When I go to do a show, it's my time; it's all about me. You've come to see me. You haven't come to see me if you're in an armchair watching a video. It's very distracting.
In 1978, I had a near-fatal car accident in the Bahamas. There was a point when I could have lost my right arm - but it was good because it forced me to slow down and take a break.
My advice to new artists is to not follow a trend, but to start one. By that, I mean to not be tempted to do what business people might suggest to you, to jump on the bandwagon, but to be strong.
I don't think I could ever be in a band if we just had to go out there and play the record note for note. I'd give up. I'd become a banker.
I was allowed a freedom as a baby boomer to do whatever I wanted to do. My parents were able to give their permission because they just felt, 'Why not?' I joined my first band and dropped out of school.
The reason I wanted to play guitar was because I saw Buddy Holly and then our own homegrown Shadows on TV in 1957 or '58. I wanted to learn to play guitar so I could do what they did and be in a band.
Everyone wanted to play like Eric Clapton in the early to mid-'60s.
I was on 'The Mike Douglas Show' twice. I was on the cover of practically every magazine in the United States. I never said no to anything. I told everything to everybody. I gave everything away, and when you give it all away, you have nothing left.
'Frampton Comes Alive!' is the album I'll always be remembered for. I'm very proud of the music that's on it. Why it exploded the way it did and continues to live on are things that can't fully be explained.
The power of your audience is in the hand of the artist now via all the media - Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and all of them - all of the new available techniques to get to people. I think that you are your best publicist and record company and everything right now when starting out.
I acted in 'Almost Famous.' My album 'Fingerprints' won a Grammy Award in 2007. Even more prestigious, as far as my kids were concerned, I appeared in episodes of 'The Simpsons' and 'Family Guy.'
I often explain it to people that if you listen to a Who record and then go see the Who live, it's like two different bands. That's how Humble Pie worked. We were definitely a lot more ferocious live because of the energy that the entire population of us had.
The perception that I was just a pop star was pushed upon me by the public, and it's very hard to change the public's perception even though I never really pushed aside the musician aspect of my career. After I released 'Fingerprints,' my peers reassured me that I was on a level that I always hoped I would be on.
I think that my parents wanted my brother and I to do what they couldn't have done and live a free life and not worry about war.
I had so much out there, the world was going crazy about 'Comes Alive!' I didn't need to go and rush into something else. You're only as good as your last record, so don't put one out for a while.
I had always been a jazz fan - Django Reinhardt, Kenny Burrell, Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass, the early George Benson. And I come from the Hank Marvin melodic upbringing. So blues, I loved, but I also liked jazz. Therefore, my style was more lyrical.
I love to be a hermit.
I'd often use a Leslie cabinet on its own in the studio because everyone in the late Sixties and Seventies was experimenting with them. We'd stick anything through a Leslie because it made everything sound so good.
I really wasn't into sports at an early age. I couldn't wait to get home from school and go straight to my bedroom and pick up the guitar and play it. It became an obsession with me. That's all I wanted to do was play guitar and learn every lick I heard on the radio.
I didn't have huge expectations for 'Frampton Comes Alive!' My previous album, 'Frampton,' had sold about 300,000 copies - a decent amount but not mind-blowing. There was talk at the label that maybe the live record could go gold. I was hoping we could do it, but I wasn't sure.
