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'The Jersey Girls'; Interview with Peter Frampton

Aired April 05, 2004 - 11:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Here's something you may not know, the 9/11 Commission might never have existed were it not for a group of September 11th widows. Many people are calling them the "Jersey Girls."
Alina Cho has their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Spend a few minutes with the Jersey girls and you may think these women are lifelong friends. They are not.

MINDY KLEINBERG, 9/11 WIDOW: You know what? You have homework.

CHO: The four mothers never knew each other before September 11, but when all of them lost their husbands that day...

KLEINBERG: We wanted to know how could this have happened? How could we live here and have been taken over by 19 terrorists from another country?

PATTY CASAZZA, 9/11 WIDOW: For us, there will be no peace until we have the answers to all of our questions.

CHO: So Patty Casazza and Mindy Kleinberg joined with Kristen Breitweiser and Lori Van Auken to form a group of 9/11 families hoping for answers.

LORI VAN AUKEN, 9/11 WIDOW: Nine/11, for us, was a colossal failure. A failure of defense, security.

CHO: And change.

KLEINBERG: We don't want to have another attack. We don't want anybody to walk in our shoes.

CHO: So these women did something about it. And pushed hard for the creation of a 9/11 Commission.

THOMAS KEANE, CHMN., 911 COMMISSION: They're influential in everything. Really, they're there, they work when we need something, they're on the spot.

CHO: That means staging a walkout when Richard Armitage testified instead of National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice during the hearings. Rice will now go before the commission this week. (on camera): But the women's activism in an election year have made them a target of Republican attacks. Republicans who say they are being used by the Democrats to go after President Bush.

(voice-over): The women took issue with the president's use of 9/11 images in his ads.

KRISTEN BREITWEISER, 9/11 WIDOW: I know certain people have called Ground Zero quote/unquote, "the perfect backdrop." It's hell on earth for me.

CHO: And then there are lighter moments.

VAN AUKEN: We knew the Congress was split between the Senate and the House. But I didn't know which one had more, you know, members. And now I know.

CHO: They've learned a lot.

BREITWEISER: We certainly succeeded.

CHO: But say they'll never stop searching for answers.

Alina Cho, CNN, East Brunswick, New Jersey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Condoleezza Rice testifies before the 9/11 commission Thursday morning publicly and under oath at 9:00 a.m. Eastern. You can count on CNN to bring that to you live.

Deanna Laney could find out tomorrow whether she'll spend time in a mental institution. Over the weekend, Laney was acquitted of bashing two of her son's to death with a rock and severely injuring her baby. Now friends and family are struggling to come to terms with that verdict.

Rebecca Aguilar, with affiliate KDFW, visited Laney's church in Tyler, Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REV. GARY BELL, CHURCH PASTOR: As far as the church, we are poised and ready to move forward.

REBECCA AGUILAR, KDFW-TV REPORTER (voice-over): At the First Assembly of God church in Tyler, Pastor Gary Bell preached about standing tall with God's strength.

BELL: Our faith is unshaken in this.

AGUILAR: On his mind, possibly his own sister-in-law, Deanna Laney. A jury found her legally insane Saturday for stoning her two sons to death and injuring another son last Mother's Day weekend.

BELL: I have to have faith that it was the proper verdict that was passed down and probably the best verdict for all parties involved.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Find the defendant, Deanna Laney, not guilty by reason of insanity.

AGUILAR: Saturday, Laney cried as the verdict was read. Her husband, Keith, sat with his head down. A few jurors were seen crying. For some Tyler residents, the jury's decision was the wrong one.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was sane. And the reason why I'm confident in saying it is because her testimony, some the things that she said, if she was insane, she wouldn't knew to do some of the things like she said hid the rock.

AGUILAR: Back at Laney's church, members say now is not the time to give up on the troubled mother.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are satisfied with how the outcome and we're just pleased with it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's such a sad story. It's a little difficult, you know, but that's when you faith comes in.

AGUILAR (on camera): Laney will be back to the Smith County Courthouse on Tuesday, that's when she'll find out when she will be transferred from jail to a state mental hospital. State law allows Laney to be committed to a maximum-security state mental hospital where she can get psychiatric help.

(voice-over): Doctors are expected to evaluate Laney's current mental condition and decide if she will go to a state mental hospital. And if she is committed, doctors will also decide when she is well enough to go free.

