40 years ago this month

As we await the release of the 40th anniversary special live edition of “Working Class Dog” (on June 17) and the summer tour that starts Aug. 5, I was pondering the fact that it’s been 40 years since I first heard the album.

And then it struck me – my youngest son, who turned 12 earlier this month, is the same age I was when I first became a Rick Springfield fan. What the *#@!&?

None of my sons are obsessed with anyone as I was at that age. Did my parents think it was weird that my walls were plastered with posters of somebody who was 20 years older than me?

My oldest son is a big fan of hip hop and my younger sons have a playlist of music from video games, but there’s nothing that compares to my teenage obsession of my favorite rock star. My kids are much more obsessed with playing online video games with their friends than they are following any particular artist fandom.

I remember waiting for the monthly teenybopper magazines to come out (Tiger Beat, 16, Teen Beat, Bop, etc.) so I could learn more about RS and add a new poster to my wall. I’d sit listening to Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 radio show with a handheld tape recorder so I could record my favorite songs. My kids can pretty much listen to whatever song they want at any time and, if they had a favorite rock star, could follow them on Facebook or TikTok or whatever else and learn about what they were doing as it happened. Yes, being a fan was very different in the ’80s.

Although I’m feeling a bit old thinking about this, I also realize how lucky RS fans are that their favorite rock star is still putting out new music and performing all these years later. It’s pretty cool to be able to relive the excitement even after 40 years and 14 shows (See “A spritz of happiness at Wild Horse Pass” to relive that vicariously.)

OK, I’m going to do a little more math here.

I became a Rick Springfield fan in 1982, which was 40 years ago, with the first mention of him on May 15 in my 1982 diary. (So that’s actually 40 years ago this month, wow. ) I was 12 at that time, then turned 13 that summer. My two younger sons are currently 12 and 13.

My first RS concert was in September 1983, 39 years ago, when I was 14. RS was 34. I have tickets for my 15th show this August and my oldest son is 15. My second show was in October 1984, when I was 15.

I’m not really sure where I’m going with this, but thanks for bearing with me as I process this information.

‘Star of the Show’

Seven years ago I finished reading Rick Springfield’s autobiography “Late, Late at Night” and was so excited about revisiting all the songs from my teen years – and learning about the context for many of them – that I put together a site about the book: latelateatnightjourney.wordpress.com. Here is the intro:

It’s literally late, late at night. All the kids are sleeping and I put this blog together today because I felt compelled to do so after reading Rick Springfield’s “Late, Late at Night” memoir and finding myself searching through the Internet to find the songs in the book – both those that I sang along to countless times when I was younger and those that I wasn’t familiar with. I was surprised that I still remembered so many of the lyrics to songs from his earlier albums, back when my bedroom walls were covered with Rick Springfield posters and I’d listen to the albums over and over again (long before CDs). This blog is dedicated to my 13-year-old self who would have totally done something like this had blogs, YouTube and the Internet existed at the time. And also to Rick Springfield for many years of great music! (And thanks to all the wonderful Rick Springfield fans who have brought all these resources to said blogs and YouTube videos so I could find them!) It’s based on Rick Springfield’s memoir “Late, Late at Night” and provides links to the songs in the book, presented by chapter.

Although I called it a blog in the intro, it’s not really – it was just a little guide of where to find the songs in the different chapters, in case anyone else would be interested. After I finished it, I figured I was done revisiting my RS fan days and would move on.

However, that wasn’t the case. I found myself overflowing with excitement about all the new information I’d found (and continued to discover), yet nobody in my everyday life was really interested.

A few days later, I decided to stop talking about it after sensing that people’s patience was wearing thin and decided to just write about it instead in hopes that there were others out there in Cyberspace who could relate. The first post on the “My Rick Springfield crush” blog was posted on Aug. 8, 2014 and I started pulling out my old journals and planners to see what I documented. I found the first diary I ever had, from 1982, which also detailed the early stages of my infatuation with RS and then in spiral notebooks found notes about different concerts I attended, when I met him for the first time, etc. It never occurred to me that I’d still be writing this seven years later!

A few months after starting the blog, I listened to the “Late, Late at Night” audiobook on CD and was inspired to write the first song I’d written in about 10 years. I pulled my guitar from high school out of the case, practiced the few basic chords I used to know and wrote “My Rick Springfield Crush Revival.” A few months later I recorded it on a tape recorder (in the bathroom because the acoustics sounded better) and made a video of it.

