Rick Springfield | The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan

Summary

The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan

Episode: Rick Springfield | July 16, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this installment of The Magnificent Others, host Billy Corgan sits down with Rick Springfield—musician, songwriter, actor, and cultural icon—for an unguarded, multifaceted conversation. Together, they retrace Springfield's unconventional and winding path: from Australia and the teen pop scene to a Grammy-winning solo career, acting roles, battles with the industry, personal struggles, and enduring self-discovery.
The discussion delves into the realities behind fame, mental health, the creative impulse, navigating public perception, and the complicated relationship between personal fulfillment and outward success.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Early Career and the Zoot Days (00:00–04:30)

• Fighting Stereotypes: Zoot, Rick's early teen band, wore pink suits—making them a target for ridicule and fights.
  • "We got in a lot of fights just because, well, we were cute and we wore pink." (Rick, 00:00)
• Musical Evolution: Rick pushed Zoot towards heavier, psychedelic sounds influenced by Led Zeppelin, later arranging a unique, Hendrix-inspired cover of "Eleanor Rigby."
• Difficulty in Australia: Access to American guitars and equipment was rare; Rick recalls his first high-end guitar and early influences.
• Band Breakup and Reverse Supergroup: Members of Zoot went separate ways leading to notable careers elsewhere, including Little River Band.

2. Transition to Solo Career (04:34–09:39)

• From Reluctance to Recognition: Initially seeing himself just as a guitarist, Rick was encouraged to pursue a solo career by a persistent magazine writer.
  • "I always saw myself as a guitar player in a band… didn’t really think I had much of a voice." (Rick, 05:00)
• First Hits and Inspirations: "Speak to the Sky," inspired partly by his father's illness and a suggestion from his mother.
• Immigrant’s Journey: Recalls the challenges of migrating from Australia—failed entries into America; working with Steve Binder (director, Elvis' '68 Comeback Special), and recording his first solo album in London’s Trident Studios.
• Chance Encounter with Elvis: Met Elvis Presley on a trans-Pacific flight, reflecting on the difference between then and modern celebrity culture.

3. Misreading the American Market (13:01–15:21)

• Unexpected ‘Teen Idol’: Rick was unprepared for the American "teen idol" business model and felt boxed in by teen magazine coverage.
  • "I came over here, I said, wow… these stories started to come out like, is Rick Springfield too tall to love?" (Rick, 13:01)
• Shifting Aspirations: Moved musically toward pop/glam (influenced by T. Rex, Bowie), but was repeatedly misunderstood or miscast by the industry.

4. Acting, Contracts, and Industry Struggles (15:28–22:55)

• Acting ‘Breaks’: Turned to acting—partly due to financial struggles—and landed roles in major American TV shows after a lawsuit locked him out of music gigs for years.
• Mission Magic Era: Reluctantly participated in the animated series "Mission Magic," recognizing it as "absolute garbage" but admitting it found some later cult appreciation.
• Contractual Nightmares: Legal battles dogged him for years, nearly costing him the rights to his eventual solo breakthrough.

5. Peak Success and Sudden Loss (23:17–37:01)

• General Hospital & Working Class Dog: Landed a pivotal acting job just as "Jessie's Girl" began its slow ascent to #1.
  • "Nobody hears that that's going to be a hit song. Nobody." (Billy, 24:37)
  • Producer Keith Olson recognized the song’s potential and pushed to edit it into its classic format.
• Triumph & Grief: While "Jessie's Girl" brought commercial success and a Grammy, Rick’s father died at the same peak moment, contributing to emotional turmoil.
  • "It was yin yang for sure." (Rick, 29:52)
  • "I had to go to General Hospital. And I said, dad would want me to go." (Rick, 33:46)

6. Mental Health, Public Perception, and the Lie of Success (38:23–58:05)

• Early Depression & Suicide Attempt: Recalls a suicide attempt at 16, lifelong depression, and feelings of worthlessness—compounded by frequent moves as an “army brat” outsider.
  • "I tried to hang myself when I was 16 in my garden shed." (39:44)
• Therapy & Realization: By the mid-80s, took a break from fame to confront his depression with Jungian analysis.
  • “I realized at that point that this wasn’t going to heal me because I’d always thought… ‘hit records, fame, money, I’ll be more than I am.’” (Rick, 53:09)
• On the Media & Legacy: Has come to accept public perception; critics and industry "boxes" don't faze him.
  • "They just want to need a box to put these people in." (64:40)
• Stigma of the Teen Idol: Discusses the frustration of being viewed as just a pretty face or a TV actor with a musical side, rather than as a sincere artist.

7. The Long Arc: Diversions, Acting, and Return to Music (59:13–62:33)

• Shelving Music: After "Rock of Life" (1988), Springfield focused on acting (notably "High Tide"), before resuming music years later.
• Always an Artist: Maintained songwriting throughout, regardless of commercial output; views his path as shaped by instinct and circumstance, not calculation.

8. Maturity, Reflection, and Creative Drive (62:33–74:46)

• Living with Public Persona: Shrugs off being defined by "Jessie's Girl"—acknowledges its place in his career but continues to create and evolve.
• Art and Self-Expression: Latest single "Lose Myself" reflects ongoing emotional truthfulness, unrest, and creative vigor at age 75.
  • "I should be past this shit, but it still turns me on." (Rick, 65:59)
• Perspective on Legacy & Satisfaction: No longer concerned with legacy; values honesty and continuous growth.
  • "I still have drive. I still have, you know, things I want to achieve, mountains I want to climb, all that kind of thing." (Rick, 74:08)
• Would He Change Anything? Given another chance, he’d tour Australia more and possibly choose different film projects, but is largely accepting of his choices and their consequences.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On fleeting fame:
  "Like, this moment doesn't last… It's not like you just get off a train and like, hey, I'll get back on this train in a year from now."
  —Billy Corgan (00:06 and 37:01)

• On his early pop image:
  "We got in a lot of fights just because, well, we were cute and we wore pink. So that's all you needed."
  —Rick Springfield (00:00)

• On facing depression despite success:
  "I felt just as low as I've ever felt. And I realized at that point that this wasn’t going to heal me… after the initial rise, it was still me."
  —Rick Springfield (53:09)

• On being stereotyped:
  "Huey Lewis said to me, you would have been bigger if you weren’t so good looking."
  —Rick Springfield (42:04)

• On “Jessie’s Girl” and enduring creativity:
  "I should be past this shit, but it still turns me on."
  —Rick Springfield, lyrics from “Lose Myself” (65:59)

• On finding value in honesty and growth:
  "I'm not satisfied because I think if you're satisfied, then you retire and you die. But I still have drive. I still have… things I want to achieve, mountains I want to climb."
  —Rick Springfield (74:08)

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Key Timestamps

• 00:00–04:30 | Zoot years, pink suits, “Eleanor Rigby” cover, musical roots
• 05:00–09:39 | Early solo career, “Speak to the Sky,” emigration stories
• 13:01–15:21 | Teen idol misunderstanding, comic book heroes
• 15:28–22:55 | Acting gigs, contractual woes, animated series “Mission Magic”
• 23:17–29:52 | General Hospital and breakthrough of “Jessie’s Girl”
• 33:03–37:01 | Success and his father’s death
• 38:23–58:05 | Depression, therapy, the truth about fame
• 59:13–62:33 | Acting career, shifting priorities, musical creation
• 62:33–74:46 | Reflection, acceptance, ongoing artistry, and final thoughts on doing it differently

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Final Reflections

Springfield’s story is one of resilience, reinvention, and confronting the myth that success cures inner struggles. Corgan and Springfield bond as fellow musicians, traversing the highs and lows of relentless drive, personal crisis, and the art of self-acceptance.

The episode is not just a biography, but an exploration of identity, creativity, healing, and the ongoing journey for meaning—delivered with honesty, humor, and camaraderie.
Whether a longtime fan or newcomer, listeners are given an intimate look at the man behind the music and the hard-won perspective that comes with a life fully lived.

Transcript

[Rick Springfield]

We got in a lot of fights just because, well, we were cute and we wore pink. So that's all you needed.

[Interviewer]

You're aware. Like, this moment doesn't last.

[Rick Springfield]

I was very aware, and I could.

[Interviewer]

It's not like you just get off a train and like, hey, I'll get back on this train in a year from now. You know, that train's gonna be long down the track. And by the way. And I don't know where you were. There's also the predatory part of the music business where they don't care what you're going through. You know, go talk to this radio guy. Go do this interview, because they need you to keep.

[Rick Springfield]

I need you to keep producing.

[Interviewer]

I want to talk about Zoot. How do I know. Not know about Zoot? I went on my zoot deep dive and I was shocked because I'm. I'm. I love kind of psychedelic rock and. And I'm listening. I'm like, how have I never heard of Zoot? It was really good.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, it was. There was. It was a. A teen band that I joined after they'd had, like, some pop hits, you know, and then Led Zeppelin was on the horizon. And because I'm a guitar player, I said, you know, dude, we gotta change this thing.

[Interviewer]

Do you still have the white sg?

[Rick Springfield]

I do. I. I do. It's. I.

[Interviewer]

That guitar sounds good.

