all need a pilot?

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charge time and actual results will vary. Really fun to be able to just spend a little bit of time with you. I am a, I'm a huge lover of music and, and also maybe of stories about music and kindness. We had Jimmy Vaughn in the studio a little while back and he was sharing some stories. And I remember one, I remember hearing a story about actually his little brother, Stevie, and how he acquired this famous 65 Strat, walking by a pawn shop with his wife, Lenny,

sees it in the window. It was before he had broken. It was 350 bucks because it was really beat up, but he didn't have any money. sort of circulated around and got $50 donation from all of his friends, bought it for him, gave it to him. And then he stayed up all night writing Lenny, a love song to her. It's interesting because when I think about one of the guitars you become iconic for using, the 54 Les Paul, there's an interesting sort of similar really kindness based origin story of how you came to even uh own that guitar well it's yeah it's the whole thing is like a fairy story really from beginning and there's no end and it's it's still it's the gift that keeps giving. So, yes, I had just – I was with Humble Pie. It was 1970. I was playing Fillmore West, and I had just swapped my SG,

my Gibson solid body SG Gibson Les Paul for 62, for a 335. Well, unfortunately, we played at such a loud level, Humble Pie, that every time I turned my volume up to solo, my solos sounded like, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh. It was just a mass of feedback, you know. And I was just, and the band were looking at me like, what's going on? You know, so anyway, after I came off, there was a friend of mine there that I knew from San Francisco, and he's Mark Mariana. And a friend of his had told him that I was having problems. So he came down the

next night. He said, I couldn't help but notice that you were having problems. He said, would you like to borrow one of my guitars? I said, oh, gosh, yeah, that'd probably be good. So he said, it's a Les Paul. I said, oh, I'm not too good. I like SGs I'm Les Paul's are a bit too fat sounding for me so um I said but you know what anything it's going to be better so he brings it to the hotel the following morning to the coffee shop he opens it up in the coffee shop and it's it's just come back from gibson having been refinished um in 1970 it was a 1954 guitar and um he had plumbed it for three humbuckers instead of the p90 original pickups on the guitar and um send it back to gibson they'd refinished it and I just took it up to my room in the hotel and I was playing it and I I just felt like this was the perfect neck everything just felt so and I played it on stage that night and

for the rest of the nights for the the show at uh Fillmore and uh it was my feet didn't touch the ground and my solos were nice and loud. So I was just, and then at the end of the show or end of the run of the shows, I said to Mark, you know, I gave it back to him and I said, I know what you're going to say, but I got to ask it anyway. Would you sell it? And he said, no, I'm going to're going to say, but I got to ask it anyway. Would you sell it? And he said, no. I'm going to give it to you.

And I mean, I'm getting goosebumps right now. That was the beginning of the fairy tale, you know, that he gave me the guitar. I have given him so many number ones of all the different runs of Gibson guitars that I've been lucky lucky enough for them to do for me so he always gets number one whatever he's going to get it there's another one coming out soon he's going to get that one too and um so i played it i played it i played it from 1970 1980 we had this horrible accident, plane crash in Caracas, Venezuela.

And we believed all the stage gear was gone, everything, PA, monitors, backline, guitars, keyboards. And so when my tech went down a week later, we were not in the country anymore. We'd already moved on to panama and when my tech went down there a week later um he said there's nothing left it's just you know there's a picture in the book of shows you what was left and um and so anyway that was it so for 30 years um every time someone came to me and i had a black Les Paul in my hand, oh, is that it? Is that it? And I go, no, it's not the one.

And so then, as I said, 30 years later, I open up an email from my info at Frampton.com. And there it is today. It's alive! You know, so I screamed, and I looked at it, and I said, it's mine. That is mine. I could see it because they took the pickups out. I know everything about that guitar, inside, outside, you know, inside the note, the volumes, everything, because I've taken it all apart so many times myself to clean it and update it or whatever. And that's mine. But I wasn't going to tell them that.

