So Peter’s sitting at Glyn Johns’s place listening to an acetate of the first Zeppelin album, when it wasn’t even sure what the band’s name would be, blown away by Bonham’s bass drum, never mind Page’s playing, and the phone rings. It’s Steve Marriott. He’s just left the Small Faces, can he join Frampton’s band?

Let’s go back a chapter. Peter’s playing with the Herd, but they’re being completely screwed, they fire everybody, and Peter goes to Steve Marriott for advice. Marriott says he’ll help him put together a new band and then Glyn Johns asks Peter to go to France with the Small Faces to back up Johnny Hallyday. That’s how Peter ends up listening to the aforementioned acetate. And the Small Faces have returned to England for a gig…that’s when Marriott’s call comes in, just after Glyn finished playing the first side of Led Zeppelin I.

So when Peter returns to the UK, what ends up being called Humble Pie assembles in Jerry Shirley’s mum’s front room, jamming, primarily on "Music From Big Pink", that’s all they all know.

And then the phone rings again. The rest of the Small Faces want to know if they can come by Peter’s basement apartment to talk.

Oh no. Yup! They want him to replace Marriott, but it’s too late, why couldn’t they have done it all together? Anyway, Peter tells them they’re gonna need two to replace Steve, which they end up doing, with Ronnie and Rod.

But Humble Pie ends up getting a deal with A&M for $400,000. You see Andrew Loog Oldham had advised Peter, to ask for $300,000. Peter was signed to Oldham’s Immediate, but it was going broke, Andrew was going to release him, and did. But when A&M expressed interest, Marriott blurted out an even higher number, and they got it!

Dee Anthony was the manager, Greg Ridley had worked with him with Spooky Tooth, Frank Barsalona was the agent, and Humble Pie started to play, constantly. Starting out at the bottom of triple bills. Eventually they moved their way up a spot. And then came "Rockin’ The Fillmore".

A&M had stuck by them for all those albums, but Glyn Johns told the group that Marriott was the focus, it was his tunes and that hard sound, and Peter decided to quit, on the eve of an unknown success.

Yes, "Rockin’ The Fillmore" was released and suddenly Humble Pie, with Clem Clempson on lead guitar, was playing arenas, and Frampton was back at the bottom of triple bills.

But his solo career was going steadily upward until "Something’s Happenin’", the album just wasn’t as good as the first two, road business was still decent, but record sales went in reverse.

So Peter’s with his girlfriend in the Bahamas, staying in Dee Anthony’s house on the beach, everybody involved with Humble Pie bought them side by side with their winnings, and Peter’s trying to write music. And he can’t.

Alvin Lee and his wife are staying in a bungalow down the beach, bugging him, wondering if he’s come up with something.

And then one morning, just before lunch, he writes…

"Show Me The Way". The intro comes first. Then the verse and the chorus.

He’s overexcited, he thinks he should stop, he goes for a swim, and then comes back and writes "Baby, I Love Your Way". As for the opening lyric, "Shadows grow so long before my eyes", it came to him when he saw the sunset.

Now he’s back in London and the Lees invite him for dinner and Alvin’s wife asks Peter if he ever came up with anything in the Bahamas. He plays her "Baby, I Love Your Way" and she calls out for her husband, tells him to come in the room and insists Peter play the song again, that’s when he knew he had something special.

But then they’re recording in Headley Grange, everybody in different rooms, not able to see each other, and when they’re done, John Siomos, the drummer, taps Peter on his shoulder and says… "That’s the best song I ever heard."

And the album comes out and is successful in Detroit, New York and San Francisco. It doesn’t go gold, but close, it sells 350,000+, more than all Peter’s previous albums combined. So they decide to do a live album, and it could have been in any of the above three markets, but ends up being in San Francisco.

And the rest is history.

Peter was proud of the album, he knew "Rockin’ The Fillmore" had led to Humble Pie’s success, he expected "Frampton Comes Alive" to do well, but not THIS well.

Dee Anthony calls him and tells him it went to number one.

And Peter’s touring endlessly.

But he’s getting that sinking feeling inside. How’s he gonna follow this up? He’s just not that prolific, that double album represented six years of work.

And then he’s on vacation with Cameron Crowe in Mexico and he loses his work tape.

But he comes back and writes "I’m In You", and the demo ends up being the single, and it goes to number one, but Peter’s living in a silo, he’s alone, with all his success but not enough inspiration.

And then there was the famous "Rolling Stone" cover. Peter didn’t want to do it. Scavullo insisted, said he wouldn’t use it. Then Peter’s on an airplane and sees it and instantly says to himself "It’s over, my career is shot." There went all his credibility. (Meanwhile, he called A&M and insisted "Rolling Stone" change the shot, they did, for some copies).
You can see both here:

Rolling Stone Magazine released 2 different versions with Peter on the cover

And after refusing to be in "Sgt. Pepper", Robert Stigwood says he’s signed McCartney to be in it, and Peter thinks if a Beatle is in it, he can be too. But McCartney never signs a contract, he’s not in the film, Peter knows it’s a mistake from the first day of shooting, but it’s too late, his career’s down the drain.

Peter Frampton went from being the biggest star in the world, to a has-been. How does he cope?

By severing business relationships, controlling his own destiny, by artificial help, and then he wakes up one day, a decade on, and realizes he’s nearly broke, he’s got to go back on the road.

And slowly, but surely, after being with a bunch of managers and even managing himself for a while, he can now sell out small amphitheatres, he’s on his way back. To where?

WHO KNOWS?

Everybody told him not to do an instrumental album.

But it won a Grammy. It was another step up the ladder.

Sure, he’s willing to play the hits, but he doesn’t want to only be an oldies act. He’d like more success, who wouldn’t, but really he just wants to play.

There’s a feeling he gets when he plays guitar. He’d like to say family is number one, but he admits to himself now it’s the music. And it’s certainly not the money, he’d play for free.

He’s constantly asked his favorite moment in life, the absolute peak.

It’s not "Frampton Comes Alive", but playing acoustic guitar with George Harrison with Phil Spector in the booth during the "All Things Must Pass" sessions, it doesn’t get any better than that.

Yes, his album was the biggest selling of all time, but Peter Frampton says now is the best time of his life. He’s been clean for ten years. He can feel. He’s got a good relationship with his kids. And he’s playing. And the crowd is reacting.

Sure, he’s Peter Frampton, and when he was in Santa Barbara the other day and some tourists came up to him and his daughter, he winced inside, thought "here we go again". But it turned out they were intrigued by his daughter, who appears in "Bridesmaids", they had no clue who Peter was.

As it should be. We’re all just people. On the planet. Trying to get along.

You can’t take it with you, not the money or the trappings. It’s all about the feeling inside and the memories.

Peter’s got a plethora of stories.

As for the feeling inside, he still gets it.