April 10, 2025 • 59 mins
Phil and David are thrilled to welcome the recording and touring artist, actor, author and enduring sex symbol Rick Springfield to a "Naked Lunch" that's been too-long delayed. Enjoy great stories, Rick's remarkable life in music, growing up Down Under, coming to L.A., acting with Meryl Streep, being confused with Bruce Springsteen, as well as Rick's recently released "Big Hits 2: Rick Springfield's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2" and this summer's "I Want My 80s Tour." For more on Rick, go to https://rickspringfield.com. To learn more about building community through food and "Somebody Feed the People," visit the Philanthropy page at philrosenthalworld.com.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
David.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Hey, Phil, this is a guy you know that I've
never met.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
Yes, and they say don't talk to strangers. That's his song.
But I'm so glad you're gonna make a non stranger
of a guy who I have been in love with
along with my wife. He is We're in a thruptle.
He doesn't know it. With the great Rick Springton, here
we go.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Let's build the beans to the fat, food for thought
and jokes on taip, talking with our mouthsful, having fun,
the beas, the cake and humble pies, serving up slice lovely,
the dressing on the side. It's naked lunch clothing optional,
(00:54):
tuts down to fat one.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
So supt day were the kid, the teachers, and the
pre Rick.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
First of all, we have to say a delated apology
because in the entire history of our podcast, we're now
like one hundred and fifty episodes in, you're the only
person we ever had to cancel on because the day
before we were supposed to talk to you, Kevin Bacon
was our guest, and I'm not gonna say he gave
me COVID, but someone did that and that's the only
time I was ever knocked out. So rather than kill
(01:40):
Rick Springfield, we canceled on you, and we're so happy
to finally have you on our podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I'm glad you canceled.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
You're gonna wish we canceled today.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Did you ever have COVID or did you escape it?
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Yeah? I had when it first came out. I was
got first edition.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
You're a pioneer right when I had that new COVID
smell this. I don't know if you've ever met I
don't think you have. Phil Rosenthal, you know, and I
don't know if you. He created Everybody loves Raymond. He
has this show somebody feed Phil, and yet he's never
gotten to meet you where I have bothered you for years.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
I'm very glad that you did Hill.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Very nice to meet you, sir. I'm a fan. This
are you you're I'm guessing is this.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
A home studio? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
That's beautiful. Can you turn your camera a little to
give us a little tour?
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Let's see there's the board.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Wow, you are serious.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
I'm giving outdoor some great here there.
Speaker 5 (02:49):
There is uh neves and APIs and all kinds of
great stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Distressors. Oh uh?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Are you a nerd about equipment like me?
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yes? I am a bet.
Speaker 5 (03:03):
I mean, there's certain that my lawyer, that's my submarine
for twenty thousand leagues and that's a sixty four casino
and a fifty nine strap whoa and well, oh, I
got I've got lots of guns here, but they're all fake.
They all shoot caps.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Well, and Rick, is it fair to say that a
lot of your you have just put out what I
call the Second Coming of Rick Springfield. It's like Big Hits,
Greatest Hits, Part two and it is an amazing collection.
And for me, it's my favorite stuff because I you know,
I was in college and you know, high school when
(03:45):
I became an original fanboy. But I met my wife
in the nineties and when we met, I don't know
if I think I've told you the story, but I'll
tell everyone else this story, which is the first day
I met her, I asked her out and she goes,
I can't, I have a business thing. Days later, she
confessed that the business thing was going to see Rick
Springfield's tour rehearsal and I think a place called Pelican's Retreat.
(04:10):
And the irony of all this is my wife doesn't
and we've done whole episodes. We did an episode where
we revealed how the McCartney's forced us to get married.
She didn't like music with one exception. She loves Rick
Springfield and I had to then confess to her that
I'm a bigger Rick Springfield fan than hers. So the
(04:31):
absolute truth is we had nothing in common other than
the family that has this is our Rick Springfield pillow
that we put it behind our heads when we are
in deep contemplation. Uh, and we're still married thirty years later.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
But it's all based on the life.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
It's based on that line.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah, my wife lied to.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Me too well.
Speaker 5 (04:52):
I thought you had to be naked for the naked Lunch.
I'm glad we don't have to be.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Oh, people are so relieved when we come on.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
I'll do it, man, don't don't put it.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
They'd be fine with you doing it.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Exactly. We've seen Californication. We know you will do it.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Wow, I know I see the photos of that. And
when when did I star in a pornum that.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Was a that was a kind of would you say
it's an X ray show?
Speaker 5 (05:21):
It could have been, yeah, but there was no penetration,
so you know, fair is fair now where they put
these things on you that are kind of cover the spots,
you know that the naughty bits that with all the
have to do with all the penetration, et cetera, et cetera,
So you basically kind of clothed over that stuff, but
(05:42):
they film.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
It so it looks like you're totally naked.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Was there any penetration on every dose Raymond? Any nudity?
I don't remember any.
Speaker 5 (05:50):
There was penetration of a different kind, mental penetration, the
worst kind.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
I did last night watch uh uh is it Ricky
and the Flash? I watched your movie with you and
Meryl Streep and I that had to be overwhelmingly fun
for you to basically be not only her co star,
her love interest, but also like her band leader, her
(06:20):
guitar god. And I had worked with her on the
Grammys a couple of years ago, and I thought she's
the most delightful person in the world.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Yeah, she's fabulous.
Speaker 5 (06:28):
She doesn't she doesn't wear the Meryl Streep thing at all.
She's actually really excited to be.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
In the band.
Speaker 5 (06:36):
She loves music and with some great people in it
was Bennie Bernie Bernie Bernie Warrell who passed away, Rick Roses,
who also passed away and.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Joe Vitally and who Joevitally.
Speaker 5 (06:54):
Yeah, Joe Vitally with who is Rocking and still a monster?
And Merril and me and it was uh and we'd play,
you know between shoots obviously that you don't shoot all
the time. You know, you do a scene and then
they rework it and talk and we she we'd played
like you really Got Me and all these songs, and
she loved it.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
She'd gone play another one, play another one. She had
a blast.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
And now she's a you know, I was with her
with her son. Her son in law is Mark Ronson,
who was my intern years ago at Rolling Stone and
now is the biggest producer in the world. And she
just seems to love like I think you let her
inner musician out. Now she's just like she's she's not
only the greatest actress of our times, she's a real
(07:39):
rock and roll chick.
Speaker 5 (07:41):
Yeah, she is. She's amazing. I mean, she fell right
into it. And she even learned to play the guitar
and actually did a solo. I don't know, you know
how how it came out eventually, but we all played
live because Jonathan Demi, who directed the movie, you know,
did uh silent to the Lambs and all those amazing director.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
A beautiful guy making sense, right, that's not making sense?
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Yeah, with another movie with Bertie Warrell.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Right right?
Speaker 5 (08:08):
Yeah, he's he loved music too, and he sadly he
passed away after the movie.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
I guess there's not a movie thing. It's an age thing.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
You know, there's so many band members and members of
the you know, the shoot kind of passed away after
the movie was the last thing he did. And that's
a drag because he was a fabulous, beautiful guy, and
I was going to work more with him, you know,
he had another thing coming up that's going to use
me for Oh, he was fantastic.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
What did you learn from Merrill working with her? Did
you learned lessons from her?
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Yeah? Not, you know, I mean not directly, but I
just don't mean lessons.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
I just mean it. Oh that, yes, observing her what Yeah,
I just take away from that experience.
Speaker 5 (08:56):
Yeah, just observing her be so free and use so
much of herself in the role.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
It was incredible.
Speaker 5 (09:06):
I mean I got more juice out of that than
you know, four years in freeing Hollywood acting class.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
It was amazing to see someone, you know.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
Who is, like you said, probably the greatest actress around.
And and she was just you know, still trying to
push and and do better. And she'd have conversations with
Jonathan in between and he said, you know, suggest stuff,
and it was just wild to see her still be
that that creative soul, you know, really reaching for things
(09:43):
even at this point.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
I mean it was it was really great.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Such a positive attitude, right, such a like coming there
to It's not work to her, it's play.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
No, and it is.
Speaker 5 (09:52):
I when I go out on tour, I say I'm
going out to play. I don't say I'm going out
to work.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Well, another movie that as your lifelong fan, is very
important to me is Sound City, which you know Dave
Grows documentary, which I think you've seen. But what as
a fan of yours forever. The thing that I absolutely
loved about it is I'm not saying music is a
competitive sport. I don't, you know, even though I write
(10:18):
a lot of award shows, I don't think of music
that way. But really, in that movie, you kind of
win the Sound City game because you it's all these
great artists, and I mean some of my favorite artists
of all time McCartney who helped me get married. You know,
uh Stevie Nicks, who I've worked with tons, But you
came in and the track you did with Like the
(10:39):
Foo Fighters, it's the best thing on the record. And
when I went to see the live version of it,
you rocked it and I just thought, how was it
satisfying for you to That's like, you know, there was
a real studio that you, a real musician, went to
all those years ago, and you come back and it
was you. You get to really show who you are
(10:59):
because there are there always will be, and I get tired.
I listened to eighty year podcast you've done over the years,
and people who bring the idea that you know, any
hint of actor who sings is always so silly to
me because I know you're a kid. I know that
guitar is really what transported you from Australia to hear
and around the world.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Yeah, yeah, it's true. I came I've been playing guitar
since I was thirteen.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Since you're bar Mitsvah right, you got it as a
Bermtsvah gift.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I believe I possibly. I mean I have to go
back and check on that one, but yeah, sounds cool.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
It was Sound City very meaningful for you.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
The documentary or the studio.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
The documentary.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Oh yeah, yeah, it was great.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
It was you know, I mean I I was kind
of walking into their territory because it's always a little
intimidating walking into someone's territory when they're all friends and
you know, you don't know what their action is going
to be.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
And they were great. I mean, Pat smear was very
very complimentary, and.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
You know, David had invited me, so obviously he had
a connection and.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
They were great playing. It was just so much fun writing.
Speaker 5 (12:07):
We basically wrote the track in one day, which was
his idea. You know, he wants to do a song
with everyone, get together and write a song, and uh,
and it went, it went great. And then he handed
me the track and said, go write a song. So
I took it home and with my writing partner, the
(12:28):
occasional occasional writing partner, met this and that, who is
the most amazing musician really yeah, I know, something was
in the water in Detroit at that point. Really the
great I mean two of the probably the two best
musicians I personally know are those two guys. And and
we wrote this song based on. If you've ever seen
(12:50):
Operation Mincemeat.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
It's a movie about this guy was real. This guy.
Speaker 5 (12:55):
The British were trying to sway get the Germans off
where they were going to land France. So they got
this body and they pretended an officer and they put
these fake papers on him and dropped them in the water.
The Germans actually picked it up, read the papers and
believed it and went to this other area in France,
and then the British came in and UH had no
(13:16):
had no resistance. But we turned into I know it
sounds weird for a song, but we turned into a
kind of like a love.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Basing that our love screw up with love on. You
know what this guy did. You have to hear the song.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
We're going to play the song episode The Man That
Never Was is just it's fantastic song.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Sometimes you made me playing the bold.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Sometimes you used.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Just because sometimes.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
And I thought about when I was listening to it
today on the way over here, I was thinking about,
you know, I go back. You know I've been and
worked with Dave roll a lot, Taylor Hawkins, who's no
longer we lost you know a few years ago he
was I was on the road with Alanis doing her
first cover story, when he was just like this kid
(14:28):
who was just like a Queen fanatic. He was like
in the van for Alanis on her first tour, He's
like more Queen, more Queen. And then a couple of
years later, I worked with him on a Queen tribute
on VH one and he got to play with them,
and I saw him live all his rock and roll dreams.
But I bring that up because even Dave Groll, who
seemed like the most untouchable great guy in music, he's
(14:49):
taken a lot of hits the last year or two,
and I just wonder, does it give you a sense
of pride that you this? You know, you have turned
out to be one of the more enduring rock stars
of our time. And you know, and I'll tell you,
I honestly liked Greatest Hits two more than Greatest Hits one.
And I think it's fantastic that you get a chance
(15:11):
to showcase that. But what's it mean to you to
still be around because very few rock people have ever
survived this long?
Speaker 5 (15:20):
Yeah, especially, I mean it's rewarding because of the whole
you know, one dimensional.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Soap opera geek thing.
Speaker 5 (15:30):
That kind of followed me for the first couple of years,
where when they had aor stations you know, that would
play like the more the deeper songs. They were playing
Justice Girl till they found out I was on a
soap proper and then they dropped it.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
So there was a bit of that.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
And I actually now get as many guys at the
show as women, and it's great to see that because I,
you know, I love to play. I have an amazing
band and we truly I mean kick ass.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
It's it's and it's great.
