SharePeter Frampton, English singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer chats with Kevin Cooper about working as David Bowie’s hired gun on his Glass Spider Tour, playing acoustic guitar with George Harrison at Abbey Road Studios, joining Ringo Starr And His All – Starr Band, and fulfilling a life time dream of playing The Royal Albert Hall on his forthcoming tour of the UK.
Peter Frampton is an English singer, songwriter, producer and guitarist.
In 1966 he formed a band called The Herd and in 1969 he formed Humble Pie with the late Steve Marriott. After releasing four studio albums and one live album with Humble Pie, he left the band in 1971 to pursue a solo career.
Frampton had very little commercial success with his early solo albums, but that changed with the release of his best selling live album in 1976 Frampton Comes Alive! which sold more than eight million copies just in America.
Best known for his hits Breaking All The Rules, Show Me The Way, Baby I Love Your Way, Do You Feel Like We Do and I’m In You, he was recognised for his contributions to the recording industry in 1979 when he received a Star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame.
In 2007 he released his sixteenth studio album, Fingerprints, for which he won a Grammy Award for the Best Pop Instrumental Album.
On 22nd February 2019 Frampton announced that he will be retiring from touring and that his Peter Frampton Finale – The Farewell Tour, will be his last. This is due to him being diagnosed with Inclusion Body Myositis.
Whilst busy rehearsing for his forthcoming tour of the UK, he took some time out to have a chat with Kevin Cooper and this is what he had to say.
Peter good afternoon, how are you?
I’m good thank you Kevin. How’s Nottingham?
Nottingham at the moment is cold, wet, dark and windy, but other than that we are doing okay (laughter). I suspect it’s much nicer where you are.
(Hysterical laughter) okay here goes. At this moment in time over here in the USA it is warmer than over there in the UK. We are currently having what I would describe as an English Sky and it’s raining (laughter). So, what can I say, other than I feel like I am almost there with you (laughter).
What can I say, just make sure that you bring your wellies with you (laughter).
Exactly (laughter).
If you are scheduled to play at any of the summer festivals here in the UK then I would suggest that you bring a boat with you (laughter).
(Laughter) I will bear that in mind.
Anyway, before we move on, let me firstly thank you for taking the time to speak to me today.
Kevin, it’s no problem at all. Thank you for helping with the ticket sales by doing this.
It’s not a problem, no problem at all. At this point I would normally be asking you just how life was treating you, but on 22nd February 2019, you announced that you will be retiring from touring due to your recent diagnosis of inclusion body myositis (IBM, a progressive muscle disorder characterised by muscle inflammation, weakness, and atrophy). Just how big a decision was that for you to take, to announce to the world that you were suffering from IBM?
Let me tell you; for me to let everyone know exactly what was going on in my life was perhaps the biggest decision that I have ever had to make in my entire life. I had known that there was a problem for a good five years before we announced. I just knew that something was going on that was not quite right. It was at that point that I was originally diagnosed with this condition. Altogether, I have known that something was wrong for about the last nine years or so. The reason why we didn’t say anything five years ago was simply because there was no need to; the condition at that time wasn’t impairing me in any way. However, recently it was getting more difficult walking and stuff like that, but no one would have noticed at that point.
When we were going into last year’s touring, we were all set to go out on tour with my dear friend Alice Cooper. I have known Alice for many years; he is such a lovely man, and Alice and I were going to do a co-headline tour here in America, for the very first time together which would have been so exciting. Anyway, I had already fallen onstage twice, and it was at that point that I went and got myself diagnosed, and it was then that I found out that I had IBM for sure. After that, I had another really bad fall whilst I was on vacation with my daughter, Mia, over in Hawaii and I really hurt my back. I spoke to my manager, Ken Levitan, and we talked about the situation that I was now faced with.
I said to Ken, “I think that we should be careful what we book from now on, because I seem to be in a progressive state”. Ken said, “Well, do you think that you are going to be able to play next year or the year after” and I honestly replied, “I have absolutely no idea, who knows, the doctors can’t even tell me that”. So Ken and I agreed to change things up, and make this the farewell tour, and if I could continue afterwards, that would be fine, but at least doing things this way, I would have the chance to travel round and let everybody know that there is a problem together with the reason why I was saying goodbye.
