Serious Rocker & TV Doctor

• A little over a year ago, a reference to Rick Springfield might have conjured up a memory of a pop star in the early ‘70s who quickly disappeared from public sight. Today, however, Rick is highly visible in stardom’s spotlight, suddenly successful as both a musician and an actor. It’s been a dream-come-true year for the Australian-born entertainer. At the same time he’s captured the affections of “General Hospital” audiences as playboy doctor Noah Drake, his comeback album Working Class Dog, has become a best-seller with the hit singles “Jessie’s Girl” and “Love is Alright Tonite.”

• Stardom looks good on Rick, “but it certainly wasn’t a case of being an overnight success,” he laughs. With the exception of a quick taste of fame over 10 years ago, he explains, “I didn’t have a record deal until recently and although I was working as an actor, I was having a difficult time. I was selling guitars to make rent money. But I knew that eventually things would happen.”

• Now 32, Rick began laying the groundwork for his present success when he begged his parents to get him a guitar for his 13th birthday. With a grin he recalls, “I proceeded to saw it in half, trying to make an electric guitar out of it. Then I painted it bright red. My parents weren’t too thrilled about that, so I had to buy my next one myself. “Later,” he adds, “they helped me buy my very first electric guitar.”

• While growing up, Rick’s father belonged to the Australian Army, which required that the family move every few years. When we was 9, they moved to England and returned to Australia when he was 12. “The music scene in England was really growing at the time,” says Rick. “That’s when I first got involved in it.” But despite his interest in England. “I wasn’t only the new kid, but also a foreigner,” he recalls. “I got beat up a lot because I was Australian.”

• After returning to Australia, Rick taught himself to play guitar and began to develop as a vocalist. At 17, he had left school to play full-time in a band. He joined a locally successful group called Rock House and embarked on his first concert tour – to the army bases in Vietnam. “In the heat of fighting,” he says, “we lived in tents and played ‘fire bases’ (fighting camps on the front line). It was like a bad movie.”

• He had better luck when he joined The Zoot, a hit group in Australia. When they broke up, he had his first record contract as a solo artist and decided it was time to make his way to America. Leaving his family and girlfriend behind in Australia, he says, was “very painful. We’ve always been a very close family. I guess we kind of had to be. Because we moved so often, we never had much opportunity for making lasting friendships outside the home.”

• In addition to leaving his parents and older brother, Michael, the move to the U.S. ended Rick’s relationship with his first love. At the time, he says, it was true love. “It was agony,” he smiles. “I wanted to be with her constantly and I never got anything done. I stopped writing songs. It was total involvement. But when I left and she stayed behind, we just grew away from each other.”

• He went to America via London, where he recorded two albums, which produced a hit single that followed him to the U.S. where he settled in 1972. On the strength of the single, Rick’s management and the record company proceeded to promote him strictly as a teen idol, directing more attention to his dark good looks than his musical expertise. It was a frustrating time for the talented performer. “I’d think I was doing in-depth articles with magazines,” Rick explains, “but later, I’d end up reading stories about my dream girl or favorite color in these publications. People would come up and say, “I love your album but too bad it’s not more like Donny Osmond’s. The kids ended up thinking they were getting the next David Cassidy.” Today, it’s evident to anyone who’s heard Rick’s music that it’s far beyond the classification of “bubblegum pop.” At that time, however, no one recognized his potential as a serious rocker.

• When Rick signed a new recording contract in the mid-‘70s and discovered that the record company planned to continue a teen idol promotion, he decided to break his contract. It was, he says, “probably the most difficult thing I had ever done.” Instead, he signed with a smaller company and recorded an album of more sophisticated rock music. But the company went bankrupt before it was released. Legal red tape put a stop to his recording for several years so he turned to acting.

• He continued to write songs, but couldn’t record or perform them. “I needed some way to express myself,” he explains, and acting was the answer. He put as much care and effort into perfecting his acting as he did his music. “The first thing I did,” he says, “was go to an acting coach for two years before I even looked for an agent. “It was a smart move, because when he was ready, he quickly got an agent and was signed to a Universal contract. That gave him a string of small roles in various TV series. He also landed a recurring role on the “Young and the Restless” soap.

• When he was struggling to put together the pieces of his career, Rick says, “It was a low point in my life and all the time I was receiving letters from kids in Australia saying they’d like to come to Hollywood to see my big house!” In 1980, his patience and hard work finally paid off when he signed an RCA contract and began recording Working Class Dog.

• The album was released the following year and “Jessie’s Girl” because a hit single. The song was based on his personal experience of falling for a friend’s girl. “But I never did anything about it,” he smiles, “and we’re still friends.” The song was already on the charts when he auditioned for “General Hospital.” When he was cast, no one knew the actor they’d hired was a rock star as well. His role on the show soon brought him success as an actor to match his rock stardom.

• Rick is riding high these days with a home of his own, two successful careers and a bevy of female fans who are happy to hear he has no serious romance going. Although, he’d long dreamed of his current success, he says, “You’re just never prepared for it. The feeling when things finally hit is – it’s incredible! Both acting and recording – I’m absolutely loving it.”

• What is the nicest part of his sudden stardom? “The biggest trill,” says Rick, “was calling up my mom and telling her the album went gold. My parents believed in me always. It’s a sweet feeling that their belief in me had paid off.”