(Yes, I cringe a little when listening to it….)

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I finished listening to the audiobook a second time (since I had subscribed to Audible so I could listen to his novel sequel “World on Fire,” I figured that I might as well get the autobiography, too, since seven years ago I had borrowed it from the library). I don’t know what it is with this audiobook, but it inspired to me write yet another song on this topic.

When I played the new song for my husband, he commented that it sounded a little obsessive. That wasn’t really what I was going for, but I guess after writing a fan blog for seven years perhaps I’ve lost some perspective. The song is meant to be a tribute to those who provide inspiration to others (specifically RS in my case, in case you can’t tell by all the evidence in the video) and the video includes images from the blog.

In honor of the seven-year anniversary of the “Late, Late at Night Musical Journey,” here’s “Star of the Show.” (Hopefully the recording sounds a little better this time around, as I wrote and recorded it in our makeshift studio using Logic Pro – no bad guitar playing in this one. Though my future self will probably still cringe when I listen to it, I hope some people will relate to the sentiment and enjoy the song!)

Rick Springfield fans raise $34,170 for the dogs

The final total is in for the fan-led Rick Springfield Birthday Campaign: $34,170!

It’s pretty incredible when you think about it – a group of Rick Springfield fans who I’m sure already have very busy lives take on this huge responsibility of raising funds in honor of their favorite rock star’s birthday.

They’ve done this each year since 2007 – 13 years in all, raising a total of $156,730.52. The totals of previous years ranged from $2,500 back in 2008 to $18,666 in 2015 so this year’s campaign really blew all the others away! This year’s donations, raised from July 26 to Sept. 27, all went to Linda Blair’s Worldheart Foundation, which helps rescue dogs.

(Here’s a post from 2017 that goes into more details about the campaign: “Over 100K raised through Rick Springfield birthday campaigns.”)

Not only did they promote it through a website they created, as well as social media channels, they also sold birthday campaign T-shirts and coordinated a whole prize-giving campaign that involved lots of other generous fans who donated prizes. I’m excited to say that I received a prize this year! My prize relates to a period of RS’s career that I’m not that familiar with so I’m especially excited to learn more about it. I’ll share more about it when I receive it, since I don’t think I’ve addressed it much in this blog.

(Congrats to the grand-prize winners of the dinner with RS and the original drawings!)

The contest organizers have mentioned that this will be the last year they run this campaign to this extent so I just wanted to say THANK YOU to them for making the RS birthday season so fun for fellow fans!

Photo courtesy of the Rick Springfield Birthday Campaign

So much can happen in five years!

Five years ago today, I posted the first post on this blog. I had just “rediscovered” Rick Springfield after more than a decade of not following his career and after catching up on some of his music and reading his autobiography, I was so excited about all that I learned. However, nobody around me seemed that interested and I felt like I was becoming annoying with all my RS excitement.

So instead I decided to start a blog to have a place to express all my thoughts about it and maybe someone else might be interested. And even if nobody actually read it, at least I could get everything out of my head, much like I did in my journals when I was younger.

I never thought I’d still be writing the blog five years later, but RS has been amazingly busy over the past few years and provided so much content to write about.

For instance, when I wrote that first post, none of this existed yet:

• “Ricki and the Flash“
• The year of “Human Touch” (2016)
• The country-inspired Rocket Science album
• Videos for “Light this Party Up,” “Down,” “Land of the Blind” and “The Voodoo House“
• The blues-inspired Snake King album
• Orchestrating My Life album
• Symphony performances in Germany as part of the Rock Meets Classic tour
• U.S. performances of RS’s hits with a full symphony orchestra
• Stripped Down shows with Richard Marx (though his Stripped Down shows have existed for a few years)
• A number of live-streamed concerts
• The iHeart80s concert
• My sons singing with Rick Springfield
• Periscope videos
• Instagram stories (his drummer Jorge Palacios often posts soundcheck and concert footage from his vantage point behind the drums)
• The ’80s cruise featuring RS as “the captain” (aka the cruise host)
• Appearances on “True Detective,” “Supernatural,” “American Horror Story: Cult,” “Sideswiped,” ” The Goldbergs.”
• Lots and lots of interviews for all the above
• Hundreds of concerts that generated hundreds of photographs and videos
• Knowledge of Rick Springfield’s extensive “Star Wars” collection (recent reports indicate that he’s sold most of it.)
• The knowledge that RS was still struggling with serious bouts of depression and all the people RS has helped by speaking about his struggles.

