NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - The Drink with Kate Snow: Rick Springfield

Episode Date: February 25, 2024

It’s true: there is a “Jessie’s Girl.” They met at a stained glass class in 1979 in Pasadena, California. He tells NBC News’ Kate Snow about the story behind his hit song, growing up on an Army base in Australia and the impact his performances have on others.

Hey everybody, this is Kate Snow, so happy to share a great conversation I had with Rick Springfield, the guy behind Jessie's Girl, over a spiced pear rum fizz with Rick's Beach Bar Rum in the drink. It is for my series, The Drink, about how people got to the top. And yes, we're going to talk about Jessie's Girl, of course, and whether there is a real life Jessie's Girl. You'll have to listen. Also also he delivered milk in Australia as a kid before he dropped out of high school I kid you not we talked about all the forks in the road and his new album automatic which is out right now you can hear a lot more conversations stories of success from the top artists

entrepreneurs visionaries you can find them all at NBC news.com slash the drink is there a Jesse's girl? Yeah, of course. I mean, I write from a point of truth, even, you know, like a pop song. It's got to have some kernel of truth. You know I wish that I had Jessie's girl. I wish that I had Jessie's girl. Hello. Hello there.

Thank you so much. Appreciate it. All right. All right. Cheers. Rick Springfield. Cheers Appreciate it. All right. All right. Cheers. Rick Springfield. Cheers.

Cheers, what's this drink? This is your rum. It's a spiced pear rum fizz. So you make the rum that's in our cocktail? Yes. It's called Beach Bar Rum. Beach Bar Rum. In this cocktail.

Five acres. It's a pretty nice place, this is new. We're inside Rockefeller Center. Rick Springfield, I don't think I have to say this, but musician, actor, writer, author, all those things, rum maker. How did you get here? I don't know. It's kind of a hard question when you think about it. It's been an interesting journey and and I'm still traveling along the road. So I just took some roads. There's always choices.

And I think I took the right forks, hopefully. A couple of times I took the wrong fork. Okay. I would say generally it looks like you took the right forks. Yeah. I mean, I was thinking we were talking about it today. That I came from a little army base in Australia, but like a little country, like a little farm. In Australia? Yeah.

I don't think a lot of people know that. No, I know. Well, a couple more of these might mean you're bloody now from Australia. Don't worry about it. Wait a minute. Is that like your real accent? No, my accent, well, that's an Australian accent. I know, but can you still go back to it?

Yeah, yeah, sure. I lived in England when I was a kid, so my actual accent was more kind of a bit clipped, like this, more British. But it had the Australian thing in it. I had no idea. More like that. I mean, obviously, I'll just, full disclosure, listen to your song on repeat over and over and over again, and I mean, Jesse's Girl.

You know I wish that I had Jesse's girl. I wish that I had Jesse's girl. Do you love that people know you for Jesse's Girl? Or is it annoying? No, no, it's, I mean, I'm very grateful to at least, you know, have a song that has kind of done what that has. But it's like, I'll have a new album out.

It's universal. Yeah. It's universal, I know, you have a new album. But I have a new album out, and they'll play me on the interview with Jesse's Girl. I'm going, I've got new music, what the hell? You're like, I have some new stuff you could do. Did you think when you wrote Jessie's Girl, did you think it was going to be a hit?

You can't plan stuff like that. I thought there was better songs on the album. I think I've written better songs since. Speak to the sky when everything's going wrong. And you'll know you're not talking to the end. What was life like in your young years? It was awesome. It was amazing. My favorite, my dad was in the Army, so we moved around every couple of years.

But their Army bases over there back in the 50s were not like they are here. They were little enclaves out in the bush. I'd wake up at 5 o'clock, 6 in the morning, and go and help the milkman. We had a horse enclaves out in the bush. I'd wake up at 5 o'clock, 6 in the morning, and go and help the milkman. We had a horse and a buggy. And you were helping deliver the milk? Yeah, and I helped deliver the milk.

Get out of here! And then, yeah, it was just an amazing time. That's like my golden childhood. Yeah. How does music come into that existence? Well, we didn't have a TV, so we would listen to the radio, or after dinner we had a player piano, which I have in my house now. Wow.

The actual player piano. My dad was an amazing singer, but he was a career officer in the Army. And we'd sing all these songs, and that was just what we did. That's what we did for entertainment. It's very bizarre, really, to think of it. It sounds like something from the 17th century. Is it true that you dropped out of high school? I was actually asked to leave high school by the principal.

It's a little bit different. Why? Well, because my last year at school, I stayed away a total of three months because I discovered the guitar and I didn't want to do anything else. And you were out just playing? Yeah, I'd stay home and play. I drove my mom insane.

She thought I was going to end up a drug addict on the streets. But I knew what I wanted to do, and I had no more use for school. I hated school. School was like prison to me. You already at that point wanted to be a musician? Yeah. Yeah, about 13 I decided what I wanted to do. And here comes our new staff surgeon. No! Welcome to General Hospital. Good morning, Steve.

Nice to see your friendly face when you walk in the door. People who were around in the 80s remember General Hospital, and they think of you that way, actor first, and then they discovered your music. But your music came before the acting. Yeah, I just took up acting because I was, you know, it's a way to make money, which is kind of naive because all the kids in my acting class were waiting tables to become actors.

Please have a sip. This is really good. This is dangerously good, Rick Springfield. I'm driving. No, you're not. You have a whole team with you. You're not driving. No.