So anyway, there was a gray area of two years where the guitar was owned by someone on the island of Curacao and he stashed it away it was too he knew what it was obviously then his son the next generation that's why there's the 30 years wants to play guitar and says dad can I take that guitar in to be fixed it's not playing too well and so he said yeah go ahead and they didn't think about it the luthier he took it to knew as soon as he opened the case he went and he said you know he didn't say anything he just said leave it with me overnight and i'll get it playable for you. So the kid comes back the following day, and the luthier says, you know what this guitar is, don't you? Whose this is?

And the kid just closed the case and ran out. So that was it. We knew who had it, but we didn't know where he lived. So in the end, the kid wanted a new guitar within 18 months, two years. And so he asked the Luthier, I'll get rid of it for $5,000 because I want to buy a new guitar. So basically, then it's still stolen merchandise. Baluthia goes to one of the officers in the government of Curaçao and says, you know, I think the government needs to buy this. It'll be great for the island of Curaçao. If the government buys it back, Peter can't put you in jail.

You know, I didn't want to put anybody in jail anyway. I just wanted it back at that point and um so uh basically the minister of tourism and the luthier bring the guitar back to me 32 years later and we filmed the whole thing you can see it on youtube it's me getting my guitar back you know and it's about 10 minutes. And it's a wonderful video. I love it. I watch it every now and again because I just, I remember exactly how I was feeling that day, you know, knowing that it was coming back. And then, of course, we went straight from the hotel with everybody to Gibson. There was all these guitar aficionados, Walter Carter and George from down here. And so everyone's looking at it and saying, yes, it's a 54, 55.

So everyone was saying, we knew what it was. But I just wanted everybody to see it once and for all and say, yes, this is what I've always said it is. And so they kept it for about a month, Gibson, the custom shop, and they made it playable again. Unfortunately, the electronics weren't good anymore and pickups weren't good. So all my friends, I didn't know I had so many, Les Paul lovers, were sending me patent-applied full pickups. And, oh, I can't thank enough people. And basically it's more time-sensitive now than it ever was, I think. And it made its debut at our Comes Alive 35 concert at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan.

And the stage went dark right before Do You Feel. My tech put the guitar on a stand right in the middle of the stage. And all the super trooper lights hit it at once. And the audience went nuts. And it was the guitar's night. That's beautiful. So I'm also a lifelong New Yorker. And I'm pretty sure that actually my stepbrother was in the audience at the Beacon that night.

Oh, great. Because I remember him saying, so I played guitar when I was a kid. And I had this early 70s bone strat that i remember and i was like a dumb kid and i needed a little bit of money so i sold it to him and he still has it and it's beautiful so we kind of like both love guitars and i remember him sharing how beautiful that show was and like seeing you back on stage you know with the 54 les paul there's something something kind of magical. Yeah. You know, it's likened to my career. It disappeared, and so did my career for a long time due to many things in my control and out of my control.

And as soon as it came back, things started happening again. Well, things had started happening again so it was, well things had started happening again already but it was just icing on the cake, you know to have it back and then I remember the first, Anthony Mason from CBS

Sunday Morning, they were filming the return of the guitar and me first playing it and they interviewed me he interviewed me in the bus before I went onto the guitar and me first playing it. And they interviewed me. He interviewed me in the bus before I went on into the stage. And he said, so how do you feel about playing it? For the first time again, I said, I'm really nervous that I'm going to make a mistake.