[Rick Springfield]

It's amazing. I use that on. I still use it.

[Interviewer]

Really?

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah. I bought that was my first good guitar. Because usually, you know, when you're young and you. You want to trade up, get a better guitar, you got to sell the one you have, right?

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Rick Springfield]

But that one was the first American guitar. It. I grew up in Australia and England, but when I was looking for guitars, I was in Australia. And you couldn't get Gibson off Fender. It was just a fry out of the.

[Interviewer]

What was. What was the common brand in Australia Then?

[Rick Springfield]

We had the German ones, Hoffner. We had Framus. Framus. My first guitar was a Framus. See? Yes. Hot Framus. Hollywood.

[Interviewer]

So, yeah, so I, you know, I'm doing my research on you and. And I see this bant. And it was like, think, think, think pink. Think suits.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, that was a teen thing.

[Interviewer]

And you. And you guys all wore pink, right?

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, it was horrible, dude.

[Interviewer]

Now, at some point, you burned the pink outfits on television. Is that true?

[Rick Springfield]

You have dived deep. Yeah, it was.

[Interviewer]

I couldn't find footage of the burning of the pink outfits.

[Rick Springfield]

I know. Yeah, it was. We got into so many fights backstage because there was no Security back in

[Interviewer]

the 60s, you know, so people just wander back and.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, the guys would wander back and just start swinging, you know, and we. Yeah, I said, we've got to get rid of the pink. So what we'll do is we'll take a photo of us naked looking over our shoulders, but we'll burn it. So, you know, I'd have original pink suits, you know, high contrast, so you can't really see. Of course, they printed it, you know, in full color. And my mom went, oh, my God, Richard. But it was. It was a good transition, you know.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, shocker. Cool story. So I was texting today with Sean Lennon dropping a name, but I was texting with him and I said I was going to interview you. And I was talking about Zoot. And he said he was in this really cool band that I've never heard of. And I said, oh, by the way, they covered Eleanor Rigby. And like five minutes later, he's. This is great.

[Rick Springfield]

That is so wild, you guys.

[Interviewer]

I have a really good band. I'm shocked because I'm a bit of a, you know, I like 60s snob. I like a lot of that music. So the fact that I never heard the band was shocking to me.

[Rick Springfield]

Um. Yeah, we, we, we. We had got some interest over here from emi, but we had a manager that was scared to lose us. So he said, you're not out of your contract. You can't sign. So it was a. They call it like the super group in reverse. Because I came over here and had a career. The bass player formed Little River Band. The singer went on to become a big TV star in Australia. So we kind of went our different directions and did.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Rick Springfield]

Other things when we, you know, been given a lot of. Because of the Sussex of the Pink thing. But I can. I arranged this version of Elna Rigby, thinking, how would Hendrix play Elna Rigby? You know, and.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, because when it goes to the other part, it goes to this kind of weird, almost dissonant kind of riff.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, dude. Which I'd never heard Black Sabbath at that point. And my. A couple of my band members have heard it. And I said, that's very Black Sabbath. And I. I'd never heard Black Sabbath at that point, but it is the devil's interval. You know, he beats like.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Rick Springfield]

And. Yeah. So I arranged this thing just for us to play live because I wanted something to really punch a bit. And it was. They started playing the live version and became a hit.

[Interviewer]

Oh, my God.

[Rick Springfield]

And it was so stuff that would never Happen now.

[Interviewer]

So, you know, it's hard sometimes. And I. Fortunately, I haven't read your book yet. I really want to read your book. Not even reading. I've made a lot of money off of being dark, so the dark's not a problem over here. But the reason I'm asking is because I'm a little unclear on the order. Did somebody start seeing that you had a solo career opportunity on your own, or did that come after the band broke up or how. What was that progression?

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, Zoot was. We broke up in 70, and I had this. I was going to join another band. I always saw myself as a guitar player in a band. I love playing guitar and, like, didn't really think I had much of a voice. So I. And I'd started writing in. In Zoot and record. They were recording my songs, so I was very interested in writing. But there was this one woman who was a radio. With a tv. Sorry, a magazine writer. And she was very hot on me being a solo artist. So she kept pushing me and pushing me, and I finally. I've got a song here. I'll record it. And became a hit. And then I started thinking, what was

[Interviewer]

the name of the song?

[Rick Springfield]

It was called Speak to the Sky. It's a Country kind of, you know.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, but it was that kind of time. Mungo Jerry, Exactly.

[Rick Springfield]

It was absolutely. We were doing that. We were doing heavy stuff in the Zoot by that point. And my mom, God bless her, said, why don't you. Why don't you write a nice song? So I wrote the. And my dad had gotten very sick at that point, and it was kind of a song to him, you know, about praying that things are okay back, you know, when we all believed in all that.

[Interviewer]

I guess, hopefully we still believe.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

So you end up doing a record in London.

[Rick Springfield]

I got a deal with. Actually, I was trying to get to America, and it was so freaking hard. I couldn't get in. They wouldn't let me in. Right. I'm just writing myself. And then I said, well, maybe I'll go to Canada and sneak over the border. And they wouldn't take me. So I said, maybe I'll go to Mexico and sneak over the border that way. And I couldn't get in. And finally there was this guy whose records I used to buy when I was a kid. An Australian artist called Robbie G. Had hooked up with Steve Bender, who was the director of the Elvis Presley Comeback Special.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Rick Springfield]

And Steve saw a photo of me and heard some songs and said, let's bring this guy over. So it was again manifestation. I wanted to. I used to see America in the clouds, you know. And I want to go to America. I want to be in America. And so Steve brought me over and got a record deal. It was, you know, the 70s assign anybody got a record deal. Went straight to London to Triton Studios and cut a record. My first solo.

[Interviewer]

Wow.

[Rick Springfield]

With Del Newman who'd done all the strings for Cat Stevens. And it was. And Robin Jeffrey Cable actually, who had been Elton's guy. Madman across the Water. All the first Elton stuff had been Robin Jeffrey Cable engineering. He'd had a terrible car accident and woken up and didn't know who he was. And they said, yeah, you've got the number one album Madman across the Water. And he said, who's Elton John? And he. So he was recuperating, brain damage and everything. Came over, came to Trident and recorded my album with me and was just brilliant. I mean amazing sound.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, the tones on the record are really good for a first record, especially back then.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, he was.

[Interviewer]

But you had a lot to do with that, right?

[Rick Springfield]

I mean I'm the sonically. Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. But. But I became very good friends with him and he came over here and. And I lost touch with him. But. But he was a very troubled guy because of that. Because he'd had so much, you know, and then this. It had all gone away.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. I saw some crazy story where there were twin brothers and one lost his memory. And you know, it was like similar story where he didn't know who he was.

[Rick Springfield]

Right.

[Interviewer]

And the guy was like, I'm your twin brother. And I was like, I. I don't know who you are.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah. Stuff started to come back, but not, you know, he always had something there so lovely die though.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. So how do you end up in America from that doing a record for was clone.

[Rick Springfield]

Well, Steve was based here. Steve Bender was based here. And of course being, you know, their company was based here. So I went to London to record, then came back and just had a two year battle trying to stay in the country. That's where I met Elvis actually. Was on a plane going back to Australia to renew my visa for the 40th time because they wouldn't give me a green card. You know, we kept. Used to take all these magazine articles to the. To the consulate. Yeah. And they go, no. So. So I'm on the plane going back to Australia to renew a visa and Elvis was there sitting in the plane. It's the plane stop to Hawaii. And before the Plane landed. You know, now when you get on a celebrity's like, got a hoodie on or glasses and sitting like this. He came back and signed autographs and took photos with everybody. I was in the back of the bus, of course, at that point. And I said, you know, I said, yeah, Steve manages me because he had a great relationship with Steve over the. Over the special.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Rick Springfield]

And Steve had been very encouraging and said, you can do this. You know, Colonel wanted him to be. To be a Christmas special with a, you know, an ugly sweater and just horrible sitting. And Steve. And the Colonel was very angry with Steve for trying to. He felt like he was trying to.

[Interviewer]

Anybody point Elvis in the wrong direction.

[Rick Springfield]

So I had a little conversation with him, which was great. And hadn't been a fan at that point. I wish I'd taken a photo, you know, because I've seen people from that flight because I already had his blue suit on. I recognized him.

[Interviewer]

Oh, my goodness, the look.

[Rick Springfield]

They took photos with him. But I had a girlfriend in Australia at the time, so I just said, you just signed this autograph for my girlfriend. He did. And of course, customs stole it on the way through. Australian Customs. Bastards.

[Interviewer]

I once had a run with Australian Customs because I. I had forgotten that I had some broccoli in my back.

[Rick Springfield]

Broccoli is. You can't have broccoli in Australia.

[Interviewer]

The woman said, I can't do an Australian accent to save my life. But she said, you understand this is a very serious offense. You could be fined up to 300American dollars. I said, it's broccoli.

[Rick Springfield]

Sorry, mate.

[Interviewer]

Exactly.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah. You can't bring that in.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, exactly. It sounded very much like that. So you do the second album, your second album, which is Comic Book Heroes. Cool album. I was listening to some of it today. It didn't quite do what they wanted it to do. Is that accurate?

