Back to the future is now the present

When “Back to the Future II” hit movie theaters in November 1989, Oct. 21, 2015 seemed like a long way off. That was the date set in the time machine/DeLorean  car when Marty McFly was headed to the future.

I was a college student in Long Beach, California, when the movie was released. I had moved out of my parent’s house right after high school graduation – I couldn’t get out of Arizona fast enough and never expected to move back.

By 1989, Rick Springfield had stepped out of the spotlight and was no longer touring. His “Rock of Life” CD had come out in 1988 and soon after he was injured in an ATV accident that prevented him from touring then he pulled back from his career to spend more time with his wife and young sons. His next CD, “Karma,” would come out a decade later, in 1998.

So if somebody from the future visited me in the movie theater back in November 1989 and told me what I’d be doing on Oct. 21, 2015, I wouldn’t have believed them: I will be at a Rick Springfield concert at the Arizona fairgrounds in Phoenix, a few miles away from home.

Speaking of years, the future year in the 1983 “Human Touch” video is 2016. Who knew that 33 years later, at age 66, RS would still be going out into audiences during his concerts to give his eager fans the “human touch”?