Speaker 5 (16:04):
You know, haven't played with great bands like the Foo Fighters,
because we went out and did a tour as well
with Stevie Nixon with Foggy and.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
I saw, yeah, it was and playing with them, it
was great there there.
Speaker 5 (16:19):
And uh, you know Taylor, I just he was he
was a gift. He had a gift and he would
just he nailed the man that never was right off
and they kept the first gun of the first take
and it's a lot of weird stops and everything in that.
And he told me a story. He said his brother
was giving him crap about you know, he was playing
(16:41):
with some know, some little band or something, and he goes, yeah, man,
you should play with a real band like Food Fighters,
And about a couple of months later he got the
gig with the Food Fighters exactly.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
You didn't think the Food Fighters would necessarily need a drummer,
but you know, yeah, it turned out. Once he heard Taylor,
Dave almost was like you do it?
Speaker 5 (17:00):
Yeah, yeah, No, Dave's a great drummer. I actually think
he's one of the coolest drummers. I mean, the songs
for the Death the Queens of Stone Age album, I
think is the drumming. No, that is freaking amazing. It's
like another lead instrument.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Almost.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Well, Phil, you will be jealous of this talking about
great bands. You. Hey, we both love Australia. We both
maybe love Australia more than you because we want to
go back there, and you have been here for a
long time, but you went recently right for your first time.
But in Australia you saw the Beatles in What the
hell was that?
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Like?
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Was it everything we liked to dream?
Speaker 1 (17:41):
It was like, oh, it was like the Martian to
the Land. Truly.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
I was fourteen, nineteen sixty four and an Australian guy
had seen them in England and seen the reaction.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
I said, these guys are going to be big.
Speaker 5 (17:55):
I'm going to book them for Australia right now. So
we got them probably really cheap. Probably went when the
gig came up. The brother oh.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
No, just because of the flight.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
But Ringo had laryngitis and he stayed back in England.
They had nickel.
Speaker 5 (18:13):
And I was going to see him in Festival Hall
in Melbourne and I said, please let Ringo show harp please,
And it was his first show.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
He came back and it was his first show. So
I saw the whole Beatles.
Speaker 5 (18:23):
And back then Australia was it was very much removed
from because it's an eastern country.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
It's surrounded by the East, you know, it was it
was just.
Speaker 5 (18:33):
Happened to be there, that was settled by England.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
That it's you know, still the place it is today.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
And oh because the all the bands that opened were
like still doing the Elvis fifties thing.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
They all had boufont and they wore leather and and
you know, this whole lot of shick on all the
kind of stuff.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
And then the Beatles walked on and I still see
them in my head.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
It was they walked on the.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
First thing I noticed with a Q heel boots. They
had cuban heel the first thing I noticed.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
And then their.
Speaker 5 (19:04):
Suits that they were all dressed the same, so it
looked like made all the Aussies look totally outdated. And
then they made their hair, which was no one who's
wearing their hair like that.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
And then they had these.
Speaker 5 (19:15):
Guitars we'd never seen before, you know, the Gretch and
the Rickenbacker and the Hoffner.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
We've never seen those guitars.
Speaker 5 (19:25):
And then then they started to sing and it was I.
They started to play, and my mouth opened up and
I start. I screamed like a little.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Girl through the whole show, and I couldn't control it. Really,
I wasn't expecting you to just started and it was.
Speaker 5 (19:45):
It was fricking awesome. And they played for twenty minutes
and they were gone. But it was they've done a
restoration of all the film around that particular show. And
I keep looking for myself in the audience. I haven't
seen me yet, but I was.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
But you had already decided to be a musician, because
you've got your guitar at thirteen.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
Yeah, yeah, I was pretty locked in, mainly because I
was as I was seeing the Beatles. I was probably
about about half a year from being kicked out of school,
so because I hadn't performed, and this is public school,
who takes everybody right. But I was asked to leave
eleventh grade because I'd stayed home so much that I
(20:30):
didn't know any of the work. And I basically I
stayed home three months of the year. But what I'd
do is I'd play guitar. I stayed home play guitar,
or I'd read these horror books that I'd stolen from
a second second hand bookstore. And my mom was very
upset about that. She knew that I had this big
cardboard box of books. She said, I know Richard's stealing them.
(20:52):
So I stayed home and played and that was all
I did, and then, you know, luckily got in a
band and kind of went on from there.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
But when you saw the Beatles, did that change anything
for you?
Speaker 5 (21:05):
It made me more give me more energy for what
I was doing. But I'd already decided. I'd heard their records,
I you know, played their songs in a cover band.
I was already, you know, it was just amazing to
see them. I already knew who they were.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Was just breathing me the same air kind of thing.
That was amazing. But yeah, I mean their records is
what Spurn spurned me on.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
You talk about how you know they showed up the
bands in Australia. But I will say, having recently two
years ago going to Australia for the first time, one
thing I Phil always promotes the advantages of travel, like
on his show, and what I find is I make
a playlist of like I made like one hundred I
added to my phone one hundred great Australian rock songs,
(22:26):
and then I did it with Japan recently, and so
now they're in my rotation. For years, it's just been
Rick Springfield, you know, on my phone. I have to
tell you having the Easy Beats and Flash in the
Pan and Well Done and Jimmy Barnes some of his
better great stuff and now all these Japanese acts, it
does open up a new world of music to you.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
The Beats, the Easy Beats were definitely the Aussie Beatles.
Speaker 5 (22:52):
They changed everything and suddenly it was it was possible
for a great band to come from Australia, whereas before,
you know, they pay a big money for Roy Obison
to come out and he saw Roy Orbison about like
ten times because he was always on every show of
all the English bands that I wanted to see, and
(23:12):
they'd pay.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
America a lot of money.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
But you know, the like when I was in Zoot
we had about four or five hits at the time,
and the band was making sixty five bucks for a set,
so it was it was pretty meager.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
But the Easy Beats started changing that.
Speaker 5 (23:29):
And then a band came along called Daddy Cool that
really said, you know, we're not taking that that ship anymore.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
You're going to pay us what we're worth. But there's
so many amazing bands. Is ice House Love ice House?
Speaker 5 (23:43):
And of course my favorite band is is.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Ah Hell what's her name? Church?
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Oh the Church?
Speaker 1 (23:53):
The Chat.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Yeah, you did a version of under au.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
The Milky Way the Milky Way.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Tonight, which I loved.
Speaker 6 (23:58):
You know down in Memphish go to cutting down, I've
gotten no time.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Rather the consultation. Under the Milky Way too nice. Yeah,
that's a great song. And and.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
My probably my biggest playlist on my iPhone is probably
The Church because I just love him. I've loved him
since the eighties when they first came out.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
When you do you go back much to Australia. Phil,
I don't know if I would love to go back.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
I can't wait to go back. I love it.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Yeah, i'd like to.
Speaker 5 (24:49):
We stopped going back when my mom died about six
years ago, so she was always a reasonably go back
and it was great to stay in my old house
and uh and and she loved you know, Barbera and
my wife, and we took Liam when he was a
little boy, and my son.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
You were the first rock star. I remember you wrote
a song with the date of your father's passing and
paid tribute to him. I remember that was like in
the middle of the sort of first wave of all
the hits. And I thought about that like on the
way over here. Also because Phil is now opening up
a restaurant named for his parents, so he lost in
recent years, and I think there's something so great about
(25:28):
having a permanent tribute. It's like I, you know, I
mentioned my dad on the liner notes of the Duets
album by Sinatra. That was pretty good, but I wish
I had written a great song or started a great
you know diner in his case.
Speaker 5 (25:41):
Well, we love to honor our parents and they mean
more to us, and you know, almost as much as
your dog. Hard to lose your dog, really, it's the worst.
But the parents you kind of know they're going to
go at some point. But yeah, my dad's was the
(26:03):
first person that i'd.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Really lost, the loss that I truly loved.
Speaker 5 (26:06):
And then it was the song came out three years later.
I couldn't write anything when he first passed away, but
came to me and.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
It's I did it the other night. I was at
a benefit.
Speaker 5 (26:20):
Actually, it was kind of a country thing and a
lot of country artists, you know, the way clapping with
the human touch and the fair of the heart and that.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Kind of stuff.
Speaker 5 (26:28):
And then I played my father's chair and they all
stood up and applaud at the end. It was great
and they'd never heard the song before. So it still
reaches people. And that's what I am most proud of
that my dad's memory is still reaching people.
Speaker 7 (26:47):
House and a love for the first time wed in
my fire?
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Are you in? Are you in Malibu?
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Rick? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
And how did you do with the fires?
Speaker 1 (27:15):
We survived this one? It was getting old, truly, seriously.
The fire before.
Speaker 5 (27:20):
That we lost all our fences and half a gazebo
burned down, and the fire got so close to the
house the paint blistered on one side.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
So it was really frigging scary. This one.
Speaker 5 (27:31):
We were saved, but it seems like it's going to
be a yearly thing. And I know a couple of people,
lifelong residents that are saying, I'm going somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
It's very tough. I love this place.
Speaker 5 (27:46):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
I love our house, I love our.
Speaker 5 (27:49):
Whole vibe here a small town, you know. Yeah, but
this is like a whole new a whole new thing.
And even if your house, if your house burned down
to just the worst. I know, I have several close
friends that lost their house too. Yeah, and it's the worse,
but you still impacted even if you didn't lose your house.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
It's a life changing thing.
Speaker 5 (28:12):
Now they're going to have to rebuild pH and that's
the only road in otherwise other than going all around
you know, the background, and it's going to be years.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
They've got to clean up, then they've got to rebuild.
This is going to be a nightmare.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Yeah, you need a special past to yeah, and you
got not.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Just because you live here.
Speaker 5 (28:29):
You've got to prove you have a reason to want
to go with p so yeah, it's it's really uh
freaking annoying and horrible and you know, devastating, and people
died and the whole communities have been lost.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
It just sucks.
Speaker 5 (28:46):
But you know what I mean, what we get here
is great weather and a great lifestyle. And it's a
small town still. You know, there are a couple of
dicks here, but that's what money will do sometimes.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
That is that true of your world travels. If you
found the place there are no.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Disc there's always a dick somewhere.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
There's always a dick somewhere.
Speaker 5 (29:08):
Yeah, I mean I I've been in a homeowners thing,
you know, where it's a small enclave and you're you're
all on the same frigging side, right, and yet there'll
be some asshole standing up and making an.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Issue because it's important to him, you know, and just
the same it's over. That's why there will never be
a brotherhood of man. It's a frigging house, you know.
But you can't get.
Speaker 5 (29:30):
Most people are nice, yeah, most, but there's always I.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
Let me ask you a question about a group of
people that I find very nice. And I think I've
seen at least thirty to fifty of your concerts with
my wife. So since we've been together your audience, and
I will say there I was. I think when I
started going, I might have been maybe one third man,
(29:58):
one fourth men, and I was buying more merch than
any of their men. I was being very out and proud.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
But now by the time, I like, I think, you know,
during the pandemic, my wife went out twice put on
a mask to go to a concert. One was yours
at a like a civic center down near the South Bay,
and it was great. One was Harry Styles, and I'm like, oh,
I see, she only will put on a mask if
she's turned on by the artist. But in that show,
(30:29):
it was like, yeah, it was couples, it was tons.
There was a lot of men's. There were a couple
like people for whom you were a guitar hero. And
I wonder like a lot of the artists I've known
over the years, like Aerosmith and Bruce Springsteen of talked
about hating when it was all men, But you've never
had to worry about all men. But you like seeing
the dudes out there now?
Speaker 1 (30:48):
Yeah, No, I love it.
Speaker 5 (30:49):
I you tell a story about you know, when they
were thirteen and the balls hadn't dropped that there were
you know, a little afraid to come in because of
all the girls. But the smart ones came in because
that's where the hot girls were.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
But now you know, now there's you know, there was
a lot of a lot of.
Speaker 5 (31:09):
Resentment because of the whole General Hospital thing from guys,
the ones that weren't in college and and you know
would leave class to go see general hospital. But you know,
and I I, like I said, I came up very
much with a one dimensional you know.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
They thought I was an actor that got.
Speaker 5 (31:27):
A song called that someone wrote and went in the
studio and having to sing on key for three minutes.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
And that's a lot of people's view. That was a
lot of people's view of me.
Speaker 5 (31:37):
So the fact that I'm still still around and still
have something to write about and something to say is
really my That's probably the thing I'm proud of.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Stof How did how did the acting come about? Is
this something you pursued it? Did they find you?
Speaker 1 (31:55):
No? My brother was an actor in Australia when I.
Speaker 5 (31:58):
Was, when we were still living there with our parents,
and he was really good too, So a bit of
me went, you know, I could probably do that my
big brother does. So I came over here and still
focusing on music. But around the mid seventies, I was,
shall we say, between record deals, and I met a
(32:20):
woman and she said, you ought to come to acting
class because you're not doing anything.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
So I started going to acting class.
