Peter Frampton Was Close to Replacing Pete Townshend During a Who Tour

Peter Frampton details in a new excerpt from his upcoming memoir, Do You Feel Like I Do?, that he almost replaced Pete Townshend during a Who tour in the 1980s.

In the excerpt published by Rolling Stone, Frampton explains that Townshend reached out to him by phone during a time when his career was on a downslide and was really strapped for cash. Townshend basically told Frampton he'd play guitar on tour in his place, but he hadn't told anyone else in The Who about this plan.

"I said, 'Wait a second, Pete. Have you spoken to Roger or the others about this?' And he said, 'Not yet, I’m going down to talk to them tomorrow.'" according to the excerpt. "I said, 'Okay, why don’t you call me back when you’ve had a chat with them about this. They don’t know you’re not going to tour anymore?' 'No, not yet; they’ll know tomorrow.'"

Frampton goes on to explain that while he was incredibly flattered by the offer, he knew something like this wouldn't go over well with Who fans.

"No one would accept the band without 'Towser,'" wrote Frampton. "And my windmill needed a lot of work, as well as my ten-foot jumps into the air. No way was this a good idea."

Clearly, Townshend came to his senses and realized it wasn't the best idea either. The only problem was he forgot to follow-up with Frampton and left him hanging for about three weeks until Frampton had enough and tracked him down at a studio in London. Townshend was very apologetic about the ordeal.

Frampton added that a few months later, he and Townshend ran into each other backstage during a Bruce Springsteen show at Madison Square Garden, and they had a quick interaction and showed they were on good terms.

"I love Pete dearly," wrote Frampton. "I have no idea what was going on in his life at that time. I don’t even know if he remembers calling me."

Do You Feel Like I Do? comes out October 20. Complete pre-order details can be found at HachetteBooks.com.