My feeling on that was that being an artist, and like most creative people I think, they are perfectionists, so for me to go out there on stage and not play up to par, my own par, I simply couldn’t do that. I would be humiliated even if no one knew, or no one could tell but me. So, that is why we did what we did, and let me tell you, it was hard to announce it. People would constantly be asking “why didn’t you announce it before” but as I have said earlier, there was no need until now. However, now that it is affecting me, I have to be very careful and that was the whole reason I decided to let everyone know what was happening.
I wanted to say to everyone over there, “England I will be home; I’m going to tour” but I couldn’t say that I could come right then because I didn’t know if I could come over. However, luckily the condition has slowed down again, and I am still playing great so luckily, I can come over and play this week in England and Scotland and then go over to Europe for a further two weeks.
I can tell from your voice that you are chomping at the bit to be back here in the UK, aren’t you?
Yes, I am, and I said to Ken that there is only one way for me to say goodbye and that was a date at the Royal Albert Hall. In all these years playing I have never played there before. That will really do it for me. It will be exciting for me; the Royal Albert Hall has got a famous vibe to it for everybody who plays there. I have seen so many incredible acts there, and it is always a wonderful experience there, so I thought that is the place. We have managed to get 31st May there and that’s when we decided to play a week in England and Scotland, and do what we can and see how it goes.
The whole tour is going to be exceptionally emotional. Do you think that you will be able to keep it all together?
I did find it to be extremely emotional when I last toured over here in America. I had never experienced the warmth, together with the encouragement and love that I felt from every audience; they were holding me up. That is what I felt. I feel that they give me the energy and because of that it enhances my adrenalin and it keeps me standing which obviously is very important to me at this moment in time (laughter). What I will say to you is that I couldn’t lose it on stage because I wouldn’t be able to get through the show. At the end of the show I always wave to the audience and tell them that I am not going to say goodbye, simply because you never know.
At that point I will turn my back to the audience and if I am going to lose it, then it is at that point that it will happen (laughter). It is, for me, very emotional because I have been doing this now for nigh on sixty years.
Putting touring to one side, will you still record?
Absolutely, in so far as again, I am extraordinarily lucky to be able to have my own commercial studio in Nashville and I must tell you that it’s my playground (laughter). I don’t rent it out; it is all mine. Back in 2018 we toured the USA with Steve Miller, and when we came off that tour in October I said “let’s take ten days off, go into the studio and make a blues record. As we don’t have time to write, we can make an album of blues covers”. I wanted to record as much material as I could in the shortest period of time. So, we went into the studio and I have to tell you that we have got another blues album already in the can. Then we recorded an instrumental covers album so that’s three records that we made.
Then, before we went out on tour last year, in fact it was before we had even started rehearsing for the tour, we recorded half of what I would call the next Peter Frampton solo record, so yes, I’m recording (laughter).
I’m so pleased that you have mentioned All Blues because I have to say that I think that it is an absolutely fantastic piece of work.
Thanks Kevin, thank you very much. I have always wanted to record one, but I always thought that people have never really thought of me as a blues guy. However, I played for two summers with Steve Miller and we played the blues together during his set every night. That got me way back into it, and I absolutely loved it. So, for me, it was another form of expression that I had not been using. I used to play the blues way back when, even before The Herd were a pop band. We were more of a jazz/blues unit. So, as you can see, I used to play the blues back then. Obviously, in Humble Pie it was more rock heavy blues, but I have to say that I enjoyed that too. So, playing with Steve Miller was in fact me coming full circle, and it made perfect sense because I didn’t have to write anything, and we could go straight into the studio.
Well I currently have three go to tracks. One of them is the title track of the album, All Blues. I love The Thrill Is Gone and I really do like what you have done to Slim Harpo’s I’m A King Bee; that track simply makes me smile. It’s hard to believe that it was originally recorded back in 1957.
(Hysterical Laughter) I know exactly what you are saying about King Bee. However, I cannot take any of the credit for that because the original, as you rightly say was recorded by Slim Harpo way, way back in 1957 will also make you smile (laughter). I have always found that record to be so weird (laughter). I first heard that track when The Rolling Stones covered it for their Exile On Main Street album back in 1972. I have to be totally honest with you and tell you that when I first heard The Stones singing King Bee, I didn’t know that there was another version of that track. I had absolutely no idea that it was a Slim Harpo track.
Over the years I realised that it wasn’t their song and that Slim Harpo had already written it. So, we went back to the original version which as I have said, I always thought was weird (laughter). There are three and a half beats here; it really is so weird, and I have to say that we got it down, even if they made a mistake when they were recording the original version; we made the same mistake (laughter). I wanted to keep it as close to the original as was possible because I loved it so much. I love the way that it just comes in with the vocals straight away and then the band is right in there. It’s great.