And I did. In the intro. Thank goodness CBS cut that part out. It was very nice of them. But I got the board tape and I couldn't believe... I was so nervous about playing it again. It was the star of the night,

you know, and it just meant so much to me that I just made a little flub on that intro and I never do that, obviously. I played that number for nearly 50 years so but anyway it showed how important the guitar was to me yeah that's amazing i mean you you hear um i have a good friend who's a photographer also and everyone's always asking him like

tell me about like what should i buy what camera is going to make me a better photographer and all this and it's the same in music i think where people always like like you know where are the pedals what are the guitars what's the equipment that's going to make me a better x player and and and you know the road line is always it's not about the equipment it's about you you know and still every once in a while you find something where like you connect with a guitar or drum set or whatever it is yeah it's almost spiritual yep and because mark had taken that guitar and he had it was a he said when he bought it second hand it was a horrible green color who would have wanted a green Les Paul I don't know green tambourine but not green Les Paul so anyway so you know he had sanded it to

the paint remover and then he'd sanded it and sanded it and sanded it and sanded it now the neck is smaller than a regular Les Paul, and I have small hands. So for me, it was like he'd sanded it to order for me. And in fact, Gibson, Matt Gibson, is working on another version of the Phoenix. We're going to put one that's going to be out there forever now, which I'm so thankful. And they sent me two prototypes a few months ago and they were phenomenal. I said, oh, this is so great. I said, the only thing is the neck just

is, it's so close. I said, but there's just a little bit, you know, that, and then I explained to them how it got that way. And he said, bring it in. We're going to scan it again. So they scanned it again. And he called me the other day and he said, it's an eighth of an inch or a tenth of an inch narrower at a point or whatever it was at the nut. And it's a little narrow all the way down.

I said, oh, so you can't do that. He said, no, we're going to do it for you. He said, not normally, but they are. They're going to make it just, it's only a little tiny, tiny. But a little tiny, tiny on a guitar neck is a huge amount. Yeah. I mean, you feel everything. It's amazing what you can actually pick up.

So I thank Gibson. And we're under new ownership. JC has taken over, and we are so thrilled for Gibson. That's great. Well, I'm excited to sort of see the evolution of the famous Phoenix now maybe available in different ways to more people. It's not going to be a hugely expensive piece either like we didn't want that yeah um you know that the guitar is sort of um

legendary it's it you know you played it on stage early on it's the guitar that ended up you know being featured on um friend who comes alive and and all over the place and um you were playing from a very early age starting with the banjolele and home and uh eventually doing sounds like you bumped into you met uh bill wyman of the stones pretty early in your teens that leads to um session playing with some of the incredible people you end up up with Humble Pie, you and Steve Marriott start that around 69-ish, if I remember correctly. And it seems like what's happening in your life, in your head is like, I love this thing. It's all I want to do. But in your mind, the identity is a guitarist. This is my jam. But the world kept wanting you to be something else. And then eventually when

Frampton comes alive, it comes out in 76, it's like the world says, ooh, this is our chance. And I guess nobody really... Well, let me not assume that actually. It feels like you'd been out there in a solo career for a couple of years before that. Yeah. Doing well, but when Franton comes along, it changes the paradigm of everything around you at once. And it seems like it was also a bit of a mixed blessing for you. Yes. And getting every gig that I got, whether it be a band or a session or whatever, because of my guitar playing from a very young age. And then, I mean, I'm going to have to mention The Herd there because I joined The Herd in England, which was in the end, we had three real big hits and were very popular in Europe.

But I was picked out to be the singer by the managers and writers of the songs because of my looks. And I'm going to use the word only because Pete Townshend used it to me the other day. And he mentioned that my beauty got in the way and i liken that to a lot of other may it usually happens to women actresses who are phenomenal actresses but they're just their looks are just so great that it it overtakes and everyone thinks less of their acting because of the way they look it's such a weird thing and so anyway the the only thing that happened when comes with the thing that happened when comes alive came out was that because of my looks, I ended up on front cover of Rolling Stone, all these people, this, that, that, ba-boom, ba-dee. And, you know, pretty much just about every time they got me to take my shirt off and

stuff that I should never have done, you know. But, you know, I needed to learn the word no a little earlier in my career. But and then unfortunately, that kind of took over. And after Comes Alive, which is I'll say it myself, there's some incredible guitar playing on Comes Alive. I don't usually play my own trumpet, but but I listen to it now every now and again. I'll hear a track on the radio and i go wow there's no bad pretty good and there's people on the internet analyzing my solos and so i thought wow maybe i am pretty good so um i took a big hit mentally from all that

