Playing Speaks Louder Than Words

Recording Frampton Forgets the Words with Peter Frampton and Chuck Ainlay

Peter Frampton got his start as a wicked guitarist in the late 60s, swinging London with The Herd and alongside Steve Marriott in the dual guitar juggernaut that was Humble Pie. From there, Peter has gone on to a Grammy Award-winning career as a solo artist spanning eighteen studio and four live albums—notably Frampton Comes Alive (1976) which will forever link Peter to the famed Talk Box effect. Peter’s latest album, Frampton Forgets the Words, is his second instrumental outing. He lets his guitar do the talking on this wide-ranging collection of cover songs, including material by George Harrison, Roxy Music, Lenny Kravitz, and Radiohead. We sat down with Peter and his long-time friend and engineer Chuck Ainlay to find out more.

Our Zoom interview kicked off with Chuck noting that while he was using the built-in mic in his computer and I was using a Electro-Voice RE-20, Peter was using a Neumann U 67 for his video chat. Things digressed quickly as we learned that Peter acquired his collection of U 67 and FET 47 mics from Pink Floyd years ago, and Chuck was not allowed to borrow them for fear Peter would never get them back. This banter clued me in to the history and friendship shared by these two.