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5 min readA Rock Star's Path Through War, Fame, and Longevity
Rick Springfield showed up to talk about aliens and stayed for two hours. The 77-year-old musician, whose 1981 hit "Jessie's Girl" made him a household name, walked through his unlikely biography with the casual ease of someone who has long since made peace with how strange his life has been. He played in Vietnam as an 18-year-old, became a soap opera star by accident, and now collects handwritten Beatles lyrics. The conversation moved from folding space-time to cold plunges to the death of Elvis, but the thread running through all of it was survival—literal, professional, and psychological.
Vietnam at 18: The Band That Went to War
Springfield's music career began in Australia, where he played guitar in a band called Zoot. But before Zoot found any real success, Springfield took a detour that most rock bios skip. In 1968, at age 18, he joined a band that toured Vietnam during the war. Promoters in Saigon and Da Nang wanted Australian bands—the closest "occidental" country—to entertain American GIs. "As long as we had a couple of girls in the band, they would hire you," Springfield said. They spent about four months touring from Cam Ranh Bay up to the DMZ, playing on the backs of trucks and sleeping in the same hooches as soldiers.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (03:31) **Opening Chat: Extraterrestrial Life & Human Survival** - Joe and Rick speculate on alien propulsion and the challenge of a species surviving long enough to achieve interstellar travel.
- 2 (05:20) **Introducing Rick Springfield’s Longevity & Passion** - Joe marvels at Rick’s youthful appearance and energy at 77, and Rick explains his enduring love for performing.
- 3 (07:41) **Early Life, Depression, and the Guitar as Escape** - Rick describes his childhood depression and how discovering the guitar and reading became his real education after he dropped out of school.
- 4 (09:44) **Vietnam War Tour: The “Insane” Experience** - Rick details his four-month tour of Vietnam in 1968-69 as part of a band hired to entertain GIs, including being under fire at the DMZ.
- 5 (18:10) **The Contrast of War and Coming Home** - The conversation shifts to the strangeness of the Vietnam War and the difficulty of returning to normal life.
- 6 (21:23) **The Mortar Incident and Its Lasting Weight** - Rick clarifies the story of throwing the mortars at Marble Mountain, admitting the guilt of taking a life still sits with him.
- 7 (26:59) **Aging Rock Stars and the “Church” of Live Performance** - Joe and Rick discuss how rock and roll was once a young man’s game and how Mick Jagger is an inspiration for longevity.
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Show Notes
Rick Springfield is a Grammy Award-winning musician, actor, and author. In addition to his work as a solo artist, Springfield fronts the rock supergroup The Locustz. Their most recent album, “Buzzkill,” is available now.
www.youtube.com/@RickSpringfieldOfficial
locustzbuzzkill.bandcamp.com/album/buzzkill
linktr.ee/rickspringfield
www.rickspringfield.com
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