Although Peter Frampton's days hitting the stage are slowly winding down, he spoke in depth with Guitar World about his current state of affairs. Frampton suffers from a degenerative muscle disease called Inclusion-Body Myositus (IBM) that slowly weakens the body's muscles. Although he was set to play a final farewell to Europe this spring, due to the coronavirus pandemic, those dates might be postponed — or scrapped altogether.
Frampton was asked if IBM has affected his playing as of now: “Very, very slightly. It’s more the fretting hand that’s affected. The left side is ahead in the progression of the disease, more than the right. Luckily, my left hand is doing really well, and I’m sure for the rest of this year, I’ll be okay. . . Also, when you’re playing guitar, you don’t stand on two feet: you tend to favor one leg or the other. Well, the leg I’ve always favored is my left. So even though IBM affects the left side more, that leg is still pretty strong. So I’m doing good. I’m on a drug trial. I’m in a control period right now.”
He went on to explain, “Some chords are becoming a little temperamental for me. It’s because you use more fingers on the chords than you do on single notes. That’s the only area where I’m slightly (concerned) — but I have another guitarist to play the chords. Adam Lester is wonderful.”