Jeff and Rick Springfield get caught up on RIck's new album and Tour!

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, jos Hey, Rick,how are you. How are you doing?
I'm really good. I'm kind oflike a bad penny, you know,
you just can't get rid of meall these years. I'm glad.
I'm glad, You're glad. Ijust got done listed to the two new
songs. Man, it is sogood to hear you back. And I

(00:22):
always love I mean, I loveyour catalog, I love your library of
all the great music that you've putout over the years. But I always
like when there's new Rick Springfield,and especially she Walks with the Angels.
What a cool, cool song,and what a really great tribute to your
pal Maddie. Yeah, it is. We lost him a couple of months

(00:43):
ago in my front of house,and my studio engineer and good friend for
twenty five years, I lost him, and to deal with it, helped
deal with it. I had towrite a song, and I think Maddie
had a hand in some like secretreferences and secret moments in the song.
Yeah, there's a lot of thingshe would say and in kind of in

(01:07):
house references that are all through thesong. Actually for people to work it
out, work it out, youknow, the fans are going to do
that, right, Yeah, thefans will definitely do that. So do
I understand that he actually was?Did he? Did he engineer your new
album Automatic? Yeah? He did. It was we were three quarters away
through it before we lost him,and a great, great guy named Tim

(01:33):
Tim Harkins took over the uh,the engineering duties that was mad at.
That really helped me get to createthe whole sound for the album. Yeah,
and I love your description of it. You were looking for a bunch
of three minute power pop songs andfrom the two that I've heard Automatic and
she Walks with the Angels, that'sdefinitely it. But I also I had

(01:53):
to go back and read it.There are twenty new songs. Yeah,
yeah, kind of got it,got into our right thing. And you
know it's only done when when you'redone, when you're when the song start
turning up and you go, no, that's not going to work. So
maybe I'm done with the writing onthis one. But yeah, they're they're
short. You know, it's anideas that you know, if you don't

(02:16):
like one, hang on, it'sgonna be another one coming right up you.
That's was kind of a thought withWorking Class Dog too, So it's
always been a thread through me.Yeah, absolutely, and your fans definitely
know that. And I like thedescriptions stylistically between working class dog and Tao.
I mean, that's that's that earlyto mid eighties when you were putting

(02:39):
out an album and a tour everysingle year for those five years. Yeah,
I've been listening to a lot ofother stuff as well, so I
think that bleeds through under the newsongs as well. Well. We can't
wait to hear the entire thing,which comes out on August fourth, which
is also when your tour kicks off. That worked out kind of nicely,

(02:59):
had worked that out, that wouldbe management. This album has been done
for a couple of months, andI was starting to, you know,
get a bit anxious because you usuallyhave comes down right away that I'm calling
dude, you we kind of putthis album out and say no, no,
we need to wait for the tour. So you know, that's that's
why you you hire the people tohopefully give you the right advice. Well,

(03:23):
you definitely have great people around youand h and and just to go
back to Maddie for a second,speaking of great people around you, since
we have done so much with youover the years, with the radio station,
but also with my band Stranger.I just want to say Maddie was
always the nicest, most respectful,kindest person. The last time I got

(03:44):
to see him would have been inCincinnati in December of twenty twenty one,
when when Stranger opened up for Youand I'll Never Forget. We got done
with our sound check and Maddie waskind of hanging backstage and he's like,
Jeff, because you want to comesay hid to Rick? And I was
like, well, of course Ido, but I didn't want to,
you know, I didn't want tointrude. He's like, no, no,
no, he wants to say hito you. Come on back.
And he was just like, youknow, just so genuine and so nice,

(04:08):
always made you feel welcome. Yeah. He was a fabulous spirit and
it's miss miss him every day.I still feel he's around. It's really
wild. We're getting dreams of him, and fans are saying, you know
that having having dreams if they're comingto them and hugging them and stuff,
and it's he's The fans loved himtoo, I mean the ones that knew

(04:29):
him. Yeah, and he wasjust an amazing human being. Well,
one of your long time fans.Kayley uh said that playing Monopoly with him
was a pretty special, uh specialoccasion. I guess. Yeah. He
always got his ass kicked in Monopolybecause he was not the kind of guy
that was cutthroat at all. Youknow, he was very uh we'd get