Speaker 5 (32:25):
And I was really lost at that point because I
left my managers who brought me over here, and so
I fell into the community of actors and it saved
my life, absolutely saved my life.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
It's something to switch lanes like that.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Well, to go back and forth.
Speaker 5 (32:43):
I've always thought, you know, they come from the same drive,
the same creative drive.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
They're just a different set of tools, that's all. And
I was already interested in because of my brother.
Speaker 5 (32:54):
And you know, I see some of the early general
hospital things and the kind of cringe, you know, I
can see how nervous I am and I'm just memorizing lines.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
And but I've this, I've been on stuff now that I.
Speaker 5 (33:05):
That I am proud of, you know, and work and
got better scripts certainly, and and it became a started
out as like, oh, okay, I can.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Make some money here to pay the light bill, but
it started.
Speaker 5 (33:20):
To become meaningful to me and now I have at
the age on that I have, you know, a luck
to offer. I have been through a lot of a
lot of ship in my life and and.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
You can and that's the all good stuff you can
draw from as an actor.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Well, you talked about those in between years. There was
a song that once you broke out with Jesse's Girl
all of a sudden, a song that is very important
I think in Phil's life because he's the biggest Bruce
Springsteen fan of all the time. Yeah, the song Bruce
came out of nowhere, and I think it became a
hit without any like help or not. Like they didn't
even ask you, did they They.
Speaker 5 (33:56):
Just know there's another record company and they said, oh,
what have we got to Springfield? There we got you know,
I did a couple of albums before that never did anything.
And they came and this was a song I wrote
in like, I know, seventy six when I was to
some I'd been to her audition, right and there was
a girl sitting across from me in the waiting room
(34:17):
and like looking at me. I kind of look away
and I went in and read and then as I
walk out, she goes Bruce and I.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
That spurred the song. I wrote it as a joke song.
I mean, that's you know it says. My mom called
me the other day and I think I heard her say, Bruce.
Speaker 7 (34:39):
Bus my name is Rick.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
I'm going to stick it to you.
Speaker 5 (34:48):
Be absolutely a joke song. But I guess because of
them where you know, the where I was with the
hits and everything, everything, it became you know, a top
twenty song or something.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
And did you ever run into Bruce for him to
give you his did he ever? Do you know if
Bruce ever heard it?
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Oh, I have no idea. I have no idea.
Speaker 5 (35:14):
Bobby Chermside, who was his uh he lived with Bruce
for like all the early years and was the security
guy and everything, became my security guy and now one
of my closest friends.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
And he talked about Bruce now and then, but not
a lot. But he never.
Speaker 5 (35:29):
Mentioned that he you know, there was anything mentioned ever.
I mean I make jokes about it, but I heard,
you know, someone said, yeah, they're in in a store,
you know, like a department store, and Bruce Springsteen was there,
but he was behind him and he was buying something
and the guy, the guy that cashier looked at his
(35:49):
card and then went on the phone he said, I
have Rick Springfield here, like.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
So it happens, you know, both ways.
Speaker 5 (35:58):
But I still, I mean, I still get uh people saying, oh,
mister Springsteen, I loved you on General Hospital, so they
got the person, they just get the name.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Then I get.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
That too all the time now.
Speaker 5 (36:20):
And I want to.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Ship the turn beyond right now, I'm going east is west.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
One of the amazing things about your stories, You've been
very open about dealing with depression. And I think that's
great because I mean that was you were kind of
open about it before it was that hip to be
open about mental health. But I always thought this greatest hits,
the big the big hits, the greatest hits too is
amazing because I sort of think of it as the
(37:09):
it was a second coming in that you walked away.
I don't know how many years you walked away from music,
but I remember I think when my wife and I
were first like getting married and kids, we would start
like it was like it started out very small, like
I think we went online to your website and ordered uh,
I guess it was Karma and got you know, ordered
(37:29):
our sign copy and my favorite song, which is on
this record. It's one of my favorite songs you've ever done.
It's always something which when you look it up, it's
all one word. It's always something very e Cummings or uh.
And that was to me a song like I thought
the eight You know, you're also going on on this
giant tour, which I think, Phil, we're gonna go see
(37:52):
it together with our wives. Uh it's is it called
I Love the Eighties?
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Is that what it is? Yeah? I won my eighties.
I didn't think that, and that was a managerial decision.
Speaker 5 (38:02):
I was okay with it, but you know, I like
to be I'd like to be recognized as something other
than the eighties guide. But I've kind of got back
into a corner with a damn radio show, and you
know the labeling obviously, I'm going, oh, okay.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
Well, I'll tell you what I love about this record
is I do not love the eighties. I've always like
we both are in like that CNN series the sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties,
And when we did the sixties, I said, just get
me into the seventies. I love the seventies.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
Well, it's when you come of age, right, that's your music.
Speaker 5 (38:32):
Yeah, I know it's there's a window is open from
like I know, maybe twelve till you get a job,
right or you meet the girl and get married.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
That's when the window closes.
Speaker 5 (38:42):
But the windows open for that period and what comes
in stays in because you marry it. You know, when
you love it, you marry it and it becomes part
of your part of your life.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
I have those myself.
Speaker 5 (38:55):
A Cliff Richard in the Shadows, an English group that
I lived in England as a kid, and that's when
I discovered music, and and that.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
I still put on.
Speaker 5 (39:04):
You know, there schmultzy kind of view kind of songs,
but they're deep to.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
Me in the car.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
Yeah, I am so happy you covered. I think it's
missed you Knights on one of your cover records. I
love and like Cliff Richard in America, those who know
who he is don't even he doesn't get the respect
he deserves. He was England's sort of poppier Elvis and
he was get great songs like in the seventies. I
(39:33):
love that stuff.
Speaker 5 (39:34):
Yeah, amazing, And he was the first, you know, he
was their first Elvis, but he was a kind of
gentler Elvis. You know that the moms could like, and
that comes from England's vaudeville. I was still hooked into
vaudeville and you please everybody. But his voice is incredible
and he's had great songs and and it's hard for
(39:55):
me to speak objectively because he's you know, he came
in at fourteen and it was all over, you know,
like Cliff was a god. But I met him a
couple of times and he's a really lovely guy and
very unassuming. But he's in Europe and England and Australia.
He's still huge. He's like, you know, a perennial artist
(40:18):
that just can go out at any time and sell
out places.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
It's incredible.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
When you came from Australia to hear were you treated
as something exotic?
Speaker 1 (40:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (40:28):
But they didn't you know, Australia wasn't on the on
the world map at that time. And I would get
stuff like, oh, you came from Australia, how long did
take you to learn English? It's very English? Is very good,
I say, gave Mike. Yeah, yeah, it was. It was
weird that, you know, it was definitely different. And I
(40:49):
have my old accent, you know, and I used to
talk kind of like Nigel. Actually I used to sound
a lot like like Nigel.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
Tough Noel, and.
Speaker 5 (40:58):
It was good for girls, you know, Oh I love
your accent? Oh really, but yeah it was. I was
definitely an outlayer.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
You know.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Well you could fool me. You you there's no trace
of accent when you speak.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
Yeah. Well, I went to a voice coach.
Speaker 5 (41:17):
Honestly, when I started acting, I knew I was going
to I wasn't gonna be up for many Australian parts,
and the English parts I did.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
Like two of them.
Speaker 5 (41:24):
Yeause, I can call the English language because I was
over there, you know, when I.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
Was a kid.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
Right.
Speaker 5 (41:29):
But but but I knew most of them may views
for American and I didn't want to have to think
about the accent while I'm trying to get into the part.
So I went to a voice coach and I learned it,
and I lived amongst Americans and it became a natural thing.
And the weirdest thing was my mom. Like the last
time I spoke to her, I went by, Mom, love you.
(41:49):
And then the next next call, I said, hey, Mom,
what's going on?
Speaker 3 (41:53):
She said nothing, because the mom knows, she knows it's you. Anyway, Oh, yeah,
what happened to your voice cho You mentioned voice coaches
this tour that you're leading, and it's you know, I
know I will be going for you, but I will
say you have You're touring this summer with some of
my favorite voices. And again I don't love the eighties.
(42:15):
And I'll tell you John Waite, you know from the Babies,
you know everyone knows missing you. He his solo work,
like yours, continues to do great work, a great singer,
a great I saw him open for you once at
the I think Universal amphitheater and a great live act.
So people should go see make sure they're there for
John Waite, Paul Young, who I've loved since he outsang
(42:39):
Daryl Hall, which is impossible to do on every time
you go away. And you have John Cafferty, who have
never seen but I you know, I kind of am
enough of an Eddie and the Cruisers fanatic that I
cannot wait. That's a hell of a lineup.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
They're all great guys too.
Speaker 5 (42:55):
I've never met I've met Wang Chung is, but but.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
I actually my favorite there. I was a fan in
the in the eighties.
Speaker 5 (43:03):
My favorite album is their first album that never made
it in the UK or the US, it's just called
wang Chung and has spelt the Chinese way h u
a n g chung. And they were obviously they said no,
they came over here, they said no, man, you gotta
change that. Don't want to understand what you're what?
Speaker 1 (43:19):
What how to say that? You know? I looked at
who hum? But it is. It's a great album. It's
like my favorite album of theirs.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
But I hate.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
Yeah, uh they.
Speaker 5 (43:33):
John Waite is a good friend and I've known him
for for a number of years, and you know, he's
a real rocker. I mean he's can be a little
squirrely at times, but when you get to know him,
he's got a just a big heart and he sings.
He's one of my top five voices, really rock voices,
along with Paul Rodgers and Seve Marriott and you know
(43:54):
Bond Scott. I think he's got such a unique tone
that you're either born with or you're not. And I'm
very envious of his awesome tone. So and Paul Young,
a lovely older English gentleman. Yeah, Paul is a real gentleman,
a lovely guy. And John is too. John John Cafferty
(44:15):
is really really a nice guy. It's great to tour
with good people, you know.
Speaker 3 (44:19):
And well you do a lot of touring with Richard Marx,
who I know and who's a like Again, like people's
personalities are never you think like Richard Marx is a great,
wise ass, really really real dick in the best possible way.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
Yeah. No, He's got a very sharp sense of humor.
Speaker 5 (44:37):
And we know each other since you know, eighties in
the mid eighties, and we have very similar sense as
of humor.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
It's very disrespectful, I guess you'd say.
Speaker 5 (44:49):
We're not afraid to say, you know, call a crap
a crap, you know. So, but we have a great camaraderie.
We used to do it so Richie.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
Would play and then I come on and play, and
then we do a song together. And I said, you
were wasting.
Speaker 5 (45:02):
What is the most the most fun for us and
we'll be for the audience is our camaraderie and making
jokes and and so we suggested we do it together
and it's been great. I mean, it's everybody loves it.
It's a really very very.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
Different show to my show.
Speaker 5 (45:19):
It's just acoustic guitars and us, you know, bullshitting basically it.
Speaker 3 (45:23):
Sounds like fun you both Phil and Rick have been
on I've heard you on robb Loow's podcast. Yeah you
it was very funny because Phil, I don't know if
you're familiar with this, but Phil started out behind the scenes,
you know, creating one of the biggest sitcoms of all time.
Now he's the star of a show and he is
heading on on tour next week. You're going You're playing,
(45:45):
among other places, the London Palladium. He's selling out like giant.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
Venues on his face too.
Speaker 3 (45:52):
So I wondered, like I listened to you and Rob
Lowe and it was nice to know. Like Rob, I
don't know if he's ever had a problem in the world.
You you have been very open about, you know, despite
you both being sex symbols. You've you've dealt with depression,
You've dealt with some ship Phil being a sex symbol.
Now at sixty whatever, are you finding it difficult or
(46:14):
do you need any advice from Rick?
Speaker 2 (46:15):
I'd love some advice.
Speaker 5 (46:16):
I uh, well, whippersnapper, let me tell.
Speaker 2 (46:19):
You where are your favorite places to tour?
Speaker 5 (46:26):
It's really the audience, honestly, you know, I mean, overseas
is fun, but it's a it's a real drain, you know,
just the whole travel.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
And to me, the travel is the hardest thing.
Speaker 5 (46:38):
If I could, you know, if I could be instantly there,
that that will make it all fun.
Speaker 2 (46:43):
The shows are fun, yeah, and transfer.
Speaker 5 (46:47):
The long drive and this and the and the it's
a drain, very draining thing. But yeah, it's about the
audience really. I mean I remember a place by the audience.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
But did you have a question, youngster.
Speaker 2 (47:04):
No, I just was wondering what your favorite places in
the world were.
Speaker 5 (47:08):
I do love England, you know, and I love Australia,
but I have you know, it's that's my hometown kind
of thing where you have really.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
Mixed mixed feelings about it. You love it and there's
things you don't love.
