THE GAVIN INTERVIEW:
RICK SPRINGFIELD TALKS TO A STRANGER

By Kent/Keith Zimmerman
April 26, 1985

For someone who has successfully dabbled in so many forms of media (Radio, Television, Film, Video), Rick Springfield, a keen listener, isn't the interviewing type. Anyone who has closely examined and listened to his new LP, Tao, shouldn't be too surprised to find Springfield contemplative, modest, a little insecure and uncomfortable with fame. However, I was. His new album, assembled with co-producer Bill Drescher, synthesist Mitchell Froom, and sidekick/guitarist Tim Pierce, ranks his finest, most thought out work. Springfield openly credits Eddie DeJoy for resurrecting his now booming career on RCA. Neither does he disavow his brief tenure in the medical/soap opera field on General Hospital. The fact that Springfield still drives his 1972 Ford Fiesta (unrecognized?) around town shows that he still remembers his roots, his salad days. That alone made him an interesting psychological study and an enjoyable, but challenging interview.

KZ: Do you do many interviews?
RS: No, this is the first interview I've done for this album.

KZ: I was listening to your new album. I was impressed. It was different than anything you've done.
RS: I had a long time to work on it, think about it and get the sounds right. I'm really happy with it.

KZ: It sounds like the kind of album that needs some explaining.
RS: I reel when people say, "It's a lot different for you," because it's a natural progression. It doesn't seem dramatically different to me. But I guess I understand. The other day on the radio (here in LA), they played a music set of four of my songs. It sounded like such old stuff... "Jessie's Girl," "I've Done Everything For You," Don't Talk To Strangers." If you A and B the new album and the old stuff, I see what you mean. I've been living with them (the new songs) for so long. I wrote probably 60% of them before my tour last year and lived with them on the road, which I've never had the opportunity to do before. I've always had to grind (an album) out. That soundtrack album (Hard to Hold) gave me some extra time to live with the new songs for awhile. Then I came back and tweaked it to the way I wanted it. I'm really happy with the way it turned out sonically - the general sounds my co-producer Bill Drescher and I were able to get.

KZ: That's the exact word I was thinking, that word "sonic."
RS: It's the only way to explain it. I'm not a great technician when it comes to studios. But I know what I want in my head and I hear it. To be able to get it on tape is an entirely different thing. Drescher and I have worked together since the first album. The communication has gotten better and better.

KZ: This song, "State of the Heart" is a great song.
RS: I don't take all the credit for it. A group called Mondo Rock from Australia with a guy called Eric McCusker, had one record out in America on Capitol and this song, "State of the Heart" was on it. Except it was uptempo with a different meaning to it. The general thrust was there, but, lyrically, I changed it somewhat and slowed it down to make it into the groove that felt right. This is one of the all-time big songs in Australia - the way Eric originally did it.

KZ: What were you touching at with the opening track, "Dance This World Away"?
RS: Both "Walking on the Edge" and "Dance This World Away" are both about, really, that we are all sitting here pissing our lives away when there's a real dark side that we all better focus on. You sit and you get wrapped up with this music, just having fun and carrying on. It's just trying to add a little bit of seriousness. Sometimes I think I'm one of the most unhappy people in the world just in looking at the world.

KZ: What happened?
RS: It's what I hope all of us are feeling. There had better be a hell of a lot of consciousness about what's going on. I don't want to make it a political statement. It's just a statement about life. I want my kids to be able to grow up and not worry about the threat of blowing people up. Love songs...boy meets girl and girl fucks with boy's head and then moves on. There's a place for that (in my albums) and it's alright, but it's not everything I want to say.

KZ: That's why I like this record so much though.
RS: It is different in that sense. I've gotten more courageous. I've sort of written myself out of relationships. In fact there was a Billy Idol interview (chuckle) that said "All Rick Springfield ever writes is love songs." I thought, "Well you know, he's actually right." (laughs) A lot of the stuff I wrote was about relationships I was in, or going through, or coming out of, or trying to get into. That's an international chord that rings with everybody. Last year, I got real panicked about a lot of stuff that people, who have a lot more control than you and I have, were doing. I just sat down and thought about it and put it down in words.

KZ: Have you been listening to any other kinds of music?
RS: There's a great new album by this band called Go West. Great album. The best album I have heard in six months is the new Graham Parker album. I spent some time with Graham Parker two years ago and he had just gotten a deal on Elektra. He's able to write songs in about twenty minutes, he said. He's a real quick writer.

KZ: Are you a quick writer?
RS: No. It's somewhat of an agonizing process for me. It is the most fun but I'm totally locked up away from everybody and there's no pressure. I have a great music room where I can hack this stuff out and go through it. It's not easy writing, for me anyway.

KZ: What's the significance of TAO?
RS: My theory behind it was that maybe somebody would pick up Webster's dictionary and read it. If I could get one person to do that then it was worth it. It was not to get too cerebral or pretentious. To me, it means simplicity and basics, teachings without words. My other title for the album, that RCA hated, was Why Am I Here And How Long Have I Got? (laughs) They hated it. Hence TAO came along.

KZ: In that song, "Walk Like A Man," there's so much frantic energy to it. Is that you, a hyper kind of person?
RS: That song epitomizes my life. I'm real frantic. I seem to always be disappointed. I set my goals so high. I'm never really able to achieve them - which I guess is good because then you try it again. I wonder if anybody every does anything and says, "That's the best I'll ever do," (laughs) I really wanted to convey it in that song. It's about confusion, time ticking away. People say you're supposed to be like a man, walk like a man. I'm still thinking, "Holy smokes, I'm a kid."