and it was a coupled with the fact that I was kind of pushed into doing a follow-up album way too soon. When you've become the biggest selling album of all time, which Comes Alive was for two years, you're only as good as your last record, they say. Didn't need to do one in the next four years the eagles i always use the eagles as a great example you think they've had 30 studio albums i think it's seven and the rest of vessels and live or whatever

and they only ever go near the studio because they can't stand each other but um but also until they they all know that their level of quality of song is extraordinarily high because why bother going just into the studio until you've got an extraordinarily good song, you know, and a bunch of them. So I had six months, I had six years to write the material for Comes Alive from Rock On with Humble Pie. Shine On came from that. Then I cherry-picked from four of my own solo records and a Rolling Stones number.

And, well, that was on one of my solo records. And, you know, so now everyone's getting, is living by the old rules of, well, you've just had a hit record. No, I haven't just had a hit record. I've had the biggest selling record of all time record. So there's no rush to go back in the studio. But I was rushed. And six months later, I'm in the studio again. And with substandard material, hating it, not wanting to be in the studio,

wanting to be writing with a lot of other great writers I mean at that time for the follow-up of Comes Alive if I'd have just got out of my own way for a second or two every producer in the world would have wanted to work with me every great songwriter would have wanted to write with me and i discounted all that and just went with well i've done it all myself so far so i'm going to do it all myself but i needed help right then because how was i going to be able to come up with that great material and follow up a live album with the studio album it doesn't work you know it's very very hard to do yeah and i mean it seems like also for you i mean it feels like playing live is the thing that fills you more than anything else yeah you know so so the idea is like okay so let's pull back from that to go into a mode of creation, which also is not

the thing which really, you know, it's, it's great, but it's not the thing like you feel like you're here to do. And you're young at that point also. I mean, yes, like I know you've taken, you said, yes, I played a role in this. I made decisions, but you know, come on, you're what, 25, 26 at that point. And the world is sort of like, you know, like meeting you and saying, and then you have people in the industry saying, well, this is the appropriate next move. It's really hard to say, well, I know better. experienced. I'm not. Management, record company, agent, whatever. They know. I needed to know what to do. I had no clue.

I was adrift. I was a one-man band, basically. There's no three other guys to talk to. And I remember being in Humble Pie. We used to say no a lot, you know, because we would talk amongst ourselves, you know, and nobody knew except me what to do at that point, because no one had been there, as Cameron Crowe said, my dear buddy, they asked him, what just happened to Peter Frampton? And he said, he was strapped to the nose cone of a rocket he was shot off landed on the moon he got off and

there was nobody else there and that's how I felt you know I felt like all these people are advising me but they haven't been here they don't know they've never handled an artist that's got the biggest selling record of all time. So how do they know? But I succumbed to advice that was from their agenda, which was, this goose can lay another golden egg. Let's get that egg happening. Yeah, get it while they're getting taught, right? Yeah, exactly. If you're at a point in life when you're ready to lead with purpose, we can get you there.

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charge time and actual results will vary. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were going to be fun. January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg.

You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die. Don't shoot him, we need him. Y'all need a pilot. Flight Risk. It's, I mean, it's interesting also. So Cameron Crowe, the album comes out January, I guess, 76. Yes.

You end up on the front cover of Rolling Stone. It's sort of this, you know, like famous Gabulo shirtless shot. And then Cameron writes the byline. And the title of that is The Pretty Power Rocker. Right. But it's really interesting because when you read the piece that he wrote, it doesn't match up with the headline. No. Because he was actually, even at that moment, he was pretty insightful.

He saw in you conflict, inner conflict and tension and kind of wrote about it. Yeah. But that's not really what made it out into the world. No. No, that's Yan W what made it out into the world. No. No, that's Jan Werner. Thank you. I don't think he likes me. But anyway.