Speaker 5 (47:23):
Uh. And I love America. I absolutely love America. I'm
very proud to be here and to be I became
a citizen, which pissed off a lot of others, but
you know, I.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
Wanted to be available for jeury duty. That was really
the main thing.
Speaker 2 (47:36):
Have you done it yet?
Speaker 1 (47:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (47:38):
No, that's why you look forward to.
Speaker 3 (47:41):
Uh, you're a pescatarian, you know, since I don't know
if you have any fish questions.
Speaker 1 (47:47):
Yes, yes, it's a religious thing.
Speaker 5 (47:49):
A pescatarian is very much like an episcopalia, only it's
with fish.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
Thanks for throwing that to me, David. What's your favorite fish? Rick?
Speaker 1 (47:58):
Exactly? Talk about it. The that's the what's the fish
out of Gallilee that everybody eats? A Saint Peter's fish.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
That's that's a fantastic by the way, very good fish. Yeah,
you know your fish, that's very good. And it has
the it has the two dark spots on either side
where Saint Peter they say, would have grabbed the fish.
So it has like the fingerprints sea.
Speaker 1 (48:22):
Like the common Achilles Hill. Yeah, that's their Achilles Hill.
You can.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
By the way, there's a restaurant in Sydney that's called
Saint Peter and it's probably in the top two or
three seafood restaurants.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
In the world.
Speaker 2 (48:36):
Next time you're back. Oh wow, it's phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
Yeah. Is it on the water by the Sydney Harbor Bridge?
Speaker 2 (48:43):
Uh, not far from there. Yeah, it's it's great. It's great.
Speaker 1 (48:47):
Yeah, there's in great restaurants there. Sydney is fantastic and
it's gotten. You know.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
I was there first time. I don't know. Twelve years ago,
the food scene just exploded, as it has everywhere in
the world. But Sydney. You should go back, it's really amazing.
Speaker 1 (49:03):
Yeah, I know, I would love to go back.
Speaker 5 (49:05):
I am kind of you know, torn about it, but
I haven't been back since my mom died, so that
would be an issue too, you know.
Speaker 1 (49:14):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (49:15):
So anyway, my favorite Chinese restaurant is in Sydney, right
mister Wong's. I think it's called Yeah, yeah, unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (49:24):
I wonder if Wang Chung have ever been.
Speaker 3 (49:25):
To my favorite seafood restaurant for personal reasons because it
was my eight of my first ten dates with my
wife is gone in Malibu, the real Inn. It was
like that was our life to get more time with her,
so I drive her out to Malibu and it was
relatively an expensive date, you know, but a beautiful spot.
Speaker 2 (49:45):
But there's still I know it's terrible, but Malibu seafood
is still there.
Speaker 1 (49:50):
Yeah, malabausifoods still here, but the real in burned. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (49:53):
And also my my favorite outdoor frontge of store away
from the corner of Topanga in p eight, which I
up that since we moved to Malibu.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
And they all burned down, and I'm so bummed.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
Did you ever go to Malibu Kitchen in Cross Creek there?
Speaker 1 (50:09):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, that was.
Speaker 2 (50:10):
My favorite sandwich shop. Yeah, he turned down, but it
closed that he's going to try to reopen in another tough.
Speaker 5 (50:17):
For the for the small businesses here now because there's
no people are.
Speaker 1 (50:21):
Coming in, you know. So by the way, it's trying
hard to support everybody.
Speaker 2 (50:24):
It's tough for small business everywhere.
Speaker 1 (50:26):
Yeah, yeah, you're right.
Speaker 3 (50:28):
You I think have maybe had the record. I'm trying
to think. I have been married thirty years, you've been
married thirty You've beat him, right, are you?
Speaker 1 (50:37):
Are you forty one? I think?
Speaker 2 (50:41):
Wow?
Speaker 5 (50:42):
Yeah, well, I know it's I'm surprised that people are surprised,
but they always go wow.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
And in this business, forty two you know what anniversary
that is? That's the it's enough already anniversary.
Speaker 1 (50:56):
I know my wife have been getting on. My wife
and I have been getting on better than ever lately.
So I don't know. Whatever we're taking, we're going to
stay on.
Speaker 2 (51:03):
Oh, it's good to know it can come back around.
Speaker 1 (51:05):
Yes, it does. Well, we've always been really romantic. We're
the kind of couple that you go out to.
Speaker 5 (51:11):
Rest on and the waiters come and say, God, it
too is so romantic. I mean, you know, it wasn't
anything we tried to put on, but we were kind
of always all over each other.
Speaker 3 (51:20):
How did you meet?
Speaker 1 (51:22):
We met at Sound City.
Speaker 5 (51:23):
Actually she was from the Midwest and she came made
a mom move to California when her mom got divorced,
and she was determined to get out of the Midwest
and come to California. And she met an english woman
named Jemima at.
Speaker 1 (51:39):
A party and loved her.
Speaker 5 (51:43):
She loved all the whole English scene and everything. And
Jemima was a studio manager at Sound City, so eventually
she hired Barbara to work the phone. And I was
as I was doing an album that was actually the
album that she called me Bruce's On. I was doing
that album Studio A and I met her then, and
(52:03):
she was only fifteen at the time.
Speaker 1 (52:05):
So I waited, you know, pretty but I'm.
Speaker 5 (52:07):
Not going to prison for her, and waited until she
was eighteen, and then I just flit up with my
girlfriend and called her up for a date. And she
was totally surprised because she thought I was completely up
myself and you know, aloof because I was just insecure
and I'd walk through I wouldn't look at anybody, you know,
but only because I was insecure and it worked out.
Speaker 2 (52:27):
That's fantastic. And you have kids.
Speaker 1 (52:29):
We have two boys, yeah, Liam and Joshua.
Speaker 2 (52:32):
And what do they do.
Speaker 1 (52:35):
Liam's an actor and.
Speaker 5 (52:36):
A musician and he's still, you know, going through the
motions of all that. Josh is studying to be a
child a child therapist, and he's amazing. He's absolutely the
perfect gig for him. He's such a sweetheart.
Speaker 1 (52:50):
And yeah, I'm very proud of him. They got married
by what's that.
Speaker 2 (52:54):
Do they live close by?
Speaker 1 (52:56):
No, it's about an hour and a half away, but
they have a great house and.
Speaker 2 (53:01):
With the same state.
Speaker 1 (53:02):
You say, oh, definitely.
Speaker 5 (53:03):
Yeah, my boys aren't bailing on me, you know, they're
they're hanging out and they come out and we go
out there and I'm actually going to be a grandfather.
Speaker 2 (53:11):
Hey, that's is that breaking news? That is that's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (53:16):
Congratulations and will not deter my wife nor any of
the other women from being just as excited. And and
by the way, I I enjoy I've spent thirty years
now in the audience. I love looking at your audience.
You know, I look at you too, but I love
your audience like they're they're they're the most And I
(53:38):
wonder do you look out and do you see some
of the same faces who were there every time you
hit a town, Because I mean my wife she once
didn't go to the Oscars or Grammys when I was
working on them because you were doing a charity show,
a charity event in some private home. And she goes,
I love you, David, but Rick comes first and she
(54:00):
went to your charity to see you at a charity event.
Speaker 1 (54:03):
Oh that's hilarious.
Speaker 3 (54:05):
But do you do you see recognize some of these women?
Speaker 1 (54:07):
Yeah, very much.
Speaker 5 (54:08):
So there's there's a certain there at the age now
where they like to do women's trips and they all
get together and they walk into the lobby of a
hotel to help all food and booze laid out, and
I mean it's it's like a full on thing for them.
They I'm the kind of excuse to go out and have,
you know, have fun out and leave everything behind at home.
(54:31):
And there's a couple of women that were in the
Live and Kicking video, which is the first live video
every day and they're featured in it, and so I
remembered them and they look exactly the same, only a
little older. And they've been to shows in LA and
they're like right in the front, and I go, WHOA
is this silly eighties?
Speaker 1 (54:51):
It's like it's amazing. I mean, that's that's incredible.
Speaker 5 (54:56):
I mean to me, I some people have been to
one hundred fifty shows, you know, and I.
Speaker 1 (55:03):
Don't like anybody that much.
Speaker 3 (55:05):
No, but it's like the Deadheads, but they smell and
look much better.
Speaker 5 (55:09):
Yeah, they it's an event for them, and and that's great.
Speaker 1 (55:14):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (55:14):
Well, let me say, since nineteen ninety nine, when you
you sort of on the big Kids, that era that
you document, there's never not been a song I absolutely
love on a record every You've kept putting out new
music despite the record industry collapsing around you, like whatever
label comes out, and you always do good work. And absolutely,
(55:36):
GHO see this live this summer, because I have not
seen you not give one hundred percent. And I know
you've you know you're you've You've had better and worse times,
but you always put on the greatest live show. I'm
always like the guy squealing when you grab the roses
and do your Pete Townshend with flowers routine. I don't know,
(55:59):
have you not, Do you always do that? Or it
just happens to be every time I go see you.
Speaker 1 (56:03):
No. I started as a just an accident.
Speaker 5 (56:06):
I was playing up front, playing you know, a solo,
and this woman was trying to push these roses in
my hand and the thorns kept sticking my hand. I'm
saying stop, I'm playing, and eventually grabbed them because you
wouldn't stop, and to bang them against the guitar like this,
and Everyone'm like yeah.
Speaker 1 (56:21):
And then they started bringing roses and there was one
point where.
Speaker 5 (56:24):
There was like, I mean, must have been you know,
three hundred bucks, four hundred, five hundred bucks worth of
roses on the side of the stage, and I just
go across and it's pretty funny. There's always someone in
the audience who brings them up.
Speaker 3 (56:38):
It's great. And there's a song on the collection who
Killed the rock and Roll? And I want to thank
you because you at this point, like enough of our
rock and roll heroes are dying off, like you're you know,
I having worked on the in Memorium for you know,
for the Grammys and all that. I'm well aware of
everyone who goes, and you are one of the people
keeping it very much alive and have been doing so
(56:59):
with with great passion, and I thank you well.
Speaker 5 (57:03):
Like to stay alive for a few more years and
keep doing it. That's really the goal, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (57:07):
No? No, And I want to say also a condolence
is belatedly on someone who I don't I haven't talked
to you since he passed. I loved him, the guy
who worked with you, who always made it so great
to get back to say hello to you and all that. Maddie.
Maddie was just again one of those rock and roll
heroes like I always think, like the tour managers, the
road managers. We actually on the Grammys a couple years ago,
(57:29):
I got to take Billie Eilish's road manager and have
her introduce and I thought Maddie was one of those
great characters. I wish the whole world could have known him.
Speaker 1 (57:36):
Yeah, he was a very special guy.
Speaker 5 (57:39):
And the longer he's gone, the more I realize how
kind of irreplaceable he is. He did so much. Plus
he was a good guy and we'd hang out and
we even played freaking Monopoly together, you know. It was
so that's a sign of a real friendship. If he
can sit to a board game or dice game with somebody,
you got to like him a lot a lot of downtime.
Speaker 1 (58:01):
But yeah, he was a fabulous guy.
Speaker 5 (58:03):
And I was actually in this this studio here that
he told me. Came in and told me that he
had pancreatic cancer. And we're all very positive for it.
Speaker 1 (58:14):
You know. I went to Germany and.
Speaker 5 (58:15):
A special clinic, but it's it's a it's a bad one,
you know, pancreatic and unfortunately we lost him about a
year ago.
Speaker 3 (58:25):
Well, he was the best and you're the best, and
we really appreciate you coming finally, despite Kevin Bacon trying
to stop us, eventually being willing to do lunch with us.
Speaker 2 (58:37):
Oh good Rick, it was pleasure meeting you.
Speaker 1 (58:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (58:41):
Hope we cross paths again. I hope you have a
nice piece of fish tonight.
Speaker 1 (58:44):
I will take care of my see you guys. Thank
you so much.
Speaker 3 (58:51):
Naked Lunch is a podcast by Phil Rosenthal and David Wilde.
Theme song and music by Brad Paisley, produced by Will
Sterling and Ryan Tillotson, with video editing by Daniel Ferrara
and motion graphics by Ali Ahmed. Executive produced by Phil Rosenthal,
David Wilde, and our consulting journalist is Pamela Cella. Thanks
for listening to Naked Lunch, a Lucky Bastard's production.
David.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Hey, Phil, this is a guy you know that I've
never met.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
Yes, and they say don't talk to strangers. That's his song.
But I'm so glad you're gonna make a non stranger
of a guy who I have been in love with
along with my wife. He is We're in a thruptle.