[Rick Springfield]

It was the only good review I think I've ever gotten. In Rolling Stone.

[Interviewer]

They said, friend of a friend of Elvis.

[Rick Springfield]

Yes. It said, sounds like teenage David Bowie. They said was. It was the review of the album, which I. You know, whatever. But, I mean, everyone's got, you know, the opinion.

[Interviewer]

It did have a little bit of a. Kind of a glam.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, well, I was very into Bowie. I was very into T. Rex.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Rick Springfield]

And All Slayed and all English bands. You know, I miss kind of the. What was America? Was that like. Was that getting to the Poco stuff and. Oh, yeah, I missed that.

[Interviewer]

Completely Southern. That's. I don't know what I always called It Cocaine rock. Yeah. It just sounded like a lot of people doing a lot of cocaine and they had lost their ears and everything was kind of dull and super mellow. And this is an insider joke. But you know, it's very. What's the word? It's not neve, it's the API. A lot of API going on. See, I knew you'd get that joke because you're a studio nerd.

[Rick Springfield]

That's a very in joke. Yeah, right.

[Interviewer]

So, yeah, so. Because, you know, and you know, we're all aware of how people perceive us, you know, you know, I. Of course, when you burst out of the world with your success, you know, that's you. That's where you begin in most Americans. But you know, this whole kind of rich musical thing, and I knew some of that, but I was listening to it obviously knowing I was going to talk to you. And it's like, it's very interesting because it's like if that was your story, you know what I mean? Like, people be like, oh, check out this guy who. You know what I mean? You'd be like something that. The indie writers.

[Rick Springfield]

The cult.

[Interviewer]

The cult thing.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, yeah.

[Interviewer]

So is that. I'm trying to find the right question. What was your aspiration at that time?

[Rick Springfield]

I thought the whole comic book thing was really hip and. And avant garde and there was viewed as very teen, you know, the drawings and everything and. But the thing is, I'd been Stephen and Robbie because I was. I'd come over here and the teen magazines had glommed onto me, right. And I'd never seen a teen magazine in Australia. There was one magazine called Go Set and that was it. You know, there was no, like nothing that catered to the teenager. And I came over here, I said, wow, I'm doing a lot of interviews with all these people and, you know, talking about my music and why I'm over here. And these stories started to come out like, is Rick Springfield too tall to Love?

[Interviewer]

Well, the answer is. The answer is yes.

[Rick Springfield]

Yes. Certainly from a 14 year old that they were aiming at, you know, that. I mean.

[Interviewer]

So you're saying you walked into a business model that you weren't aiming at

[Rick Springfield]

and have no concept.

[Interviewer]

What was the business model you were in aiming at?

[Rick Springfield]

I was a singer, songwriter, I.

[Interviewer]

But did you want to be like an Elton John type or did you want to be a rocker type or. Yeah, you were just trying to figure out who you were?

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, I was a guitar. I'm a guitar player. Yeah. And I always fronted with the guitar and that was. It was. I was still kind of caught up in. I mean, the kind of. The softer rock, like. Like T. Rex and that kind of thing was what I was aiming at. I kind of left the Zeppelin stuff behind with the Zoot, and I was focusing on kind of more poppy stuff. I thought that was my. You know, just what I. I mean, you write what you feel, you know, you don't. I only ever once wrote a disco song because I thought I should, you know, and it was horrible. So. But you write just what you feel. And that was what I was feeling at the time. And the weird thing is it didn't do very well. But that ended up getting me the record deal with RCA that. That started. You know, my career was a working class dog album. The guy, Ed Dejoy, I went to meet him after I did turn down by pretty much every company in America, and he said, I really like comic book heroes. I went, what? Say what? Where'd that come from?

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Rick Springfield]

And so he. He signed me based on that.

[Interviewer]

Okay. So at the end of the day,

[Rick Springfield]

it was a positive thing.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. Even though it didn't sort of sequentially line up the way you wanted.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

So you're in America now, and I know it's not this simple, but, you know, suddenly there's. Then it's your acting. Can you. Can you explain to me how you. Because I totally get up to the point of, like, I'm trying to make it. I'm trying to figure out who I am and the way the music business treats people like us and that whole thing. But that's suddenly like, you're on $6 million, man.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Was that because you just needed money or it was. Picked you out of a.

[Rick Springfield]

No, it was. My brother had been an actor in Australia.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Rick Springfield]

And there was one TV show, and he was so good. He'd been on about four times. And as a younger brother, you're kind of going, I could do that. So I. I was between record deals, and I was. I'd been poor, you know, pretty much continually since I'd been over here. And I left Steve and Robbie because they would. They kept pushing in this team direction. And I had a girlfriend at the time who's saying, you know, that's not who you are. You gotta drop them. So I got. I left them, and Robbie sued me for 250. A quarter of a million dollars. 250.

[Interviewer]

What was the basis of the. Of the suit?

[Rick Springfield]

That they put money into it, and I'd kind of just walked away. Steve was awesome.

[Interviewer]

Steve just said, was that spiritually true or financially true?

[Rick Springfield]

It was. They'd put some money in, for sure. Um, but they'd also taken any advance I'd had. Um, I never saw any money. It was just, you know, they pay the rent and stuff like that.

[Interviewer]

The old school thing where they give you a salary.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, exactly. So I. I didn't know how much I got to signing with Columbia. I didn't know how much I got for signing with capital. Um, I was. Signed all the contracts totally without a lawyer in Australia. Clueless.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, but that's kind of how the. I'm not defending, but that's kind of how the business was back then. You're lucky to be here. We got those speeches in the 90s. You're lucky to be here. You know, I was. We can. We can easily replace you.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, exactly. And I was very lucky to be here because it had been a tough journey trying to get here.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Rick Springfield]

Everyone had been going to England from Australia because it's a Commonwealth country and you can get in. It was very difficult to get in America.

[Interviewer]

Wow.

[Rick Springfield]

But, yeah, so I'm pulling money out of my piggy bank to go buy a Swanson's Happy Meal, and Robbie's gonna sue me for a quarter of a

[Interviewer]

million dollars that you don't have.

[Rick Springfield]

And so it was. It shut things down for quite a while.

[Interviewer]

Oh, because you were contractually kind of locked up.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah. He wouldn't let me. I couldn't tour. I couldn't.

[Interviewer]

So that explains why you're like, I need another gig.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Rick Springfield]

And I met his wife, his ex wife on the walking just down Hollywood Boulevard. And she said, why don't you come to acting class? I started going to acting class, and I loved it. Got lucky with a couple of shows and started to make money enough to kind of. For rent and food.

[Interviewer]

I did skip over one small thing that I have to go back to. This is jog your memory. Do you believe you believe in magic?

[Rick Springfield]

Oh, geez.

[Interviewer]

I believe that I do Yes, I can see I believe that it's magic if you're. If your mission is magic Your love will shine through okay. If there's a. If there's one thing. But I like this song. I wouldn't be doing this to you. I didn't think this was a really cool song.

[Rick Springfield]

Oh.

[Interviewer]

If there's one thing that the world needs It's a magic singing song and I'll teach it to the whole world and make them sing along Love is magic it's so easy It's. If it's not. And it's not hard to do because everybody wants somebody to give a little magic to.

[Rick Springfield]

Oh, geez, this hurts.

[Interviewer]

But that's a good. That's a good song. Now you did this cartoon.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, it was another. I had a lot of kind of weird sidesteps in my career at the beginning. And because I've been on all these teen magazines.

[Interviewer]

So that was part of them trying to.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah. ABC went to all the teen magazines. Who is in 1973. He said, who's going to be the next David Cassidy? They all said, me. Which thank God it didn't happen. It would have been a very short career. I was actually up for. To replace David Cassidy in the Partage family at one point, which is very strange. And thankfully that didn't happen either. So they said. And we got together. It was great. We got together with Disney artists from Fantasia and they started talking about Yellow Submarine and let's do something really different. And you'll write a song for every episode. And after it got through the ABC mill, it was just another Xerox piece of shit that was already on, you know, with the same. Same funny voices and the same storyline. And I was kind of locked into it. And I enjoyed writing the songs, but

[Interviewer]

it was good there.

[Rick Springfield]

I wanted them to be real. It was a kids show, really, you

[Interviewer]

know, So I wrote him a show again. I should write Mission Magic. Mission Magic, Yeah. And there's an album. If you go like, on the stream. Use this. You don't like the DVD too, is there?

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Are you. Are you starring in this series?

[Rick Springfield]

They drew me and I did. It's my old accent, so I'm talking like this, you know, it's. Ms. Tickle was my. The woman who would get me. I was in this magic land. Right. And Miss Tickle would look through this mirror with all those students and they'd come through and I'd help them with the bad guy. As you do. Yeah. Absolute garbage. But it was. I mean, actually, Quentin Tarantino came up to me at a party, said I loved Mission Magic.

[Interviewer]

See, you never know who you're touching.

[Rick Springfield]

That's probably why he's so old. Six years old.