I have to ask, what was it like working once again with Larry Carlton?
Well, I have known Larry now for quite a while, and he has played with us quite a few times now. When we did the Frampton Guitar Circus out here in the States he would always be my first call. I have been a huge fan of Larry’s since his early days with Steely Dan, so he came along and sat in with us on tour, and I have to tell you that I was petrified (laughter). At that point I learnt that Larry had a tremendous amount of respect for me as well and we hit it off immediately. In fact, I have to tell you this; I got my first and only Grammy so far, due to me doing the instrumental record Fingerprints in 2006. I was in total shock when I won. I was thinking ‘there are a lot of other people out there who are better known for recording instrumental records than I was’ but hey, that was my forte playing the guitar.
So, I thought that I had a decent chance of winning the Grammy. So anyway, when I went to the Grammys, they called my name out and I freaked out (laughter). After I had given my little speech, I went outside and called my mum as you do, and as I am on the phone to mum, I see this man and this woman running towards me full tilt. It was Larry Carlton and his wife. Larry picked me up off the floor, hugged me and said “congratulations”. Now that, for me, is a second Grammy right there (laughter). That was like getting two Grammys in one day. I have listened to Larry all my life, and now he is a dear friend, and a wonderful person. And I have to say that he played his arse off on All Blues (laughter).
How many of the new songs on All Blues will make it onto the set list for the tour?
Usually we will play three of the tracks from All Blues, and then the show becomes a retrospective really looking at certain parts of my whole career. It’s not just about the music; I do tell stories in-between songs, simply because, if it is the last time, then this is a trip through my life as a musician basically. Let me just say that the people will get what they want; obviously the Frampton Comes Alive numbers that they like; they will be there, plus there will be stuff from Fingerprints as well, for example Black Hole Sun has become one of our biggest numbers now. When I got home after receiving the Grammy, I got a call from the late Chris Cornell, who had heard our version of Black Hole Sun, and he loved it.
I am a huge Chris Cornell fan, together with his work with Soundgarden, and Chris invited me to go and play that song with him on stage at one of his solo concerts, which I did. I played my instrumental first verse chorus, then Chris came in and we played the whole song with him singing. It doesn’t get any better than that. The Frampton smile was from ear to ear.
You have briefly mentioned Frampton Comes Alive! and naturally I couldn’t speak to you without mentioning it. Just how many times platinum has the album now been certified?
(laughter) well let me tell you, when I left A&M Records back in the late 70s it was at that point certified 14.6 million worldwide but at the last count, we were well on our way to being certified 18 million.
That can’t be bad can it?
No, not at all, and my children would like to thank everybody out there for putting them through college (laughter).
Were you surprised at just how well the album was received?
Yes, I was, but I think that I am now more amazed at the longevity of the album. It is the biggest thing that happened to me in my career, and you and I are speaking today because of it. I have done a lot of other things throughout my life, but I know that I will be remembered for that record the most because it became not only the number one album for that summer of 1976, but it also beat Carole King’s Tapestry record for being the biggest selling record of all time. I have to say that the record has been both a blessing and a curse; it really has (laughter).
The record company originally intended to put the record out as a single album, with two glaring omissions. Were you happy that they subsequently changed their minds and released it as a double album?
Absolutely, simply because, as you quite rightly point out, Baby, I Love Your Way and Show You The Way were not on the single album (laughter). That always blows my mind whenever I think about it (laughter). So, when Jerry Moss, of A&M Records, who is my dearest friend, he really is so wonderful, and is still doing great things, came to see the Los Angeles concert. We had mixed the single album and we all thought that because this was my fifth album with A&M and I hadn’t really made them any money at that point, the management and I thought that it was a good idea to record a single album when taking budgets into consideration. So, Jerry came into the Electric Lady studio, which as you know were the studios of the late Jimmy Hendrix and sat directly in front of the console.
I couldn’t see him, but as the record faded out from Do You Feel Like We Feel this face came up from behind the console and he said, “oh my god, where’s the rest” (laughter). So, I said, “you mean that you want more” and that is one of those moments that I will never forget. I told Jerry that we didn’t really have any good versions of the newer songs, which were Baby I Love Your Way and Show You The Way, to which Jerry replied “well go out and record some more” (laughter). So, we went out and played another six or seven more shows, and then we had enough tracks for a double album.