He doesn't know it. With the great Rick Springton, here
we go.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
Let's build the beans to the fat, food for thought
and jokes on taip, talking with our mouthsful, having fun,
the beas, the cake and humble pies, serving up slice lovely,
the dressing on the side. It's naked lunch clothing optional,
(00:54):
tuts down to fat one.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
So supt day were the kid, the teachers, and the
pre Rick.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
First of all, we have to say a delated apology
because in the entire history of our podcast, we're now
like one hundred and fifty episodes in, you're the only
person we ever had to cancel on because the day
before we were supposed to talk to you, Kevin Bacon
was our guest, and I'm not gonna say he gave
me COVID, but someone did that and that's the only
time I was ever knocked out. So rather than kill
(01:40):
Rick Springfield, we canceled on you, and we're so happy
to finally have you on our podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
I'm glad you canceled.
Speaker 3 (01:50):
You're gonna wish we canceled today.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Did you ever have COVID or did you escape it?
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Yeah? I had when it first came out. I was
got first edition.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
You're a pioneer right when I had that new COVID
smell this. I don't know if you've ever met I
don't think you have. Phil Rosenthal, you know, and I
don't know if you. He created Everybody loves Raymond. He
has this show somebody feed Phil, and yet he's never
gotten to meet you where I have bothered you for years.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
I'm very glad that you did Hill.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Very nice to meet you, sir. I'm a fan. This
are you you're I'm guessing is this.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
A home studio? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
That's beautiful. Can you turn your camera a little to
give us a little tour?
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Let's see there's the board.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Wow, you are serious.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
I'm giving outdoor some great here there.
Speaker 5 (02:49):
There is uh neves and APIs and all kinds of
great stuff.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Distressors. Oh uh?
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Are you a nerd about equipment like me?
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Yes? I am a bet.
Speaker 5 (03:03):
I mean, there's certain that my lawyer, that's my submarine
for twenty thousand leagues and that's a sixty four casino
and a fifty nine strap whoa and well, oh, I
got I've got lots of guns here, but they're all fake.
They all shoot caps.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
Well, and Rick, is it fair to say that a
lot of your you have just put out what I
call the Second Coming of Rick Springfield. It's like Big Hits,
Greatest Hits, Part two and it is an amazing collection.
And for me, it's my favorite stuff because I you know,
I was in college and you know, high school when
(03:45):
I became an original fanboy. But I met my wife
in the nineties and when we met, I don't know
if I think I've told you the story, but I'll
tell everyone else this story, which is the first day
I met her, I asked her out and she goes,
I can't, I have a business thing. Days later, she
confessed that the business thing was going to see Rick
Springfield's tour rehearsal and I think a place called Pelican's Retreat.
(04:10):
And the irony of all this is my wife doesn't
and we've done whole episodes. We did an episode where
we revealed how the McCartney's forced us to get married.
She didn't like music with one exception. She loves Rick
Springfield and I had to then confess to her that
I'm a bigger Rick Springfield fan than hers. So the
(04:31):
absolute truth is we had nothing in common other than
the family that has this is our Rick Springfield pillow
that we put it behind our heads when we are
in deep contemplation. Uh, and we're still married thirty years later.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
But it's all based on the life.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
It's based on that line.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah, my wife lied to.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Me too well.
Speaker 5 (04:52):
I thought you had to be naked for the naked Lunch.
I'm glad we don't have to be.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Oh, people are so relieved when we come on.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
I'll do it, man, don't don't put it.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
They'd be fine with you doing it.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Exactly. We've seen Californication. We know you will do it.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Wow, I know I see the photos of that. And
when when did I star in a pornum that.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
Was a that was a kind of would you say
it's an X ray show?
Speaker 5 (05:21):
It could have been, yeah, but there was no penetration,
so you know, fair is fair now where they put
these things on you that are kind of cover the spots,
you know that the naughty bits that with all the
have to do with all the penetration, et cetera, et cetera,
So you basically kind of clothed over that stuff, but
(05:42):
they film.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
It so it looks like you're totally naked.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Was there any penetration on every dose Raymond? Any nudity?
I don't remember any.
Speaker 5 (05:50):
There was penetration of a different kind, mental penetration, the
worst kind.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (05:58):
I did last night watch uh uh is it Ricky
and the Flash? I watched your movie with you and
Meryl Streep and I that had to be overwhelmingly fun
for you to basically be not only her co star,
her love interest, but also like her band leader, her
(06:20):
guitar god. And I had worked with her on the
Grammys a couple of years ago, and I thought she's
the most delightful person in the world.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
Yeah, she's fabulous.
Speaker 5 (06:28):
She doesn't she doesn't wear the Meryl Streep thing at all.
She's actually really excited to be.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
In the band.
Speaker 5 (06:36):
She loves music and with some great people in it
was Bennie Bernie Bernie Bernie Warrell who passed away, Rick Roses,
who also passed away and.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Joe Vitally and who Joevitally.
Speaker 5 (06:54):
Yeah, Joe Vitally with who is Rocking and still a monster?
And Merril and me and it was uh and we'd play,
you know between shoots obviously that you don't shoot all
the time. You know, you do a scene and then
they rework it and talk and we she we'd played
like you really Got Me and all these songs, and
she loved it.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
She'd gone play another one, play another one. She had
a blast.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
And now she's a you know, I was with her
with her son. Her son in law is Mark Ronson,
who was my intern years ago at Rolling Stone and
now is the biggest producer in the world. And she
just seems to love like I think you let her
inner musician out. Now she's just like she's she's not
only the greatest actress of our times, she's a real
(07:39):
rock and roll chick.
Speaker 5 (07:41):
Yeah, she is. She's amazing. I mean, she fell right
into it. And she even learned to play the guitar
and actually did a solo. I don't know, you know
how how it came out eventually, but we all played
live because Jonathan Demi, who directed the movie, you know,
did uh silent to the Lambs and all those amazing director.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
A beautiful guy making sense, right, that's not making sense?
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Yeah, with another movie with Bertie Warrell.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Right right?
Speaker 5 (08:08):
Yeah, he's he loved music too, and he sadly he
passed away after the movie.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
I guess there's not a movie thing. It's an age thing.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
You know, there's so many band members and members of
the you know, the shoot kind of passed away after
the movie was the last thing he did. And that's
a drag because he was a fabulous, beautiful guy, and
I was going to work more with him, you know,
he had another thing coming up that's going to use
me for Oh, he was fantastic.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
What did you learn from Merrill working with her? Did
you learned lessons from her?
Speaker 1 (08:44):
Yeah? Not, you know, I mean not directly, but I
just don't mean lessons.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
I just mean it. Oh that, yes, observing her what Yeah,
I just take away from that experience.
Speaker 5 (08:56):
Yeah, just observing her be so free and use so
much of herself in the role.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
It was incredible.
Speaker 5 (09:06):
I mean I got more juice out of that than
you know, four years in freeing Hollywood acting class.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
It was amazing to see someone, you know.
Speaker 5 (09:16):
Who is, like you said, probably the greatest actress around.
And and she was just you know, still trying to
push and and do better. And she'd have conversations with
Jonathan in between and he said, you know, suggest stuff,
and it was just wild to see her still be
that that creative soul, you know, really reaching for things
(09:43):
even at this point.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
I mean it was it was really great.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Such a positive attitude, right, such a like coming there
to It's not work to her, it's play.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
No, and it is.
Speaker 5 (09:52):
I when I go out on tour, I say I'm
going out to play. I don't say I'm going out
to work.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Well, another movie that as your lifelong fan, is very
important to me is Sound City, which you know Dave
Grows documentary, which I think you've seen. But what as
a fan of yours forever. The thing that I absolutely
loved about it is I'm not saying music is a
competitive sport. I don't, you know, even though I write
(10:18):
a lot of award shows, I don't think of music
that way. But really, in that movie, you kind of
win the Sound City game because you it's all these
great artists, and I mean some of my favorite artists
of all time McCartney who helped me get married. You know,
uh Stevie Nicks, who I've worked with tons, But you
came in and the track you did with Like the
(10:39):
Foo Fighters, it's the best thing on the record. And
when I went to see the live version of it,
you rocked it and I just thought, how was it
satisfying for you to That's like, you know, there was
a real studio that you, a real musician, went to
all those years ago, and you come back and it
was you. You get to really show who you are
(10:59):
because there are there always will be, and I get tired.
I listened to eighty year podcast you've done over the years,
and people who bring the idea that you know, any
hint of actor who sings is always so silly to
me because I know you're a kid. I know that
guitar is really what transported you from Australia to hear
and around the world.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Yeah, yeah, it's true. I came I've been playing guitar
since I was thirteen.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Since you're bar Mitsvah right, you got it as a
Bermtsvah gift.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
I believe I possibly. I mean I have to go
back and check on that one, but yeah, sounds cool.
Speaker 3 (11:32):
It was Sound City very meaningful for you.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
The documentary or the studio.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
The documentary.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Oh yeah, yeah, it was great.
Speaker 5 (11:40):
It was you know, I mean I I was kind
of walking into their territory because it's always a little
intimidating walking into someone's territory when they're all friends and
you know, you don't know what their action is going
to be.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
And they were great. I mean, Pat smear was very
very complimentary, and.
Speaker 5 (11:59):
You know, David had invited me, so obviously he had
a connection and.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
They were great playing. It was just so much fun writing.
Speaker 5 (12:07):
We basically wrote the track in one day, which was
his idea. You know, he wants to do a song
with everyone, get together and write a song, and uh,
and it went, it went great. And then he handed
me the track and said, go write a song. So
I took it home and with my writing partner, the
(12:28):
occasional occasional writing partner, met this and that, who is
the most amazing musician really yeah, I know, something was
in the water in Detroit at that point. Really the
great I mean two of the probably the two best
musicians I personally know are those two guys. And and
we wrote this song based on. If you've ever seen
(12:50):
Operation Mincemeat.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
It's a movie about this guy was real. This guy.
Speaker 5 (12:55):
The British were trying to sway get the Germans off
where they were going to land France. So they got
this body and they pretended an officer and they put
these fake papers on him and dropped them in the water.
The Germans actually picked it up, read the papers and
believed it and went to this other area in France,
and then the British came in and UH had no
(13:16):
had no resistance. But we turned into I know it
sounds weird for a song, but we turned into a
kind of like a love.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
Basing that our love screw up with love on. You
know what this guy did. You have to hear the song.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
We're going to play the song episode The Man That
Never Was is just it's fantastic song.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
Sometimes you made me playing the bold.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Sometimes you used.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
Just because sometimes.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
And I thought about when I was listening to it
today on the way over here, I was thinking about,
you know, I go back. You know I've been and
worked with Dave roll a lot, Taylor Hawkins, who's no
longer we lost you know a few years ago he
was I was on the road with Alanis doing her
first cover story, when he was just like this kid
(14:28):
who was just like a Queen fanatic. He was like
in the van for Alanis on her first tour, He's
like more Queen, more Queen. And then a couple of
years later, I worked with him on a Queen tribute
on VH one and he got to play with them,
and I saw him live all his rock and roll dreams.
But I bring that up because even Dave Groll, who
seemed like the most untouchable great guy in music, he's
(14:49):
taken a lot of hits the last year or two,
and I just wonder, does it give you a sense
of pride that you this? You know, you have turned
out to be one of the more enduring rock stars
of our time. And you know, and I'll tell you,
I honestly liked Greatest Hits two more than Greatest Hits one.
And I think it's fantastic that you get a chance
(15:11):
to showcase that. But what's it mean to you to
still be around because very few rock people have ever
survived this long?
Speaker 5 (15:20):
Yeah, especially, I mean it's rewarding because of the whole
you know, one dimensional.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Soap opera geek thing.
Speaker 5 (15:30):
That kind of followed me for the first couple of years,
where when they had aor stations you know, that would
play like the more the deeper songs. They were playing
Justice Girl till they found out I was on a
soap proper and then they dropped it.
Speaker 1 (15:45):
So there was a bit of that.
Speaker 5 (15:49):
And I actually now get as many guys at the
show as women, and it's great to see that because I,
you know, I love to play. I have an amazing
band and we truly I mean kick ass.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
It's it's and it's great.
Speaker 5 (16:04):
You know, haven't played with great bands like the Foo Fighters,
because we went out and did a tour as well
with Stevie Nixon with Foggy and.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
I saw, yeah, it was and playing with them, it
was great there there.
Speaker 5 (16:19):
And uh, you know Taylor, I just he was he
was a gift. He had a gift and he would
just he nailed the man that never was right off
and they kept the first gun of the first take
and it's a lot of weird stops and everything in that.
And he told me a story. He said his brother
was giving him crap about you know, he was playing
(16:41):
with some know, some little band or something, and he goes, yeah, man,
you should play with a real band like Food Fighters,
And about a couple of months later he got the
gig with the Food Fighters exactly.
Speaker 3 (16:52):
You didn't think the Food Fighters would necessarily need a drummer,
but you know, yeah, it turned out. Once he heard Taylor,
Dave almost was like you do it?