Rebecca Aguilar, Fox 4 News.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: And our thanks again to Rebecca Augilar. And Laney says that God told her to hit her children. A local prosecutor says the toddler who survived will never be able to live on his own.

Other news across America now: a family friend of Audrey Seiler said the student who faked her abdication is now under psychiatric care. Police in Madison, Wisconsin plan to reveal more details about the wild goose chase over the next few days.

Hot Springs, Arkansas, a house that was once home to former President Bill Clinton went up in flames last night. Investigators say the fire started in a car engine inside the garage. Clinton moved from Hope to Hot Springs Arkansas in 1953. This house is not the one that was once offered in an online auction.

It came like a plague, a storm swooping through west and south Texas. Rain, hail, broken dams and flash floods sent people fleeing into the night. the hail was about a foot deep in Crystal City. The police chief said windows and carports caved, windows broke, and storm drains clogged.

Well, let's see, you fly Delta, you have to pay for your lunch. On Southwest, you get a few jokes over the PA. On Airtran, you get free pretzels.

Well, my point is airlines are changing.

However, CNN's favorite tightwad Bob Franken reports on the benefits of paying less and getting more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The winner and new champion in the 14th Annual Airline Quality Ratings Survey is JetBlue. In fact, the top three best performers are JetBlue, Alaska Air and Southwest. Altogether, the study rated 14. Many of the big ones were somewhere at the bottom -- United, American, Delta among those in the lower tier. All of the information came from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

What about performance industry wide? This will surprise the weary traveler. It was up, although that weary traveler might not be surprised to find it was up only slightly and that because the number of official consumer complaints was way down.

Even so, on time arrivals were down, while passenger bumping was up. Lost luggage up.

This is a joint project of the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Wichita State University.

As for the performance of the low cost carriers, the analysts made it clear they believe it's not just those low fares, but higher customer service which has resulted in a big jump in their market share from just four percent when the studies began, to a full 25 percent now.

The old joke used to be flying is the best way to fly. The study might suggest that flying cheaply is the best way to fly.

Bob Franken, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, he's back and in charge of it all. Peter Frampton doing something he said he hasn't done before. Up next, the guitar great joins me live.

And later, this man doesn't have a guitar, but he seemed to piece together quite an ensemble, the homemade band that's rocking Seattle.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: He's back. The mans who hair was almost as famous and nearly as big as Farrah Fawcett's in the 1970s, Peter Frampton, with his double LP "Frampton Comes Alive." Remember "Vinyl?" PETER FRAMPTON, SINGER/GUITARIST: I remember my hair.

PHILLIPS: It was released in 1976 and sold more copies than any other live album in history. And now Peter Frampton has lost the big hair, but hey, he is back with the big sound in his new CD called "Now He's Here. He's Ready to Rock." I'm digging it.

FRAMPTON: You like it?

PHILLIPS: We were wondering now. You know, you were known for the sexy hair and unbuttoning the -- you know, you're bringing us all back here. Did you have like a special posse that took care of the do?

FRAMPTON: No, it was just I woke up and that's the way it looked. I was blessed, I guess. No, I had one perm, and then realized that I didn't ever have another one, and it was always -- we were always straightening my hair, you know, in the early days.

PHILLIPS: You had the perm.

FRAMPTON: Yes, I did have the perm and very early highlights.

PHILLIPS: You are on the cutting edge, absolutely.

All right, we got to talk about grandma here, and you're hunting through the attic, and you come across the banjalaly (ph). I hope I'm saying that, right?

FRAMPTON: You are, yes.

PHILLIPS: OK, this is where it all began?

FRAMPTON: Yes, I went up to the attic. Dad and I were getting down the suitcases to go on some holiday, and there was this little instrument box, and I said, what's that? And I was 7 at the time and dad said that's your grandmother's banjalaly. It's like a banjo- shaped eukalalee. So we got it down, and got it out, and he played something, you know, you know just something very, very -- two cords, you know, and that was it. Once I picked that up, there was -- I wanted to learn "Michael Rowed the Boat Next," I think.

PHILLIPS: And "Mary Had a Little Lamb." That's when the deep lyrics starting coming out, right?

FRAMPTON: Yes, Exactly, yes.

PHILLIPS: Wow, and then so dad got involved. Now we started sifting through some old pictures. Yes, I came across this one, you and some of the young chaps here.

