Late, Late at Night
by Rick Springfield (9781439191156)

Australian Rick Springfield, the 1982 Grammy winner for Best Male Vocalist famous for the hit "Jessie's Girl" has had a total of 17 top 40 hits. Here he shares the candid story of his rise and fall and rise in the music business as well as his lifelong battle with depression..

In his indelibly original, candid voice, Australian Rick Springfield recounts the story of his struggles and triumphs in the music business as well as his lifelong battle with depression. Late, Late at Night is a memoir not only for his many devoted fans but also for anyone looking for a great read about life in the eye of the storm of celebrity.

Rick Springfield exploded onto the American pop culture scene in 1981 with the simultaneous release of his iconic "Working Class Dog" album and role on the most popular daytime television show in the country. "Jessie's Girl" dominated the charts, his follow-up hits became the pop/ rock soundtrack for an entire generation, and millions of avid viewers tuned in daily to swoon over the handsome Dr. Drake on "General Hospital." Rick's upbeat music and status as a reigning soap opera heartthrob sealed his image forever as the ultimate bright, shiny, happy pop star.

"Overnight" fame and fortune had arrived in a big way-after five previous record deals and eight long years of toiling in obscurity. His every wish having been granted, he was on top of the world both personally and professionally-yet the lonely, insecure teenage from Australia burning to prove his worth remained very much alive inside him. Ironically, the superstar who personified the happy-go-lucky eighties was well-known to family and band mates for his moody, somber, and dark soul. Rick's never-ending quest for a sense of security and accomplishment and spiritual peace and well-being had just begun. The highest highs and the lowest lows were still to come.

On one level Rick's book reveals all the entertaining, inside stories that readers want to know. Pop culture aficionados will revel in his anecdotes about his first guitar and early bands in Australia; top ten hit, brief stint as a teen idol, and living with teenage girlfriend Linda Blair; subsisting on Swanson's Hungry Man dinners as a starving musician; acting gigs from Wonder Woman to Battlestar Gallactica; racing between sold-out tours and the GH set; drugs and drama and backstage mayhem; famous girlfriends; Live Aid; behind the scenes of the music world in the seventies and eighties; a movie career; his various beloved dogs; and, through all of the up and downs, always, always writing songs.

What will surprise readers is the unsparing candor with which he examines the forces that have driven his career and life. In a second, deeper level to this memoir, Rick recounts his lifelong battle with depression and insecurity, beginning with his earliest years being constantly uprooted as the family followed his father's military career from post to post, all over Australia to England and back again.

These dark impulses never completely left; there were many other hard times to come. Sitting all alone in a cheap Hollywood apartment after being dropped from his record label, counting quarters to see if he had enough to buy a cheap gun so he could kill himself. The life-changing illness and shattering death of his father, from which he never fully recovered. His turbulent courtship with the love of his life, wife-to-be Barbara, throughout the craziness and temptations of worldwide adulation. The decision to drop out at the absolute peak of fame in the eighties. A long period of soul-searching, sitting alone in a darkened room and pondering his fate. A run-in with police over a minor domestic matter that blew up into scandalous headlines just as he was finalizing one of the biggest deals of his life.

Today, Rick Springfield has found a happier, more stable equilibrium through therapy, a positive attitude, and a return to the work he loves most: playing his music for packed, appreciative audiences.

USD $29.22

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