Frampton Comes Alive ONE MORE TIME

I REDISCOVERED Frampton Comes Alive! in college. My renewed interest was powerful enough that I bought tickets to see him open for Stevie Nicks during his Premonition tour. Most of the people around me at that show were there for Stevie Nicks, armed with stuffed unicorns that they would later toss on stage when Stevie began her set. But I was there up front in the trenches for Frampton. When he took the stage, it was as if time stood still. He came out full of energy, flashing his trademark smile from start to finish looking much as he did when Comes Alive! made its debut. Backed by longstanding sidemen like keyboardist/guitarist Bob Mayo, Frampton ripped through every song with a fire that’s usually reserved for the headliner. If that wasn’t enough, when Frampton joined Stevie and her band, he added a dimension and dynamic to her music that was game changing. She might

have had top billing, but Peter Frampton that day was the real star of the show. You could feel the entire crowd in tune with Frampton. He made it clear that night why he was a star and why you never count him out. Since then I never have.

This is why the recent news of his final tour came as such a surprise. Peter Frampton has long been one of rock’s most durable stars and recent years have found him releasing some of his most technically precise work. An exceptional example of perseverance and class, he has always been someone who you expect to be creating new material, using it to support his steady touring.

Frampton is also someone who has met career ups and downs with equal measures of open joy and perspective. As he faces this latest challenge, a life forward with a rare disease known as Inclusion Body Myositis