Peter Frampton and Jerry Shirley have spoken to Classic Rock as the heated debate over AI-generated vocals took its latest twist. Singer/guitarist Frampton and drummer Shirley are among a growing list of celebrated musicians objecting to plans by the estate of the pair’s late Humble Pie colleague, frontman Steve Marriott, to release so-called ‘new’ recordings from the singer, who died in 1991 at the age of 44.
Those registering their objection include Marriott’s singing daughter Mollie and her siblings Lesley, Toby and Tonya, Steve’s former Small Faces bandmate Kenny Jones, plus Robert Plant, David Gilmour, Paul Rodgers, Bryan Adams, Glenn Hughes and Paul Weller.
Los Angeles-based independent label Cleopatra Records have been in discussions with the Marriott estate about completing some of Steve’s unfinished demos using AI technology, although they plan to release the recordings in their original form “for now” – those two words being crucial – via three as-yet-unscheduled compilation albums. Chris France, the managing director of Marriott’s estate, told Variety that while “there are no confirmed plans to use Steve Marriott’s voice on AI recordings, that does not mean a deal will not be done with one of several suitors who have made offers”.
When Mollie Marriott voiced her objection in the strongest terms, France responded: “I am afraid that [Mollie’s] opinions are of no consequence to me or Steve’s estate.”
As the current owner of the band name, Jerry Shirley has liaised many times with Cleopatra and France over previous Humble Pie re-release projects. Six months ago, Shirley received a proposal to include future AI amendments in their deal. The drummer knew right away that this was a non-starter but, in the interests of exploring all possibilities Shirley invited Cleopatra to apply the technique to the Ray Charles-populated classic song Georgia On My Mind. “I only asked them because I knew it couldn’t be done, but I was curious,” he explains. “I also knew that song with Steve singing it doesn’t exist on tape.”
Shirley was utterly dismayed by the results. “It was horrible – not even close,” he reveals.
Unperturbed, technicians tried again. “Second time around it was even worse,” Shirley says. “There were slight improvements in the backing track – I’ve no idea who played on those, by the way – but it sounded like a half-decent white soul singer trying to sound like a white soul singer trying to sound like Steve Marriott – and failing. It didn’t sound anything like Steve.”
Shirley chose not to be involved. “I felt so strongly that in doing so I turned down twenty thousand dollars.”
Awareness of AI in music has boomed since last year when the new technology was used to create the ‘new’ Beatles song . The unexpected