Speaker 5 (17:00):
Yeah, yeah, No, Dave's a great drummer. I actually think
he's one of the coolest drummers. I mean, the songs
for the Death the Queens of Stone Age album, I
think is the drumming. No, that is freaking amazing. It's
like another lead instrument.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Almost.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Well, Phil, you will be jealous of this talking about
great bands. You. Hey, we both love Australia. We both
maybe love Australia more than you because we want to
go back there, and you have been here for a
long time, but you went recently right for your first time.
But in Australia you saw the Beatles in What the
hell was that?
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Like?
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Was it everything we liked to dream?
Speaker 1 (17:41):
It was like, oh, it was like the Martian to
the Land. Truly.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
I was fourteen, nineteen sixty four and an Australian guy
had seen them in England and seen the reaction.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
I said, these guys are going to be big.
Speaker 5 (17:55):
I'm going to book them for Australia right now. So
we got them probably really cheap. Probably went when the
gig came up. The brother oh.
Speaker 2 (18:02):
No, just because of the flight.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
But Ringo had laryngitis and he stayed back in England.
They had nickel.
Speaker 5 (18:13):
And I was going to see him in Festival Hall
in Melbourne and I said, please let Ringo show harp please,
And it was his first show.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
He came back and it was his first show. So
I saw the whole Beatles.
Speaker 5 (18:23):
And back then Australia was it was very much removed
from because it's an eastern country.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
It's surrounded by the East, you know, it was it
was just.
Speaker 5 (18:33):
Happened to be there, that was settled by England.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
That it's you know, still the place it is today.
Speaker 5 (18:40):
And oh because the all the bands that opened were
like still doing the Elvis fifties thing.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
They all had boufont and they wore leather and and
you know, this whole lot of shick on all the
kind of stuff.
Speaker 5 (18:51):
And then the Beatles walked on and I still see
them in my head.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
It was they walked on the.
Speaker 5 (18:57):
First thing I noticed with a Q heel boots. They
had cuban heel the first thing I noticed.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
And then their.
Speaker 5 (19:04):
Suits that they were all dressed the same, so it
looked like made all the Aussies look totally outdated. And
then they made their hair, which was no one who's
wearing their hair like that.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
And then they had these.
Speaker 5 (19:15):
Guitars we'd never seen before, you know, the Gretch and
the Rickenbacker and the Hoffner.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
We've never seen those guitars.
Speaker 5 (19:25):
And then then they started to sing and it was I.
They started to play, and my mouth opened up and
I start. I screamed like a little.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Girl through the whole show, and I couldn't control it. Really,
I wasn't expecting you to just started and it was.
Speaker 5 (19:45):
It was fricking awesome. And they played for twenty minutes
and they were gone. But it was they've done a
restoration of all the film around that particular show. And
I keep looking for myself in the audience. I haven't
seen me yet, but I was.
Speaker 2 (20:00):
But you had already decided to be a musician, because
you've got your guitar at thirteen.
Speaker 5 (20:06):
Yeah, yeah, I was pretty locked in, mainly because I
was as I was seeing the Beatles. I was probably
about about half a year from being kicked out of school,
so because I hadn't performed, and this is public school,
who takes everybody right. But I was asked to leave
eleventh grade because I'd stayed home so much that I
(20:30):
didn't know any of the work. And I basically I
stayed home three months of the year. But what I'd
do is I'd play guitar. I stayed home play guitar,
or I'd read these horror books that I'd stolen from
a second second hand bookstore. And my mom was very
upset about that. She knew that I had this big
cardboard box of books. She said, I know Richard's stealing them.
(20:52):
So I stayed home and played and that was all
I did, and then, you know, luckily got in a
band and kind of went on from there.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
But when you saw the Beatles, did that change anything
for you?
Speaker 5 (21:05):
It made me more give me more energy for what
I was doing. But I'd already decided. I'd heard their records,
I you know, played their songs in a cover band.
I was already, you know, it was just amazing to
see them. I already knew who they were.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
Was just breathing me the same air kind of thing.
That was amazing. But yeah, I mean their records is
what Spurn spurned me on.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
You talk about how you know they showed up the
bands in Australia. But I will say, having recently two
years ago going to Australia for the first time, one
thing I Phil always promotes the advantages of travel, like
on his show, and what I find is I make
a playlist of like I made like one hundred I
added to my phone one hundred great Australian rock songs,
(22:26):
and then I did it with Japan recently, and so
now they're in my rotation. For years, it's just been
Rick Springfield, you know, on my phone. I have to
tell you having the Easy Beats and Flash in the
Pan and Well Done and Jimmy Barnes some of his
better great stuff and now all these Japanese acts, it
does open up a new world of music to you.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
The Beats, the Easy Beats were definitely the Aussie Beatles.
Speaker 5 (22:52):
They changed everything and suddenly it was it was possible
for a great band to come from Australia, whereas before,
you know, they pay a big money for Roy Obison
to come out and he saw Roy Orbison about like
ten times because he was always on every show of
all the English bands that I wanted to see, and
(23:12):
they'd pay.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
America a lot of money.
Speaker 5 (23:13):
But you know, the like when I was in Zoot
we had about four or five hits at the time,
and the band was making sixty five bucks for a set,
so it was it was pretty meager.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
But the Easy Beats started changing that.
Speaker 5 (23:29):
And then a band came along called Daddy Cool that
really said, you know, we're not taking that that ship anymore.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
You're going to pay us what we're worth. But there's
so many amazing bands. Is ice House Love ice House?
Speaker 5 (23:43):
And of course my favorite band is is.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Ah Hell what's her name? Church?
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Oh the Church?
Speaker 1 (23:53):
The Chat.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Yeah, you did a version of under au.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
The Milky Way the Milky Way.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Tonight, which I loved.
Speaker 6 (23:58):
You know down in Memphish go to cutting down, I've
gotten no time.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Rather the consultation. Under the Milky Way too nice. Yeah,
that's a great song. And and.
Speaker 5 (24:30):
My probably my biggest playlist on my iPhone is probably
The Church because I just love him. I've loved him
since the eighties when they first came out.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
When you do you go back much to Australia. Phil,
I don't know if I would love to go back.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
I can't wait to go back. I love it.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
Yeah, i'd like to.
Speaker 5 (24:49):
We stopped going back when my mom died about six
years ago, so she was always a reasonably go back
and it was great to stay in my old house
and uh and and she loved you know, Barbera and
my wife, and we took Liam when he was a
little boy, and my son.
Speaker 3 (25:05):
You were the first rock star. I remember you wrote
a song with the date of your father's passing and
paid tribute to him. I remember that was like in
the middle of the sort of first wave of all
the hits. And I thought about that like on the
way over here. Also because Phil is now opening up
a restaurant named for his parents, so he lost in
recent years, and I think there's something so great about
(25:28):
having a permanent tribute. It's like I, you know, I
mentioned my dad on the liner notes of the Duets
album by Sinatra. That was pretty good, but I wish
I had written a great song or started a great
you know diner in his case.
Speaker 5 (25:41):
Well, we love to honor our parents and they mean
more to us, and you know, almost as much as
your dog. Hard to lose your dog, really, it's the worst.
But the parents you kind of know they're going to
go at some point. But yeah, my dad's was the
(26:03):
first person that i'd.
Speaker 1 (26:04):
Really lost, the loss that I truly loved.
Speaker 5 (26:06):
And then it was the song came out three years later.
I couldn't write anything when he first passed away, but
came to me and.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
It's I did it the other night. I was at
a benefit.
Speaker 5 (26:20):
Actually, it was kind of a country thing and a
lot of country artists, you know, the way clapping with
the human touch and the fair of the heart and that.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
Kind of stuff.
Speaker 5 (26:28):
And then I played my father's chair and they all
stood up and applaud at the end. It was great
and they'd never heard the song before. So it still
reaches people. And that's what I am most proud of
that my dad's memory is still reaching people.
Speaker 7 (26:47):
House and a love for the first time wed in
my fire?
Speaker 2 (27:09):
Are you in? Are you in Malibu?
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Rick? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (27:12):
And how did you do with the fires?
Speaker 1 (27:15):
We survived this one? It was getting old, truly, seriously.
The fire before.
Speaker 5 (27:20):
That we lost all our fences and half a gazebo
burned down, and the fire got so close to the
house the paint blistered on one side.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
So it was really frigging scary. This one.
Speaker 5 (27:31):
We were saved, but it seems like it's going to
be a yearly thing. And I know a couple of people,
lifelong residents that are saying, I'm going somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
It's very tough. I love this place.
Speaker 5 (27:46):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
I love our house, I love our.
Speaker 5 (27:49):
Whole vibe here a small town, you know. Yeah, but
this is like a whole new a whole new thing.
And even if your house, if your house burned down
to just the worst. I know, I have several close
friends that lost their house too. Yeah, and it's the worse,
but you still impacted even if you didn't lose your house.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
It's a life changing thing.
Speaker 5 (28:12):
Now they're going to have to rebuild pH and that's
the only road in otherwise other than going all around
you know, the background, and it's going to be years.
Speaker 1 (28:20):
They've got to clean up, then they've got to rebuild.
This is going to be a nightmare.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Yeah, you need a special past to yeah, and you
got not.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Just because you live here.
Speaker 5 (28:29):
You've got to prove you have a reason to want
to go with p so yeah, it's it's really uh
freaking annoying and horrible and you know, devastating, and people
died and the whole communities have been lost.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
It just sucks.
Speaker 5 (28:46):
But you know what I mean, what we get here
is great weather and a great lifestyle. And it's a
small town still. You know, there are a couple of
dicks here, but that's what money will do sometimes.
Speaker 3 (29:01):
That is that true of your world travels. If you
found the place there are no.
Speaker 2 (29:03):
Disc there's always a dick somewhere.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
There's always a dick somewhere.
Speaker 5 (29:08):
Yeah, I mean I I've been in a homeowners thing,
you know, where it's a small enclave and you're you're
all on the same frigging side, right, and yet there'll
be some asshole standing up and making an.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
Issue because it's important to him, you know, and just
the same it's over. That's why there will never be
a brotherhood of man. It's a frigging house, you know.
But you can't get.
Speaker 5 (29:30):
Most people are nice, yeah, most, but there's always I.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
Let me ask you a question about a group of
people that I find very nice. And I think I've
seen at least thirty to fifty of your concerts with
my wife. So since we've been together your audience, and
I will say there I was. I think when I
started going, I might have been maybe one third man,
(29:58):
one fourth men, and I was buying more merch than
any of their men. I was being very out and proud.
Speaker 1 (30:06):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (30:07):
But now by the time, I like, I think, you know,
during the pandemic, my wife went out twice put on
a mask to go to a concert. One was yours
at a like a civic center down near the South Bay,
and it was great. One was Harry Styles, and I'm like, oh,
I see, she only will put on a mask if
she's turned on by the artist. But in that show,
(30:29):
it was like, yeah, it was couples, it was tons.
There was a lot of men's. There were a couple
like people for whom you were a guitar hero. And
I wonder like a lot of the artists I've known
over the years, like Aerosmith and Bruce Springsteen of talked
about hating when it was all men, But you've never
had to worry about all men. But you like seeing
the dudes out there now?
Speaker 1 (30:48):
Yeah, No, I love it.
Speaker 5 (30:49):
I you tell a story about you know, when they
were thirteen and the balls hadn't dropped that there were
you know, a little afraid to come in because of
all the girls. But the smart ones came in because
that's where the hot girls were.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
But now you know, now there's you know, there was
a lot of a lot of.
Speaker 5 (31:09):
Resentment because of the whole General Hospital thing from guys,
the ones that weren't in college and and you know
would leave class to go see general hospital. But you know,
and I I, like I said, I came up very
much with a one dimensional you know.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
They thought I was an actor that got.
Speaker 5 (31:27):
A song called that someone wrote and went in the
studio and having to sing on key for three minutes.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
And that's a lot of people's view. That was a
lot of people's view of me.
Speaker 5 (31:37):
So the fact that I'm still still around and still
have something to write about and something to say is
really my That's probably the thing I'm proud of.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Stof How did how did the acting come about? Is
this something you pursued it? Did they find you?
Speaker 1 (31:55):
No? My brother was an actor in Australia when I.
Speaker 5 (31:58):
Was, when we were still living there with our parents,
and he was really good too, So a bit of
me went, you know, I could probably do that my
big brother does. So I came over here and still
focusing on music. But around the mid seventies, I was,
shall we say, between record deals, and I met a
(32:20):
woman and she said, you ought to come to acting
class because you're not doing anything.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
So I started going to acting class.
Speaker 5 (32:25):
And I was really lost at that point because I
left my managers who brought me over here, and so
I fell into the community of actors and it saved
my life, absolutely saved my life.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
It's something to switch lanes like that.
Speaker 3 (32:41):
Well, to go back and forth.
