Peter Frampton has revealed details of a debilitating health issue that is behind the timing of his newly-announced farewell tour.
CBS This Morning: Saturday co-host Anthony Mason reports that, after a fall on stage about three and half years ago, the guitarist was diagnosed with inclusion body myositis, a rare and incurable inflammatory condition which causes muscles to weaken slowly.
The disease progressed gradually, but sometime after he came off tour last fall, Frampton says he felt the effects speed up and he started to make plans to leave the road after a particularly bad fall while on vacation with his daughter in Maui.
"What will happen, unfortunately, is that it affects the finger flexors," the rocker tells Mason in an interview featured on the February 23 edition of the CBS program. “That's the first telltale sign is the flexors, you know. So for a guitar player, it's not very good."
While he’s already felt the effects in his fingers, Frampton is still able to play guitar well right now.
"But in a year's time, maybe not so good,” he explains. “I'm a perfectionist and I do not want to go out there and feel like, 'Oh I can't, this isn't good.' That would be a nightmare for me. I've been playing guitar for 60 years. Started when I was eight and now I'm 68. So, I've had a very good run.
"The reason I'm calling it the 'farewell tour,' is because I know that I will be at the top of my game for this tour and I will make it through this and people won't be saying, 'Oh you know, he can't play as good.' I can. But we just don't know for how long."
The guitarist will open the 6-month North American farewell series in Tulsa, OK on June 18 and wrap it up October 12 in San Francisco, CA – the city where he famously recorded his legendary 1976 live album, “Frampton Comes Alive.”
Tickets for the trek will go on sale Friday, March 1, with further details to be announced in the coming days at frampton.com.
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