BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) -- Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year, Peter Frampton is back on the road and will be performing at 8:30 p.m. on April 9 on Fallsview Casino's OLG Stage. He spoke with WIVB about the tour, new music, and working with artists he admires. "Things couldn't re ally be much better for me. And I'm not even talking from a business or career standpoint," he said. "I'm just talking about: one of my kids is engaged to be married in the spring, one's married, one has my grandchild, another one has my grand-- it's all about family at this time in my life." Gene Simmons reflects on retiring KISS, a DIY tour, working with George Lucas, more ahead of Niagara Falls show Writing with his DNA He said that on top of family life going great, he's doing well career-wise as well. Driven by a love of making music, Frampton is still writing, this time with his son Julian. "To be able to write with your own DNA is something spectacular, it really is," he said. "Sometimes when we're texting backwards and forwards -- we have this great app called Sessionwire, so we see each other's recording set-up and the mixer and also it's like built-in Zoom, so it's phenomenal." He recalled a recent moment when they were texting back-and-forth in need of a three-syllable word in a song they were working on, and they happened to both type the same word. "We just laughed because, who would've chosen that word, but the two of us?" Frampton said. "And not only is he co-writing with me, he's going to co-produce with me and Chuck Ainlay, the great co-producing engineer in Nashville. So we've got a lot of songs now, I'm very, very happy about that." He said the record is scheduled to release in early January to commemorate the 50th anniversary of his marquee record "Frampton Comes Alive!" which was released on Jan. 6, 1976. "We thought that it would be a particularly good time to put out a new record as well. I've never, ever released an album in January since then," Frampton said. "I have no expectations of it doing anything, but Julian and I love it, so that's all that matters." Frampton referred to himself as "on the out pile" when it comes to musicians in the business now, but said he still has "some stuff left" that he wants to play. "I'm wonderfully grateful for my output right now," he said. "I wrote another song the other day." Later works and wisdom Frampton said he enjoys people's music at their prime, but is more interested in their later works, as they are more informed by experience. "And I tend to really enjoy people that keep writing," he said. "I'm more interested in their later works now because they have wisdom. I'm not saying I have oodles of it, but I do have wisdom and I believe we see things in a very thoughtful way, rather than impulsive." He used Johnny Cash's cover of Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt" as an example. "That was so good-- it's probably one of my favorite things he's ever done," he said. "I'm a fan, have been for years, obviously. But, you know, it wasn't his song, but his interpretation of it was -- who would've thought that Johnny Cash would do a Nine Inch Nails song? It's wild, I love all that, it's the unexpected." He spoke to the freedom of music, that it can be written in a variety of ways, be it lyrics first or music first, writing to a beat or writing acoustically, he said he loves the different ways of coming up with a song. Lately, he's been writing music late at night with his guitar, while his dog keeps him company. "Every night, before I go to sleep, that's my most creative time for coming up with something new. Your creative juices tend to flow more in that out-of-this-world," he said. "It's like your subconscious, it's tapping into your subconscious." Frampton spoke of a song he and his son were writing, where they did not like the chorus. Julian eventually sent over a voice memo and the melody was in right, and it's the chorus they decided on. "I enjoy the creative process more now than I ever did," he said. "It was always like a pain before, but now it's -- I don't have to do anything, which is so great. And I should've thought about that back then, but the pressure was on." Meet your heroes Frampton recently played a cover of The Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" with 18-year-old blues guitar prodigy Grace Bowers and Phish lead guitarist Trey Anastasio at a benefit concert in New York City. "Grace, I feel like she's my daughter or a relation," Frampton said. "I did a thing for Gibson locally here in Nashville, it was the Les Paul Award, and they suggested, 'How about Grace opens for you?' So I listened to her and I went, [jaw drops] 'I think she's good!'" He said