Peter Frampton became one of rock’s biggest stars with the blockbuster success of 1976’s Frampton Comes Alive! But five years earlier, he’d made a career-defining gamble, walking away from Humble Pie just as the band stood on the verge of an even bigger commercial breakthrough.
Frampton had co-founded the band with former Small Faces frontman Steve Marriott in 1969, helping turn Humble Pie into one of rock’s most formidable live acts. But despite the success of 1971’s Performance: Rockin’ the Fillmore — and with an even bigger hit on the horizon — he says he’d already decided it was time to leave.
“It wasn’t just the direction, it was personality-wise, as well,” Frampton tells Record Collector (via Guitar.com). “Steve and I were not on the same planet anymore, unfortunately. I loved him dearly, but he was a handful. I wasn’t enjoying it anymore.”
Frampton says the seeds of his departure had been planted well before the band’s celebrated Fillmore East performances. Ironically, the success of Performance: Rockin’ the Fillmore — particularly the hit “I Don’t Need No Doctor” — only confirmed that he was making the right decision.
“We started out doing acoustic without drums, [then] acoustic with drums, electric guitar, pianos, keyboards, and then heavy… we did it all,” he recalls.
“That’s what I loved about Humble Pie, to start with,” he continues. “But our direction was kind of chosen for us by what we put on the live record, and I knew that everyone was going to expect that — and only that — from then on, on record.”
Frampton chose to leave before Humble Pie released Smokin’ in March 1972. The album became one of the band’s biggest commercial successes, earning Gold certification after Frampton had been replaced by former Colosseum guitarist Clem Clempson.
“I decided to leave before the record came out,” Frampton says. “I believed it was going to be a small hit, not knowing it was going to be a much bigger hit than I thought, and then it would be much more difficult for me to leave.”
In hindsight, the timing looked risky. But Frampton’s gamble paid off. Five years later, Frampton Comes Alive! became one of the best-selling live albums in history, turning him into an international superstar.
Ironically, Frampton has since admitted that the phenomenal success of Frampton Comes Alive! also marked his least favorite period as a musician, as burnout and the pressures of fame took their toll. Even so, his decision to walk away from Humble Pie at the height of its ascent ultimately paved the way for the solo career that made him a rock icon.
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