In his 2020 autobiography, Peter Frampton declared that when he makes up his mind, “that’s it.” The iconic guitarist and writer of songs like “Show Me the Way” and “Baby, I Love Your Way” announced his retirement from touring the prior year due to a progressive, debilitating muscle disease. This followed an appropriately named Finale Tour, and it seemed like a forgone conclusion and cap on an impressive career in the same part of the world where he recorded his best-selling live album, Frampton Comes Alive.

“Well, you know I’m allowed to change my mind!” the English artist says over a video call from his home in Nashville, chuckling.

Before the Finale Tour, Peter Frampton had completed two runs with Steve Miller, after which he rushed his band back into the studio within a couple of weeks, with his inclusion-body myositis (IBM) diagnosis in mind, to record two blues albums (2019’s All Blues and one yet to be released) as well as 2021 instrumental Frampton Forgets the Words.

“I want to play as much as I can in the shortest space of time, for obvious reasons, not knowing the speed of this disease, this IBM that I have and not trusting it,” he told his band.

Then the pandemic wiped out the European leg of the Finale Tour, making his last show, at least temporarily, at Concord Pavilion in the East Bay. As the pandemic wore on, he spent a lot of time with his keyboardist and bandleader, Rob Arthur on their joint production company, Phoenix Features (“We haven’t made a feature yet, but we do good videos! You gotta think big!”).

Peter Frampton has had good days and down days, largely due to feeling like his time being able to play the guitar was being lost. The rare condition causes severe weakness, fatigue and disability. The guitarist has been seeing specialists at Johns Hopkins and likes to point out that it’s “not life threatening; it’s life changing.”

He first felt the symptoms of the condition when he was in his early 60s, in his legs.

“I couldn’t keep up with my son hiking up a hill. And I said, ‘I must be getting old,’” he says. “And then it got worse and worse, gradually; very slowly. …. And then, all of a sudden, my arms felt like they were not as powerful. When I went to put my computer bag in the plane, the overhead, I thought, ‘Oh, this is really heavy!’ But it’s not heavy. I was losing the muscles to do that.”

He said the condition doesn’t cause pain besides an ache from time to time. Any pain he feels in his arms or legs he attributes to arthritis. The IBM progresses slowly and plateaus for a while before progressing some more.

Frampton works out six days a week, including hand exercises.

“It’s just [about] keeping these fingers moving, both hands,” he says. “It’s getting a little bit more difficult to play the chords that I would like to play.”

Friend and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Dion DiMucci got him working on music again during the pandemic. DiMucci called him up one day and asked him to play guitar on his album, rescuing him from his doldrums.

“We all have our moments, and I have my moments when I’m feeling sorry for myself, then I slap myself out of it, and because I’m basically a ‘my cup is half full’ guy,” he says. “When you get challenged by a legendary musician, performer, writer, singer—that challenge was very welcome, and it started me back up writing again and playing every day.”

These days, he says, he’s backlogged with his own projects, as well as requests from his peers. Eventually, he became inspired to go on the road again, and as soon as possible. He’s says he’s still close to the best of his abilities and still enjoys himself.

There will be a few differences from his last tour; he’ll need to be seated, for example (“I would wobble over, I’m sure.”). He points out that he toured with blues legend B.B. King, who would sit when he played and that it drew the audience even closer to him. On his last tour, audiences gave him a warm reception, knowing he was trying to play as long as possible.

“I felt like every audience had their arms around me,” he says. “I get chills thinking about it. It’s a wonderful feeling, and I can’t thank everybody enough because they know that something’s up, and it’s not a small thing. They’re very caring, and I appreciate that.”

The Never Say Never Tour will bring Frampton back through the Bay Area. His connection to the area predates recording most of Frampton Comes Alive in San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom and Marin Veterans’ Memorial Auditorium. He’d been friends with Bill Graham, who booked his shows with rock band Humble Pie.

San Francisco was one of a just a handful of cities that latched on to his music, starting with Humble Pie and his 1975 self-titled album. Radio station KSAN played his music around the clock. So whenever he comes back, it feels special, he says.

Frampton spends a good chunk of his autobiography, “Do You Feel Like I Do?” on the prep work and recording of Comes Alive, explaining things like logistics, his band at the time and the reaction of the audience to his signature analog talk box that made his guitar “sing.” Back then, he’d only been using it for two years at that point, and only on a couple of songs.

Of course, the book also delves into his upbringing, his childhood friendship with David Bowie, his success with rock bands the Herd and Humble Pie, and his history with the Beatles’ George Harrison and Ringo Starr. It also doesn’t skimp on his pratfalls—his manager was tied to the mob—marriages and lost earnings.

Peter Frampton says the writing experience was rewarding but also much more work than he expected, especially when he was handed a manuscript about 12 inches thick and told he had to edit it.

“But the most enjoyable part was reading the audio book, because I was able to say it in my own words with my own emotion, and also do the voices: Ringo’s voice, George’s voice, [manager] Dee Anthony’s voice—lots and lots of different characters,” he says. “I’ve always been a dialect guy and enjoyed doing different voices. It was a performance in itself.”

And now he gets to perform on stage again. He and his band purposefully scheduled a manageable load of a couple of weeks a month through the summer, returning home to Nashville, where he’s traded in his downtown condo for more space, a large green yard, and his daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter around the corner.

Even if he’s not at the top of his game—his words—he’s still enjoying it.

“Each note is just becoming so much more important to me. I think so much more of me goes into every note that I play now, for obvious reasons,” he says. “So to me, this is the bonus tour. This is the tour that I never thought I would get to do.”

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At the conclusion of the tour, in September, Frampton will receive the Myositis Association’s Patient Ambassador Award for his advocacy of inclusion body myositis research and awareness. At first, he says, he didn’t know what to think about the honor, and presumed that it was simply because he’s someone famous who has it.

It’s a relatively rare condition and difficult to diagnose, with about 40,000 or 50,000 diagnoses each year. His doctor at Johns Hopkins then told him that every person who walks through her door has said that he or she learned they may have IBM because of Frampton. That means a lot to him.

Perhaps surprising to even Peter Frampton is how happy he is right now, mostly due to being close to his family. He calls it the best of all his years.

“I have a grandchild, and maybe another one soon. When you have a grandchild, it’s like you didn’t think there was any more room in your heart left to give this grandchild, but it opens up a whole other place in your heart. For my child to have a child, it’s so fantastic!” he says. “Even with the disease like I have, life is good! You just got to make sure you do everything you want to do, because it’s short!”

He talks about how he’s tired of all the negativity in the news, and that he’s traded in watching the news in the morning for animal reels. Elephants are his favorite, and he’s even adopted a couple, sending money to support them, as well as donating to other animal causes.

“This morning, I saw this one where a little kid’s shoe fell into the elephant enclosure in the zoo,” he says. “What did the elephant do? Put his trunk down, picked up the shoe and gave it back to the child with its trunk. Now, isn’t there something we can learn there? It’s just amazing how caring and how thoughtful they are.

“I’ve often thought what animal lives as long as us,” Frampton says. “Elephants are pretty close. I could come back as an elephant. Or maybe a giant tortoise; they live to like 200. That’s what I want to come back as. I want to be a giant tortoise.”

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.