But anyway. Yeah. And it was great. Cameron and I got to do a Zoom thing on the day of the book came out together and we hadn't spoken in a while it was just so great to to talk uh with him because we we went on vacation together we we were real close buddies for a long time and uh still are you know and we we've just said we're gonna as soon as the all clear sounds, we're going to meet up again and I got to buy him a nice meal.

Man, I think a lot of people are feeling that way these days, right? Yes. So on the outside looking in, there's a huge phenomenon happening around you. You know, it's just like, well, like Cameron wrote, you know, like you've been strapped to the front of a rocket you. It's just like how I wrote, you've been strapped to the front of a rocket ship and it's just exploding and taking off. But behind the scenes, as you shared, things you're struggling, you're being pushed in directions, which aren't necessarily where you want to go. And the next probably close to a decade or so, as you shared, it's a struggle for you. Thrown into the middle of that, like a devastating car wreck in the Bahamas, pain medication,

drugs, having people who are very close to you essentially take from you. And you're simultaneously trying to create. You're putting out new work, but stuff isn't working the way that it did, especially when you've got this thing. Like, Franthi comes live as the metric. How do you compare anything to that after that? I know. It's like Alanis Morissette. Bless her.

She's had recent success, and I'm so thrilled for her because it's devastating. I liken her pill album to comes alive in a way. and I'm so thrilled for her because it's devastating. I liken her pill album to Come to Life in a way. You know, it's just get it away from me. It's a blessing and a curse, you know, and she's very, very talented and I'm so thrilled for her. I really am. And so, yeah, it was, for me, it was, the 80s were a period where I felt that Comes Alive would put me on the moon. And everything that came after that seemed to have a cross in it, crossover. You know, I'm in you, too soon, bad cover.

You know, front cover of Rolling Stone, shirt off. You know, as Andrew Alden just read my book, my dear friend Andrew, who was the Stones' first manager, he managed Humble Pie and was the record label. At the bottom of the ladder, he says, fuck Scovallo. So it's... At the bottom of the ladder, he says, fuck Scovolo. So, you know, I love Andrew. Always to the point.

And dear friend, dear friend for so many years. And so, you know, the 80s was a period of not only did my looks take me all the way down, but I felt like when I left Humble Pie, I felt like I wasn't off the ladder. I was a couple of rungs up because, especially in America and England, because people knew me from Humble Pie. So I've got a built in audience, small though it may be, I've got a small audience. But I felt that after I'm in You and the movie, Sgt. Pepper came out, I went down not just off the ladder, but I was like underneath the ground. I'd gone down the rungs beneath the ground level I was on. And I had to dig myself out of a hole to even get on the first rung again.

And obviously, it wasn't a terrific time for me. It was devastating financially and everything you mentioned know, you mentioned earlier, you know, money was taken from me. Not that it's happened to a lot of people, but I was in dire straits and I'm not talking about Mark Knopfler, you know. So, you know, it wasn't a great time. But because of my upbringing and my resilience that I get from, mainly from my mother, I think, but my dad as well, I wasn't about to say this is the end. I've always brushed myself off and whatever I have to do.

And of course, David came to David Bowie. Dave, as I know him, came to my rescue. Because we went to school together. He knew me as the guitar player. He was the singer guy. I was the guitar player. So he saw what had happened, and he saw that I'd come out of it, and I'd just made my first record for Atlantic. Armit, thank you very much.

Dear Armit. Miss him dearly. And Dave heard that and he said, oh, man, I love the guitar playing on this album. Premonition it was. And I said, oh, thanks. And he said, would you come and play for me? And I said, would you come and play for me? And I said, finally? Actually, we played on the same stage the same night, but not at the same time for so many years.

And I said, we're going to play together? He said, yeah, yeah. So I go to Switzerland, make the album, never let me down. And while I'm there, he asked me to, would I come on the tour, Glass Spider tour, and be one of the two guitar players? And I said, yes, I will. I would love. Now, this is a dream come true.