since then, he's been running into her a lot. "She's everywhere, and she should be everywhere, because she's so good," he said. "She's now with Sheryl Crow's manager Scooter [Weintraub], so she's doing really, really well." As for Anastasio, Frampton said he's a fan, but also understands that Anastasio is a big fan of his. "I introduced him as, 'Here's the man who had the live album called "Hampton Comes Alive,"' which I love," he said. "He just told me how big a fan he was, and it always blows me away when these people that I am a fan of, that I've never met, turn up and we meet and then you hear that they've been inspired by you, in any small way, is good. Working with people that I enjoy is a thrill, always." Bowers and Anastasio are not the first musicians Frampton is a fan of that he's had the chance to work with. He discussed recording a cover of Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" with members of Pearl Jam after having played the song live with Chris Cornell prior to Cornell's death in 2017. "'Black Hole Sun,' when I first heard that," he recalled, "I was driving and I had to pull over and turn it up. Because I knew if I turned it up and kept driving, I'd have an accident." Frampton said the construction of the song was incredible and gave him chills upon hearing. He detailed how his cover of the song came about. "I got asked by Pearl Jam many years ago now, for a political thing, Rock the Vote, to go and sit in with them in I think it was Columbus, so I got to meet my heroes. Love Pearl Jam. All of them, they're all great, and they're all friends now," he said. "While I was there, I was just talking to Matt [Cameron], Mike [McCready], and Jeff [Ament], and I just said I'm doing this instrumental album and I'd like to do an instrumental -- would you guys, could we do one together?" Cameron, the former drummer for Soundgarden, told Frampton he'd love to play the song again. Together, Frampton, Cameron, and McCready recorded the cover and an additional song, "Blowin' Smoke," for Frampton's "Fingerprints" record. "I went up to Seattle and I grunged in front of them, and we went to their warehouse and, we rehearsed it and then I said, 'I've got this other riff, you want to write something?'" he said. "So I just started riffing and Mike came up with another piece, so we wrote another instrumental, there's two with Pearl Jam on there." Frampton said the logistics for each track on "Fingerprints" was like its own individual album. "I had to fly to Seattle, then I had to fly to London to do Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts," he said. "The Shadows, the reason I'm sitting here is Hank Marvin, the lead guitarist of The Shadows. So I got to play with The Shadows and it's like, 'Really, did you get to... no that didn't happen, did it?' 'Yeah, it did.' So it's just so exciting for me to get the respect that I give these people. It's wonderful." The Hall Anastasio's Phish currently leads the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame fan vote, a concept which, until recently, Frampton said was largely ignored. He cited the change in Hall leadership from 'Rolling Stone' magazine co-founder Jann Wenner to entertainment industry exec John Sykes for his induction and more acknowledgement of the fan vote. "Beforehand, they put out the nominees and the public would vote, and I believe Dave Matthews was the number one picked by the public and he didn't get in," he said. "The nominees that the public vote on, it has to in some way, be in the ballpark of the music business voters as well." He called the initial Matthews snub "ridiculous" and a middle finger to the fan vote, and claimed that Wenner swayed the results of who was inducted with his influence. "I'm lucky that it turned around when it did basically, and so is Foreigner," Frampton said. "Because we were on the 'never to be get in' list by the 'Rolling Stone' guy. He just took a dislike to so many acts." Frampton said he's grateful and honored to be in the Hall, though for a while, he put the accomplishment out of his mind due to Wenner's involvement. Wenner was removed from the Hall's board in 2023 due to disparaging comments about women and Black people. Niagara Falls Frampton's "Let's Do It Again!" tour stops by Niagara Falls, ON on April 9. Ahead of the show, he spoke on Canadian-American relations, calling the political situation "bizarre" and "disturbing," but assuring fans, "we will get through this." "We've just got to stay strong," he said. "And Canada, I love you." For tickets to Frampton's Niagara Falls show, click here. The full interview can be viewed at the top of the page. Adam Duke is a digital contributor who joined WIVB in 2021. See more of his work here. ...read more read less