KZ: The album has meditative, transcendental thoughts. But musically, it wasn't clichéd. You set a goal for yourself, instrumentally, and you reached it.
RS: I appreciate that. I know the songs and lyrics were up to what I wanted. But there's a far cry between doing what you can do at home and taking it in hand doing it on 48 tracks. We also had time to record this album. I never had time before. I've never been able to spend lots of time in a studio. Nobody pressured me and said, "You gotta hurry and get this thing done."

KZ: When did things get real hectic in your career?"
RS: Oh, boy. Back when that General Hospital craziness was going on. There was a time during the second album that I was doing General Hospital Monday through Thursday. We'd take off and do shows Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Then come back and during the day do General Hospital and at night record the second album, Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet. I came close to dying...it was close to a nervous breakdown. I could never do that again. I don't even know how I did it at the time. Except that you're hungry and you want it all to happen.

KZ: Is that why you said enough of this TV stuff?"
RS: You gotta understand. I had had a number of less than successful albums. 1981 rolled around and RCA was willing to put out Working Class Dog. I fought with them not to put my picture on the cover. I thought a lot of the radio people would remember me from the teen idol days. I ended up taking the (General Hospital) job because it paid me $650 a day, three days a week. I thought, "I have a car payment and a house payment. This is the way to make both if the album doesn't happen." They (General Hospital) had me in a contract for two years and as soon as that contract was up, I was out of there. I think it was good for me. In retrospect, who can deny that it was not good for the album? I wouldn't have changed a thing.
People like to label you, Robert Hilburn of the LA times, fairly regularly, when he can, takes potshots. You don't hold it against him. He has a label for me. I don't think he listened to my records. I'm sure he's never been to a concert. But he knows what he wants to think I am. We all do it. People like to label you. I think what surprises people about this album is that it hopefully takes them astray from the label they have for me.

KZ: I noticed some of the trades reviewed this album. We wrote something a little different. Some said, "If you want women listeners, play this." I don't think they listened to the record.
RS: They look at it as: Wham! And Rick Springfield deliver female listeners. Then it becomes marketing. We're not talking about the quality of the album. In Esquire, they rain this piece. Some guy wrote this piece, and his send-off was, "Well, what does Rick Springfield care about music anyway, because it's his face on the covers that sells the albums." Either he really hates my music or he hasn't listened to it.

KZ: You used one of my favorite bass players, Pino Palladino.
RS: He's great. We flew him over from England. His stuff on Paul Young's album was exceptional.

KZ: Is "My Father's Chair" the most personal thing you have ever written?
RS: Absolutely. It's a song I did on tour last year. My dad died and I wrote a song called "April 24, 1981". It was just a short five line thought. I always wanted to write more...and couldn't. I couldn't deal with it. I was able to deal with it this time. I tried to keep it real simple. It was like a load off my shoulders. I just felt like I was carrying it around.

KZ: You felt better.
RS: Yes. I really did. "Walk Like A Man," "Walkin' On the Edge," "Dance This World Away," and "My Father's Chair" are really personal to me. We have to keep in mind here, it's not a cure for cancer, it's a piece of black vinyl with a hole in it. But for me personally, it was a chance to say, "Whew! Got that out of the way."

KZ: Is "Stranger In the House" based on a true story?"
RS: It really happened. I write pretty much from my own experiences. "Stranger In The House," to me, is the closest thing to my old stuff.

KZ: What are your thoughts on the single "Celebrate Youth"?
RS: As I get older and my friends get older, we're all so clinging to youth. It's so important to us. It's amazing how all of us pretend that it doesn't matter. But it really does. I meant it as a tribute to youth. My father was an incredible youthful guy who always had that spark. Have you ever seen somebody who's 60, 50, 40, or 30, but they've got that kid in them?

KZ: Are you going to do any more movies?
RS: Yes. I don't want to leave this earth thinking that Hard To Hold was my only movie. We've got a deal with Universal Pictures and we're going to do another picture. I want it to be right. I did it (Hard To Hold) because they dangled a million bucks in front of me. The good news is Radio supported the album. I got more AOR airplay from "Love Somebody" that any other tunes I'd ever done.

KZ: How do you feel about the mood you ended the album on? Is there hope?
RS: There is hope. That's why I wrote this album. I hope the album will sell. (laughs)

KZ: I don't lie awake at night feeling sorry for you, Rick.
RS: There aren't a whole lot of people who do. (laughs) There was a time, I tell you, when I was sitting in The Starwood in 1973 and a guy came up to me and said, "Hey, you used to be Rick Springfield. What happened to you? You were okay." At the ripe old age of 21, I thought, "I'd better get something going here." So I went home to my cottage cheese ceiling apartment and felt sorry for myself for about eight years.

KZ: Did you really sell things at a flea market?
RS: Yeah. In Pasadena in the Rose Bowl. I made stained glass windows and lamps. Then I got a contract with Universal Studios TV and did all this hideous episodic stuff. Incredible Hulk, Rockford Files, Wonder Woman. Just when I thought they were gonna come and get my car - a 1972 Ford Fiesta and I just paid it off - or take my house away, one of those stupid residual checks for $560 would come in. Then I'd be sitting pretty for another two months. It was a weird time. I was in the first fifteen minutes of the Battlestar Galatica movie. Then they blew the hell out of me. I died. I was so jazzed to be able to be in this great thing. My agent called, I said, "Great!" I went down and had two days work out of it. I was in the first fifteen minutes and they killed me.

KZ: Who's that dog on your album covers?
RS: My dog. His name is Ron. He has a big ego and demanded that we put him somewhere on the album. We stuck him on the inner sleeve. He's getting a lot more hip. He's into leather jackets. I bought the amps when I was in Japan. They're three feet tall and they really work. The day I got my okay from RCA (for the first album) I found him. My girlfriend at the time had trapped this dog in the garage. He's been mine ever since. He's a mix between pit bull and bull terrier. I thought he was always a good luck charm.