This is what I've always wanted. Ever since I saw, as you're reading the book, as I walked into the school and saw this band on the stage when I was 12 with my dad and my mom on a Saturday. And I saw the Conrads playing on the steps of the entrance of the school. And I wasn't going to the school yet. It was the next year. And I just was mesmerized by this guy playing the sax

with a crew cut or whatever he was back then and i just looked up at dad and i said dad who's that he said oh that's jones he's very he's very musical and he's very artistic you know that kind of stuff and i thought well dad i want to be him so that was that was it and so when i first made a you, from that moment and then we met at school and had a great friendship for his entire life and. stadiums around the world he reintroduced me and gave me this wonderful gift of reintroducing me as the guitar player the musician around the world which was that's such a huge gift you know and he knew exactly what he was i didn't realize at the time until it actually was started to happen and all of a sudden people are talking about p, the guitar player again. And it was, thank you. you know yes not for not for appearances not for sort of like the pop idol type of thing but for the just like deeply melodic amazing guitar playing which was such a part of your dna from the youngest age it's like a beautiful full circle moment there it was and um you know

i can never i still thank him and uh yeah miss him dearly as as we all do. But he gave me my confidence back. And I think once I got my confidence back, then I called Steve Marriott. And I said, let's get back together. And unfortunately, that didn't work out. We did some great music together. And then, unfortunately, we lost Steve. He passed away. And so I thought, thought well that's another thing

you know that I've got a that was devastating obviously but then I just called John Regan my bass player for the last band that I had together and I said let's go tour Let's go do some clubs. 92. And we started in, I think, in February. We did six weeks of clubs. We ended up doing six months of touring. It kept on getting extended. And we ended up back in Detroit playing Pine Knob headlining, you know, and gosh, that was a year. 92 was the year. It was just like building it back again, like slowly,

but surely the right way live with my forte, you know, and by the end of the year, we could have gone on touring forever. It seemed, but then it was time to make another record. And I had the confidence to do it again now. And I felt like I was no longer competing with myself and the old that comes alive guy. I was now just, you know, building back a career as a musician. And it was the best period in my life that paying my dues again, not being wealthy at all, never done anything for money in my life. It's always been because of the music.

And it worked. And gradually, it took a long time. But you never stop paying your dues. Isn't that the truth, right? It's for true changemakers who want to think differently and solve the world's most pressing challenges. From healthcare and the environment to energy, government, and technology, it's your path to meaningful leadership in all sectors. For details, visit uvic.ca slash futuremba. That's uvic.ca slash futuremba.

The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch, getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series 10,

available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone Xs are later required. Charge time and actual results will vary. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were going to be fun. On January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing.

Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die. Don't shoot him, we need him! Y'all need a pilot. Flight Risk. It's funny. I had, we had a, I don't know if you know the author, Kate DiCamillo.

She writes these beautiful books. I've heard of her. And we had her in the studio a little while back. And at some point in the conversation, this notion of the way she writes and the way for her, her creative process, the final act of creation is actually an act of connection. She feels like the final act of creation doesn't happen until the person actually reads her words, whether it's a six-year-old kid or an adult reading it to them. I wonder if, and I've been really curious about people where there's either sort of like a really strong emphasis towards process. Like

it is just the expressive act that makes you feel like I'm doing the thing I'm here to do versus knowing how that lands and that sense of like, no, I'm having a conversation. There's a dialogue going on between me and one other person, a million other people. Do you have a sense for where you fall sort of in that spectrum? Um, yes, I'm working on a friend's track right now. He's asked me to play some guitar and I've been doing that under COVID. People keep sending me tracks and I, send me as much as you can so I can get, keep the fingers moving, you know?

And there's a moment when it happens, when I play a solo and I go, no, that's not it. No, next one. Put it down for a second. Have a cup of tea. Come back. Play a solo.

