The rocker tells PEOPLE that the two are now "good buds"
Credit: Robin L Marshall/Getty; Mike Pont/Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Peter Frampton reveals Pete Townshend once offered him a spot in The Who on tour but never followed through
- Frampton tells PEOPLE the two are now “good buds” even though he was frustrated by the situation
- Frampton’s new documentary Frampton chronicles his career, personal life, and his inclusion body myositis diagnosis
Peter Frampton had been dropped by his label and the state of his career was looking uncertain when rocker Pete Townshend called with a lifeline.
Townshend wanted to know if Frampton was interested in taking his place on tour with The Who — and though Frampton was excited by the idea, the joint Pete collaboration never came to be, he says in the new documentary Frampton, which premiered at Tribeca Festival on Thursday, June 4.
The “Baby, I Love Your Way” singer, 76, reflected on his exchange with Townshend in the documentary, and said that the star called with the idea, but ultimately wound up ghosting Frampton, much to his frustration.
“He said, ‘I’ve got this idea. I want to not tour anymore, but I still want to write and be in The Who and I’ll write the songs and I wonder what you thought if you took my place in The Who on the road,’” he recalled. “I said, ‘Really? Have you spoken to Roger [Daltrey] and John [Entwistle] about this?’ He said, ‘Eh, no, but I’m gonna talk to them tomorrow about this.’”
Credit: Neal Preston/Courtesy of 10 Lives Studios
Frampton said he encouraged Townshend, now 81, to speak with his bandmates, then call him back — but he never did.
After a week of waiting by the phone, Frampton said he became “hell to live with,” and after three weeks, was “so frustrated” he took matters into his own hands.
“It took me about five or six calls… and I found him at the studio. All he got out was, ‘Hello, Pete.’ I said, ‘You never called me back, I got nothing going on in my career and I blah blah blah,’” Frampton recalled. “I berated him because ‘you left me in the lurch there.’ I was feeling so perturbed at the fact that it was there, right in the palm of my hand, and it’s gone.”
At the time, Frampton’s popularity was waning, and he’d gotten himself into a “financial mess.” He ended up borrowing $100,000 from Atlantic Records president Ahmet Ertegun, and things finally turned around in 1987, when his old school pal David Bowie invited him out on his Glass Spider tour.
Frampton has since credited the late Bowie with helping revitalize his career, which is still going strong 60 years in; Frampton released his latest album, Carry the Light, on May 15.
Credit: Clive Frampton/Courtesy of 10 Lives Studios
The “Show Me the Way” singer tells PEOPLE that things worked out with Townshend, too, and he now considers the pair “good buds.”
He says they mended fences at a Bruce Springsteen concert at Madison Square Garden some years later.
“I saw Pete talking to Bruce before he went on for the second half, and so I just went over and I stood next to Pete,” Frampton says. “He suddenly realized someone was standing next to him, looking at him, staring at him, and he looked around me and he smiled, and he kissed me on the top of my head. So we’re friends now, from then on.”
All is well with Daltrey, too, as the Who singer inducted Frampton into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2024.
Frampton’s documentary, which chronicles the star’s rise to fame, personal life and his inclusion body myositis (IBM) diagnosis, is directed by his longtime bandleader, keyboardist and vocalist Rob Arthur.
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