How does General Hospital come about? Do you get an audition? You end up on General Hospital? So I went in on it because I didn't have any money. And I read for it, and I didn't think I'd get it because there was more soapy looking guys. And you get it. And I got it. And it was the first regular money I'd ever seen in my life.

It was 500 bucks a week. And that was big money. Big money, man. And so I said, I'm taking it because I had three albums out before and nothing had happened. And I said, this is probably nothing going to happen with this album either, so let me take this. It ends up being the biggest album, the biggest selling album of your life. Yeah.

With Jessie's Girl on it. Yeah, I mean, I just had so many albums that had done nothing and I thought they were great albums and so I didn't have a lot of faith in them. But I did have faith in something happening eventually. Well you had. So I took't have a lot of faith in him. But I did have faith in something happening eventually. So I took the role. You've written about your depression a lot. Yeah.

And I think people appreciate when someone of your stature talks about it out loud and labels it and says, depression, you know. Yeah, it pulled me down for quite a few years. But I went to therapy, and I still have to deal with it. Of course, it doesn't go away. Yeah, but it's part of my drive also. It's what keeps me pushing because part of me feels like I'm not enough.

I think you're enough for what it's worth. Thank you. Love is alright tonight I think you're enough for what it's worth. Thank you. During COVID, my husband got really sick in the very beginning. Luckily, he's fine. Like, he's not going to wait. He's all good. You did one of the kindest things that anyone's done for me. You sent this video through your publicist to me

of you playing the guitar, playing Jessie's Girl. Hi Kate, it's Rich Springfield here. I understand you're going through a very tough time and I wish you and your husband healing and peace. So I thought I would send you healing and love in a song. I want to say it on camera. It touched us deeply. It was so, like he was in a,

not a great head space at that point. For you to come through and just be like, hey, here's something uplifting for you. It was great. Thank you. The good thing I do is to make people feel better with music. It was an obvious thing to do and the right thing to do. Thank you. So, uh. Yeah, but you do that at your shows, right?

I think you seem to be very conscious of the impact you're having on people. Yeah. You know they love it. You know, for two hours I want them to forget all the things that are weighing them down, because that's what I do when I get up on stage. I don't think of those things.

I know. You wrote an autobiography, a very open one, revealing a lot about yourself. Then you write a fiction book that does quite well, and people praise it. I did a follow-up, too. It's actually a very strange story, but it's a spiritual story,

and that's kind of what I am based on. A spiritual searcher. How are you a writer in addition to being an amazing musician? Like, how is that all in one person? Oh, I think it's all connected, you know. I mean, writing is writing, really. Songs or words or books? A book's a long song that doesn't rhyme. That's a good one.

Are you going to write another book? Yeah, I'm writing scripts, actually, at the moment. It doesn't rhyme. That's a good one. Are you going to write another book? Yeah, I'm writing scripts actually at the moment. For what? TV? Series? For, you know, movies or TV. Movies?

I'm looking to do, I mean everybody is, but that's where my focus is at the moment. You've been married how long now? This is not a test. No, I know. It's like 40 years or something? Yeah, I think so. 84 I think we got married. It's like 40 years or something? Yeah, I think so. Eighty-four. Eighty-four will be 40 years this year.

That's amazing. Should we maybe not put this part in the drink so that your wife doesn't hear that you don't know that this is 40 years? No, no, she's totally fine with it. Forty years married. That's in Hollywood or in the music industry, that is unusual. Yeah, it is. But she's an unusual human being, too. Is she Jessie's girl?

No. Okay. Is there a Jessie's girl? Yeah, of course. I mean, I write from a point of truth, even, you know, like a pop song is it's got to have some kernel of truth or it doesn't ring accurately in people's minds. I've heard you tell a story about you were taking a class on stained glass. Stained glass, yeah. I thought I'd, I don't know, I've always liked to work with my hands. So maybe you would do that.

So I thought if the music thing doesn't work out, I'll become a stained glass master and support my family. And that's where Jessie's girl was there? And she was going to it, yeah. And I was hot for her and she wanted nothing to do with me, and so I wrote a song about it. Worked out pretty well. Yeah, I got the better end of the deal. I wonder if she knows.

Probably not. No, I lost touch with them before the song even came out. I know you're on tour. Yeah, I'm doing a solo show, a duo show with acoustic guitarist Richard Marks. Yes. And we've been friends for a long time. What do you love most about the new album? It came out exactly as I wanted it to, exactly as I envisioned it.

Yeah, it's automatic, yeah it's automatic Baby don't be static, everybody's got one Yeah it's problematic, you can lock it in the attic But it's automatic, gotta work your heart out Well it's great, I listened to it. Cheers to the new album. Thank you. There you go.

I've done everything for you You've done nothing for me Can we do a lightning round? Quick answers. Your favorite song. Of who? Anyone. I am the walrus.

A musician that you would like to collaborate with who you haven't worked with before. Paul McCartney. Weirdest thing about you. Wow. That goes pretty deep. You can pass. I'm an amateur Egyptologist in Middle Kingdom.

Best advice you ever got? Never give up. Worst advice you ever got? Never give up. Can drive you crazy. Yeah? No, the worst advice? Wow.

You'll never make it. What advice would you give a musician? An aspiring musician? You've got to absolutely be passionate about it. You've got to want it. The artistic life is an incredible life. I don't have a choice, really, not to do this. This is all I want to do.

This is what I'm made to do. Rick Springfield, thank you so much. That was a great drink. Cheers. Cheers.