Wow. What happened? What happened in that moment? Why is it so different? It's because I think I disconnect. It's the disconnection from everybody on the side of the stage when I go on stage and it's the connection with the audience. And it's that, it's the same moment of creation when I'm playing that solo where all my thoughts disappear and I am playing from my heart, my soul, and I'm not thinking. And I go at the end of it, how did I play that?

Where did that come from? And those are the moments I treasure the most. And some days I'll be sitting there and do 16 takes. And I'll go back and I'll listen to the first take. And I'll go, wow, that was really good. But I keep thinking I can do it better. to the first take and I'll go, wow, that was really good. But I keep thinking I can do it better. But yes, I agree with her in as much as I think that my connection is actually the moment when I'm totally bereft of all control,

which is, and it's coming from somewhere I don't know, deep inside me. And the same thing happens on stage. As soon as I leave the side of the stage, I have nobody to tell me what to do at all, or give me advice or whatever. And it's up to me. And this adrenaline kicks in. And I become a different person. I've become a creator on stage, you know, and I never play the same thing twice in solos. I can't do it because I can't remember what I played. But that's not the part. I wouldn't want to remember what I played because each performance is another painting. You know, each performance is an audio painting for me. And I want to make sure I don't play what I played yesterday.

I want to create a new something, you know. And that's why the audience being there and letting me know they like what I just did. And I like what I just did and I like what I just did anyway you know it's like that feedback between me and the audience and it's this um they create my adrenaline you know and I think especially with my IBM inclusion body myoc, which is, you know, is affecting my fingers and my legs and my arms and everything right now. I rely a lot on adrenaline, you know, and, you know, maybe if I'm just playing for the sake of playing and practicing, you know, I find it a little difficult in some areas maybe that I didn't used to. And then I go downstairs and I go to my studio and I put up a track and I play on it and all my thoughts disappear

and all of a sudden it happens, you know. And it's indescribable, the feeling, when that happens because it's like it's not all the time, but it is every time I go on stage. But that's why I think I'm a better live performer than I am in the studio, because I hate red light fever. You know, that's why I love recording at home. And when I'm not supposed to be recording, when I'm not supposed to be playing that solo,

is when I play the best solo or come up with the best new chorus or something. Yeah. Isn't it always like that? It's kind of amazing. It's interesting to hear you say, on the one hand, you never play the same thing the same way twice. But I've also heard you say, you're very much a perfectionist. I mean, you shared that a few times just in our conversation, which is kind of interesting because on the one hand you'd figure the perfectionist says let me just take this riff this lick this song and practice the exact same thing over and over until it is 100 perfect and and i think you have that in you but then at the same time you're like i don't ever want to do that which is this really interesting tension it's like my dear guitar tech darren horse we've been working together a couple of

years now, and he's wonderful. And when they ask, he said, when people ask me about your playing, I say, the man is always on the edge of falling off the cliff because he's searching, you know. And sometimes there might be a little green note there, but it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It's searching for that new piece of something that I can create. Yeah. I love that. You mentioned, um, IBM inclusion body myositis, which, um, from what I understand is a degenerative, um, muscular disease, which disease, which I guess it started to touch down in your life five, six, seven years ago, something like that. It's a little, yes, it's probably more like eight or nine years ago now. Yeah. I mean, part of me wonders, and I know you have shared

and you write about that, you know, this, it's a progressive condition, um, for you, you know, for, for a long time, it has been progressing very slowly and you've been involved with John Hopkins and some trials and, and it's helped. Um, when you think about the fact that the thing that you feel like you're here to do is to play music and to play it live, how do you sort of, how do you do that dance where you have this thing that is perpetually out there and now part of your life? And you also know that the one thing that you love more than anything else is to be out front and with people and playing. Do you forgive your desire to be perfect when you're playing all the time and still show up in front of other people? Or do you, how do you grapple with this? Well, I said to Ken Levitt, my manager, great.

