Frampton Back In The Mix

In the mid-1970s, Peter Frampton was everywhere: on television, radio, magazine covers, teenybopper posters -- even lunch boxes. His double album, Frampton Comes Alive, was the biggest selling live album in rock history, helping usher in an era of stadium rock and influencing countless guitarists.

"It just went through the roof. I mean, overnight, my life changed immediately," Frampton said.

Today, Frampton's hair is a lot shorter and he has the wizened aspect of someone whose lived through many highs and lows over the last quarter-century, but his music is still fresh, as Rebecca Rankin of VH1 reports for CBS News.

Gibson is producing the Peter Frampton Signature Guitar and Frampton has a new album coming out with all his old hits digitally re-mastered. Frampton's amazing story will also be featured Sunday on VH1's Behind The Music.

Frampton had achieved some success prior to his mega-album, scoring hits in Great Britain with The Herd and in the U.S. with Humble Pie, but as he told Rankin, life since Frampton Comes Alive hasn’t always been good. He was seriously injured in a 1978 car crash, his next album bombed, and a series of financial mishaps followed, leaving him broke through much of the next decade.

"It was absolutely true that I was on a bread line up until on a few years ago," Frampton said.

But Frampton always had great talent, even as a young boy, and it was seen by a schoolmate who was also destined to reach great musical heights.

"He was just dynamite. I mean, already at 13 he was a great guitarist," said childhood friend David Bowie, then a student of Peter's art teacher dad.

With the new album, Frampton hopes to recapture some of his old magic, but no matter how it does, he isn't looking back.

"This is the happiest period of my life," he said.

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