Peter Frampton Diagnosed With Rare Muscle Disease, Announces Farewell Tour

Peter Frampton has been secretly suffering from a muscle disease, the rock legend revealed on Saturday.

The "Baby, I Love the Way" singer told Rolling Stone that he has battled muscle issues in private for the past eight years, but did not seek treatment until 4 years ago after he fell onstage while trying to kick fan's beach ball.

"My legs just gave out," he said. "We all joked, 'He's fallen and he can't get up.' But I was embarrassed."

His doctors then diagnosed him with Inclusion-Body Myositis (IBM), an inflammatory muscle disease. His arms and legs will be affected, as well as his fingers. This means the famed guitarist will no longer be able to perform as he has for decades.

"I inherited this incredible team of doctors who are so passionate about what they do that it's ridiculous," Frampton said. "Then it was revealed to me that it wouldn't just affect my legs and my arms, but it's going to affect my fingers. That was the most troubling thing, obviously, for me."

Frampton has kept his condition under wraps until now. He said that he may be unable to pay anymore this time next year, so he wanted to go out with a farewell tour and a flurry of recording sessions while he is still strong.

"It wasn't at a place where it was necessary to tell anybody. My children and my band knew. That was it, literally. My crew didn't even know. At the beginning of the next tour, I fell one more time. 'Wow, he must be getting old!' I guess they just thought that," Frampton said. 'Yes, we did keep it to ourselves until there was a need to bring it up. The need is now because right now I can play great guitar and we are recording like maniacs at my studio in Nashville. We've done two albums already. I want to record as much as I can in the shortest space of time. We're actually working on three projects. I'm very much feeling that I'm playing like always. Some people are saying even better, but I'd let them say that."

He continued, "In a year's time, I might not be able to play. Right now, it's progressing but I'm still at the top of my game. We decided to do a farewell tour now since I don't want to go out and not be able to play well. If I'm going to do a farewell tour, I want to play good. I want to rock it. I know that this tour, I will be able to do everything I did last year and the year before. That's the most important thing to me. I want to go out screaming as opposed to, 'He can't play anymore.' I'm not going to do that. I'm a perfectionist and I can't do that. I want to obviously go out there playing my best at all times until I can't. That's why this is the farewell tour."

The "Show Me the Way" rocker did add that he may be able to tour Europe in 2020, but he is waiting to see how his condition progresses.

Photo Credit: Matthew Simmons/Getty Images for NAMM