FRAMPTON: That's right.

PHILLIPS: Take me back. Tell me about this picture.

FRAMPTON: This is the Trubies (ph). That's my brother in the first row there, that's my brother Clyde, and then that's Dave Rothy (ph) and Terry Nicholson behind me. That's me in the front there, playing my very first electric, the Hoffner Club 60, which...

PHILLIPS: Wow. You still have it?

FRAMPTON: I can't find it. It's one of those things that I've lost somewhere, but the banjalaly lives.

PHILLIPS: Very good. I told you, it's got to go in the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame.

What's the biggest difference you would say between Peter Frampton then and Peter Frampton now?

FRAMPTON: Well, I mean, if you're talking about the '70s, or are you talking about when I first started to play?

PHILLIPS: Let's go to the '70s, because that's when we really started to hear a lot about you.

FRAMPTON: Basically, having had that huge album it definitely gave me a bigger success than I ever could have dreamed of, and it's given me a place from which I can tour, make records, and hopefully for the rest of my life, you know, do exactly what I want to do. And it's been a wonderful change. Obviously, it's the success, new big, when you first hit it and you're on the front cover of all the magazines and everything, it's a very heavy experience.

PHILLIPS: And everybody's in charge of you. Now you're in charge of the whole gig. You got the whole studio in your basement.

FRAMPTON: It's sort of gone right back. The image thing took over, and it really of got me into a lot of trouble with the pop star image, and I'm a guitar player, so it really is nice now to, you know, put out an album, and I know people aren't buying it for the hair, they're buying it for the playing, and also to get -- a couple years ago to get a Grammy nomination for an instrumental.

PHILLIPS: Well, "Off the Hook." Let's play a clip of that, because I want to ask you about that.

Let's roll that, Scott.

Man, you know, I look back and I think your dad made you talk classical guitar lessons. You probably fought that, and now you're saying thank you, dad.

FRAMPTON: Absolutely. And some of the music that he and my mother were listening to when I was listening to The Beatles was early jazz, you know, like wartime, Second World War jazz, like "Janger Rhinehart (ph)," "Hope Club De France (ph)," and Charlie Christian and all these great, great players. I thought it sounded like rubbish, you know, at the time, but, now, of course, Janger Rhineheart's my favorite guitar player, because it just like ingrained in me, and you realize that, you know, it's one thing -- when I started playing electric, I started playing what you would call surf music, like, you know, "Ventures" and stuff like that, early instrumental stuff, in the early '60s before The Beatles and, of course, there is more to guitar playing than that.

PHILLIPS: Oh, absolutely.

FRAMPTON: So, it's been a journey throughout trying to listen to as many guitar players as possible and steal from the best.

PHILLIPS: Steal from the best. Listen to you.

Now, you know, you're a song writer also. I want to know when you're sitting down and putting your music together now, this different Peter Frampton, OK, the selfish Peter Frampton, as you say.

FRAMPTON: Which is what an artist should be. It took me a while to realize that, but you know, to be an artist you can't do what anybody hopes you would do or requests you to do. It's got to come from here.

PHILLIPS: And when you look deep down in there, is it a person, is moment in time, is it an experience that inspires the song now?

FRAMPTON: Well, the material on the album is over a four-year period, but I get my inspiration basically from usually at home, everyone is -- the day's over. Everyone has gone to bed and I go down to my studio, and I pick up the guitar, and for an hour, hour and a half, I just sit there and I play for my own enjoyment, and that's usually when I put on a little tape recorder and just tape my silly ideas that sometimes turn into really good songs, you know, or really good instrumentals or whatever piece of music.

PHILLIPS: So you probably get asked this all the time, but who's Peter Frampton's best friend? Who's been the person's that's just rock solid and has been there by your side when you said you were caught up in this pop culture phenomenon until now?

FRAMPTON: Well, I'd have to say my dear friend John Regan (ph), who is our bass player, and he's been -- well, all the band have been -- I keep players as long as I can. And if it works, then why change it? And we have, well, we've actually just lost one of our band members, Bob Mayo, passed away recently.

PHILLIPS: I know how special he was to, one of your best friends.

FRAMPTON: Yes, so Bob Mayo and John have always been there with me, and John and I now sadly have to -- have lost bob. But John is a very, very dear friend to me, and is always there. He's one of those people -- there's very few people that you can just -- you have a problem and it's something that maybe you can't talk to the family about, but it's just -- he's always there, and it's always nice to have someone like that.