When you finally heard the completed double album in its entirety, did you realise that you had got something special on your hands?
If I say yes, it will seem ridiculous but I didn’t realise that it would do what it did. I just got the same feeling listening to Comes Alive final mixes as I got when I listened to Rockin’ The Filmore final mixes with Humble Pie when I said to Steve (Marriott) “we have got something special here” and he said “I know”. We didn’t know that it would be a gold record which was far more than we had sold up to that point. I just thought to myself “I think that this is going to be a gold record” (laughter). I thought to myself ‘maybe we could sell five hundred thousand copies of this’ (laughter).
What was that, in the first hour (laughter).
I guess so (laughter). Everything was crazy and then my world completely turned upside down. Everything went totally crazy (laughter).
After we saw you performing on Top Of The Pops, do you feel any guilt at all for the vast number of washing machine hoses that were stolen (laughter).
(Laughter) that’s really funny because unfortunately when we lost all of our equipment over in South America in 1980, we had absolutely nothing. So, the organisers wanted us to play the gig with rented gear so what my tech bought into my hotel room, well he actually threw it into the room, was a pipe from a washing machine (hysterical laughter). So, thinking about it, it really is not beyond the realms of possibility that it could have been used (laughter). We were playing a stadium in Panama and to be honest, we couldn’t find any PA’s, guitars or anything and we didn’t have enough time to fly replacement gear down from Miami so unfortunately, we had to cancel the gig. So that’s what I was going to have to use, the hose from a washing machine (laughter).
We all know that if you taste the highs then you also have to taste the lows. With that in mind together with hindsight, do you think that you should have possibly released Frampton Comes Alive II a little earlier than you did?
Yes, probably we should have, looking back now then yes, I believe so. I was reticent because of many reasons; because Frampton Comes Alive! Was such an epic piece of work that I didn’t want to tarnish that in any way by not coming close. It took me a lot longer to make that decision than it should have.
You have briefly mentioned Humble Pie; just how good was Steve Marriott?
Steve Marriott was a genius; his talent was endless. I have not sung with anybody as good, although Paul Rodgers comes close, I have sung a duet with him and I enjoyed that. Paul is a phenomenal singer, but I have to say that when I first saw the Small Faces on Ready Steady Go performing Whatcha Gonna Do About It which you had to perform totally live, there was no lip-synching back then, my jaw hit my chest. I listened to Steve’s guitar playing together with his vocals, and I said, “I want to play with that guy, that’s the guy who I want to play with” (laughter). Steve and the Small Faces were a huge influence on me from that moment on. So, for me to actually be in a room when Steve sang without a mic, well that was really a great experience.
For me to sit on the floor with Steve, both of us playing an acoustic guitar, and for me to hear him sing, really was an experience. It was never the same, it was always different, he was so creative, and for me it was the Gospel that he had in his voice. Steve’s idol was Mavis Staples, and if you listen to Oh La De Da by The Staples Singers you can hear Steve (laughter). I swear, go and do it; the likeness between Steve’s vocals and Mavis’ vocals is uncanny. Steve pulled from the very best. We are all an amalgamation of everyone who we have listened to and then hopefully, one day, we wake up and we have become our own style. Hopefully we have become unique, that is what one hopes.
But Steve had so much going on there from country to soul, Steve loved it all. For me, there was no better experience than standing next to Steve on stage. There is one other thing that I have to say, when Steve and I got back together for a short period over in Los Angeles, shortly before we lost him, I had written a chorus for a song that I was working on which was called I Won’t Let You Down. It was me saying that to Steve and hoping that he was saying that to me. That is what it was about. Having said that, it could have also been about a love situation obviously but that is what was in my mind when I wrote it. We then wrote the verse together and the rest of the lyrics together.
Steve and I were recording in my small studio out there in Los Angeles, just the two of us in a room on our own. I was doing all of the engineering and the two of us were singing the chorus. If you solo that multi track in-between each line, you can hear us both laughing at just how good the two of us singing together sounded. Don’t get me wrong, it would have sounded just as good if Steve had sung it on his own, but the fact that I was singing with him as well, really did make my day. We had something that was so special. I didn’t have the voice that he had but when we sang together, it was incredible. That is how we were at that particular time. Then obviously, for whatever reasons, there was that grey area which I am not going into it, when we split up again which was very sad for me.
