FLIGHT of the PHENIX
“ALL I EVER wanted to do was play guitar, and it’s taken me many different places—physically and mentally,” Peter Frampton writes in his new autobiography, Do You Feel Like I Do?: A Memoir. Written with Alan Light, the tell-all elaborates thoroughly on that statement, as the guitarist reveals his career highs with Humble Pie and his monster solo breakthrough album, Frampton Comes Alive!. and his personal lows, including his struggles with substance abuse and recent battle with the muscle disease inclusion body myositis. In addition to sharing stories about his friendships with artists that include George Harrison and David Bowie, Frampton discusses his own relationship with the guitar, including one very special—and now quite famous—instrument: his mid-1950s Les Paul Custom “Black Beauty.”
That guitar is the subject of this excerpt from the forthcoming memoir. In it, Frampton tells the story behind how he recovered the Custom years after it was presumed lost in a plane crash. Frampton acquired the guitar in 1970, while he was a member of Humble Pie, from his friend Marc Mariana. As the guitar’s owner, Mariana had switched out the guitar’s P-90s with humbuckers and sanded down the neck. Frampton, and his own , where it appears on the cover.