I’m sure I’m missing several other things as well, but you get the idea.

According to the blog stats, up until today, there have been 394 posts and 45,211 views by nearly 26,992 visitors.

So to everyone who has read the RS Crush blog, thank you! I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it!

Win a dinner with Rick Springfield

The fan-based Rick Springfield Birthday Campaign is now under way, raising more than $3,000 in the first five days. That’s pretty awesome, considering that surpasses both the entire 2008 and 2009 campaigns.

Perhaps in those days they weren’t offering DINNER WITH RICK SPRINGFIELD as the grand prize.

Yes, you read that correctly – the grand prize is DINNER WITH RICK SPRINGFIELD! (I felt compelled to use all caps since why not yell out that exciting news?)

There are some other cool prizes, too, such as original drawings by RS himself. (You may have heard that he’s a musician, songwriter, singer, author and actor – did you know he’s an artist, too?)

Here he is at work, sketching one of the prizes, Grand Prize #3:

Grand Prize #2 is a sketch of his cute dog Bindi:

It’s kind of like getting a signed photograph from the RS fan club back in the ’80s, but this time they are original drawings.

Check out happybirthdayrick.com to find out how to enter to receive these prizes. All donations go toward the Linda Blair Worldheart Foundation, which helps rescue dogs.

(When my 9-year-old overheard the video of RS announcing the campaign, he recognized his voice: “Is that Rick Springfield?” he asked. When I told him that RS fans were raising money for a charity for his birthday, I asked him what charity he thought it would be. “An animal shelter?” he asked. Yes, I told him, it’s for dogs. What made him guess that? “Because, dogs,” he said. “Dogs may drool, but they also rule.”)

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to have dinner with Rick Springfield? I can only imagine what it would be like – probably me just sitting there smiling and staring, unable to say a word. I’d have to bring a talkative friend with me so it wouldn’t be too awkward.

Although, I also suspect it would be really cool, like it was for this lucky fan on this “prom date” back in 2004 (video courtesy of rsandus):

Rick Springfield’s official 70th birthday celebration begins!

The first response people have when learning Rick Springfield is turning 70 this year is “WHAT?!”

Not only is it because he looks about 20 years younger, especially when performing – running around the audience, jumping unbelievably high on stage, etc. – but also because if he’s 70, then his fans who were in their early teens when they started being fans are now either approaching 50 or in their 50s. WHAT?!

Yes, it’s true.

I don’t know how common it is for fans to run birthday campaigns for their favorite rock star, but Rick Springfield fans have run incredible campaigns in honor of RS since 2007 and have so far raised over $122,000 for different charities.

Today is the kick-off of this year’s fan-based campaign, “Orchestrating a Dog’s Life” and all funds raised will go to Linda Blair’s Worldheart Foundation, which helps dogs. As you may know, Rick Springfield loves dogs.

(See the Facebook post when he recently stopped at an animal shelter in Minnesota to visit the dogs while he was in town for a concert and he and some fans donated money to the shelter, too.)

So far on the first day, more than $700 in donations have come in and the campaign runs through Sept. 27 with a goal of raising $20,000 for the dogs. (Last year’s campaign raised more than $15,000.) In case this information hasn’t been imprinted on your brain for the past three decades or so, his actual birthday is Aug. 23.

For more history about the campaign, click here.

In addition to raising money for charities, the campaign also has a fun prize component, where people fans donate Rick Springfield movies, CDs, merchandise, as well as gift cards and other items and every $5 donation gets a entry ticket and then there’s a big prize drawing at the end. (One year the grand prize was having dinner with RS himself!) Thank you to all the fans who work on this campaign each year and those who donate the prizes!

Learn all about the campaign at happybirthdayrick.com.

A rock star that inspires so many fans

With so many of today’s “leaders” being such poor examples of being a good human being, thank goodness for all the artists, musicians and other creatives out there who follow their passion to be a positive force in the world.

By sharing their truths with the world, they often forge a connection with their fans and give them strength. As this is a blog about Rick Springfield, naturally I will use him as an example.

Although he has made some not-so-stellar choices during his lifetime, which he seems to often beat himself up over, he has, through sharing and baring his soul, brought strength to so many. Through his songs, his autobiography and in interviews, he divulges more than the average human being would about his negative actions and by doing so, brings solace to others who may have found themselves in similar situations.

