Eighties soap-opera star and singing sensation Rick Springfield,
haunted by depression for years, puts his life back in tune

Rick Springfield, teen idol turned soap star turned platinum-selling rocker, heads home from his morning jaunt to Starbucks. Seven blocks and nine speed bumps later, Springfield, 49, pulls up to the cheery, hacienda-style Malibu home he moved into three years ago with wife Barbara and their sons Liam, now 13, and Joshua, 10. "When we first came to look at the house, there were dogs lying in the middle of the street, dads mowing the lawn," he says. "We knew this was for us."

Trust those speed bumps to remind Springfield of the perils of life in the fast lane. After a brief spin in the spotlight as a '70s teen sensation, the Aussie-born singer roared back in the early '80s as a double-threat sex symbol. On daytime's top-ranked General Hospital, he played heartthrob Dr. Noah Drake; offscreen, his 1981 single "Jessie's Girl" hit No. 1. But by mid-decade, exhaustion and an ill-conceived stab at movie stardom sent Springfield skidding into obscurity-and into a years-long battle with clinical depression. "The candle burned down at both ends," he says.

Now, Springfield is finding his way back. He has acted in TV movies, on the late-night syndicated drama High Tide and, most recently, in two episodes of NBC's Suddenly Susan. (He played the object of Brooke Shields's affections.) "It's been a nice chemistry," says Shields, admitting that she was a high school fan. Springfield also just released Karma, his first new album in a decade, to generally positive reviews (Rolling Stone's David Wild praised Springfield's power pop as "sounding in remarkably good form") and has begun playing concerts around the country. "There aren't many training bras in the audience anymore," he says. Still, he reports, son Liam "calls me a 'chick magnet.'"

In 1971 that magnetism attracted producer Steve Binder, who set out to turn the "incredible-looking" son of an Australian army officer-his single "Speak to the Sky" was already a hit Down Under-into a David Cassidy-style teen idol. Bolstered by teen-mag coverage, "Sky" shot up the U.S. charts. But the album itself never caught on, and by 1975, Springfield was broke and despondent. He remembers getting "a letter from a kid that asked, 'Can we come to L.A. and see your mansion?' I was living in this crappy Hollywood apartment. It was sad."

A relationship with actress Linda Blair, then only 15 -- "We were like Romeo and Juliet," she says now -- lifted his spirits. After they split in 1976, Springfield snared bit parts in TV shows, including Battlestar Galactica. Suddenly, in 1981, everything clicked: The 31-year-old joined General Hospital, released "Jessie's Girl" and began dating recording-studio receptionist Barbara Porter, then 18. Says Springfield: "I felt, 'It's about freakin' time.'"

But the stress of playing to arenas of frenzied fans on weekends off GH's set took its toll. He quit the soap in 1983 to tour, charting several more hit singles. By 1985, burnout, insecurities about his new role as a father (he and Barbara had wed the previous year) and his flop as a sexy rock star in the movie Hard to Hold had plunged Springfield into "a middle-aged crisis," he says. Then came depression so paralyzing that he rarely left his house for three years. "There's a lot of dark stuff in my life I can't talk about," he says.

In 1988, bolstered by daily therapy sessions, he began taking acting classes. "The scariest thing I've ever done was to start going out again," he says. "But I couldn't become a recluse at 37." Now, Springfield has put his fears behind him. Performing is "more fun than it's ever been," he says. "It's like I'm a familiar friend."

Rick Springfield - My Depression Lyrics

Born in the Southern land where a man is a man

Don't remember too much,warm mama cold touch
Post war baby boom, 50 kids in one room
Allwhite, future bright but living in a womb
Got a TV receiver, JerryMathers as the Beaver,
No blacksno queersno sexMouseketeers
Daddy kept moving round, I can't settle down
Always the lost new kid in town.

Manlicher lock and loaded,
JFK's head exploded
Darkfigure at the fence,
end of my innocence
Hormones hit me, chew up,spit me.
Get stoned, get plastered, always was a moody bastard.
Guitar fool, kicked out of high school
Joined abandVietnammama-sankilled a man.
Daddy gets real sick, it's too intense,
I can't kick it Buy myself a ticket to the USA.

[Chorus:]
Oh my God, it's my life. What am I doing kicking at the foundations?
That's right, my life. Better start looking at mydestination.

Hollywood sex-rat, been theredone that
Jaded,afraid I'd never get a turn at bat.
Last in a long line, finally hit thebigtime
Goldmine, feeding time, moneyfame I get mine.
Use it,abuse it, Daddy dies I lose it
Get a wife, get a son, beget another one
My head said "God's dead", motor-cycle-body-shred
Big life crisisrears it's ugly head.

[Chorus:]
Oh my God, it's my life.What am I doing kicking at the foundations?
That's right, my life.Better start looking at my destination.

Well Prozac, Lithium,could never get enough of 'em
Last wills shrinks billssleeping pillssexkills
Edge of sanity, my infidelity
Looking in the mirror andthinking how it used to be
Don't like the skin I'm in, caught in a tailspin
Honest-to-God vision, spiritual transmission -


In September, 2000, Springfield was arrested for alleged spousal abuse. He spent one evening in jail and was released the next morning on $50,000 bail. He was never convicted, and charges were dropped. Later, Springfield and his wife issued a joint statement to the press saying that they are happily married and will continue to raise their children together

In 2006, after nearly 34 years of residing in the United States, Springfield became an American citizen. He still retains Australian citizenship as well.

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