Peter Frampton to play Clipper Magazine Stadium in Lancaster on June 8
The legendary English rocker will share the bill with Lynyrd Skynyrd
If you grew up in the '70s, there's a good chance Peter Frampton's classic album "Frampton Comes Alive!" was part of your music collection.
The live, double-album came out in 1976 with soon-to-be hits like "Baby I Love Your Way" and "Show Me the Way." Its cover features a young Frampton, his shirt unbuttoned and his blond hair cascading down to his shoulders.
The album debuted in January. A few months later, Frampton remembered, his agent was calling him to say the disc had outsold Carole King's "Tapestry" which was, at the time, the biggest-selling album ever.
"It changed my life completely," Frampton said. "My life was never to be the same again."
Forty years later, Frampton is back with his latest album "Acoustic Classics," featuring many of the same songs that helped made made him a mega star. This version is quieter, more understated, though. There's no band — just Frampton and his guitar.
He was striving for what he calls "a softer, more intimate," sound, as if he were playing a newly composed song as you sat in Frampton's kitchen sipping a cup of coffee and listening to him play.
"I wanted it to be stripped down, as if I'd just written it, as if it had just come out of the egg," he said in a phone interview from Lake Charles, Louisiana, a stop on his current tour.
The tour comes to Clipper Magazine Stadium in Lancaster on June 8, where Frampton will be joined by Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd.
It might seem an unlikely pairing — an English singer-songwriter, whose guitar style blends influences from jazz, rock and blues, and an all-American band famous for rowdy anthems like "Free Bird" and "Sweet Home Alabama."
But putting the two together in concert isn't as unusual as it might appear, Frampton said. Each has turned out their share of classic rock songs, and each features a lot of guitar solos in their performances.
"We are from the era of the [guitar] players," he said.
The new album includes many of the songs from "Frampton Comes Alive!" including one of his favorites, "Lines on My Face."
It's "a very emotional song," he said. "It's something everyone can relate to".
Frampton, after more than 40 years in the music business, is still working hard, trying to perfect his sound.
"I'll never be as good as I want to be," he said. "I've never sat back on my laurels and said, 'I'm so great.' That's not me. There's always going to be a better guitar player out there, and I know that."
If You Go
What: Peter Frampton and Lynyrd Skynyrd in concert
Where: Clipper Magazine Stadium, 650 N. Prince St., Lancaster
When: June 8, 6 p.m.
Cost: All tickets $55 general admission, plus $5.50 service fee
How to get tickets: By phone at 800-648-4102 or online at amtshows.com