Now Streaming: S/D/A/A, plus an interview and a theme song

Hi! I hope your 2024 has gone well so far! Thank you to all who have shared videos from recent RS shows, including the Rock Legends Cruise with Sammy Hagar, which wraps up today.

I was excited to hear last week that in honor of its 20th anniversary, “shock/denial/anger/acceptance” (S/D/A/A) was re-released as an expanded edition on streaming platforms. In addition to the original songs from the album, it also includes song demos and the previously unreleased “Hey Josephine.”

When the album first came out 20 years ago, I wasn’t aware of it, as I lost track of his work shortly after “Karma.” I saw him in concert twice in 1999 and again in 2000 and then he dropped off my radar as I adjusted to life in a different city.

It wasn’t until 2014 that I came across an interview he was doing for “Magnificent Vibration” and I eventually learned about his autobiography and all the albums I’d missed during those years. I got “Venus in Overdrive” and “Songs for the End of the World,” as well as his autobiography from the library right away so I read the backstory for S/D/A/A before hearing the album. So when I finally listened to it, it just made me sad. But then when Rowdy Ron had his RS birthday shows, I realized that so many of the songs that caught my attention that I didn’t recognize were from S/D/A/A. Now it’s one of my favorite of his albums.

However, since I don’t listen to music on CDs very often anymore, I haven’t heard it in awhile so I was happy to hear it’s available to stream now and listened to it a lot this past week. I still can’t believe that 2004 is already 20 years ago though. (I just realized this means that when it first came out, RS was the same age I am now – and look how much he’s done since. There’s still hope that it’s possible to accomplish lots of cool things after age 53!)

There are a couple of other things that happened this past week so I thought I’d add them here in case you missed them.

RS was featured in a new YouTube show with Matt and Gregg Bissonette and producer Paul Dexter, where the three of them write a song in one day – and RS records the vocals in his home studio. It’s a lot of fun to watch!

(In case you weren’t aware, Matt Bissonette was the bassist in RS’s band for several years and collaborated on “Venus in Overdrive,” “Songs for the End of the World” and “Rocket Science” and both Bissonette brothers were part of The Red Locusts.)

There was also a great interview this week on NBC’s “The Drink with Kate Snow”: Is there really a ‘Jessie’s Girl’ out there? Rick Springfield on how that song happened.“

Despite the headline, it covers other several other topics, too. She asks some great questions and it was cute to see her surprise when she learned he was from Australia. Plus we learn that he’s working on a script – he’s always surprising his fans!