 Fame
& Fortune: Rick Springfield
Rocker puts his money where his voice
is
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For a certain generation of fans,
the name Rick Springfield conjures up some very specific memories
-- namely, his heartthrob stint as "General Hospital's"
Dr. Noah Drake and the ubiquitous No. 1 hit song "Jessie's
Girl," for which he won the Best Male Rock Vocalist Grammy
Award in 1981. But Springfield was more than just a two-trick pony,
as he became one of the hottest stars of the 1980s with 17 top-40
singles.
Like many stars of that decade, his name has faded
from public view, but he never stopped working. He recorded several
albums in the 1990s and even returned to acting, playing one of
a pair of brother detectives on a syndicated TV show called "High
Tide."
But while his recent releases haven't set the world
on fire, the wave of 1980s nostalgia has secured his place as a
pop culture icon. VH1 did his "Behind the Music" special
in 1999, and his songs have popped up in movies as diverse as "Boogie
Nights" and "13 Going on 30."
Today, Springfield continues releasing music both
new and old. Forming his own label, Gomer Records, named after his
dog, he released an album of new material called, "Shock/Denial/Anger/Acceptance"
in 2004. Then, this year, he put out a record of cover songs, including
"Life in a Northern Town," "Waiting for a Girl Like
You," "Broken Wings" and even "Imagine."
Bankrate spoke to
Springfield about the economics of being both a pop icon and a scrappy indie artist. Bankrate:
Why did you decide to record a covers album? Rick
Springfield: I wanted to take a break from writing, and it seemed like
the right time. There's a bunch of songs I've always loved, and I wondered what
they would sound like if I did them. Bankrate:
How did you choose the songs? Rick
Springfield: The last record I did was a very challenging, hard-hitting
record, with big guitars and everything, and I wanted to do a companion record
-- the other side, very mellow and atmospheric. I also wanted to pick songs from
the era I was known in, so much of it is from the '70s and '80s.
Bankrate: What does
having songs in movies mean for you, businesswise?
Rick
Springfield: It obviously means residuals. In marketing terms, it increases
the strength of the brand, and it keeps it current. It's kind of a free ride,
really, because it's nothing that you did. Because the song meant something to
someone, they put it in a project.
Bankrate: When you
had your first big hits in the early '80s, were you smart about
the business end of the music industry?
Rick Springfield: I
was absolutely clueless, and I paid the price. I lost a lot of the
money I originally made. Most of the money I have now was made after
the fact. I handle all my own finances now and took them over at
a real tough point in my life when I said, "Wait a minute.
This is all I have left?"
Bankrate:
What are some of the mistakes you made?
Rick Springfield: I
was counting on other people to handle it. There wasn't anyone who
was crooked, just egos involved. They made a really bad investment
for me in a real estate deal, and they didn't want to inform me
because they thought I'd get mad, so they kept pouring money into
this losing investment. One day I found out, I don't know how, but
by that time, it had been bled. So I learned a hard lesson and passed
it on to my kids. Most of us aren't really raised to know how to
handle any kind of money. My parents said, "Always pay your
bills and never borrow money." Those kind of lessons I stuck
to, but they never said what to do if you made money.
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