Speaker 5 (32:43):
I've always thought, you know, they come from the same drive,
the same creative drive.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
They're just a different set of tools, that's all. And
I was already interested in because of my brother.
Speaker 5 (32:54):
And you know, I see some of the early general
hospital things and the kind of cringe, you know, I
can see how nervous I am and I'm just memorizing lines.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
And but I've this, I've been on stuff now that I.
Speaker 5 (33:05):
That I am proud of, you know, and work and
got better scripts certainly, and and it became a started
out as like, oh, okay, I can.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
Make some money here to pay the light bill, but
it started.
Speaker 5 (33:20):
To become meaningful to me and now I have at
the age on that I have, you know, a luck
to offer. I have been through a lot of a
lot of ship in my life and and.
Speaker 1 (33:31):
You can and that's the all good stuff you can
draw from as an actor.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
Well, you talked about those in between years. There was
a song that once you broke out with Jesse's Girl
all of a sudden, a song that is very important
I think in Phil's life because he's the biggest Bruce
Springsteen fan of all the time. Yeah, the song Bruce
came out of nowhere, and I think it became a
hit without any like help or not. Like they didn't
even ask you, did they They.
Speaker 5 (33:56):
Just know there's another record company and they said, oh,
what have we got to Springfield? There we got you know,
I did a couple of albums before that never did anything.
And they came and this was a song I wrote
in like, I know, seventy six when I was to
some I'd been to her audition, right and there was
a girl sitting across from me in the waiting room
(34:17):
and like looking at me. I kind of look away
and I went in and read and then as I
walk out, she goes Bruce and I.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
That spurred the song. I wrote it as a joke song.
I mean, that's you know it says. My mom called
me the other day and I think I heard her say, Bruce.
Speaker 7 (34:39):
Bus my name is Rick.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
I'm going to stick it to you.
Speaker 5 (34:48):
Be absolutely a joke song. But I guess because of
them where you know, the where I was with the
hits and everything, everything, it became you know, a top
twenty song or something.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
And did you ever run into Bruce for him to
give you his did he ever? Do you know if
Bruce ever heard it?
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Oh, I have no idea. I have no idea.
Speaker 5 (35:14):
Bobby Chermside, who was his uh he lived with Bruce
for like all the early years and was the security
guy and everything, became my security guy and now one
of my closest friends.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
And he talked about Bruce now and then, but not
a lot. But he never.
Speaker 5 (35:29):
Mentioned that he you know, there was anything mentioned ever.
I mean I make jokes about it, but I heard,
you know, someone said, yeah, they're in in a store,
you know, like a department store, and Bruce Springsteen was there,
but he was behind him and he was buying something
and the guy, the guy that cashier looked at his
(35:49):
card and then went on the phone he said, I
have Rick Springfield here, like.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
So it happens, you know, both ways.
Speaker 5 (35:58):
But I still, I mean, I still get uh people saying, oh,
mister Springsteen, I loved you on General Hospital, so they
got the person, they just get the name.
Speaker 2 (36:07):
Then I get.
Speaker 3 (36:09):
That too all the time now.
Speaker 5 (36:20):
And I want to.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
Ship the turn beyond right now, I'm going east is west.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
One of the amazing things about your stories, You've been
very open about dealing with depression. And I think that's
great because I mean that was you were kind of
open about it before it was that hip to be
open about mental health. But I always thought this greatest hits,
the big the big hits, the greatest hits too is
amazing because I sort of think of it as the
(37:09):
it was a second coming in that you walked away.
I don't know how many years you walked away from music,
but I remember I think when my wife and I
were first like getting married and kids, we would start
like it was like it started out very small, like
I think we went online to your website and ordered uh,
I guess it was Karma and got you know, ordered
(37:29):
our sign copy and my favorite song, which is on
this record. It's one of my favorite songs you've ever done.
It's always something which when you look it up, it's
all one word. It's always something very e Cummings or uh.
And that was to me a song like I thought
the eight You know, you're also going on on this
giant tour, which I think, Phil, we're gonna go see
(37:52):
it together with our wives. Uh it's is it called
I Love the Eighties?
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Is that what it is? Yeah? I won my eighties.
I didn't think that, and that was a managerial decision.
Speaker 5 (38:02):
I was okay with it, but you know, I like
to be I'd like to be recognized as something other
than the eighties guide. But I've kind of got back
into a corner with a damn radio show, and you
know the labeling obviously, I'm going, oh, okay.
Speaker 3 (38:14):
Well, I'll tell you what I love about this record
is I do not love the eighties. I've always like
we both are in like that CNN series the sixties, seventies, eighties, nineties,
And when we did the sixties, I said, just get
me into the seventies. I love the seventies.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
Well, it's when you come of age, right, that's your music.
Speaker 5 (38:32):
Yeah, I know it's there's a window is open from
like I know, maybe twelve till you get a job,
right or you meet the girl and get married.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
That's when the window closes.
Speaker 5 (38:42):
But the windows open for that period and what comes
in stays in because you marry it. You know, when
you love it, you marry it and it becomes part
of your part of your life.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
I have those myself.
Speaker 5 (38:55):
A Cliff Richard in the Shadows, an English group that
I lived in England as a kid, and that's when
I discovered music, and and that.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
I still put on.
Speaker 5 (39:04):
You know, there schmultzy kind of view kind of songs,
but they're deep to.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
Me in the car.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
Yeah, I am so happy you covered. I think it's
missed you Knights on one of your cover records. I
love and like Cliff Richard in America, those who know
who he is don't even he doesn't get the respect
he deserves. He was England's sort of poppier Elvis and
he was get great songs like in the seventies. I
(39:33):
love that stuff.
Speaker 5 (39:34):
Yeah, amazing, And he was the first, you know, he
was their first Elvis, but he was a kind of
gentler Elvis. You know that the moms could like, and
that comes from England's vaudeville. I was still hooked into
vaudeville and you please everybody. But his voice is incredible
and he's had great songs and and it's hard for
(39:55):
me to speak objectively because he's you know, he came
in at fourteen and it was all over, you know,
like Cliff was a god. But I met him a
couple of times and he's a really lovely guy and
very unassuming. But he's in Europe and England and Australia.
He's still huge. He's like, you know, a perennial artist
(40:18):
that just can go out at any time and sell
out places.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
It's incredible.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
When you came from Australia to hear were you treated
as something exotic?
Speaker 1 (40:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (40:28):
But they didn't you know, Australia wasn't on the on
the world map at that time. And I would get
stuff like, oh, you came from Australia, how long did
take you to learn English? It's very English? Is very good,
I say, gave Mike. Yeah, yeah, it was. It was
weird that, you know, it was definitely different. And I
(40:49):
have my old accent, you know, and I used to
talk kind of like Nigel. Actually I used to sound
a lot like like Nigel.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
Tough Noel, and.
Speaker 5 (40:58):
It was good for girls, you know, Oh I love
your accent? Oh really, but yeah it was. I was
definitely an outlayer.
Speaker 1 (41:08):
You know.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Well you could fool me. You you there's no trace
of accent when you speak.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
Yeah. Well, I went to a voice coach.
Speaker 5 (41:17):
Honestly, when I started acting, I knew I was going
to I wasn't gonna be up for many Australian parts,
and the English parts I did.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
Like two of them.
Speaker 5 (41:24):
Yeause, I can call the English language because I was
over there, you know, when I.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
Was a kid.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
Right.
Speaker 5 (41:29):
But but but I knew most of them may views
for American and I didn't want to have to think
about the accent while I'm trying to get into the part.
So I went to a voice coach and I learned it,
and I lived amongst Americans and it became a natural thing.
And the weirdest thing was my mom. Like the last
time I spoke to her, I went by, Mom, love you.
(41:49):
And then the next next call, I said, hey, Mom,
what's going on?
Speaker 3 (41:53):
She said nothing, because the mom knows, she knows it's you. Anyway, Oh, yeah,
what happened to your voice cho You mentioned voice coaches
this tour that you're leading, and it's you know, I
know I will be going for you, but I will
say you have You're touring this summer with some of
my favorite voices. And again I don't love the eighties.
(42:15):
And I'll tell you John Waite, you know from the Babies,
you know everyone knows missing you. He his solo work,
like yours, continues to do great work, a great singer,
a great I saw him open for you once at
the I think Universal amphitheater and a great live act.
So people should go see make sure they're there for
John Waite, Paul Young, who I've loved since he outsang
(42:39):
Daryl Hall, which is impossible to do on every time
you go away. And you have John Cafferty, who have
never seen but I you know, I kind of am
enough of an Eddie and the Cruisers fanatic that I
cannot wait. That's a hell of a lineup.
Speaker 1 (42:53):
They're all great guys too.
Speaker 5 (42:55):
I've never met I've met Wang Chung is, but but.
Speaker 1 (42:58):
I actually my favorite there. I was a fan in
the in the eighties.
Speaker 5 (43:03):
My favorite album is their first album that never made
it in the UK or the US, it's just called
wang Chung and has spelt the Chinese way h u
a n g chung. And they were obviously they said no,
they came over here, they said no, man, you gotta
change that. Don't want to understand what you're what?
Speaker 1 (43:19):
What how to say that? You know? I looked at
who hum? But it is. It's a great album. It's
like my favorite album of theirs.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
But I hate.
Speaker 1 (43:30):
Yeah, uh they.
Speaker 5 (43:33):
John Waite is a good friend and I've known him
for for a number of years, and you know, he's
a real rocker. I mean he's can be a little
squirrely at times, but when you get to know him,
he's got a just a big heart and he sings.
He's one of my top five voices, really rock voices,
along with Paul Rodgers and Seve Marriott and you know
(43:54):
Bond Scott. I think he's got such a unique tone
that you're either born with or you're not. And I'm
very envious of his awesome tone. So and Paul Young,
a lovely older English gentleman. Yeah, Paul is a real gentleman,
a lovely guy. And John is too. John John Cafferty
(44:15):
is really really a nice guy. It's great to tour
with good people, you know.
Speaker 3 (44:19):
And well you do a lot of touring with Richard Marx,
who I know and who's a like Again, like people's
personalities are never you think like Richard Marx is a great,
wise ass, really really real dick in the best possible way.
Speaker 1 (44:34):
Yeah. No, He's got a very sharp sense of humor.
Speaker 5 (44:37):
And we know each other since you know, eighties in
the mid eighties, and we have very similar sense as
of humor.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
It's very disrespectful, I guess you'd say.
Speaker 5 (44:49):
We're not afraid to say, you know, call a crap
a crap, you know. So, but we have a great camaraderie.
We used to do it so Richie.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
Would play and then I come on and play, and
then we do a song together. And I said, you
were wasting.
Speaker 5 (45:02):
What is the most the most fun for us and
we'll be for the audience is our camaraderie and making
jokes and and so we suggested we do it together
and it's been great. I mean, it's everybody loves it.
It's a really very very.
Speaker 1 (45:17):
Different show to my show.
Speaker 5 (45:19):
It's just acoustic guitars and us, you know, bullshitting basically it.
Speaker 3 (45:23):
Sounds like fun you both Phil and Rick have been
on I've heard you on robb Loow's podcast. Yeah you
it was very funny because Phil, I don't know if
you're familiar with this, but Phil started out behind the scenes,
you know, creating one of the biggest sitcoms of all time.
Now he's the star of a show and he is
heading on on tour next week. You're going You're playing,
(45:45):
among other places, the London Palladium. He's selling out like giant.
Speaker 2 (45:50):
Venues on his face too.
Speaker 3 (45:52):
So I wondered, like I listened to you and Rob
Lowe and it was nice to know. Like Rob, I
don't know if he's ever had a problem in the world.
You you have been very open about, you know, despite
you both being sex symbols. You've you've dealt with depression,
You've dealt with some ship Phil being a sex symbol.
Now at sixty whatever, are you finding it difficult or
(46:14):
do you need any advice from Rick?
Speaker 2 (46:15):
I'd love some advice.
Speaker 5 (46:16):
I uh, well, whippersnapper, let me tell.
Speaker 2 (46:19):
You where are your favorite places to tour?
Speaker 5 (46:26):
It's really the audience, honestly, you know, I mean, overseas
is fun, but it's a it's a real drain, you know,
just the whole travel.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
And to me, the travel is the hardest thing.
Speaker 5 (46:38):
If I could, you know, if I could be instantly there,
that that will make it all fun.
Speaker 2 (46:43):
The shows are fun, yeah, and transfer.
Speaker 5 (46:47):
The long drive and this and the and the it's
a drain, very draining thing. But yeah, it's about the
audience really. I mean I remember a place by the audience.
Speaker 1 (47:00):
But did you have a question, youngster.
Speaker 2 (47:04):
No, I just was wondering what your favorite places in
the world were.
Speaker 5 (47:08):
I do love England, you know, and I love Australia,
but I have you know, it's that's my hometown kind
of thing where you have really.
