Ain't that the way love's supposed to be

"I know a lot of them personally. Those that I don't, I'm always open to meeting."

That wasn't always the case, Springfield confesses.

"My attitude to fans kind of went 180 degrees after the '80s," the singer admits. "I was very, very distant. I had, like, a superficial friendly face, but couldn't wait to get out. But now I feel very fortunate to have fans that still want to hear my old stuff and my new stuff. I'm very humbled by the appreciation I still feel from those people. I have a much more healthy attitude, I think, toward fans.

"There are some wacky ones out there, you know, but it takes all kinds."

Wacky? As in?

"I've had some who were pretty intent on following me and putting private detectives on me," Springfield says. "They lie and create all of these unbelievable stories -- that just make you want to smack your head and say, 'What the ------ are they thinking?' -- to get into what they consider to be the inner circle of our road group.

Pop heartthrob Rick Springfield has come to terms with his fans and the enduring success of his 1981 No. 1 hit "Jessie's Girl."

"They're very, very talented. They'd make great 'con' people. I'm continually fooled. It's so freaky. People faking terminal illnesses so they could meet me! Just really freaky stuff."

(That type of behavior would never be condoned by Rick's Loyal Supporters, Springfield's official fan club. According to RLS member Cheryl Trojan, Tuckerton, fans are coming from as far as England, Las Vegas, Texas, Minnesotaand Utah to attend tomorrow's show. "We travel," Trojan says.)

Springfield's forthcoming CD is "shock/denial/anger/acceptance" (Red Ink). Lyrically speaking, each song on the album falls into one of the four titular categories.

Explains Springfield: "Shock, denial, anger and acceptance arethe four stages of healing. I think I generally seem to write to heal.

There is quite a bit of angst and pain in this record from various sources in my life. I feel that everybody's in some kind of healing throughout their life. I thought it was a very appropriate title, certainly for this album."

Where is this pain coming from? Who is, for instance, the pointedly angry "s/d/a/a" song "I Don't Want Anything From You" directed toward?

"I can't kind of talk about what it specifically was,"

Springfield says, "butit's something really crappy. I don't name any nameson this record. I did that a couple of times in the past, and I always felt bad about it.

"But that's definitely one of the anger songs. I definitely felt that I was screwed over in that situation, that relationship. Some of them are love relationships, some of them aren't."

Not that Springfield is on the prowl.

"I'm very married," he says. "It doesn't mean that------ doesn't happen, you know? In fact, I've had more songs to write since I've been married.

"But I love my wife and my kids. Some of it's not related to my primary relationship; there are other issues. It's all in there. I always try to write universally so that someone listening to a song can still connect to it. That's the whole point of writing, is to connect."

Musically speaking, Springfield adopted an approach that harkens back to his 1981 hit.

"The whole approach to most of the harder songs is real low-fi verses, and then pedal-to-the-metal in the choruses," Springfield says. "I love that dynamic. That's basically what 'Jessie's Girl' was. I think it's my best-sounding record.

"I built my own studio and recorded it there. That was a whole trial on its own. So it was a whole lot of firsts. A lot of stuff to corral and get together. A lot of special moments."