Not only that, but he also seems to inspire creativity in others.

For instance, he recently posted a video based on “My Father’s Chair” created by a film student.

Oftentimes, fans will post artwork they painted or drew of RS and one artist wrote a post about a chalk drawing she drew in tribute to RS’s birthday: “My many muses: Rick Springfield 2016” and a follow-up post: Back to the drawing board: Rick Springfield.

Then of course on YouTube there are several covers of his songs – mainly “Jessie’s Girl,” but here are some others that seem to exist not because the musicians are in an ’80s cover band, but because they’re RS fans :

From lespaulfanofsparta on YouTube:

And this cool father-daughter “Jessie’s Girl” cover, courtesy of Krizten Centino’s YouTube channel:

“Love is Alright Tonight” from posturex1:

There are several others if you’re interested in searching “Rick Springfield covers on YouTube.”

Obviously, he’s been a big inspiration to me, which I explained in a 2015 post about a year after I started writing this blog “Blogging to inspiration.” Can you believe that it’s almost the five-year anniversary of this blog?! Since then, I’ve been on my own little songwriting journey, definitely inspired by RS.

Some people don’t get any opportunities to inspire others and others inspire others simply by doing what they love and being kind to others. So once, again, thank you RS for being a source of inspiration!

Question for RS fans: How has he inspired you?

Fan trip postponed, moved from Dominican Republic to Mexico

Perhaps you already read the news today, as it was reported on Billboard, Breitbart, CNN, Daily Mail, Fox News, People.com, Page Six, PopCulture.com and a radio station website.

The Rick Springfield & Friends fan trip that was scheduled to take place this November at the Hard Rock Hotel Punta Cana has been rescheduled to the Hard Rock Hotel Cancun in 2020.

In some of these articles, RS was referred to as “the ‘Jessie’s Girl’ Singer” and a “1980s hitmaker” and the fan getaway was called “an upcoming show,” “an upcoming performance,” a “gig” and a “music festival.”

But to devoted Rick Springfield fans who know he is much more than “the ‘Jessie’s Girl’ singer” and “1980s hitmaker,” the fan getaway is the ultimate RS trip because it’s a multi-day RS extravaganza filled with concerts (from acoustic poolside singalongs to piano bar singalongs with special guests to full-band rockin’ concerts), meet-and-greets, fun activities and a whole resort (or cruise ship, depending on the type of getaway) filled with people who feel the same way you do about your favorite rock star.

Disclaimer: I’ve never actually been on one of these trips, but this is my impression of it based on social media posts and videos I’ve watched.

Here’s the full statement, as found on RS’s official website:

Dear Friends,

We have been closely monitoring the situation in the Dominican Republic. In an abundance of caution and for the peace of mind and well-being of my fans, band and crew, the ‘Rick Springfield & Friends’ event in Punta Cana is being rescheduled to take place at Hard Rock Hotel Cancun in 2020. New dates will be determined as soon as possible. We hope to have this announcement within the next two weeks.

As you can imagine, organizing this type of event requires extensive planning and logistics. Unfortunately, we are unable to move the trip to the new location during the November 7-11, 2019 period.

We apologize for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding. Once the new dates are formally announced, any guest who wishes to cancel will have an option for a full refund through Rose Tours.

While this decision has not been easy, the safety and well-being of our amazing fans, band and crew will always be the most important consideration in any situation. Sending our love and best wishes to all of our friends in the Dominican Republic.

Thank you for your patience while we work out the new details.

Look forward to seeing you soon in Mexico!
Rick

Although I hadn’t planned on going to Punta Cana and sympathize with those who rearranged their schedules, purchased tickets, etc., I’m relieved because the recent news from the Dominican Republic is worrisome. Is there something sinister happening there or is the media sensationalizing it? I don’t know, but the multiple deaths of American tourists reported does seem to require an investigation and hopefully the families of the victims will get some answers.

As the statement mentioned, the new dates will be announced soon and with the trip relocating a little closer to my part of the world, there’s also renewed hope that I can go…

A spritz of happiness at Wild Horse Pass

I wish I could bottle up that feeling I have when I’m sitting in the audience a few minutes before my favorite rock star comes on stage. I could spritz a few sprays on my soul whenever life feels too overwhelming or mundane.

As I sat there in the second row last Sunday night at the Wild Horse Pass Casino in Chandler, Arizona, it didn’t matter that this was the 14th time I’ve seen him in concert or that I had a long “to-do” list waiting for me on my Google Tasks app. I just felt so happy to be at another Rick Springfield concert.

