Interview and article by Nik Mohan

*Courtesy of* Austin Lord / 10 Lives Studios..

A documentary about the life and career of legendary rock musician Peter Frampton is about to hit the Tribeca Film Festival, and who better to helm ‘Frampton’ than Frampton’s own bandleader for over 20 years, Rob Arthur.

Rob spoke to Top Film about the film in anticipation for its world premiere on June 4 at the OKX Theater at BMCC TPAC (New York).

You’ve spent 20 years beside Peter Frampton onstage. What led to the decision of making a doc on Peter Frampton, what made you feel you were the right person to tell his story?

Rob: I had been fooling around—starting about 8 years ago—with cameras and lighting and editing. Started to get obsessed with this. And part of it is because Peter [Frampton] has this diseases [Inclusion Body Myositis], it’s a muscle degenerative disease. And I could sense well okay, he’s gonna be quitting at some point and what do I do next? I’ve done so much touring with many different artists; Steve Miller, The Doobie Brothers, Yes, Cheap Trick, The Who. I know all these people and I can tell some rock stories. That’s why I learned the camera thing—maybe I could do road stories. But then as those developed it became clear…

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Rob: Peter and I have a good time together. We did a bunch of music videos—during COVID I did music videos for The Doobie Brothers… At this point he just said well, Rob’s the guy.

What has it been like working with Peter over the past 20 years, is that something you can even put into words? How difficult did that make it to condense his life into a film that’s just a little over an hour, forty-five minutes?

Rob: It’s tough to let go of some things, we had it at 2.5 hours initially. The ultimate goal was one-hundred minutes. We left in the stuff that I thought was the most pertinent to his character. The backdrop of that is rock and roll. You wouldn’t have to be a fan of his music to enjoy the story.

You did a YouTube video 6 years ago called ‘Today’s Music SUCKS.’ What is it about Peter’s music that keeps transcending generations?

Rob: It’s authentic. This is a real guy writing about real stuff. It’s not like [David] Bowie, Ziggy Stardust. That’s a character. Peter’s very transparent in himself and I think that’s always been his appeal. This is the guy, he’s telling you the truth. When it’s a sad song, it really happened to him and you can feel it. You can feel authentic emotions.

What was your musical introduction to Peter Frampton?

Rob: Well of course, all my friends had 'Frampton Comes Alive!’ — I was thirteen when that came out. I love that record. The first time I saw Peter play was when he did that Bowie tour. It blew my mind how great he was. I wasn’t even close to stage, but he was so great that you could single him out and go whoa, one of the greatest guitar players I’ve ever seen.

There’s a lot of people involved in this documentary, Ringo Starr, Tom Morello, Alice Cooper, Kate Hudson, Sheryl Crow, Herb Alpert, Nancy Wilson — talk to me about how you selected this huge group of people.

Rob: Lisa Jenkins, who was one of the producers for the film, had been Peter’s manager for the last twenty-six years. She just called all of Peter’s friends—they all said yes. It was easy to get all these people because they love Peter…

Rob: There’s some stuff that couldn’t even make the film… funny stories and we thought that was for a different kind of film.

This is a film about legacy, but it’s also about someone who is still creating. How did you avoid making it feel like a final chapter?

Rob: He’s a fighter, he’s got this disease that’s going to make it harder for him to tour and make music. But he’s gonna keep doing it, that’s who he is. That’s what keeps his spirits up and it’s what he’s done everyday for his whole life. He’ll find a way. I already know that as long as I’m telling the truth to this story, you should be able to sense that.