'70s Icon Peter Frampton Announces He Has Rare Degenerative Muscle Disease
Feb. 24 2019, Updated 9:58 p.m. ET
Peter Frampton announced devastating news this weekend—he's suffering from a rare degenerative muscle disease.
The British-born rocker, 68, whose Frampton Comes Alive! was one of the best-selling live albums ever in the United States, revealed his illness in interviews with CBS News and Rolling Stone on Saturday, February 23, 2019.
Frampton said he has inclusion body myositis, also known as I.B.M., which causes muscles to weaken over time but usually doesn't affect life expectancy.
According to the guitar god, his condition won't affect his singing voice, but could slow his fingers and his ability to move around on his just-announced farewell concert tour.
The "Show Me The Way" singer told CBS he learned of his disease four years ago after he fell on stage.
Rolling Stone said Frampton first noticed his ankles were feeling tight in the morning but assumed it was just normal pain from aging.
However, then his legs weakened and he fell over while trying to kick a beach ball back to a fan.
Two weeks later, Frampton collapsed on stage again and it was difficult for him to lift heavy objects.
He learned his shocking health news on a doctor's visit.
Frampton told CBS, "I'm thinking of all the times in my life that I have something devastating that that's happened to my career or in my family or me. I've brushed myself off, got myself up and changed directions."
Late last year, while on a getaway with his daughter in Maui, Hawaii, he recalled, "I fell on a boat. And it was a pretty bad fall."
Frampton, who has been married three times and has three children, has decided his upcoming tour will be his last, noting of his famed guitar work, "I'm able to play great right now. In a year's time, maybe not so good. I'm a perfectionist, and I do not want to go out there and fell like 'Oh I can't' or 'This isn't good.' That would be a nightmare for me."
The rock star thrilled the world in the 1970s with his electrifying live performances that included use of a "talk box."
Frampton's 1976 release Frampton Comes Alive! caused a sensation and his lean body and curly hair made him a teen idol.
In 1978, he suffered a broken arm and cracked ribs in a car accident in the Bahamas, but fully recovered.
Frampton said on Saturday that the guitar is his "passion. I've been playing guitar for 60 years. Started when I was 8. Now I'm 68. So I've had a very good run."
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There is currently no cure for I.B.M. and symptoms can progress rapidly.
"Going upstairs and downstairs is the hardest thing for me," Frampton has said.
One dollar from every ticket sold for his final tour will go towards I.B.M. research.
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