PHILLIPS: Well, you know what, Peter Frampton, Bob is looking down. His spirit is inspiring you, And the new album is out. You got to get it, "Peter Frampton Now." He's here with us now, back better than ever.

Thanks so much for hanging out with us.

FRAMPTON: It's been my pleasure.

PHILLIPS: Yes, it's been great for all of us. We've watched you through the years. It's been a pleasure.

FRAMPTON: Well, thanks for having me.

PHILLIPS: It's great. And you're on tour.

FRAMPTON: We are, May 6th, Cleveland, we start. We're everywhere for two months.

PHILLIPS: Excellent. Thanks again.

FRAMPTON: Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, take some aluminum pipe, add a bicycle chain, throw in some string, some duct tape, put it all together, what do you get? Well, if you're Mike Silverman, you get some very funky music.

Affiliate KING, KING TV, photojournatlist Ron Stanford caught up with the one-man band on the streets of Seattle.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like this. Stainless steel. Got of tangled up today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's different. Definitely.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're in front of the crocodile cafe on Second Street here in Seattle, Washington. I'm going to be playing here tonight.

Yes, it's a big circular energy rhythm thing. It just starts to move, and I kind of get caught up in it and just get going with it.

You know a little bit of confusion, of course, because they don't know what's making all the sounds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Awesome. What's he playing? What's it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's so different, they can put it in a box right away, so they are sort of forced to accept it for what it is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's called what?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That one guy.

I'm paying the bills, you know, I get to tour, travel the world and I get to play my music and put gas in the car and get to the next gig, and can't complain about that.

It takes a lot of work, but I love doing it. You know, when I hit that last note, and just the fact that I made it through that whole gig and everything still works, it's a pretty good feeling.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Violence and defiance in Iraq. U.S. forces clamping down after deadly uprisings stirred by a Muslim cleric. And taking center stage, Condoleezza Rice set to testify before the 9/11 Commission. What will she have to say to satisfy her critics. Get your toddler away from the TV. An attention-getting new study about kids and short attention spans. And we're not pulling the wool over your eyes, sheep on the loose, and they're our picture of the day.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired April 5, 2004 - 11:30   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Here's something you may not know, the 9/11 Commission might never have existed were it not for a group of September 11th widows. Many people are calling them the "Jersey Girls."
Alina Cho has their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Spend a few minutes with the Jersey girls and you may think these women are lifelong friends. They are not.

MINDY KLEINBERG, 9/11 WIDOW: You know what? You have homework.

CHO: The four mothers never knew each other before September 11, but when all of them lost their husbands that day...

KLEINBERG: We wanted to know how could this have happened? How could we live here and have been taken over by 19 terrorists from another country?

PATTY CASAZZA, 9/11 WIDOW: For us, there will be no peace until we have the answers to all of our questions.

CHO: So Patty Casazza and Mindy Kleinberg joined with Kristen Breitweiser and Lori Van Auken to form a group of 9/11 families hoping for answers.

LORI VAN AUKEN, 9/11 WIDOW: Nine/11, for us, was a colossal failure. A failure of defense, security.

CHO: And change.

KLEINBERG: We don't want to have another attack. We don't want anybody to walk in our shoes.

CHO: So these women did something about it. And pushed hard for the creation of a 9/11 Commission.

THOMAS KEANE, CHMN., 911 COMMISSION: They're influential in everything. Really, they're there, they work when we need something, they're on the spot.

CHO: That means staging a walkout when Richard Armitage testified instead of National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice during the hearings. Rice will now go before the commission this week. (on camera): But the women's activism in an election year have made them a target of Republican attacks. Republicans who say they are being used by the Democrats to go after President Bush.

(voice-over): The women took issue with the president's use of 9/11 images in his ads.

KRISTEN BREITWEISER, 9/11 WIDOW: I know certain people have called Ground Zero quote/unquote, "the perfect backdrop." It's hell on earth for me.

CHO: And then there are lighter moments.

VAN AUKEN: We knew the Congress was split between the Senate and the House. But I didn't know which one had more, you know, members. And now I know.

CHO: They've learned a lot.

BREITWEISER: We certainly succeeded.

CHO: But say they'll never stop searching for answers.

