When MTV debuted 34 years ago – on Aug. 1, 1981 – “Jessie’s Girl” was the No. 1 song in the country. And for 34 years, music fans everywhere have wondered – “Was there really a Jessie’s girl?”
This week, Jimmy Kimmel unearthed never-before-seen footage that revealed the “true story” behind the song.
Of course it’s not actually the “true story,” but it was hilarious and included RS with an 80s-style hairdo and that crazy jacket.
During the interview, RS talked about the real true story about “Jessie’s Girl,” which is just such a cool example of how one small decision you make can turn your life around. In this case, RS thinks his musical career is over – in 1979 – so he decides to pursue a career as a stained-glass maker. In a stained glass-making class, he’s attracted to a girl in the class who has a boyfriend and that scenario inspired “Jessie’s Girl,” which helped catapult his musical career.
Here’s part of the interview:
One question for Jimmy: Why did he call Rick Springfield fans crazed?
OK, the Marriott story qualifies, but Jimmy probably didn’t know about that before the interview. Are RS fans really any more crazed than fans of other musicians? Don’t other rock stars have fans who travel around the country to see their shows, attend fan events, hang out in alleys and hotel lobbies after shows, follow their musician’s every cyber move? Is that any crazier than sports fans who memorize players’ statistics, watch multiple instant replays and then have another sports show right afterward dissecting every play? Who is he calling crazed?
[Taking a moment to pause and reflect on the fact that I’ve spent nearly the whole past year blogging about my crush on Rick Springfield and have already seen him twice in concert this year (meeting him briefly both times), have tickets for one more that I’m going out of state to attend and then just found out this week that he’s going to be performing a free concert at a fair a few miles away from my house four days earlier so of course I have to go to that one, too.]
OK, maybe call it slightly obsessed, but I prefer devoted.
My Rick Springfield crush 