I was originally supposed to be there with my husband but he ended up having to go out of town over the weekend so the day before the concert, I asked a friend to go with me. She’s not really a Rick Springfield fan, but it’s not that she didn’t like him, she was just indifferent. But she’s one of the few people in my real life who know that I write this blog and knows how much of a fan I am and wanted to experience his concert with me. What a good friend, right?

In addition to enjoying the concert for the music and the performance of both RS and his band, she also enjoyed the people-watching. It was her first encounter with such dedicated fans of any musician and was intrigued by how women in the audience responded to him, even after he mentioned his wife of nearly 34 years and sang one of his many songs inspired by her.

For example, she found it interesting how many women were willing to reach out and touch his hand even after he blew his nose and mentioned that he had been sick with the flu. (Did he use the hand sanitizer that was up on stage afterward? I don’t remember.)

Fortunately he only teased tossing his used tissue into the audience and didn’t actually do it because who knows what might have happened. When he came around during “Human Touch,” two of my fingertips touched his, but she wasn’t interested in his human touch at all. (Fortunately I didn’t get sick, although I did end up taking a two-hour nap the next day after work because I was so wiped out, which is unusual.)

She also commented on how amazing RS’s energy on stage was considering he’s almost 70 and he was so sick earlier in the week and still not feeling well and she enjoyed Siggy’s energy and performance.

Highlights for me included the songs “Souls,” which is one of my favorite RS songs and I hadn’t seen that performed live in recent years, and “World Start Turning.” The young girl on stage for “Don’t Talk to Strangers” was also adorable. Plus the fact that my favorite rock star – the one whose face covered my bedroom walls as a teen – was right there only a few feet away putting on such an energetic and fun show.

I only recorded one full song during this show: “Souls.”

I started taping “World Start Turning” but he was way on the other side of the stage often with his back to me so I stopped recording. Fortunately somebody else filmed it on the other side of the stage:

Video courtesy of donna2kayak on YouTube:

During the concert, there were two possible instances of split-second eye contact and the aforementioned split-second two-fingertip human touch. (Do you think this is what my friend meant when she said that some of the fans seem a little fanatical?)

Our seats were way on the end of the second row, on Tim’s side of the stage. Here was my view:

RS didn’t come over to our side of the stage very often for this show so I didn’t get many good non-zoomed pictures, although he did sign an “Orchestrating My Life” CD for a guy in front of me, which gave me the chance to take this photo:

Last time I was this close to the stage but on the Nastos side of the stage, RS also seemed to favor the opposite side of the stage from where I was standing. I would take it personally if I actually thought he was aware of my existence. (Or maybe he is aware of this blog and purposely avoids me? Ha.)

Anyway, after the crowd cleared after the show, we returned to the stage and I collected a few rose petals and took these pictures:

Although I typically try to hang out after the show for a little while because of the possibility of meeting RS, I didn’t this time because I knew he was sick and wouldn’t likely be hanging out in the casino afterward, but we did see Siggy on the way out and got a chance to compliment him on the show and get a picture. As he was the last time I met him, he was really nice.

And that was that. Later that evening I was already craving another spritz of that pre-RS concert feeling.

Here are a few more pictures:

The hottest hair color of the moment

At the most recent concert (not counting the one that was cancelled due to travel delays), the cowboy hat was gone and we finally got a peek of what was under all the hats these past few weeks.

RS had explained that he was wearing the hats because he was growing out his hair for a movie role.

Fans at the St. Charles, MO show on Jan. 26 got to see it first – the gray hair:

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtMUNCRnUC7/

Is it a big deal? No.

Just like all of his fans, he has aged. Shocker. (Not.) Although he has aged considerably better than most people do, he is turning 70 this year. How incredibly lucky are his fans that they still get to see their teenage crush perform regularly and that he still looks so good doing so? Really lucky. And that he’s still writing new great music? Wow, we hit the jackpot!

He’s had many different looks throughout the years. If you search “Rick Springfield” on Google Images and scroll down the pages, you can see all his different looks through the decades. Some I like, some I don’t and everybody probably has different opinions on what look they like best. But really it’s about the music and the person making it, right?

Coincidentally, there was an article in The Wall Street Journal a couple of weeks ago, that has a headline that sums up RS’s current look: “The Hottest Hair Color of the Moment is … Gray.“