Alina Cho, CNN, East Brunswick, New Jersey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Condoleezza Rice testifies before the 9/11 commission Thursday morning publicly and under oath at 9:00 a.m. Eastern. You can count on CNN to bring that to you live.

Deanna Laney could find out tomorrow whether she'll spend time in a mental institution. Over the weekend, Laney was acquitted of bashing two of her son's to death with a rock and severely injuring her baby. Now friends and family are struggling to come to terms with that verdict.

Rebecca Aguilar, with affiliate KDFW, visited Laney's church in Tyler, Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REV. GARY BELL, CHURCH PASTOR: As far as the church, we are poised and ready to move forward.

REBECCA AGUILAR, KDFW-TV REPORTER (voice-over): At the First Assembly of God church in Tyler, Pastor Gary Bell preached about standing tall with God's strength.

BELL: Our faith is unshaken in this.

AGUILAR: On his mind, possibly his own sister-in-law, Deanna Laney. A jury found her legally insane Saturday for stoning her two sons to death and injuring another son last Mother's Day weekend.

BELL: I have to have faith that it was the proper verdict that was passed down and probably the best verdict for all parties involved.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Find the defendant, Deanna Laney, not guilty by reason of insanity.

AGUILAR: Saturday, Laney cried as the verdict was read. Her husband, Keith, sat with his head down. A few jurors were seen crying. For some Tyler residents, the jury's decision was the wrong one.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was sane. And the reason why I'm confident in saying it is because her testimony, some the things that she said, if she was insane, she wouldn't knew to do some of the things like she said hid the rock.

AGUILAR: Back at Laney's church, members say now is not the time to give up on the troubled mother.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are satisfied with how the outcome and we're just pleased with it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's such a sad story. It's a little difficult, you know, but that's when you faith comes in.

AGUILAR (on camera): Laney will be back to the Smith County Courthouse on Tuesday, that's when she'll find out when she will be transferred from jail to a state mental hospital. State law allows Laney to be committed to a maximum-security state mental hospital where she can get psychiatric help.

(voice-over): Doctors are expected to evaluate Laney's current mental condition and decide if she will go to a state mental hospital. And if she is committed, doctors will also decide when she is well enough to go free.

Rebecca Aguilar, Fox 4 News.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: And our thanks again to Rebecca Augilar. And Laney says that God told her to hit her children. A local prosecutor says the toddler who survived will never be able to live on his own.

Other news across America now: a family friend of Audrey Seiler said the student who faked her abdication is now under psychiatric care. Police in Madison, Wisconsin plan to reveal more details about the wild goose chase over the next few days.

Hot Springs, Arkansas, a house that was once home to former President Bill Clinton went up in flames last night. Investigators say the fire started in a car engine inside the garage. Clinton moved from Hope to Hot Springs Arkansas in 1953. This house is not the one that was once offered in an online auction.

It came like a plague, a storm swooping through west and south Texas. Rain, hail, broken dams and flash floods sent people fleeing into the night. the hail was about a foot deep in Crystal City. The police chief said windows and carports caved, windows broke, and storm drains clogged.

Well, let's see, you fly Delta, you have to pay for your lunch. On Southwest, you get a few jokes over the PA. On Airtran, you get free pretzels.

Well, my point is airlines are changing.

However, CNN's favorite tightwad Bob Franken reports on the benefits of paying less and getting more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The winner and new champion in the 14th Annual Airline Quality Ratings Survey is JetBlue. In fact, the top three best performers are JetBlue, Alaska Air and Southwest. Altogether, the study rated 14. Many of the big ones were somewhere at the bottom -- United, American, Delta among those in the lower tier. All of the information came from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

What about performance industry wide? This will surprise the weary traveler. It was up, although that weary traveler might not be surprised to find it was up only slightly and that because the number of official consumer complaints was way down.

Even so, on time arrivals were down, while passenger bumping was up. Lost luggage up.

This is a joint project of the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Wichita State University.

As for the performance of the low cost carriers, the analysts made it clear they believe it's not just those low fares, but higher customer service which has resulted in a big jump in their market share from just four percent when the studies began, to a full 25 percent now.

The old joke used to be flying is the best way to fly. The study might suggest that flying cheaply is the best way to fly.

Bob Franken, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, he's back and in charge of it all. Peter Frampton doing something he said he hasn't done before. Up next, the guitar great joins me live.

