It was 1981 when Australian American rock star Rick Springfield released what would turn out to be his biggest hit: “Jessie’s Girl.” But his music catalogue is much bigger than one song. In fact, he recently released a “Greatest Hits, Volume 2,” featuring 24 cuts, including a rerecorded version of “Jessie’s Girl.”
“It’s the best songs from the last 25 years,” Springfield said, “including a couple of unreleased things. There’s a song I did with Sammy Hagar to celebrate our Beach Bar Rum company that we have together. There’s a thing I did with the Foo Fighters that was not really heard that much, called ‘Man That Never Was.’ There’s a rerecording of ‘Jessie’s Girl’ that I did just because everyone asks if ‘Jessie’s Girl’ is on this album. I wanted it to sound better, so I matched the original performance, but it sounds bigger, the guitar is a little more powerful. I just made it more modern — people would probably be hard to tell which was which.”
Now 75, Springfield seems to have the same energy he did more than 40 years ago. In fact, he’s still touring and looking every bit the rock star he’s been his whole life wearing skinny jeans, leather jackets and the Converse sneakers he’s been partial to since he was 12.
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Springfield made a stop in New York City in between shows on his 42-city “I Want My ‘80s” tour with John Waite, Wang Chung, Paul Young and John Cafferty on select dates. The tour runs through Aug. 10.
Although he’s been touring consistently over the years, most have been “weekend gigs,” he said. “I didn’t want to be away from home for a long time. But this is actually the longest tour I’ve done since the ‘80s.”
He said that although he doesn’t like the travel, he still loves performing. “I get paid to travel, I work for free,” he said with a smile. “It’s really true. I love being on stage. How can you not? I’ll be 76 in August so I don’t know how long we’ll be playing, but…”
He said he continues to be inspired by Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney, both of whom are older than he is and still performing. “They’re really pushing the envelope for sure,” he said, “showing us how far you can go.”
He said he stays in shape by working out so he’s ready for his “very aerobic” stage shows. “We always come off drenched.” He’s also tried to eat “as clean as possible” since he was in his 20s, which has helped him fit into those skinny jeans.
This year also marks the 40th anniversary of Live Aid, the global benefit concert organized by Bob Geldof to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia that featured dozens of musicians in London and Philadelphia simultaneously.
“Benefit [concerts] have been going on forever, but that was the first that was completely international, with two stages,” he recalled. “It was about as big as you could get, and it was for a good cause. We all thought, ‘now we can finally change the world with music.’ It didn’t happen, but it was a noble thought.”
He continued: “I never believed that throwing money at someone was a way to cure anything. It’s not. What it did was keep people alive long enough to have more babies and exacerbate the situation. But I don’t want to sound like a downer on it. It was a great, noble thing to do.”
Springfield still believes music can help heal and hopes that something will be organized to help the people affected by the recent floods in central Texas. “That’s where money can actually do some good because there needs to be a lot of repairs and changes,” he said. “I had to stop reading about it. I just can’t imagine what those parents are going through and no benefit is going to change anything for them.”
Springfield, who’s been married to Barbara Porter since 1984, has two children of his own and is about to be a grandfather — undoubtedly a cool grandfather.
In the “Jessie’s Girl” video, he wears a skinny suit and tie with sneakers as well as baggy pants with a skintight T-shirt and even a tight white undershirt. “I never wore spandex or anything like that through the ‘80s,” he said. “I came up with the idea of a suit with sneakers because I wore sneakers all the time and I feel comfortable in them. And I certainly had limited funds for buying clothes back then.”
Ditto for the video.
“They gave us $1,500 to make two videos, for ‘Jessie’s Girl’ and ‘I’ve Done Everything for You,’” he said. Because they couldn’t afford permits, they set up in the back of the Guitar Center in Hollywood at 3 a.m. for “Jessie’s Girl,” set up “and blasted the music until the cops came. Then we threw everything in a van and took off.” The second video was filmed in a strip club from 2 to 4 a.m. because it was free.
Today, he’s got a bit more money to spend on his wardrobe and is partial to John Varvatos, but he also shops a lot online. “I just put in ‘cool pants’ and go looking through them all. It’s all hit and miss stuff.”
Except for his trademark Converse sneakers. Springfield said when he couldn’t find them in any colors but black or white back in the day, he started to dye his own. “It became quite a thing and I was kind of responsible for Converse becoming cool in the ‘80s.”
Looking at the music scene today, Springfield said he’s still a fan of The Beatles, along with Virginmarys and even Taylor Swift. “There have been some Taylor Swift songs that were amazing and had great hooks,” he said. “I don’t limit myself to what’s cool and what’s not. I did a rock version of ‘Roar’ for a little while because I thought it was a great song.”
Springfield also continues to act and just wrapped “All’s Fair,” a legal drama scheduled to be released this fall on Hulu with Ryan Murphy, Naomi Watts, Kim Kardashian and others.
And his role? “I play a musician unfortunately. I played a doctor, too, but I’m not a doctor,” he said of his famous role as Noah Drake M.D. on “General Hospital.” “At least this gives us some believability because people know me as a musician.”
So how much longer does Springfield expect to be in the public eye? “I always wanted a long career,” he said. “The reason to stop is if the gods call it or you no longer find joy in it. And I still find great job in playing.”