Speaker 1 (47:17):
Mixed mixed feelings about it. You love it and there's
things you don't love.
Speaker 5 (47:23):
Uh. And I love America. I absolutely love America. I'm
very proud to be here and to be I became
a citizen, which pissed off a lot of others, but
you know, I.
Speaker 1 (47:33):
Wanted to be available for jeury duty. That was really
the main thing.
Speaker 2 (47:36):
Have you done it yet?
Speaker 1 (47:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (47:38):
No, that's why you look forward to.
Speaker 3 (47:41):
Uh, you're a pescatarian, you know, since I don't know
if you have any fish questions.
Speaker 1 (47:47):
Yes, yes, it's a religious thing.
Speaker 5 (47:49):
A pescatarian is very much like an episcopalia, only it's
with fish.
Speaker 2 (47:55):
Thanks for throwing that to me, David. What's your favorite fish? Rick?
Speaker 1 (47:58):
Exactly? Talk about it. The that's the what's the fish
out of Gallilee that everybody eats? A Saint Peter's fish.
Speaker 2 (48:07):
That's that's a fantastic by the way, very good fish. Yeah,
you know your fish, that's very good. And it has
the it has the two dark spots on either side
where Saint Peter they say, would have grabbed the fish.
So it has like the fingerprints sea.
Speaker 1 (48:22):
Like the common Achilles Hill. Yeah, that's their Achilles Hill.
You can.
Speaker 2 (48:26):
By the way, there's a restaurant in Sydney that's called
Saint Peter and it's probably in the top two or
three seafood restaurants.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
In the world.
Speaker 2 (48:36):
Next time you're back. Oh wow, it's phenomenal.
Speaker 1 (48:39):
Yeah. Is it on the water by the Sydney Harbor Bridge?
Speaker 2 (48:43):
Uh, not far from there. Yeah, it's it's great. It's great.
Speaker 1 (48:47):
Yeah, there's in great restaurants there. Sydney is fantastic and
it's gotten. You know.
Speaker 2 (48:52):
I was there first time. I don't know. Twelve years ago,
the food scene just exploded, as it has everywhere in
the world. But Sydney. You should go back, it's really amazing.
Speaker 1 (49:03):
Yeah, I know, I would love to go back.
Speaker 5 (49:05):
I am kind of you know, torn about it, but
I haven't been back since my mom died, so that
would be an issue too, you know.
Speaker 1 (49:14):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (49:15):
So anyway, my favorite Chinese restaurant is in Sydney, right
mister Wong's. I think it's called Yeah, yeah, unbelievable.
Speaker 1 (49:24):
I wonder if Wang Chung have ever been.
Speaker 3 (49:25):
To my favorite seafood restaurant for personal reasons because it
was my eight of my first ten dates with my
wife is gone in Malibu, the real Inn. It was
like that was our life to get more time with her,
so I drive her out to Malibu and it was
relatively an expensive date, you know, but a beautiful spot.
Speaker 2 (49:45):
But there's still I know it's terrible, but Malibu seafood
is still there.
Speaker 1 (49:50):
Yeah, malabausifoods still here, but the real in burned. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (49:53):
And also my my favorite outdoor frontge of store away
from the corner of Topanga in p eight, which I
up that since we moved to Malibu.
Speaker 1 (50:02):
And they all burned down, and I'm so bummed.
Speaker 2 (50:06):
Did you ever go to Malibu Kitchen in Cross Creek there?
Speaker 1 (50:09):
Yeah? Yeah, yeah, that was.
Speaker 2 (50:10):
My favorite sandwich shop. Yeah, he turned down, but it
closed that he's going to try to reopen in another tough.
Speaker 5 (50:17):
For the for the small businesses here now because there's
no people are.
Speaker 1 (50:21):
Coming in, you know. So by the way, it's trying
hard to support everybody.
Speaker 2 (50:24):
It's tough for small business everywhere.
Speaker 1 (50:26):
Yeah, yeah, you're right.
Speaker 3 (50:28):
You I think have maybe had the record. I'm trying
to think. I have been married thirty years, you've been
married thirty You've beat him, right, are you?
Speaker 1 (50:37):
Are you forty one? I think?
Speaker 2 (50:41):
Wow?
Speaker 5 (50:42):
Yeah, well, I know it's I'm surprised that people are surprised,
but they always go wow.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
And in this business, forty two you know what anniversary
that is? That's the it's enough already anniversary.
Speaker 1 (50:56):
I know my wife have been getting on. My wife
and I have been getting on better than ever lately.
So I don't know. Whatever we're taking, we're going to
stay on.
Speaker 2 (51:03):
Oh, it's good to know it can come back around.
Speaker 1 (51:05):
Yes, it does. Well, we've always been really romantic. We're
the kind of couple that you go out to.
Speaker 5 (51:11):
Rest on and the waiters come and say, God, it
too is so romantic. I mean, you know, it wasn't
anything we tried to put on, but we were kind
of always all over each other.
Speaker 3 (51:20):
How did you meet?
Speaker 1 (51:22):
We met at Sound City.
Speaker 5 (51:23):
Actually she was from the Midwest and she came made
a mom move to California when her mom got divorced,
and she was determined to get out of the Midwest
and come to California. And she met an english woman
named Jemima at.
Speaker 1 (51:39):
A party and loved her.
Speaker 5 (51:43):
She loved all the whole English scene and everything. And
Jemima was a studio manager at Sound City, so eventually
she hired Barbara to work the phone. And I was
as I was doing an album that was actually the
album that she called me Bruce's On. I was doing
that album Studio A and I met her then, and
(52:03):
she was only fifteen at the time.
Speaker 1 (52:05):
So I waited, you know, pretty but I'm.
Speaker 5 (52:07):
Not going to prison for her, and waited until she
was eighteen, and then I just flit up with my
girlfriend and called her up for a date. And she
was totally surprised because she thought I was completely up
myself and you know, aloof because I was just insecure
and I'd walk through I wouldn't look at anybody, you know,
but only because I was insecure and it worked out.
Speaker 2 (52:27):
That's fantastic. And you have kids.
Speaker 1 (52:29):
We have two boys, yeah, Liam and Joshua.
Speaker 2 (52:32):
And what do they do.
Speaker 1 (52:35):
Liam's an actor and.
Speaker 5 (52:36):
A musician and he's still, you know, going through the
motions of all that. Josh is studying to be a
child a child therapist, and he's amazing. He's absolutely the
perfect gig for him. He's such a sweetheart.
Speaker 1 (52:50):
And yeah, I'm very proud of him. They got married
by what's that.
Speaker 2 (52:54):
Do they live close by?
Speaker 1 (52:56):
No, it's about an hour and a half away, but
they have a great house and.
Speaker 2 (53:01):
With the same state.
Speaker 1 (53:02):
You say, oh, definitely.
Speaker 5 (53:03):
Yeah, my boys aren't bailing on me, you know, they're
they're hanging out and they come out and we go
out there and I'm actually going to be a grandfather.
Speaker 2 (53:11):
Hey, that's is that breaking news? That is that's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (53:16):
Congratulations and will not deter my wife nor any of
the other women from being just as excited. And and
by the way, I I enjoy I've spent thirty years
now in the audience. I love looking at your audience.
You know, I look at you too, but I love
your audience like they're they're they're the most And I
(53:38):
wonder do you look out and do you see some
of the same faces who were there every time you
hit a town, Because I mean my wife she once
didn't go to the Oscars or Grammys when I was
working on them because you were doing a charity show,
a charity event in some private home. And she goes,
I love you, David, but Rick comes first and she
(54:00):
went to your charity to see you at a charity event.
Speaker 1 (54:03):
Oh that's hilarious.
Speaker 3 (54:05):
But do you do you see recognize some of these women?
Speaker 1 (54:07):
Yeah, very much.
Speaker 5 (54:08):
So there's there's a certain there at the age now
where they like to do women's trips and they all
get together and they walk into the lobby of a
hotel to help all food and booze laid out, and
I mean it's it's like a full on thing for them.
They I'm the kind of excuse to go out and have,
you know, have fun out and leave everything behind at home.
(54:31):
And there's a couple of women that were in the
Live and Kicking video, which is the first live video
every day and they're featured in it, and so I
remembered them and they look exactly the same, only a
little older. And they've been to shows in LA and
they're like right in the front, and I go, WHOA
is this silly eighties?
Speaker 1 (54:51):
It's like it's amazing. I mean, that's that's incredible.
Speaker 5 (54:56):
I mean to me, I some people have been to
one hundred fifty shows, you know, and I.
Speaker 1 (55:03):
Don't like anybody that much.
Speaker 3 (55:05):
No, but it's like the Deadheads, but they smell and
look much better.
Speaker 5 (55:09):
Yeah, they it's an event for them, and and that's great.
Speaker 1 (55:14):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (55:14):
Well, let me say, since nineteen ninety nine, when you
you sort of on the big Kids, that era that
you document, there's never not been a song I absolutely
love on a record every You've kept putting out new
music despite the record industry collapsing around you, like whatever
label comes out, and you always do good work. And absolutely,
(55:36):
GHO see this live this summer, because I have not
seen you not give one hundred percent. And I know
you've you know you're you've You've had better and worse times,
but you always put on the greatest live show. I'm
always like the guy squealing when you grab the roses
and do your Pete Townshend with flowers routine. I don't know,
(55:59):
have you not, Do you always do that? Or it
just happens to be every time I go see you.
Speaker 1 (56:03):
No. I started as a just an accident.
Speaker 5 (56:06):
I was playing up front, playing you know, a solo,
and this woman was trying to push these roses in
my hand and the thorns kept sticking my hand. I'm
saying stop, I'm playing, and eventually grabbed them because you
wouldn't stop, and to bang them against the guitar like this,
and Everyone'm like yeah.
Speaker 1 (56:21):
And then they started bringing roses and there was one
point where.
Speaker 5 (56:24):
There was like, I mean, must have been you know,
three hundred bucks, four hundred, five hundred bucks worth of
roses on the side of the stage, and I just
go across and it's pretty funny. There's always someone in
the audience who brings them up.
Speaker 3 (56:38):
It's great. And there's a song on the collection who
Killed the rock and Roll? And I want to thank
you because you at this point, like enough of our
rock and roll heroes are dying off, like you're you know,
I having worked on the in Memorium for you know,
for the Grammys and all that. I'm well aware of
everyone who goes, and you are one of the people
keeping it very much alive and have been doing so
(56:59):
with with great passion, and I thank you well.
Speaker 5 (57:03):
Like to stay alive for a few more years and
keep doing it. That's really the goal, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (57:07):
No? No, And I want to say also a condolence
is belatedly on someone who I don't I haven't talked
to you since he passed. I loved him, the guy
who worked with you, who always made it so great
to get back to say hello to you and all that. Maddie.
Maddie was just again one of those rock and roll
heroes like I always think, like the tour managers, the
road managers. We actually on the Grammys a couple years ago,
(57:29):
I got to take Billie Eilish's road manager and have
her introduce and I thought Maddie was one of those
great characters. I wish the whole world could have known him.
Speaker 1 (57:36):
Yeah, he was a very special guy.
Speaker 5 (57:39):
And the longer he's gone, the more I realize how
kind of irreplaceable he is. He did so much. Plus
he was a good guy and we'd hang out and
we even played freaking Monopoly together, you know. It was
so that's a sign of a real friendship. If he
can sit to a board game or dice game with somebody,
you got to like him a lot a lot of downtime.
Speaker 1 (58:01):
But yeah, he was a fabulous guy.
Speaker 5 (58:03):
And I was actually in this this studio here that
he told me. Came in and told me that he
had pancreatic cancer. And we're all very positive for it.
Speaker 1 (58:14):
You know. I went to Germany and.
Speaker 5 (58:15):
A special clinic, but it's it's a it's a bad one,
you know, pancreatic and unfortunately we lost him about a
year ago.
Speaker 3 (58:25):
Well, he was the best and you're the best, and
we really appreciate you coming finally, despite Kevin Bacon trying
to stop us, eventually being willing to do lunch with us.
Speaker 2 (58:37):
Oh good Rick, it was pleasure meeting you.
Speaker 1 (58:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (58:41):
Hope we cross paths again. I hope you have a
nice piece of fish tonight.
Speaker 1 (58:44):
I will take care of my see you guys. Thank
you so much.
Speaker 3 (58:51):
Naked Lunch is a podcast by Phil Rosenthal and David Wilde.
Theme song and music by Brad Paisley, produced by Will
Sterling and Ryan Tillotson, with video editing by Daniel Ferrara
and motion graphics by Ali Ahmed. Executive produced by Phil Rosenthal,
David Wilde, and our consulting journalist is Pamela Cella. Thanks
for listening to Naked Lunch, a Lucky Bastard's production.
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