RICK SPRINGFIELD
ROCK 'N' ROLL DOCTOR:

It seems unbelievable that as recently as one year ago a lot of people hadn't even heard of Rick Springfield. Today, the star of "General Hospital," (in which he plays Dr. Noah Drake) is just about the hottest commodity on TV and in Rock. WORKING CLASS DOG, his first album for RCA, is now into its second year on the charts, and his new album, SUCCESS HASN'T SPOILED ME YET, and its first single "Don't Talk To Strangers," are already making their way up the charts. Add to this list of accomplishments a Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocalist of 1981, and you have a "Cinderfella" year for the Australian-born rocker/actor.

The years prior to 1981 read like a biography of just about every singer-songwriter-guitarist who ever left home to make it in rock 'n' roll. The son of an Australian Army colonel, he lived the life of an "Army brat," moving on to another town, sometimes another country, whenever his father got transferred. If nothing else, it taught him how to adapt to nearly any possible situation.

After a stint with an Australian band called Zoot, Springfield came to California to strike it big and recorded an album for Capitol in 1972 that spawned a marginally successful single entitled "Speak to the Sky." An album for Columbia (COMIC BOOK HEROES) followed and went nowhere, and another album was recorded but never released on the Chelsea label. Legal hassles kept him recording again until he signed with RCA in 1980.

In between the fateful signing to RCA, though, there were numerous bit parts on a long list of American TV series. He signed a contract with Universal and appeared on such prime time TV staples as "The Six Million Dollar Man," "The Rockford Files," "The Incredible Hulk," "Wonder Woman," and "Nancy Drew And The Hardy Boys." A star, as they say, was being born.

Springfield's career has become so hectic that he can only perform on the weekends. Monday through Thursday is taken up with the filming of the "General Hospital" shows, and Friday through Sunday, he's off to perform in concert somewhere in America. It is a pace that would drive a less-ambitious man crazy.

Joe Gottfried, Springfield's personal manager, has been the guiding force behind the "new" Rick Springfield. When all of the latter's agents and advisers said not to take the role of Dr. Noah Drake, it was he (and Springfield) who saw the enormous potential audience that "General Hospital" commanded.

"The man who did the casting for 'General Hospital' had seen Rick for another show which was a take-off on 'Charlie's Angels,'" Gottfried recalls. "it was a men's version of that with that pole vaulter, Bob Seagren, as one of the three guys. Rick didn't get that role, which we're very happy about because he didn't really want it, but the casting guy remembered him. So when the time came when they were looking for someone for 'General Hospital,' he called Rick. Despite the advice of just about everybody, he took it.

"First of all," Gottfried continues, "he wanted to keep his acting going, and secondly, we took a look at the demographics and saw all the kids watching it: college students, high school students and women. Nobody had realized how important the daytime soapers were, even though they had a broad audience.

"WORKING CLASS DOG had come out just prior to that, and the single, 'Jessie's Girl,' had come out earlier. The album had come out and started to chart, so we'll never know how well it would have done without 'General Hospital.' We do know that both worked very well together."

At the time of this conversation, Springfield had just signed a contract for a second year on "General Hospital," and Gottfried assured me that it would be his last. He will be starting work on his first film for Columbia Rastar this fall, and the film is due for a Christmas, 1983 release. But more than anything else, Springfield wants to be considered a rock 'n' roller.

"That's what he wants more than anything," Gottfried confirms, "and I think we're pretty close to getting that now. That's the most important thing, more than his acting career or anything else. He's a rocker, not a teen idol."

Following a European Tour in June, Springfield will embark on a tour of major Summer venues across America in August and September. "He'll be doing Blossom," Gottfried assures me. "I think he's there September 1 and 2."

Despite his immense popularity, Springfield and Gottfried are hip to the dangers of over-exposure on television. Says Gottfried: "We have been offered a lot of series, but we just think that it's too much exposure."

Another thing that they are aware of is the danger of being stuck with a "television image." Far greater acting talents have fallen victim to this stigma.

"It's very hard to be a TV star and a film star, too," Gottfried opines. "Tom Selleck may be able to do it, but there's not too many people who can do it. Look at Richard Chamberlain, as talented as he is, he can't get a movie because he has a television image. It's hard, but we want to bridge that gap between television and the movies."