[Interviewer]

So. $6 million, man. Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Wonder Woman twice. The early version of Battlestar Galactic. It was called Slightly Different, Rockford Files. It's kind of not a bad resume.

[Rick Springfield]

No, there were some good shows. There was a lot of crap. But the scripts now are so wonderful for tv. And then they were just. He just knew they were going to be bad. You know, there was the same stories, very predictable. But I was just freaking excited to work.

[Interviewer]

Like, you know, you're in this cool band, you go to England, you make a pretty cool record, you come to America, you make another cool record, and then you do the mission magic thing, which I kind of got. The songs are good, and then suddenly it's like, he's a TV actor. It was like, it's a little bit like, huh, huh. Yeah, so it makes sense. So how did you eventually extricate yourself out of the. Out of the contractual.

[Rick Springfield]

He finally settled. Robbie finally settled. Luckily, it was just before Working Class Dog, which had, you know, Jesse's girl.

[Interviewer]

So you were stuck in that thing for that long.

[Rick Springfield]

Was like four years, five years longer than that, actually. And he. He said, I don't think there's his. His. He had 100% of my writing. Right.

[Interviewer]

You don't own any of that stuff then?

[Rick Springfield]

No, I do. No.

[Interviewer]

Oh, did you got it on?

[Rick Springfield]

He came to me and said it was about to end, but the album was going to come out and all those songs would have been 100% hit. So he came to me and said, I don't. I don't hear any hits on this record. So how about I give you 50% of it all back and we go on for another year and a half or two years or something. I said, yeah. So I ended up with, you know, half of what I should have had. A whole lot. But he could have had all of it.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Rick Springfield]

But I ended up with it all after. Later on anyway. But, you know, did you have to

[Interviewer]

fight to get it back?

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, a little bit, but. But a lot of it was. Had run out, you know, one of those.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Rick Springfield]

And, you know, you grew. But it was. It was just very serendipitous, you know, because.

[Interviewer]

Well, that's. 1981 is an interesting year.

[Rick Springfield]

Yes, it was.

[Interviewer]

You're on General Hospital. Interesting sidestep again, which, by the way, I was also watching, which is I. There was a girl in my school that. That I had the hots for, and

[Rick Springfield]

she was a fan of the show.

[Interviewer]

She was a fan of the show. So it was a way to get in good graces with her. I started watching the show so I'd have something to talk to her about.

[Rick Springfield]

Oh, my God.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Rick Springfield]

Did you get hooked or not?

[Interviewer]

No, no. She. She. Eventually, she. She did work at a chocolate shop. So the one advantage was I got a lot of free chocolate, but no, I never got anything more than the chocolate.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

So General Hospital that age, you probably want more chocolate. Your album, Working Class Dog, right, comes out, your song goes number one. We all know the song. It's been stuck in my head all morning. Because the minute you listen to it, it's like it doesn't leave. I saw that they referenced to it said one of the slowest climbs to a number one song ever was the fifth biggest song in all of 1981. And you won the Grammy for best Male Rock Performance. It's quite a year.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, it was, it was. It was a big surprise. I started a. I signed onto the show because rca, I'd finished the record and RCA didn't know what to do with it because ballads and disco were still on the radio.

[Interviewer]

So just because I love to pull these things apart a little bit because it's like everybody watching knows the song, right? And it's like the Hollywood movie thing nobody believes, but we all know how the movie ends. It's a happy ending in this regard. So nobody hears that that's going to be a hit song like nobody, but nobody.

[Rick Springfield]

No. Keith Olson was the first one to point it. Well, actually, yeah. Joe Gottfried, who owns Sound City, I was doing the album with, producing myself with Bill Drescher. And Joe, who owns Sound City went to Keith Olson, who'd. He'd done Foreigner, he'd done Fleetwood Mac, he'd done big producer. Producer. And he said, would you do two songs with Springfield for this album? And Keith had, on my first album had been an engineer and his job was to cut out all the clicks for the drop ins on my first album.

[Interviewer]

Because in the old days when you would punch in, you had a little bit of a click on the track, right?

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah. And he. He cut out all the clicks on that album for. From all the punch inside. So we, you know, kind of, kind of knew each other from then, but he said, yeah, I'll do it. Let me hear the demo. So I had. I've always done real extensive demos, you know, back with the tak birdie 340, you know, and I had cushions for drums and an old bass that I plugged straight in and the original Pig Nose, you know, the one they handmade and then 4 and Wes Oberheim and I did all my, you know, bounce around and do backgrounds and all that. So I took my demos over to Keith and he's listening and I played Jesse's. God, I just thought it was another song. That's. That's the one. And it had a big long solo in it because it was still coming out of the 70s, you know, when there were solos.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Rick Springfield]

So I'm playing a solo on it and he's going, yeah, cut that sucker.

[Interviewer]

But it's amazing that he heard that.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, he did. And it was a. You listen to the demo and it's pretty much the song. Yeah, it's all. All the parts are there and everything, but that. And then he brought in Sammy. Sammy Hager song about. Done everything for you. And I'm gone. Oh, dude. There's more songs. Because I was very. I was very confident of this record. I felt like I'd hit.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Rick Springfield]

Something. Three minutes.

[Interviewer]

You were right.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah. And I. But, you know, it worked out. And this. I've done everything worked out. It was. It was a hit too. But.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Rick Springfield]

But yeah, Keith was the first one to. And he said, you don't need General Hospital. I said, I'm going to take this show because I have had three failed albums. You know, I don't know what's going to happen. He said, you don't. It's a good album. You don't need to do General Hospital. I said, there won't be any cross. You know, they're old ladies, watch the show. They won't know there's even a record out. And.

[Interviewer]

But I was watching that.

[Rick Springfield]

No, but then it blew up. So I had no. I thought it was soap opera. I thought only we heard ladies.

[Interviewer]

I. Yeah.

[Rick Springfield]

And it became the number one show in America. And. And Gloria Monty, who hired me for the show, came up six weeks later and said, I hear you're also a singer. And I go, I am not singing on this show. I've already, you know. Oh, thank you. I've already gotten enough crap. You know, because they used to have a stations here and they played Jesse's Girl because it was, you know, it was the first kind of one of the first guitar bass songs coming out of disco and. And ballads. You know, there was that Benatar and there was. They were playing AC DC on. On K Rock, but there wasn't a lot of guitar. You know, there was a Cars, but there wasn't a lot of guitar based stuff. And they didn't know what to do with it. And they kept holding it and holding it and holding. Which is why I took General Hospital because I thought, oh man, it's gonna be another failed, you know, project. But yeah. So

[Interviewer]

worked out crazy. Yeah. Because, you know, I remember when that song first came on the radio and I liked it a lot and I don't normally like music like that. And I Was even when I was a teen, I was a bit of a rock stop. I was listening to Sabbath and Queen

[Rick Springfield]

and it's very pop, although it's guitar based.

[Interviewer]

But I remember thinking like, oh, this is cool, because it's like what I like about guitar rock. And I know that it's pop, but it doesn't feel like lame in a sellout. It had the right combination of factors.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, it does, and that's why I think it's lasted.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, it holds up very well as a song and a lot of musicians

[Rick Springfield]

liked it, which is.

[Interviewer]

Yeah,

[Rick Springfield]

I think if I'd done it, it probably would have had heavier guitar. But I think the. Where the guitar sits is great.

[Interviewer]

Well, that's that time. You know, a lot of those records. Cleaner guitar.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

So, okay, so now you're an overnight sensation, right? You got a number one song, you're on this massive TV show. Like, where does that all go? And by the way, not to be maudlin about it, and all due respect, your father also passed away in 1981, and that's a pretty intense year.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, it was yin yang for sure.

[Interviewer]

So where are you at in all this?

[Rick Springfield]

You know, I'm incredibly excited because the song's getting some attention and then my brother calls up and says, you better come home. You know, Dad's on his way out and it's still hard for me to talk about,

[Interviewer]

well, no, it's okay to at least be in the room with you. When my band was massive in 96, my mother was dying of cancer and I was in this weird situation where I was touring and coming home, see my mom as she's withering away. So I understand the emotion of it all because I lived it.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah. Odd that things happen like that, you

[Interviewer]

know, Life is very interesting. Right. It's always a mystery to me how these things kind of, you know, because that's what I said in terms of your life. 1981 is one for the ages.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah. I'd gone to a party just before that started and had my tarot cards read with Siddharth. And the woman said, that is the most amazing reading I've ever done. And I always had a lot of confidence in myself.

[Interviewer]

Did you think she was trying to pick you up?

[Rick Springfield]

No, no. I always had a lot. I've always had a lot of faith in myself, you know, that I. I knew I wouldn't have stuck it out for 10 years in America when everybody else in Australia would come over and then go home. I knew. I knew if something was going to Happen. And I said, was it just a feeling? Yeah. And it was a validation that, yeah, okay, maybe it's going to start now. I mean, you know, but yeah, I've always had a guy came to me when I was 17 years old, tried to sell me insurance at home and introduced me to a book called Think and Grow Rich, which is by Napoleon Hill, which isn't about necessarily about getting rich. It's about.

[Interviewer]

Is it a positive attention and power. Positive power thing.

[Rick Springfield]

Right.

