It’s been 35 years since Rick Springfield set the tone for a decade with “Working Class Dog,” the album that spawned ’80s anthem “Jessie’s Girl.” His latest album, the well-received “Rocket Science,” offers the same exuberance and guitar-heavy vibe but with very different lyrics.
“I wanted it to be a pop-sounding album but this has more of a spiritual base than ‘Working Class Dog,'” Springfield said in an interview with NJ Advance Media, noting that the earlier work was primarily focused on attracting women, including Jessie’s never-named ladyfriend.
“There’s a different attitude. It’s more spiritual. I’ve thought about a lot of different things since then.”
The Grammy Award winner, now 67, will talk about some of those things Feb. 8 at Bergen Performing Arts Center. The “stripped down” performance, as it’s billed, “is a very intimate, mostly humorous, show,” the singer said. “I still have a set list, but I also tell stories.”
One of the new songs mixed with the hits may be “Four Billion Heartbeats,” a tribute Springfield wrote to his mother, who died in December at 96. Springfield estimates her heart beat about four billion times during her life.
“She had a good innings,” the native of Australia said, using a cricket term used to describe someone who has enjoyed a long life.
Springfield will share stories about his early musical career, which began in his home country in the 1970s. He didn’t find commercial success in the U.S. until “Working Class Dog,” his fifth studio album. At the same time, Springfield starred as Dr. Noah Drake on the soap opera “General Hospital.”
More albums and more acting opportunities followed, but no songs became as popular as “Jessie’s Girl” — and the acting gigs were steady but not stellar. Springfield became depressed and thought about suicide, struggles he made public in his 2010 autobiography “Late, Late at Night.”
And then a rebirth of sorts, perhaps aided by the growing appreciation of 80s music: his acting career reignited. He starred with Meryl Streep in the 2015 film “Ricki and the Flash” and has a new gig playing Lucifer on the CW’s “Supernatural.”
“You don’t hear great rock music on the radio anymore. I think that’s why a lot of these 70s, 80s, 90s radio stations are coming back,” he said. “Music is changing, and it’s changing so much that the nostalgia is getting stronger. I think people are longing for the music of their youth sooner than they used to. It took longer for the 50s to come back than for the 80s to come back.”
Springfield is embracing that energy. While acting is now his priority, he has no plans to stop making new music and touring the world. An upcoming show in Germany will include a full orchestra. He will headline a seven-day 80s cruise to the eastern Caribbean in 2018.
“I still love writing. I still love recording,”he said. “Even if I retired, I’d probably be doing the same thing.”
Rick Springfield
Bergen Performing Arts Center
30 N. Van Brunt St., Englewood.
Tickets: $30-99, available online www.ticketmaster.com. Feb. 8
Natalie Pompilio is a freelance writer based in Philadelphia. She can be reached at nataliepompilio@yahoo.com. Find her on Twitter @nataliepompilio. Find NJ.com/Entertainment on Facebook.
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