Peter Frampton met one of his favorite new guitar players at George Lucas’s birthday party: “It was weird looking out and seeing Harrison Ford and Steven Spielberg looking back at us”

Peter Frampton has looked back on the time he first crossed paths with H.E.R. – one of the many A-list guest guitarist on the Humble Pie legend’s latest album.

There’s a smattering of collaborators on Frampton’s Carry the Light. The addition of H.E.R might be the most surprising. They met in surprising circumstances, too.

The record is Frampton’s first release in 16 years. He tells Guitar World that he “knew it had to be good” to satisfy the wait for new material. Speaking in the mag’s new issue, he reveals the writing process spanned six years, and the final tracks were pieced together across the last year with his son, Julian.

Fender signature artist H.E.R plays on Islamorada and is part of an all-star cast that includes Tom Morello, Graham Nash, and Sheryl Crow. Frampton crossed paths with her just months before she starred at the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games.

“We met when I played George Lucas’ 80th birthday in 2024 at his place up in California, Skywalker Ranch,” Frampton reveals. “Basically it’s a winery, right in the middle of hundreds of acres of wine. It’s just gorgeous. Lucky bastard!”

When you’ve made your fortune with Star Wars, hiring out the local Cheesecake Factory for a private function won’t do. Not wanting to let his birthday pass him by, Lucas hired some top-quality guitarists to entertain his guests.

“H.E.R. was playing first, and then it was us,” Frampton explains. “Then Don Felder played, and I sat in. It was weird looking out and seeing Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas looking back at us.”

Frampton further elaborated on his first encounter with H.E.R. during an album breakdown on YouTube.

“We watched H.E.R. play her show, and I was blown away,” he says. “She’s a great singer, songwriter, guitar player – incredible guitar player… Honored that H.E.R. brought he incredible guitar playing to [the record].”

Either way, Frampton was impressed by what he saw of the five-time Grammy-winning R&B star. The instrumental track Islamorada opens with some genteel acoustic guitar and percussion, over which the pair trade licks and harmonize guitar lines. It’s sonically gorgeous and seems to bring out the best in both talents.

Frampton was recently the subject of a new feature-length documentary, in which he discussed nearly joining the Who.

Frampton’s full interview features in the new issue of Guitar World, which is out today. Print and digital copies can be ordered from Magazines Direct.

A freelance writer with a penchant for music that gets weird, Phil is a regular contributor to Prog, Guitar World, and Total Guitar magazines and is especially keen on shining a light on unknown artists. Outside of the journalism realm, you can find him writing angular riffs in progressive metal band, Prognosis, in which he slings an 8-string Strandberg Boden Original, churning that low string through a variety of tunings. He’s also a published author and is currently penning his debut novel which chucks fantasy, mythology and humanity into a great big melting pot.