And later, this man doesn't have a guitar, but he seemed to piece together quite an ensemble, the homemade band that's rocking Seattle.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: He's back. The mans who hair was almost as famous and nearly as big as Farrah Fawcett's in the 1970s, Peter Frampton, with his double LP "Frampton Comes Alive." Remember "Vinyl?" PETER FRAMPTON, SINGER/GUITARIST: I remember my hair.

PHILLIPS: It was released in 1976 and sold more copies than any other live album in history. And now Peter Frampton has lost the big hair, but hey, he is back with the big sound in his new CD called "Now He's Here. He's Ready to Rock." I'm digging it.

FRAMPTON: You like it?

PHILLIPS: We were wondering now. You know, you were known for the sexy hair and unbuttoning the -- you know, you're bringing us all back here. Did you have like a special posse that took care of the do?

FRAMPTON: No, it was just I woke up and that's the way it looked. I was blessed, I guess. No, I had one perm, and then realized that I didn't ever have another one, and it was always -- we were always straightening my hair, you know, in the early days.

PHILLIPS: You had the perm.

FRAMPTON: Yes, I did have the perm and very early highlights.

PHILLIPS: You are on the cutting edge, absolutely.

All right, we got to talk about grandma here, and you're hunting through the attic, and you come across the banjalaly (ph). I hope I'm saying that, right?

FRAMPTON: You are, yes.

PHILLIPS: OK, this is where it all began?

FRAMPTON: Yes, I went up to the attic. Dad and I were getting down the suitcases to go on some holiday, and there was this little instrument box, and I said, what's that? And I was 7 at the time and dad said that's your grandmother's banjalaly. It's like a banjo- shaped eukalalee. So we got it down, and got it out, and he played something, you know, you know just something very, very -- two cords, you know, and that was it. Once I picked that up, there was -- I wanted to learn "Michael Rowed the Boat Next," I think.

PHILLIPS: And "Mary Had a Little Lamb." That's when the deep lyrics starting coming out, right?

FRAMPTON: Yes, Exactly, yes.

PHILLIPS: Wow, and then so dad got involved. Now we started sifting through some old pictures. Yes, I came across this one, you and some of the young chaps here.

FRAMPTON: That's right.

PHILLIPS: Take me back. Tell me about this picture.

FRAMPTON: This is the Trubies (ph). That's my brother in the first row there, that's my brother Clyde, and then that's Dave Rothy (ph) and Terry Nicholson behind me. That's me in the front there, playing my very first electric, the Hoffner Club 60, which...

PHILLIPS: Wow. You still have it?

FRAMPTON: I can't find it. It's one of those things that I've lost somewhere, but the banjalaly lives.

PHILLIPS: Very good. I told you, it's got to go in the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame.

What's the biggest difference you would say between Peter Frampton then and Peter Frampton now?

FRAMPTON: Well, I mean, if you're talking about the '70s, or are you talking about when I first started to play?

PHILLIPS: Let's go to the '70s, because that's when we really started to hear a lot about you.

FRAMPTON: Basically, having had that huge album it definitely gave me a bigger success than I ever could have dreamed of, and it's given me a place from which I can tour, make records, and hopefully for the rest of my life, you know, do exactly what I want to do. And it's been a wonderful change. Obviously, it's the success, new big, when you first hit it and you're on the front cover of all the magazines and everything, it's a very heavy experience.

PHILLIPS: And everybody's in charge of you. Now you're in charge of the whole gig. You got the whole studio in your basement.

FRAMPTON: It's sort of gone right back. The image thing took over, and it really of got me into a lot of trouble with the pop star image, and I'm a guitar player, so it really is nice now to, you know, put out an album, and I know people aren't buying it for the hair, they're buying it for the playing, and also to get -- a couple years ago to get a Grammy nomination for an instrumental.

PHILLIPS: Well, "Off the Hook." Let's play a clip of that, because I want to ask you about that.

Let's roll that, Scott.

Man, you know, I look back and I think your dad made you talk classical guitar lessons. You probably fought that, and now you're saying thank you, dad.

FRAMPTON: Absolutely. And some of the music that he and my mother were listening to when I was listening to The Beatles was early jazz, you know, like wartime, Second World War jazz, like "Janger Rhinehart (ph)," "Hope Club De France (ph)," and Charlie Christian and all these great, great players. I thought it sounded like rubbish, you know, at the time, but, now, of course, Janger Rhineheart's my favorite guitar player, because it just like ingrained in me, and you realize that, you know, it's one thing -- when I started playing electric, I started playing what you would call surf music, like, you know, "Ventures" and stuff like that, early instrumental stuff, in the early '60s before The Beatles and, of course, there is more to guitar playing than that.

