Guitarist Peter Frampton is to retire from touring following his next tour, as he has been diagnosed with a degenerative muscular disease.
The guitarist, who was famous for the hit Show Me The Way and the mega-selling Frampton Comes Alive! one of the best-selling live rock albums ever, is planning a double album for release this summer. The albums will be his first release in three years and he will play some 50 dates across the USA to accompany the release.
Frampton, who is 68, has recently been diagnosed with a degenerative muscle disease called inclusion body myositis, also known as I.B.M. The condition causes muscles to weaken over time but usually does not affect life expectancy.
The condition will not affect his singing voice, Frampton revealed, but it may slow his fingers and his ability to move easily around a stage. Having been diagnosed with I.B.M., Frampton was then sent to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland.
"I inherited this incredible team of doctors who are so passionate about what they do that it’s ridiculous," Frampton told Rolling Stone. "Then it was revealed to me that it wouldn’t just affect my legs and my arms, but it’s going to affect my fingers. That was the most troubling thing, obviously, for me."
He is still able to play guitar without any difficulty but the charismatic British musician, who made his name with the bands The Herd and Humble Pie in the late 60s and early 70s, wants to plan ahead.
"If I’m going to do a farewell tour, I want to play good, " he declared. "I want to rock it. I know that this tour, I will be able to do everything I did last year and the year before. That’s the most important thing to me. I want to go out screaming as opposed to, 'He can’t play anymore.'
"I’m not going to do that. I’m a perfectionist and I can’t do that. I want to obviously go out there playing my best at all times until I can’t. That’s why this is the farewell tour." Frampton suggested there may be European dates but he was not certain.
The rocker declared that he and his band are recording like 'maniacs' at his studio in Nashville. "We’ve done two albums already. I want to record as much as I can in the shortest space of time. We’re actually working on three projects. I’m very much feeling that I’m playing like always. Some people are saying even better, but I’d let them say that."
