Rick Springfield “F‘Rick’in’ Awesome”

by Kimberly Katz
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Rick Springfield has sold over 19,000,000 records while charting 17 Top 40 Hits to date. Having performed for millions of fans over the last three decades and showing no signs of slowing down, Rick continues to play 100 shows a year, sharing his love of performing, unstoppable energy and his unique brand of crowd interaction with thousands of fans each night, literally wading deep into the crowd at each show! Rick Springfield is currently on tour to support his new release, “The Day After Yesterday”.

After a gaining a name in his homeland, the Australian native moved to Hollywood where he was signed by Capitol records in 1972. Rick then enjoyed a variety of moderate musical success throughout the 70’s, including American Bandstand appearances and being featured regularly in 16 and Teen Beat.

However, everything changed for Rick in 1981 when he released Working Class Dog, an album that featured his soon to be trademark song, “Jesse’s Girl”, which quickly made it to #1 on the Billboard charts. From that album, another classic, “I’ve Done Everything for You” (written by Sammy Hagar), was born. In 1982 Rick won a Grammy for “Best Male Rock Performance” for “Jessie’s Girl” and finally became a household name. Rick continued the achievement with a string of hits including “Don’t Talk to Strangers”, “Human Touch”, “Love Somebody” and “What Kind of Fool Am I?”

From 1981-1983 Rick starred on General Hospital, making housewives all over the nation swoon at the rocker gone actor, as he appeared as the hunky Dr. Noah Drake (he later reclaimed the role in 2005). Years later Rick found himself solving crimes on the Baywatch meets Magnum PI detective series High Tide that ran from 1994-1996. Rick also starred in the 1984 major motion picture Hard to Hold which he laughingly brought up at his sold out House of Blues show last week as being the film that showed off his naked butt. I thought Hard to Hold was fun and romantic with some great songs, and I for one was glad to see his naked butt!

Seriously though, I was able to speak with Rick while he was en route to the airport and was really impressed by his sensitive and thoughtful answers about the music industry and about my own pet issue, stem cell treatment.

Rick also graciously gave Buzz magazine one of our first in a series of “Video Postcards from the Road” live from the House of Blues stage just prior to his sold out performance there. These video greetings to stars’ fans will be archived permanently on our website www.buzznews.net.

If you missed his hot and sweaty and absolutely off the hook House of Blues performance, be sure to catch Rick in his upcoming concert at The Arlington Heights “Frontier Days Festival” on July 7th.

Rick’s website, which is constantly updated with new tour dates and lots of interesting video and photos, is at www.rickspringfield.com. Check it out!

Buzz – I saw you perform in Milwaukee last month and I just have one word for you…Wow... wow... wow. That’s three words, but they’re all the same word. I was blown away, Rick.

Rick –(laughs) oh, good, good. Buzz – I did not know you were such an awesome guitarist, first of all. I mean, you turned it over and you spanked it. (Laughs) You are a really, really great guitarist. I know you’ve been playing since you were a child…did you take lessons or did you learn by ear?

Rick – No, I just learned by ear, you know it was my passion while I was a kid until I discovered songwriting. I didn’t take lessons. I just learned by ear and friends and stuff. I don’t mind if it’s a well-kept secret, I’m ok with it. That just gives people…it surprises them when they come to the show for the first time.

Buzz – Yeah, yeah and the uh - when you bash the roses that’s hot! That is HOT! When did you start doing that? What did someone hand you roses one time and you were like – “Screw this, I’m just gonna bash them on my guitar”?

Rick – Yeah, one time a fan – I was up front trying to play a solo – and she kept trying to shove these roses in my hand so I just grabbed them and banged them against my guitar and everyone went nuts. So basically, I decided to keep doing it.



Buzz – It’s great, it’s great. Now here’s something you have to admit right now. Okay? To all your fans. I know that because you look so young, that you are a vampire who is sucking the blood out of young virgins to stay looking so young. (Laughs) You mentioned that you work out a lot. What do you do when you go to work out? What’s that like and what are you wearing?

Rick – (Laughs) When I work out or what I’m wearing right now?

Buzz – No- (Laughs) Oh please, details! But seriously, what’s your routine like? Do you do some aerobics, lift weights? What do you do?

Rick – I do a half hour of weight exercise because I found that if I tried to do more like 45 minutes or and hour that I’d always find excuses not to do it – couldn’t fit it in, didn’t have the time. I worked it down to 20-30 minutes and I always have time for it. And I do a lot on the road so I can get up in the morning – like you know I did this morning I got up early before I went to the plane – and went and worked out because it’s great to do. I just lifted weights and certainly playing live is an aerobic exercise and went swimming a lot of the time.

Buzz – Swimming’s the best isn’t it? It really gets every muscle, you know, long and loose…

Rick – Yeah, I never feel better than when I’m swimming and doing weights. It’s a great combo.

Buzz –Oh yeah, water is so great. Also, if you Jacuzzi after you work out, it saves a lot on aches the next day. (Laughs) Just a little tip from me! Now I was told that you take Pro Tools along with you on the Rick Springfield at House of Blues (Photo by Ken Payne) 12 www.buzznews.net or call 888-Hey-Buzz Buzz – This is kind of a serious question, a political question, but my father and brother both passed in 2005 from a disease called Ataxia – cerebral brain damage that could have been treated with stem cells.