PHILLIPS: Oh, absolutely.

FRAMPTON: So, it's been a journey throughout trying to listen to as many guitar players as possible and steal from the best.

PHILLIPS: Steal from the best. Listen to you.

Now, you know, you're a song writer also. I want to know when you're sitting down and putting your music together now, this different Peter Frampton, OK, the selfish Peter Frampton, as you say.

FRAMPTON: Which is what an artist should be. It took me a while to realize that, but you know, to be an artist you can't do what anybody hopes you would do or requests you to do. It's got to come from here.

PHILLIPS: And when you look deep down in there, is it a person, is moment in time, is it an experience that inspires the song now?

FRAMPTON: Well, the material on the album is over a four-year period, but I get my inspiration basically from usually at home, everyone is -- the day's over. Everyone has gone to bed and I go down to my studio, and I pick up the guitar, and for an hour, hour and a half, I just sit there and I play for my own enjoyment, and that's usually when I put on a little tape recorder and just tape my silly ideas that sometimes turn into really good songs, you know, or really good instrumentals or whatever piece of music.

PHILLIPS: So you probably get asked this all the time, but who's Peter Frampton's best friend? Who's been the person's that's just rock solid and has been there by your side when you said you were caught up in this pop culture phenomenon until now?

FRAMPTON: Well, I'd have to say my dear friend John Regan (ph), who is our bass player, and he's been -- well, all the band have been -- I keep players as long as I can. And if it works, then why change it? And we have, well, we've actually just lost one of our band members, Bob Mayo, passed away recently.

PHILLIPS: I know how special he was to, one of your best friends.

FRAMPTON: Yes, so Bob Mayo and John have always been there with me, and John and I now sadly have to -- have lost bob. But John is a very, very dear friend to me, and is always there. He's one of those people -- there's very few people that you can just -- you have a problem and it's something that maybe you can't talk to the family about, but it's just -- he's always there, and it's always nice to have someone like that.

PHILLIPS: Well, you know what, Peter Frampton, Bob is looking down. His spirit is inspiring you, And the new album is out. You got to get it, "Peter Frampton Now." He's here with us now, back better than ever.

Thanks so much for hanging out with us.

FRAMPTON: It's been my pleasure.

PHILLIPS: Yes, it's been great for all of us. We've watched you through the years. It's been a pleasure.

FRAMPTON: Well, thanks for having me.

PHILLIPS: It's great. And you're on tour.

FRAMPTON: We are, May 6th, Cleveland, we start. We're everywhere for two months.

PHILLIPS: Excellent. Thanks again.

FRAMPTON: Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, take some aluminum pipe, add a bicycle chain, throw in some string, some duct tape, put it all together, what do you get? Well, if you're Mike Silverman, you get some very funky music.

Affiliate KING, KING TV, photojournatlist Ron Stanford caught up with the one-man band on the streets of Seattle.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like this. Stainless steel. Got of tangled up today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's different. Definitely.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're in front of the crocodile cafe on Second Street here in Seattle, Washington. I'm going to be playing here tonight.

Yes, it's a big circular energy rhythm thing. It just starts to move, and I kind of get caught up in it and just get going with it.

You know a little bit of confusion, of course, because they don't know what's making all the sounds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Awesome. What's he playing? What's it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's so different, they can put it in a box right away, so they are sort of forced to accept it for what it is.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's called what?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That one guy.

I'm paying the bills, you know, I get to tour, travel the world and I get to play my music and put gas in the car and get to the next gig, and can't complain about that.

It takes a lot of work, but I love doing it. You know, when I hit that last note, and just the fact that I made it through that whole gig and everything still works, it's a pretty good feeling.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Violence and defiance in Iraq. U.S. forces clamping down after deadly uprisings stirred by a Muslim cleric. And taking center stage, Condoleezza Rice set to testify before the 9/11 Commission. What will she have to say to satisfy her critics. Get your toddler away from the TV. An attention-getting new study about kids and short attention spans. And we're not pulling the wool over your eyes, sheep on the loose, and they're our picture of the day.

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