Peter Frampton has Inclusion Body Myositis (IBM), and at NAMM 2025 needed a cane to help him walk. He said he will continue playing guitar (via Guitar Player):
“I’m gonna keep going as long as my fingers… Well — you know. And it’s getting more difficult, I have to admit. But the worst thing about playing for me is, when I’m soloing, I have to actually think about what I’m playing. I don’t want to think — I want it just to be coming from my heart. That’s how I always played.”
“And now I do have to think a little bit because I’ll be in the middle of the passage, and I’ll say, ‘That finger is not going to get there in time!’ So I do a regroup and I use one finger for many notes that I used to use three fingers for.”
Frampton also discussed guitarist Django Reinhardt, who lost the use of his left-hand ring and pinkie fingers in a caravan fire, and figured out how to still play guitar.
“That’s what I’m doing,” Frampton said, “because I enjoy music so much. It sounds weird: You’re losing the power to play. Yeah, but I’m working out — and enjoying working out — a different way of playing so that I can keep playing. People say, ‘Aren’t you depressed?’ You know, you have to accept the things you cannot change. I learned that in AA and in many other places.”
“I will keep doing music for the rest of my life,” Frampton said to applause from the audience. “What I have is not life-threatening, thank God, but it’s life-changing, and I’m going with the flow.”