[Interviewer]

But it's also power of positive thinking.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, but it's not just Norman, this appeal. It's very spiritual. He talks very spiritually. And it's a very deep book. The thing is a bullshit title because it's a really deep book, but it's also very old speak. It's written in the 20s. And I lived by that book. I had CDs later on, but I had read the book 30, 40 times and it was just. It told me about visualizing. It taught me about visualization with the only difference between us and the animal is that we can visualize a different future for ourselves. And that's what this is about. It's the whole basis of all the Tony Robbins stuff and the secret and all that is all based on same idea. Seeing where you want to be and believing it with all your heart and soul.

[Interviewer]

Okay, so to follow the thread, if you've manifested this moment. Okay, how did you deal with the moment? Was it. Was it what you hoped it would be?

[Rick Springfield]

I was. Took long enough. Seriously, I mean, it was exciting, but it was. Oh my God, it was exactly like I thought it would be. You know, the people trying to be your friends and, you know, the girl attention and the excitement and the hearing playing a riff. And I used to went and saw the Kinks when I was young and. And everyone lit up and I'm. Oh God, I'd love to. Yeah, I'd love to have that.

[Interviewer]

And you've got it. Yeah, there it is. Yeah.

[Rick Springfield]

So that kind of stuff. And. And then, you know, my dad, I went to my brother called me up that morning, got up and said, dad's gone.

[Interviewer]

Oh my goodness.

[Rick Springfield]

And. And I had to go to General Hospital. And I said, dad would want me to go. He wouldn't want me to shirk that. So I went and it was brutal. I do a scene and I go. I didn't tell anybody. I didn't want anyone to know, but. And I go off in the corner and I cry for a while, you know, and then come back and do the scene and I finally went to Gloria and said, my dad died, I gotta go. And she let me off for a couple of days. So I flew home that night, you know, and took care of it and then came back and went back on the show and it was. It was. I remember flying to Florida to do some radio thing and a radio guy there still, Scott Shannon still remembers it. He said it was amazing that you did it, but I was lying on the floor of the plane with my stomach in knots like this. You know, I pushed it down to try and get on with things. But is it.

[Interviewer]

Because obviously it's your father, but did you have a particularly close relationship?

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, very close.

[Interviewer]

Is he your hero or.

[Rick Springfield]

He didn't understand my music, but mom said he would play a working class dog on the wreck. I sent him an advanced copy and he said, this is going to do it. This one's going to do it. Because he died twice. He died when he was 51 from blood loss of an ulcer. And they brought him back, but he'd been out for like 15 minutes. So he came back almost like as a five year old kid, you know, and this is a dad that was in charge. He was a lieutenant colonel in the Army. Amazing human being. And so he'd sit, you know, he was kind of childlike toward the last, like 10 years and he.

[Interviewer]

Because when he was, when he was dead.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, but he lived.

[Interviewer]

But it was something that would do with his brain or.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, had brain damage because he didn't. It was out. He was dead for like 10 minutes. So he got. He had. From lack of oxygen.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Rick Springfield]

We didn't know if he'd come back, but he, he didn't. You know, he came back a little, but he was always very young in his, you know, where he lost all his stress lines and, you know, so maybe there was a positive thing to it, but he. I can imagine him sitting in the chair. Yeah, this is gonna be the one.

[Interviewer]

But I, I'm just trying to understand. And again, I'm saying it from a response.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, I may, I may be glossing over because of.

[Interviewer]

No, what I'm saying. What I'm saying is, is, is why does, why do you think it still hits you so hard now?

[Rick Springfield]

Because I shoved it down.

[Interviewer]

Okay. Because you didn't deal with it then.

[Rick Springfield]

I didn't deal with it.

[Interviewer]

Is it because you were so busy and it was like there's all the shining lights that you always want.

[Rick Springfield]

Everything I'd wanted. And I felt like God, God was with me almost, but also felt Like I was being taken care of too. I mean, Yeah, it was a very mixed bag in my head and yeah, it still really affects me.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, I get it. God bless. Yeah. Because I think what's hard for almost anybody to understand is when you're standing in that moment, in this case, you're in the zeitgeist, you're on television, your records being played and you had put in your 10 plus years, you're aware, like this moment doesn't last.

[Rick Springfield]

I was very aware.

[Interviewer]

It's not like you just get off a train and like, hey, I'll get back on this train in a year from now. You know, that train's going to be longer on the track and, and, and by the way. And I don't know what if you were, but there's also the predatory part of the music business where they don't care what you're going through. You know, go talk to this radio guy, go do this interview because they need you to keep, Yep.

[Rick Springfield]

They need you to keep producing, you know.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Rick Springfield]

And I did, you know, I, I, I didn't have any fears about doing a second album. I know sophomore jinks kind of thing. I just launched.

[Interviewer]

I can't imagine you would at that point because you've, you'd been through it.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, yeah. But, yeah, it was, it upsets me that I am still so upset over it. I had wrote a song called My Father's Chair that I still do. And it still affects me, you know, doing it, playing it live.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Rick Springfield]

Sometimes I can just get through it, but other times it still affects me and it's, you know, part of a softness in me that I, well, don't love.

[Interviewer]

Well, there's nothing wrong with that. You've talked. And again, I, I've got to read the book, but I know you've talked about mental health issues and stuff. So is, is, explain this to me. Do you feel you've had mental health issues your whole life or it was circumstantial? Circumstantial.

[Rick Springfield]

No, I've been with me my whole life. I, I tried to hang myself when I was 16 in my garden shed. And I was failing at everything. I, all I wanted to do was play guitar, discover guitar when I was 13 and, and this whole, and I was, wasn't, I wasn't that popular with the girls. You know, I was passionate about girls, but it wasn't that popular. I had, I wasn't in the clique at school. I was always on the outside. So you could mainly a lot of the Problem was that we moved. My dad was in the army, so we moved every two years. I knew that when I'd make friends, I'd be saying bye to him in two years, you know. And I had no roots, which is why I've lived in the same house for 40 years now. And we moved to England when I was a kid and I discovered Guitars and Girls over there. And then three years later we're back in Australia and it was whipped around from school to school and so it always left me on the outside.

[Interviewer]

Sure.

[Rick Springfield]

I was never in the clique, you know.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Rick Springfield]

And also have adhd, so I lose my track. Help me, help me.

[Interviewer]

So under the stress of the moment, did you feel you were handling the. Because again you're, you're in mourning over your father. You're having this intense singular life experience. I've never had a number one song. I mean, that's a unique experience. No, I haven't. I mean, I haven't had a number one album.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, that's not bad.

[Interviewer]

But what I'm trying to say is how do you feel you handled that sort of period, that 81 on period? Because you've had plenty of time to think about it.

[Rick Springfield]

I, I handled it fairly well. I was never, I never turned into a prick, you know, I mean, I was, my dad was great in the army. He was the only, when he retired, is the only officer where enlisted men came to his send off. You know, he was firm, but he was a good, A good human.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Rick Springfield]

And I've always treated my band and crew like that. And on the road they would always leave other, other tourists to come with me because they knew it was going to be affair. They'd be respected and treated well and we'd have fun, you know, So I, I tried to maintain, I not tried, I did maintain that I took advantage of, you know, the offers, of course, like we all did.

[Interviewer]

Yes.

[Rick Springfield]

You know, when, especially when you're a kid that was never sure how girls felt about you and suddenly they're turning up.

[Interviewer]

Okay, so you, you'd resisted being the teen heartthrob. But like my memory of that time is like you were definitely like, you know, sex symbol would be the way.

[Rick Springfield]

It was a heartthrob thing. I get that. Yeah.

[Interviewer]

How did you feel in all that? Did that feel strange to you or.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, it's never something I've been like, yeah, I get it. You know, I mean, who does that anyway?

[Interviewer]

But I don't know.

[Rick Springfield]

But, but I did take advantage of it, obviously. Like I Said. But it was never something that I was comfortable. I'm never comfortable when people would talk about whether they liked the way I looked. You know, it was.

[Interviewer]

Because it was. It was very much in those times about your looks.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah. You know, and it was annoying really, a lot of the time. I mean, Huey Lewis said to me, you. You would have been bigger if you weren't so good looking or something like that, you know. But I. I get what he's saying. It's like it'd be the Frampton thing, you know, where he was so cute that a lot of people kind of when the second album came out, they went, yeah, I don't know. I mean, that's. My perspective is probably way off. But.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, I don't know. I mean, we live in such a different time now.

[Rick Springfield]

Totally.

[Interviewer]

The media then was different. But if you were able to break through with that media in those times and you were typecast, for lack of a better way to put it. Like, the cool thing for me as a fan was, is I liked your music, so I didn't care what anybody thought about your looks.

[Rick Springfield]

Musicians are like that, though.

[Interviewer]

I mean, honestly, I'm sure you meet them. Like we were talking before we started the interview about Dave Grohl. Like real musicians like your music because you're really good. So it's like, you know, you being cute doesn't mean anything to us.

[Rick Springfield]

Right, Exactly. And. And you know, we're not afraid to say, oh, I like this band, I like this song. Yeah. Because we understand it on a, you know, another level and how difficult it is to do something like that.