And he's a wonderful, wonderful man and great ideas. And it's really rejuvenated my career. And so I'm very thankful for him. I said to him, I've fallen three times now, and the last time was bad. And I said, I think we ought to be careful with what we – this was before the finale tour. I think we ought to be careful with what we book, live-wise. And he said, well, let's make this your farewell tour, and it can go on for as long as you want so that you can get to all the countries you want to go to. And hopefully your IBM will allow you to do that. So we did that. And the finale tour was, I mean, I don't have words.

The people, audiences were unbelievable. And I'm so thankful that I got to do it. But unfortunately, we got cut short because of COVID. Good reason, obviously. So now I'm dealing with, we've all got clocks. I have two other clocks. I have, well, we have the COVID clock before the all clear, which isn't anywhere near happening now. Yet we have our life clock and I have my IBM clock.

And I just hope that they all work together so that I can go to Europe because nothing would – I've got to go home. I'm American. I'm a U.S. citizen, but I'm also a U.K. citizen. And so we had the Albert Hall booked, you know, May 31st this year, and we'd all left in our calendars all the band and when every day I would get up and you know it comes up notifies you where you are what you today you're in Paris and no I'm not and and then the May 31st came up and we all called each other that day. We're supposed to be at the Albert Hall.

I said, I know. I, you know, I didn't mean that when I stopped playing, everybody else has to stop playing, but that's, that's sort of what happened, you know? And so, yes, it's hard to deal with that side of it because I don't know whether I'll be able to play live again it all depends on these clocks that have to work together in the right possible way no well hoping that it all does me too me too i'm the eternal optimist people say you know, how can you be optimistic? I said, well, I'm playing good.

You know, I'm playing really well. I'm enjoying playing. That's all that matters right now is that I'm enjoying playing. Down the road, I'll deal with it when I get there. Yeah. It's kind of like I have, I know what I feel and what I'm capable of in this moment. Right. And the more I can just keep focusing my attention there, the future will give whatever the future gives.

But in this moment, in this five minutes, yeah, things are actually good. Yes, they are. Yeah. It feels like a good place for us to come full circle in our conversation as well. So we are hanging out in this container of a good life project. If I offer up the phrase to live a good life, what comes up? To live a good life? Well, now things have changed over the years. A good life right now for me is to spend time with my children and family. I was an absent

father because of what I did and do for a living up until a very short time ago. So that's all I want now. I'm 70 years old. I've had an incredibly colorful life so far. And I'm so thankful. I can't ask for much more. So yes, I want to be the best dad possible from now on until I leave the planet. And I'm actually going to see my granddaughter for the very first time. She was born April 6th. And I'm writing this song and it has the line where it's, I can't reach through the screen, but I can hold her in my dream. You know, and that's, I want to,

but the reality of holding her in my hands, not through the screen. And Wednesday's going to be a very good day. That's beautiful. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Thank you so much for listening. And thanks also to our fantastic sponsors who help make this show possible. You can check them out in the links we have included in today's show notes. And while you're at it, if you've ever asked yourself, what should I do with my life?

We have created a really cool online assessment that will help you discover the source code for the work that you're here to do. You can find it at sparkotype.com. That's S-P-A-R-K-E-T-Y-P-E.com. Or just click the link in the show notes. And of course, if you haven't already done so, be sure to click on the subscribe button in your listening app so you never miss an episode. And then share, share the love. If there's something that you've heard in this episode that you would love to turn into a conversation, share it with people and have that conversation. Because when ideas become conversations that lead to action, that's when real change takes hold.

See you next time. Apple Watch Series 10 swimming or sleeping and it's the fastest charging apple watch getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes the apple watch series 10 available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum compared to previous generations iphone 10s are later required charge time and actual results will vary mayday mayday we've been compromised the pilot's a hitman i know you're gonna be fun january 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is?

You're gonna die. Don't shoot him, we need him! Y'all need a pilot? Flight Risk.