Peter Frampton & Keith Urban Reflect on Shredding Together at the 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction

The 2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cleveland on Saturday (October 19) meant a lot to everyone involved, of course. But you can count Peter Frampton among, if not the, happiest people at the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

Long considered one of the Rock Hall's great snubs, Frampton's induction was especially poignant in light of his nearly decade-long battle with Inclusion Body Myositis (IBM), a degenerative condition that was expected to sideline him shortly after he unveiled it six years ago and went on a farewell tour. But he's still performing — including at the induction ceremony, alongside his bandmate and guest Keith Urban — and beaming after taking the stage at Cleveland's Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

“It was fantastic,” Frampton said Bulletin board. “It went better than I thought, which was great.” He noted, however, that “halfway through the speech, as I looked down at my family … I needed a water at that point. It can be tearful. It is very exciting to have everyone here. All my kids are never all together at a show. There's always one here, one there, or whatever. So it was great.”

Given, like other inductees, just seven minutes of performance time, Frampton initially planned a shortened version of his smash hit “Do You Feel Like We Do,” a song—featuring a Talk Box solo—that could stretch to 20 minutes during the during his concerts. . “That's what everybody wants to hear,” noted Frampton, “so we worked it out, and that includes jamming with Keith. But then (the show's producers) said, 'We feel really bad that you're only doing one number.' .I said, 'Well, I've got the same amount of time as everyone else.' For the 'bonus cut' he chose 'Baby (Somethin's Happening)' from his third solo album, Something's Happeningwho turned 60 this year.

“The actual role, which I was most concerned about, obviously, because I'm the stupid perfectionist and worry about every little detail… it just had to be great. That's what made me nervous,” Frampton explained. “Or excited. Keith said, “Don't sound nervous. Say excited.”

Urban, for his part, was excited to team up with Frampton, albeit abbreviated, on “Do You Feel Like We Do.” “When he called me and asked if I would play that song, of all songs, I was more than happy to do it,” said Urban, who supported Bryan Adams at the 2021 Rock Hall inductions in Cleveland. Bulletin board after the show. “It was amazing playing with Peter. He just has such a command over sensitivity, dynamics and intentions. He makes it look easy, but it's really hard to do what he does. It's like a black diamond (trail) skier that makes it look green. It's crazy.”

Frampton and Urban talked about their history in Nashville, meeting during the '90s after they had both moved there and before Urban's career was in full swing. “I was living in a completely awful, funny house in a pretty dark part of town at the time,” Urban recalls, “and my manager called me and said, 'Hey, do you want to write with Peter Frampton? I say, “Holy—, yes! Where will we write”. He goes, “He'll come to your house.” I go, “No, no, no. He won't come to my house. But he definitely came over to my house and we spent the day just playing music and writing.” However, nothing came of the meeting. “It was one of those weird, mismatched moments, musically. I wasn't in a good headspace. I don't think either of us were in the best place we've been – but I was happy we had a good, solid friendship out of it.”

Another friend on Saturday was the Who's Roger Daltrey, who gave the opening speech for Frampton, who had opened for the Who on his first tour with his band the Herd. Daltrey also led the humor fest in the press room after the introduction, joking that the original tour was “the peak of your (Frampton's) decline.” No wonder you joined [Humble Pie]because you had to be there. You'd be stuck in the Who forever – if you're in the Who it's stuck forever.”

Daltrey also heard Frampton and Urban perform together at the ceremony.
“It was great to hear the sound of real guitars instead of all the fuzz box s— they put out these days, detuned…” Daltrey noted. “It's not rock and roll. It's not music… and it was great to hear the sound of Peter's guitar and Keith and the band working together, and the sensitivity in (Frampton's) voice… Your secret is that everything you do comes from the heart and it was always like this and always affected by me… And I mean it! I'm not blowing smoke up your ass, nor am I blowing it on the way down. I really mean it.”

Frampton, who partied after the ceremony with family and friends back at the Four Seasons Hotel, recently wrapped up a short concert tour at the end of the summer and said he hopes to go out again next year. Meanwhile, he is working on completing an album of brand new songs as well as a documentary directed by keyboardist Rob Arthur.