[Interviewer]

Oh, yeah. And to be overly clear about it, I mean, you were writing and producing your records like you weren't some creation.

[Rick Springfield]

Right. And I think a lot of people thought I was because I came out they. To them. I came out of the soap opera and AOR stations. You know, back in the.

[Interviewer]

Remember John Travolta had a recording career at one point. There was a lot of that. The guy from Dukes. Dukes of Hazard.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Remember he had a John Schneider.

[Rick Springfield]

John Schneider, yeah.

[Interviewer]

Who else were you saying?

[Rick Springfield]

Bruce Willis had a record. Don Johnson.

[Interviewer]

That's true.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah. So. And. And they actually my. I forwards a type of person they look for in soaps from then on, a guy who could sing as well, which is where Ricky Martin. They got Ricky Martin and a couple of other.

[Interviewer]

Because it became like a marketing model,

[Rick Springfield]

you know, but it was purely by accident.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Rick Springfield]

But yeah, I was talking about the suicide thing that. That was kind of very messed up. Because I was serious, you know, And I. And it's always on my shoulder. It's weird. Just some dark part of me that I just can't, I have to deal with, you know, it's just something.

[Interviewer]

Do you feel you've navigated it at this point in your life?

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, I, I, I, I could, I slip back sometimes, but it's. I feel like it's always there.

[Interviewer]

But is there, is there a thought attached to the thing that plagues you? Like, you know, some people say I'm not good enough. It's worthless unworthiness.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, it's worthlessness.

[Interviewer]

So a lack of self worth.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Where do you think that comes from?

[Rick Springfield]

Probably just growing up where I grew up. And I was always, like I said, I was always the outsider. I grew up in army groups, you know, where my parents, friends were going, what's wrong with Richard? Why are you letting him play guitar? Everyone else was going into service jobs. I know. Always felt like the black sheep. But the main thing that triggered the suicide attempt was just. I was failing, I was failing in school. I discovered the guitar. All I wanted to do was stay home and play guitar. I was kicked out of 11th grade because I was, wasn't attending school. I wasn't popular, I wasn't successful with girls. And every arena that I was, everyone was being successful in, I wasn't good at that. Good at sports.

[Interviewer]

You know, I've spent enough time in Australia. It's a tough culture.

[Rick Springfield]

Yes, it is a very tough, very tall poppy syndrome. You get big enough, they'll cut you.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. And, you know, obviously there's a lot of kind of comparative culture between the UK and Australia, for obvious reasons, but for some reason, Australian culture feels even a little bit more harsh.

[Rick Springfield]

It is. And I.

[Interviewer]

And then that's, that's to me as an asauter. And I love Australia. So do I. I love playing there. The people are great to me. But when you're there, there's a certain tone that sometimes as an American, where we kind of fake. Nice.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

You know what I mean?

[Rick Springfield]

How long, how long you stay in, mate? When's the tour of you going home after it.

[Interviewer]

Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah. It was, it was difficult. It was a bully state for me. I was always getting, we're always getting picked on. Every time we go to a dance, it'd be. We have to fight our way out. You know, there's, there's, it's the only place I've been where. In the bathrooms, all the pubs, there's. If your Mate gets into a fight, this is what you do. You know, there's just. It's. It's the nature. I mean, I was over there. I've never toured as a solo artist over there, which is very.

[Interviewer]

Wait, wait, stop. Hit the brakes.

[Rick Springfield]

What? Yeah, because we do a world tour and we'd end up in Japan, and by the time we're done, I'll go. I'll just run and go home. I couldn't, you know, and so I never toured. I did one thing. I've got Countdown Spectacular, where, you know, you get on, you go on and you do three songs. And that was like 10, 15 years ago and almost a couple of flights.

[Interviewer]

Were your records successful there?

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

So there was a demand for you to go there.

[Rick Springfield]

What's that?

[Interviewer]

There was a demand for you.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, they were. Yeah, that. We actually had a tour booked and I got the Meryl Streep movie, the Ricky and the Flash, so I canceled it. And I. There was a lot of people upset over that too. I'm kind of viewed. I. I don't know if I think I'm viewed as an expat there. Expatriate.

[Interviewer]

You know, the guy who left.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah. I have an accent, you know, which I picked up because of acting. I didn't want to have to worry about the accent because I. I would hear English or Australian people that weren't very good at the act. American accent, and I thought it would mess with me while I'm trying to get, you know, relate to the part. So I just learned the accent and living amongst the people, that became a natural thing. First time I went back to Australia, I was in a club and a guy. Gorgeous. How you going, mate? Yeah, I'm good. I'm just over here for a couple of weeks. Because you're with your own people now, Mike. You don't need to talk like that. So I think welcome home.

[Interviewer]

Welcome home.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, welcome home, fucker.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, right, so.

[Rick Springfield]

But I do love Australia. I have friends there and I love the country. I miss the country very much. You got married in Australia.

[Interviewer]

Okay, there. See, that was the. You gave me the segue. I was looking for another Interesting year you got married. And that same year you did Hard to Hold, which kind of starts your movie. Your movie thing. I know you're not a big fan of the movie. I believe you call it a piece of.

[Rick Springfield]

Yes, that is probably when I read the original script. I threw it across the room. This is garbage.

[Interviewer]

Before we jump into how much you hate the movie was the sell job. Hey, You've built yourself up. Now we can transition you over to this movie career.

[Rick Springfield]

No, I wanted to do movies. I see myself as an actor, musician. It's the same. It comes from the same place. It's just a different skill set.

[Interviewer]

Okay, so nobody was pushing you towards it?

[Rick Springfield]

No, no, no, no. I wanted very much to do it. I left General Hospital to pursue a movie career and to have more time to tour.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Rick Springfield]

So, yeah, absolutely. It was. No, I wasn't pushed. It was just. It was a bad choice of movie, I thought, you know, and I thought. But I was at the point where I said, I can. I can make this work.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Rick Springfield]

You know the point where you get to where you think, okay.

[Interviewer]

From the New York Times.

[Rick Springfield]

Oh.

[Interviewer]

Dripping sweat with the backstage lights glinting off his jeweled belt and his single earrings, James Roberts escapes to his dressing room, collapsing beside the Space Invaders machine. He's drained, he's exhausted. He's a very famous rock star, and he has just whipped another adoring audience into a lather. Hard to hold is a movie for anyone who thinks this sounds like real behind the scenes rock and roll ambience, and for anyone who thinks Rick Springfield is a real rock star.

[Rick Springfield]

Wow.

[Interviewer]

I thought, wow, that's interesting.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

So, you know, because again, it's trying to understand the nuance of you're standing in these spots at particular times. Of course, with hindsight being 20 20, we can say, oh, you shouldn't have done that. You should have done that. But if it was me and somebody came along and said, I am willing to back you in a real Hollywood movie.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, it was. It looked like kind of the right thing.

[Interviewer]

You know, I did Peter frampton in the Sgt.

[Rick Springfield]

Pepper movie.

[Interviewer]

That didn't exactly.

[Rick Springfield]

Well, they're not actors, you know, I mean, I consider myself an actor and I'm better now than I was then, but I was better. I was a fairly seasoned actor at that point.

[Interviewer]

Had you had any acting training?

[Rick Springfield]

What's that?

[Interviewer]

Did you ever have acting training?

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, yeah. I was in class for like four years.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Rick Springfield]

Before I even went out to try.

[Interviewer]

I just didn't know if you were like a savant who was just good at a bunch of stuff.

[Rick Springfield]

Well, but honestly, the class was. A lot of the classes there really are a lot of. It's really just about, you know, being. Being there and. And they give. The classes, give you all this mental bulls.

[Interviewer]

What's method acting and all that stuff?

[Rick Springfield]

Oh, no, method's great. I mean, method is you really. You. You take time and and sit with it and imagine all this stuff is happening. And when you know, you've ever been driving along the road and you get an angry thought and you start thinking about. And suddenly you're pushing the accelerator.

[Interviewer]

That's.

[Rick Springfield]

That's method acting. That's. Nothing's really happening other than up here.

[Interviewer]

I see. Yeah.

[Rick Springfield]

So you, you create all this stuff inside you and that's, that's what method acting is. But there are other schools where they, they, they try and put it on paper and you gotta have a goal and, and you're trying to think this while you're trying to talk to somebody and it's just bullshit.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Rick Springfield]

So it's almost like you have to unlearn a lot of the stuff you learn. Initially, I have to jump past this. I remember watching Roll Street Loving Review was an acting class.

[Interviewer]

I bet. So explain this part to me because I only saw a note somewhere about it takes a mental health break. 1985. Is that accurate?

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Because again, big record follow up did in your estimation good. The follow up record to the big record. Right?

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

No music career is great TV show. Now you're doing movies. So why do you. Why do you say I need to stop?

[Rick Springfield]

Because I'd moved to Malibu and I had this big beautiful Spanish house.

[Interviewer]

And you're married and you got.