(04:51):
would give stuff away, so he'dalways get his butt kicked in Monopoly.
I love it. I remember youposted something if I'm not mistaken, on
your Instagram shortly after he passed.Wasn't it a picture of you guys play
him Nonopoly or something? Yeah,yeah, it was. Yeah. He'd
come over here with his h withhis girlfriend, a longtime girlfriend, Laura,
and we'd play and it was great, great, great last memories of

(05:15):
him for us. That's really cool, and I'm sure we're going to hear
that throughout the new album, whichcomes out August fourth, called Automatic.
The song Automatic is great too,along when she walks with the Angels and
um and we can't wait to hearhim live. Which let's talk about the
tour for a couple of minutes.Here kicks off August fourth in Youngstown,
So thank you for kicking it offin Ohio. We love to hear that.

(05:35):
But I was also excited to hearthe big the big lineup with you
some guys you've played with before,like Tommy Tutone and in some cases John
Waite. But the Hooters and PaulYoung. I haven't seen the Hooters in
like twenty five years. Yeah,that was it was a good score.
Actually, we've been trying to getthem and they finally agreed to do the

(05:55):
tour. And that's that's great toput you know, people that that don't
too were all the time to knowthat month on a tour because it's it's
a new, new stuff and they'rea great band and hum. Then I
was always a Paul Young fan,certainly in the eighties and uh so,
yeah, good artists and you know, it's a three hour show of the
hits. So I love that andI think the audience will into it.

(06:19):
Oh absolutely. And I always thoughtthat Paul Young was trying to get Rick
Springfield hair back in the day,but you did it first. Yeah,
it was definitely a hair thing inthe eighties. There is a hair thing
if you look. It hard tohold and you look at his every time
you go away single, I'm like, Paul, you're trying to pull a
Rick Springfield right now. I rememberand uh, someone said, and Billy

(06:45):
Idol's autobiography, he mentions that whenhe first came over here, man,
he just said, you gotta cutthe air, like Rick Springfield. He
said, no way, uh huh, Well that was that was you know,
that was his mistake. He wentwith the spiky spike here. Instead,
they still got here and it stillworked the right exactly, which is
that's the real important thing. Sowe got about a minute. Rick.

(07:08):
Um My question is I loved whatyou did with fortieth anniversary of Working Class
Dogs. So I realized we're talkingabout a new album here, not to
put too much pressure on. Willthere be a fortieth anniversary of either Living
in Oz or Hard to Hold?Is that something you've thought about at all?
No, I have not. Actuallyjust goes the Working Class Dog was

(07:28):
kind of the first album. Butyeah, I know, I know certain
bands that I like are going outon the road with an old album saying,
you know, we're going to playthe whole album from start to finish.
And we're talking about that actually withthe different albums of including them and
some of the shows. Just doingthe whole album from top to bottom.
I think that's a really cool idea. And obviously your your fans are very

(07:49):
dedicated and I think they would lovethat. And uh yeah, Rick,
your fans. Let's let's talk aboutyour fans for the last few seconds here.
They have been with you from thebeginning and they've just grown exponentially in
the last thirty years. Well they'vethey've grown up and got husbands or wives
and kids, and they bring intothe shows and it's a really it's a

(08:13):
great audience now. And I'm very, very thankful for my fans. I
used to think it was about me, but I realized a couple of years
into it that it wasn't about me. It was about them. And that's
why we're still here. Well,and that's why they still love coming to
see you, because you are You'reso inclusive with you know, going out
in the audience and human touch oryou know, getting people to sing along

(08:35):
on don't talk to strangers, oryou know, all the various things that
you've done of the years. That'swhy you hooked us a long time ago,
and we're still here, my friend. I'm grateful for that, believe
me. All Right, Well,thank you, Rick, We'll look forward
to seeing you on tour. We'lllook forward to the new album on August
fourth, called Automatic Rick. Alwaysa pleasure, great talking to you man,
Thanks all of us,