The very first time that I saw you performing was when you were a gun for hire on David Bowie’s Glass Spider Tour here in the UK at Wembley Stadium on Friday 19th June 1987.
Yes, that’s right, I was a gun for hire, and I loved every minute of it.
Well, if you loved it that much, can you please tell me just what it was all about because, to this day, I haven’t got a bloody clue (laughter).
(Hysterical laughter) I don’t know (laughter). Obviously I had known David all my life because we went to school together, and he called me back in 1986 and said “I loved what you did on your last record, can you come and play some guitar for me” and I replied, “tell me where I have to be”. For many years David and I had played on the same stage on the same night but never at the same time (laughter). So I went out and recorded the album with him, and while I was out there he said “would you join me as one of my guitar players on The Glass Spider Tour” at which he showed me pictures of the spider, and it was like mammoth (laughter).
It doesn’t really matter what the glass spider meant or what it was all about, it was just, for me, it was just for me once again completing a circle from my school days. I was on stage, I was playing David’s songs, and I was standing behind him. I have always preferred to be the hired gun if possible. I truly love that position. Dave had seen just what had happened to me after Comes Alive. He knew me as the guitar player, and to him I was always the guitar player, and he saw the aftermath of Frampton Comes Alive! which was Peter the teenybopper style all over again; it was like going back to The Herd. There I was on the cover of every magazine, I looked good, I was a cute looking kid, not now but I was back then and let me tell you, that’s dangerous when you are a serious musician.
It gets overlooked because they want to sell magazines and newspapers. Therefore, I was on the cover of all of them and not just a few. It totally changed my image from being a musician to once again being a pop star even to the point where I played a concert in the early 80s and this person came up to me afterwards as I was walking to the tour bus and said, “wow, man that’s great, I never knew that you played the guitar”. So, that really sums it up. That shows you exactly where people were at; maybe not all of them, but that person certainly was (laughter). So, whilst I had no idea just what David was doing at that time, he was in fact giving me the best gift that anyone could give me; he hired me as his hired gun.
David reintroduced me as Peter Frampton the guitar player, in stadiums around the world. For that I thanked him so much whilst he was here with us. In fact I thank him all of the time simply because that rejuvenated my career. That completely turned everything around for me. Going back, I was asked to join The Herd because I was a good guitar player. I was very young, but I was this young upstart. The rest of the band were all older than me. Andrew Brown and Gary Taylor were the singers, and I was the shoo be doo wop guy. I just sang a few backing vocals, with the exception of one song, Hide Nor Hair, a cover of the Ray Charles track within the show and that was it.
Subsequently, songwriters and producers Ken Howard and Alan Blaikley became our managers and Steve Rowland became our producer. Howard and Blaikley asked if they could write some songs for us and we said okay. We really wanted to write our own songs, but this was Howard and Blaikley who really had a long track record of writing hits for the likes of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich. So, we said yes. Shortly after that I had the surprise of my life, when the radio stations started to play our single, I Can Fly. It was our first but sadly it wasn’t a hit, but it did get us noticed. They both then pointed at me and said, “from this moment on, Peter is going to sing the lead”. I said, “wait a second, no, no, no, Andy and Gary are the singers, I’m the guitar player, and the shoo be doo wop guy”.
Howard and Blaikley said “no, no, no, we really think that it would be best if Peter sang the lead vocals”. And of course, that didn’t go down very well with the rest of the band. I really didn’t want to be the singer. My hand on my throat was forced (laughter). But of course, I won’t say that I didn’t like singing; I love singing, but I don’t really think that I am a great singer, I never have. But I enjoy it and that is why I do it. And then of course, I was the lead singer all of a sudden on the next single that was a huge hit, From The Underworld. The next single which was Paradise Lost was a big single. It made the top twenty, and then I Don’t Want Our Loving To Die was also a huge hit and that’s when I think that everything started to fall apart, after that.
What would you say has been the highlight of your career so far?
For me, personally, it might not be what everybody else is thinking. One of the biggest highlights for me, obviously playing in front of one hundred and twenty thousand people in the JFK Stadium in Philadelphia was most definitely an adrenalin rush and one of the most exciting things that I have ever done. I think that before that, the most exciting thing that ever happened to me in my career was sitting next to George Harrison in Abbey Road Studios, just the two of us playing acoustic guitars, with Phil Spector behind that glass, overdubbing more acoustics on the tracks that we had already laid down.
