Rick Springfield always aspired to rock stardom, but the singer says he was “severely battered” by critics due to his successful acting career.
In 1971, Springfield scored a hit in his home country, Australia, with the song “Speak to the Sky.” The single’s popularity landed him a U.S. record deal, though the label was unsure how to market the singer.
“They started putting me in all these teen magazines and that was just, I had no idea what a teen magazine was,” Springfield recalled during a recent interview with Sirius XM’s Eddie Trunk. “I’d do all these interviews about my music and they print up a story about, ‘Is Rick Springfield Too Tall to Love?’ or something. I’d never seen a teen magazine before. So I’m going, this is not right. I came over (to America), to be a musician and they’re trying to sell me with all these Williams Brothers and all these teen idols from the ‘70s.”
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After “Speak to the Sky” was only a minor success in the U.S., Springfield began accepting acting offers.
“I was one of the last contract players at Universal,” he noted, adding that he “started to work in Incredible Hulk and Battlestar Galactica, Rockford Files, all those kinds of ‘70s shows.”
Rick Springfield Was ‘Severely Battered’ by Rock Critics
Springfield’s star rose further when he became Dr. Noah Drake on General Hospital. However, he claims the soap opera tainted his music for critics.
“I was always very, very severely battered by critics because, according to most critics, I came out of a soap opera, which is not true because I was playing guitar since I was 14 years old,” the singer explained. “So I got a lot of critical bashings initially when I first came out and that really hit me hard too. That was kind of almost like a slap on the face.”
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Of course, Springfield had the last laugh when he successfully became a platinum-selling artist while also starring on General Hospital. His 1981 album Working Class Dog sold more than three million copies and earned the singer a Grammy, thanks largely to the chart-topping classic “Jessie’s Girl.” He’s continued his parallel careers ever since, appearing on a wide range of television shows, including Californication, True Detective and Supernatural.
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Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso and Michael Gallucci
