For two hours Friday, Rick Springfield played guitar, sang songs, told jokes and let his fans have a glimpse into his life and the stories behind the music.
Springfield’s “stripped down” tour stopped at the Bell Auditorium.
The son of an Australian soldier, Springfield traveled around a lot in his early years and was always the “new kid,” he said.
He traveled to various parts of Europe before returning to his Australian homeland at the age of 14 and was relentlessly picked on by a kid named Johnny. Until one day, Johnny followed him to his locker and saw the photo of a band hanging inside.
Everyone hung pictures in their locker, right? Springfield wanted to know.
“Who had me?” he asked the audience and watched as many of the hands on the Bell Auditorium floor raised. “I was right next to Donny Osmond.”
It turned out that Johnny liked the band that was on Springfield’s locker, and the two became friends, playing guitar together. Springfield even wrote a song about their escapades called “Me and Johnny” from his “Land of Oz” album.
He also talked about playing on a band in Vietnam during the Vietnam War and being shot at.
Springfield blended his humor with more serious topics.
He asked it anyone had seen the T-shirt that said “What if Jessie’s Girl was Stacy’s Mom and her number was 867-5309?” referencing several popular songs including Springfield’s own “Jessie’s Girl.”
Springfield then sang his own mashup of the three songs.
While there were laughs, part of Springfield’s concert was poignant as he remembered his father who died in 1981 of cancer.
During his illness, he’d watch cricket while reclining on his blue chair.
Springfield recounted the pain of realizing his father was never coming back to sit in that chair, and he wrote a song called “My Father’s Chair” three years after his father’s death. For that song, Springfield stood and walked to the edge of the stage. Without a microphone, he finished singing the piece.
He took a few moments to fist bump fans and sign an autograph during the song “Human Touch.”
And he ended the concert with a story about one of his all-time biggest hits.
He’d made three albums before his “Working Class Dog” came out in 1981.
He said he was ready to give up songwriting and wanted to go into stained glass making so he took a class. One of the women in the class was attractive, but she had a boyfriend named Gary who joined her in the class.
Gary just didn’t have the same ring as Jessie did, and Springfield segued into “Jessie’s Girl.”
He started with the acoustic guitar on that song but brought in the fuller sound from his nearby computer to finish the song and concert on a high-energy note.