[Rick Springfield]

And I got married to the woman I really wanted to marry. I just had a kid and it was what I thought I had wanted. And there was. And there was one afternoon I was walking around the pool and I felt just as low as I've ever felt. And I realized at that point that this wasn't going to heal me because I'd always thought along all along. Yeah. Hit records, fame, money. I'll be more than I am. I'll be better. But after the initial rise, it was still me and still me and my. And that's, that's.

[Interviewer]

So was it because I'm trying to find the right words is. It's, it's, it's. It wasn't what you wanted? It didn't fix the problems?

[Rick Springfield]

No, it was what I wanted. Very much what I wanted. But I thought that it would fix the problem with me.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Rick Springfield]

My. What was happening inside.

[Interviewer]

So it was magical thinking.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Right.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

And I thought if this thing happens, all this other stuff, you know, which we.

[Rick Springfield]

I mean, you know why we get divorced and marry somebody else is because we think it's all going to change.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. I learned that lesson too. Okay, so when you stop, are you just. Are you just In Malibu, looking at the ocean, thinking, what do I do now?

[Rick Springfield]

Or I found a therapist, union therapist, who'd learned from Carl Jung. He got. He'd been a doctor and he'd seen all these patients dying and doctors covering stuff up. And he said, this is not the way I want to live. He's a very successful doctor. He lived in Beverly Hills, Mercedes, kids in great schools suddenly cut it all off and went to Zurich with his wife and learned under Carl Jung. And he was amazing. I started to see him. I saw him for about five years. And it didn't heal me, but it doesn't heal you. But you start to name the demons that are chasing you.

[Interviewer]

So what were the points of existential crisis

[Rick Springfield]

initially? It's self worth. I just felt just so worthless. I felt like I didn't. This wasn't. What I had was bull. What I gained was meaningless. It wasn't.

[Interviewer]

It wasn't because of the work that you had done and you felt embarrassed or something. It was. You hadn't gotten out of it what you thought you were.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, okay. Yeah. No, I. I felt like I wasn't. I wasn't worthy of Was luck. It was just, you know, and now I'm almost like, look, like he said when I went in one day, he said he looked like a homeless person. And I did. I had like the sky with beard and I looked like my hair hadn't washed. And I just, I didn't. You know, I was just. I went down, way down. And it was. I had to because I was so, so depressed. I remember watching myself on. On an MTV interview where I, you know, just played a big arena thing and she's interviewing me and I'm sitting there like this. Yeah, the. Is that all about, you know, to see it like that? It was so I. I pulled the plug, you know, I just.

[Interviewer]

Were you getting pressure? I mean, you tell, you know, I know how the business works. You tell your manager or whatever, hey, I'm gonna. Were they like, do they say you need to take time or. They were like, no, they.

[Rick Springfield]

They were nervous about it. You know, they. They start saying, give us one more

[Interviewer]

year, you know, one more year of driving yourself insane. Now you could take a break.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah. And I said, no, I can't. I gotta do this now because there's nowhere for me to go. You know, it may seem kind of melodramatic, but it was really sorry to

[Interviewer]

interrupt you, but having experienced, I. I totally get it. I. I just. I don't know you, but I totally get it. Yeah, I totally get it.

[Rick Springfield]

And, and people would, you know, you

[Interviewer]

probably wouldn't be here if you hadn't stopped.

[Rick Springfield]

Exactly. I, I know that for sure.

[Interviewer]

See, that's. That, that's the salient point.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Live to fight another day, you know, something we say here in this culture retreat gathering. Yeah, exactly.

[Rick Springfield]

And I, you know, people would go, what? They'd go, why are you depressed? Why? Look at, you know, you got the

[Interviewer]

world on a string and everything should be so great.

[Rick Springfield]

Understand that it's, it's still me getting up in the morning and looking at myself and going, see, that's why that's

[Interviewer]

such a powerful message. And I've done some interviews about mental health stuff. Similar dynamics is for people to hear that success doesn't solve those problems.

[Rick Springfield]

Success, a lie. It's something we must, you know, as human beings. We must achieve, you know, we must. There's all that thing. Leave your mark, you know, leave a legacy.

[Interviewer]

Well, it's even at the root of procreation.

[Rick Springfield]

Right.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, yeah, I want to leave.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, exactly.

[Interviewer]

I want to leave the. Let the family go on past me.

[Rick Springfield]

Right, right. And then you have dogs, some form of hubris, and your name doesn't exist anymore.

[Interviewer]

Well said. So obviously jumping around, but just trying to make the points. No albums between 88 and 97.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah. I wrote an album actually out of my therapy sessions called Rock of Life that was basically about my first son and how it shook me and changed me. And that's actually one of my favorite albums because it had one hit off it that didn't really do much.

[Interviewer]

But when did that come out in this?

[Rick Springfield]

88, I think it was.

[Interviewer]

So that was the last album you did before you were like.

[Rick Springfield]

No, I, I took, I, I did therapy 85 to like 88.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Rick Springfield]

And then started writing because of the therapy.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Rick Springfield]

And then did that album and then took more time off. But then I got an acting gig. That was a TV series called High Tide that was with a, A guy. I'm still friends with, a Canadian who actually is. Is on the 18th season in a show called Murdoch Mysteries. And we played brothers, surf brothers that were also cops. And we went to New Zealand to shoot the first season.

[Interviewer]

Is this a Down Under Base series?

[Rick Springfield]

Yes.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Rick Springfield]

No, no, it's a world worldwide series, but only if you're an insomniac or a night watchman.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Rick Springfield]

They played. It was like big in Brazil, it was big in Germany, and It was like 3 o' clock in the morning in America. But it was work and it Was fun with the scripts were pretty good. It was Jim Meniere, who actually is now in charge of American Horror stories.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Rick Springfield]

So it was this. Initial scripts were good, and we were excited about it, and it was. We thought it'd be. Might be a big hit. And then we did a second season in San Diego and then a third season here in, you know, Rockslard. And what's that up there?

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Rick Springfield]

And then a folded. And that kind of took all my time.

[Interviewer]

I see.

[Rick Springfield]

And you didn't know where I was.

[Interviewer]

So did you make a conscious decision to stop doing music or you just got busy and you went.

[Rick Springfield]

I got busy. I got busy doing.

[Interviewer]

Because, you know, if you look at it on paper, it seems like, okay, he takes a mental health break. Yeah. Right. I mean, it's unusual, you know, I

[Rick Springfield]

felt like I was kind of being. Being active, you know, I was in a career that I enjoyed.

[Interviewer]

But when people would ask you, why aren't you doing music? Or when's the next record? What would you say?

[Rick Springfield]

I just said, I'm. I'm working right now.

[Interviewer]

So you didn't feel you'd abandoned music?

[Rick Springfield]

No, I didn't. I was writing all the time.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Rick Springfield]

And I never stopped writing. I mean, I do, you know, I binge write. I. I will write for three months and then won't write for six months, that kind of thing. I'm not the 9 to 5 guy or write every day kind of guy, but I. I, you know, I was getting paid well, it was a successful show in certain areas. I felt like I was, you know, still pursuing a path, Not. Not the main path, but I was still on a path. But I knew I'd get back to music eventually, and that's, you know, really what happened.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, it's just. It's. It's. How can I put it? You're arc is very unusual, you know what I mean? Because you came in as a guitar player, you get dragged into pop land, you know, then you go through this whole thing where you've got to kind of figure it out. You get in a contractual squabble, you end up being an actor and successful. Right. And then it all kind of. It all converges at the same time.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah. Which is.

[Interviewer]

And within seven years of it all converging, you know, your dream of music is kind of set aside. And again, I understand your explanation. I'm not arguing. It's just. It seems odd in. Considering the arc. It's very unusual.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, it is an unusual path, for sure. And I. I can't really Explain it other than I've always just looked at what's in front of me and decided, y' all do that or. No, I won't do that. I. I'm not the. The. Although I, you know, talk about manifestation, that's end result that I manifest. It's not, it's not the steps to those end result.

[Interviewer]

So. I'm curious, you know, how this culture works. It's like my joke. My joke is I walk through the airport and people go, hey, are you the rat in the cage guy? Right.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Okay.

[Rick Springfield]

The identifier.

[Interviewer]

And I've done 20 and so have you. But you. There's that guy in the airport that's like, hey, Jesse's girl. How's Jesse doing?

[Rick Springfield]

You know. Oh, it's.

[Interviewer]

You've heard it all.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

So how have you. How have you navigated? I mean, it seems fairly balanced from the outside. I mean, you've stayed working, you released a ton of music. You just have a new song out that I just listened to. So how have you balanced all that? I mean, has it been tough for you to navigate? Let's call it the public version of your reality versus your actual reality?

[Rick Springfield]

Not really. Because I have a very. I think I have a fairly accurate view of the public's idea of me,

[Interviewer]

you know, does that not bother you? You know what I mean? But is like, is that. Is there anything you feel like you need to correct or amend or.

[Rick Springfield]

I'm not big on the legacy thing, you know, all that kind of thing. I just, I've. I've been through a. Had a lot of, you know, when I first Jesse Joe first came out, I got a lot of crap from, you know, critics hated me. And so I'm used to all that kind of thing and it doesn't bother me. And so someone's odd opinion, I understand, that's they got their life right here and they just want to need a box to put these people in.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Rick Springfield]

So that they don't need to think about it too hard, you know, and they pick the obvious identifier, the thing that they first. First heard, you know, that identified you with them and that's. They're comfortable with that.

[Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Rick Springfield]

So I, I don't, you know this, like have a new record out and you go on a talk show and they play Jesse's Girl. I'm going to play the new record,

[Interviewer]

by the way, I love the new record. Lose Myself.

[Rick Springfield]

Lose Myself. Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Great. I was like, I mean, it sounds like a 25 year old guy having a great song.

[Rick Springfield]

Oh, thanks.

[Interviewer]

Very youthful, you know, but not purposely so. It's like it's just in you.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

It comes out in your music. So I was very impressed by that. Although I do have to laugh because I'm thinking, okay, so the. The most famous song of yours is about you being obsessed about this girl. So back to the lyrics. You're the perfect drug at the imperfect time before you crashed in my life I was doing fine. I fall into you and everything fades away. You burn, you burn through the world I knew now I want to stay And I want to lose myself. And I'm going to lose myself. I should be past this shit, but it still turns me on.

[Rick Springfield]

Yep.

[Interviewer]

So you're still here.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, I mean, I, you know, I think it's great just being truthful, you know? Yeah. I mean, I'm 75. And you think, well, you should. Maybe you should be. Have more of a view, you know, a better view. But I'm. You know, there's still this stuff still. I still have to, you know, pick up a guitar and start around.

[Interviewer]

But it. But I'm saying it's in your music. I hear it.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

You know, I guess what I'm after, if it's like a metaarch, you know, because every interview is almost as like trying to create its own little movie. Like, here's the beginning, here's the middle end. So, you know, America has a way of categorizing people and saying, oh, he does that. She does that. And I think you've repeatedly kind of broken this image, but it doesn't seem something you're trying to do. It's just a. It's a. It's a result of just who you are.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Most people would be calculated about it.

[Rick Springfield]

You know, it strikes me as calculated.

[Interviewer]

That's what I'm saying. That's what's sort of refreshing about you and our mutual friend. You know, he told me that about you, and that's why he wanted me to talk to you, because he. He thought I would find that refreshing. And I do, because, you know, success in America as, you know, it's. It's a very singular thing. And we've both been blessed enough to have success in America. It's really is, you know, it's the. It's the. It's the top of the hill as far as. If you want to have success. So. And there's been a lot written and a lot sort of broken down about, how should, you know, some snobby critic at the New York Times view people like us, if we don't sort of fit into their perfect little model of value. And I think what's interesting about streaming services and stuff like that is they're. They're changing the idea of value.

[Rick Springfield]

How do you mean?

[Interviewer]

Well, people, if they like music, they just find it.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

So my first reaction when I heard your. Your song Lose Yourself was I added it to my master playlist. I was like, I love this song. Boom. It doesn't matter who or if I. If. If I found that song from you from 82 or 2024. I'm just adding it to this playlist because I was like, this great song. I want to hear it again.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, I know. I do that too. Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Right. So that's what I'm saying. We're living in this world of shifting value. No people outside us will no longer be able to define what our value is. So I think that's kind of cool, and I think you're a great testament of that.

[Rick Springfield]

Oh, okay. I get. I get what you're saying.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, it's like. It's like guitar player to guitar player, because I'm a guitar player first, too. It's like once you're a guitar player, you never stop being a guitar player.

[Rick Springfield]

Right.

[Interviewer]

And music has taken us all over the world and done all this crazy stuff.

[Rick Springfield]

I sometimes look at the piece of wood with six wires.

[Interviewer]

That's why I want to know if you stop the white sg. Right.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, Right. Yeah, right. Right.

[Interviewer]

So that's kind of what I'm trying to say is I think it's cool that you've just done it. You've just done it your way, and the world's kind of swung back to you in its own time.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, I. I mean, I think I. I don't. I mean, I think everybody who's successful, certainly from, you know, like, I'm not sure about now with all the game shows and all that shit happening, but we come up through, you know, the clubs and the ranks and.

[Interviewer]

Yes. Musicians first.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah. And we learn and we, you know, take the knocks and. I mean, I would play in places in Australia where I had to turn the guitar around like a club and beat people off the stage because they were fight. And, you know, some of these people that come up now, they have no idea of. And I don't know if they're. I mean, it doesn't matter because they're. You know, there's some great songs out there, but. But you've. You find out. You find your roots and. And who you are. Musically, I think coming up that way, coming up the slow way through. Through the clubs and all that kind of thing. Maybe it's an old view, but. But, but that's who. How you form who you are and what you want to write about and what you find important.

[Interviewer]

Yeah. So last thing, how do you. How do you. Our mutual friend, he was talking about seeing you live and he was talking about where you did the song about your father's. My father's chair.

[Rick Springfield]

My father's chair, yeah.

[Interviewer]

And he said it was a very emotional moment.

[Rick Springfield]

He's very hooked into his dad, too.

[Interviewer]

Sure. But. But I. He was expressing how emotional it was for him to hear you do this song live, and he knows what that song means to you. And he said he was getting annoyed because there's people going, you know, hey, take, you know, come over here, we're

[Rick Springfield]

gonna play Jesse's Girl.

[Interviewer]

Yeah, that. Whatever. You understand this, the simplicity of what I'm after?

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, no, it's. It's. You know, I've. I've been through a bit of that, but I mean, I. I think of, you know, being in a club in Florida in 1976 with my then band and playing a song, and there were. There's two people sitting there, and there was one over there, finished the song and nobody clapped. And I went, guess you guys didn't like that song, eh? So, I mean, compared to that, there's another. I'm okay with someone, you know, I get pissed off at times, you know, and I've actually kind of said, okay, this songs for you motherfuckers who were talking through my dad's song. And, you know, but see, you reminded

[Interviewer]

me of being in a club in 1988, and the people were all the way over there at the bar, about eight people, and they weren't paying no attention. They were paying no attention to us. And they were just talking because they were trying to pick each other up or drink their beers. And I remember thinking, I never want to be in a place where they can talk over the band again. And so at the next rehearsal, I said, for now on, we will never stop playing. And so we were in the habit where we would play and then we would just feed back between songs, just over songs, so they couldn't talk.

[Rick Springfield]

That's great.

[Interviewer]

So.

[Rick Springfield]

And play loud. Turn it up to 11.

[Interviewer]

Absolutely.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

All right, last nerd question.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

Okay. What amps were you playing back in. In those days? In the Zoot.

[Rick Springfield]

In Zoot, I had a thing called an M and R, which was An Australian made amp we had. You know, like I said, the American stuff was very expensive, so you know, the local guys would build stuff. I had an M and R. Never heard of an mnr. No, no. Fair, fair. You know, good sound though, with good raisin. But. But I had my. You know, Mike Gibson was my. My SG was my first good guitar. And actually in the. No use, mainly Marshalls. You know, we had a horrible moment where we used pv. Solid states that didn't break up and they were just painful as hell.

[Interviewer]

But synthetic fuzz.

[Rick Springfield]

What's that?

[Interviewer]

It's synthetic fuzz. Yeah, that's. You know, it's just like fuzz. Yeah, it's a. It's. It's a drawn wave. The sound of Lynyrd Skynyrd though.

[Rick Springfield]

What's that?

[Interviewer]

That's the sound of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Oh, it is. All three guys played Peevies. Oh my God. Next time you hear Sweet Home Alabama. That's peevey.

[Rick Springfield]

Really?

[Interviewer]

That's the sound.

[Rick Springfield]

Well, kudos to them. They're making it sound good. I couldn't get it to sound good. And then. Yeah, just use Marshalls and had for a while had an old harmonizer between two amps. Oh, you did dial it down, you know, to get a thicker sound. That's what I used on Working Class.

[Interviewer]

Okay, last question. Existential union question. If you had it to do over again, would you do it the same?

[Rick Springfield]

Oh, no, I'd probably want to do it differently. Why would I want to do it the same?

[Interviewer]

I don't know. That's why I'm asking.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, no, I'd.

[Interviewer]

What would you change? You had a pretty cool life. Yeah, but it hasn't been easy. At every step along the way, I

[Rick Springfield]

made a lot of good choices. I made some bad choices personally, you know, in my life, I would probably. I'd probably tour the world more.

[Interviewer]

Australia.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah.

[Interviewer]

They're waiting.

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah. But yeah, I mean, no, I mean, I'm. I'm not satisfied because I think if you're satisfied, then you retire and you die. But I still have drive. I still have, you know, things I want to achieve, mountains I want to climb, all that kind of thing. Songs I want to write that are better and, you know, and better just do more of what I love to do, basically. And. But yeah, there's. There'll be some things I change, but if I could knit there, I'd. Sure I'd be freaking putting nothing major.

[Interviewer]

Would you still do the. Is it hard to hold?

[Rick Springfield]

Yeah, no, I'd probably, you know what? I was, I was up for the right stuff, and I, and I turned that down going, I turned down, going to, you know, read for that because I got hard to hold. So I'd probably go, you know what? I'm going to read for the right stuff and Cardo. All right.

[Interviewer]

Thank you. Thank you, Rick.