Rick – I’m sorry.

Buzz – I know that your own father suffered a debilitating stroke, which is another area which stem cells have been found to repair. What’s your position on stem cell treatment? [George] Bush just vetoed another bill.

Rick – I know, I saw that this morning. Boy, I just…that’s insane to me. And what he’s doing…hopefully he’s not stopping the progress of American...American science in pursuit of this, because the rest of the world is going full speed ahead. It’s absolutely insane. I don’t know what his agenda is. It can’t be a religious thing because I don’t believe he’s too much on the ball about all that. It’s really infuriating. On the other hand, my dad was in the Army and I do support the soldiers and I believe we had to go in after the militant terrorists that attacked us. I don’t think we could have sat and not done anything. I believe we had to take the fight to them. Whether we took it to the right person or not, we’re certainly all in it now anyway. But the stem cell thing drives me crazy. It’s so stupid I can’t believe it. I just can’t believe it.

Buzz – I’m curious because you said in the rest of the world because I haven’t ever even been to Europe. You travel around the world all the time. Are they making an effort over there? Are they really trying... road, when you’re on a set of dates, to compose in your spare time, which I think is awesome. That’s the mark of a real musician who has a strong desire to keep in touch with himself. You know what I mean?

Rick – I’m amazed you know Pro Tools, that’s great. (Laughs)

Buzz –Oh you know, I’ve been in a band for a long time and I know that people who have a strong desire to keep writing - they have a lot to say and they’re compelled to do it, you know?

Rick – It’s a great use of that time. Down time is about the worst thing on the road. We don’t usually have a lot of it when we go gig to gig, but when do a couple of nights at a place it’s great for that. We always get together and I set it up and write. You know, we write.

Buzz – You’re a really great composer, I want to tell you that and I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre History so- if I give you a compliment on writing, it should stick. You’re a really great composer. I didn’t realize that you write all your own music. It’s one thing to make a song a hit that somebody else wrote, that’s nearly impossible, but to make a hit out of song you wrote that’s likemiraculous.

Rick - That’s the thing I’m really proud of, actually. The few good songs I’ve written, I’m very proud of those – cause that’s gonna go on, you know.

Buzz – Yeah, absolutely. Because that’s a part of history. It’s like a time capsule of our pop culture. Pretend you’re in the film Music and Lyrics…did you see that one?

Rick – Yes I did (laughs).

Buzz – Ok, you have to sit down and write something…tell me a little bit about your songwriting process. How do you begin? What do you do?

Rick – I just start messing around – first of all I start writing down ideas. If a phrase comes into my head that I haven’t heard before, I’ll write that down. I read a lot. If phrases come up or chapter titles spark something, I’ll write that down. I just have scraps of paper and books everywhere with notes like that in them – and then I’m always noodling on the guitar, so I’ll just set some time aside to construct a whole song. Then I’ll just set a few months aside and hopefully write a record.

Rick – Oh, absolutely. They’re flooring it because they know – everybody knows – the future. And I think that other than the I Phone I don’t think there’s a bigger understanding of how great this could possibly be.

Buzz – That’s right. There’re literally a billion people who are waiting for stem cell treatment for diabetes, cancer, aids...

Rick – I’m a big supporter of many different charities or benefits for kids and hopefully the people who are doing all the work on it aren’t just looking at his rejection and taking it to heart because it’s important work. I’m assuming that the intelligent side is joined on this.

Buzz – I’m glad to hear you feel that way. So, back to you…you started your own record label, Gomer Records, and you achieved really good sales independently. How did you do that? A lot of people are finding it difficult to sell music online.

Rick – I have a very strong website and a great, very strong fan base. Yeah, we pursue it any way we can. I mean, no one’s got the answer yet and I don’t even know if there is one answer out there. All I can do is write the best music I can write and make it available in as many places as I can, because you know the record industry is basically over, and radio is basically over. I mean, if radio had been in the state it is in now back in the 80’s, “Jesse’s Girl” would never have been a hit.

Buzz – That’s right, it’s all corporate, payola, bullshit.

Rick – Yeah, and the DJ’s found “Jesse’s Girl” – that was never released as a single. I had another single out, and different DJ’s who, you know, loved music and had a passion for discovering stuff and playing it for people still – they found that song and started playing it. Then the record company said, “Hey, it’s starting to get some action – Let’s release it as a single.” That would never happen in a million years now because the play list is twenty songs long and it’s published on the web now and they’re all the same songs over and over. It’s just ridiculous. They’ve killed themselves.

Buzz – Yep, yep. I think it’s killing creativity, too.

Rick – There are great songs out there still and there are great musicians, there are still great singers and I hear a lot of great stuff. I mean, there are new ways of putting it out there, even putting a video on YouTube, which is better than spending $500,000 on a lame ass video that no one’s going to play. There are ways to go.

Buzz – Things are opening up. Oh thanks a lot, it was such a pleasure to talk to you, Rick.

Rick – Oh well, I appreciate the intelligent questions.

Buzz - Oh, I’m so glad and I can’t wait to see you perform tomorrow.

Rick – Yeah we’re looking forward to it Chicago’s always a favorite.

Listen to clips of this interview and watch Rick’s “ Video Postcard from the Road” at www.Buzznews.net.