At this point I had known George for a while, and he had personally called me and asked me if I would like to play on five or six tracks on his new album, All Things Must Pass. Overdubbing with George Harrison, well things just don’t get any better than that. I’m getting chills right now thinking about it. George was such a wonderful person and a dear friend so that would have to be it for me.
Do you still have the Coral Electric Sitar that once belonged to a certain Jimi Hendrix?
(Laughter) just who the hell has told you about that (laughter). Yes, I do, and it is the one that certain people have been asking about for many years now. They are constantly saying “we know that there is one more in existence, but we don’t know where it is” (laughter). Well, I can now tell you exactly where it was, and more to the point, where it is now. It was in a cupboard at the Electric Lady recording studios when we recorded I’m In You back in 1977. We pretty much lived there for six months and when we left on the very last day, the manager of the studios came out with this guitar and he said “we have loved having you here, this is something that I have found that has been here for years, and no one has taken it or claimed it”.
He then looked at me and said, “I think that Jimi would like you to have it” and I thought ‘oh my god’ and I actually used it on David’s Glass Spider Tour (laughter). So, in answer to your question, yes, I still have it and I have to tell you that it is in beautiful condition.
How is life in Nashville treating you?
I absolutely love it. It is a haven for musicians; the people here are so nice, they don’t bug you here, they are so used to seeing big stars, country stars walking down the street. Nobody bothers anybody here. I call it a big small town. People actually get together and jam and write. There is no place better if you can’t find the bridge for the new song that you are writing at three in the morning. There are around five hundred people that you can call to help you out who would want you to call at three in the morning (laughter).
I was recently speaking to Graham Gouldman and he was telling me just how much fun he had playing with Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band. Did you enjoy your time with the band?
What can I say, I have known Ringo for as long as I had known George, in fact, I have known Ringo since I was twenty. We have been friends ever since. We regularly get together, and I go over to his house. It really is phenomenal that we are still in touch. Ringo called me up and asked me, “look, I am doing another All-Stars tour, would you like to come along” so I said, “who else have you got” (laughter). Ringo said, “I have got Gary Brooker on keyboards (Procol Harum) Jack Bruce on bass (Cream)”. At that point I was thinking ‘oh my god, I hope he likes me’ (laughter). Ringo went on to tell me that he had David Mason on guitar (Traffic, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and The Rolling Stones) and Simon Kirke on second drums (Free, Bad Company) at which point I thought ‘my god, this really is a band’ (laughter).
We all learnt each other’s songs, together with Ringo’s songs. However, for some reason we lost David Mason along the way which meant that I very soon became the only guitar player in the band. It was scary but I have to say that I totally enjoyed the experience. There I was playing A Whiter Shade Of Pale every night, and let me tell you, there is not a great guitar part on there (laughter). It didn’t matter; it was just that I was playing A Whiter Shade Of Pale every night. Then, of course, playing Cream songs and having to be Peter Clapton, Jack Bruce and I really hit it off. There was one point after the tour when Gary, Jack and I were going to get a band together, but we all had other stuff that we ended up doing.
But it was great for the three of us to be in a position to spend some time together after the tour as well. I was just thrilled that Ringo invited me along. I was fifteen years old and shouldn’t have been in The Flamingo Club seeing The Graham Bond Organisation, but I was (laughter). So, for me to be on the tour was simply beyond phenomenal for me to be in a position to play with all of them.
Given the chance, would you do it all again?
Yes, I would. However, I just might do it a little differently (laughter). I would do it all over again in a second.
What was the first record that you bought?
(Laughter) without my father’s knowledge, it was (Till) I Kissed You by The Everly Brothers. He absolutely hated it (laughter).
Who did you first see performing live?
That is such a hard question for me to answer because I think that I played on stage before I saw anybody else (laughter). It was me (laughter). That’s a hard one actually; I wish that I could say that it was The Shadows. However, I never saw The Shadows even though I was a huge fan. I honestly can’t remember.
What was the last song or piece of music that made you cry?
That would have most probably been when I was last listening to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles. I think that album probably moved me; it is such an incredible song. It still moves me to this day.
On that note Peter, let me once again thank you for taking the time to speak to me today, it’s been fantastic even if you couldn’t explain the concept behind The Glass Spider Tour to me (laughter).
(Laughter) thank you so much Kevin. Hey, if you don’t know then how could I possibly know (laughter). I really do hope that we get the chance to say hi backstage after the show up there in Nottingham. If you speak to your people and I speak to mine, then let’s make it happen. I really do look forward to meeting you.