These days Rick Springfield is a very busy guy. On August 4th, 2023, he’ll kick off his “I Want My 80′s” tour and also release his new album “Automatic.” Rick is not sure how many albums this is for him “Twentieth or something” he guessed. The album consists of twenty new tracks. The lead off track “Exit Wound (In The Shape Of A Heart)” came up immediately in the conversation. I asked Rick about the song because that is such a strong title. He responded quickly “I never know what to say about the songs because they kind of, I think you understand them a couple of years later, what they meant, the writer.” As expected, he mentioned the song was about a relationship “That ended in tragedy, as a lot of them do.” There is the single “She Walks With the Angels” which he dedicates to his friend and sound man Matty Spindel, who Rick spoke about for a little bit. Rick did speak about how it is a “Celebratory song, it’s not a down song at all.” Rick discussed how he did things differently this time in the studio, almost recording one song at a time. Rick plays nearly all the instruments on the album as well.

Speaking about the album lead into speaking about the tour. Especially, if some of the new material would make it into a show where, with so many bands on the bill, sets are usually shorter. At that part of the conversation Rick said how liked package tours and then mentioned having seen The Beatles live in 1964 in a show with five acts on before they hit the stage. Rick mentioned that being it’s more and more expensive to go to shows that he felt a package show gives more value to the fans. With all that being said though, he did say that some of the new material would make it into the set. Rick was happy to say he sees his shows as a celebration, a party. He talked a little about having a new intro video to kick off the shows.

Then we took a turn to discuss Rick’s Fender Jazzmaster guitar. Sammy Hagar had always been envious of it. So, Rick had one made and sent it to Sammy. That prompted Sammy to take to Instagram to post a couple videos to which Rick posted a response as well. The song they are both playing is “I’ve Done Everything for You” that Sammy wrote and Rick covered on his album “Working Class Dog.” Rick spoke all about the guitar and his friendship with Sammy. You can check out the videos below to get that story straight from the sources.

That song being one Rick covered on “Working Class Dog” brought us to discussing how the album turned 40 last year. To celebrate Rick did a live version of the album playing with his band in his living room. He said that revisiting the album all these years later he got a better picture of his punk influences. They recorded the entire live album with no overdubs and had fun doing it. We also spoke about his influences. Of course, The Beatles came back up in the conversation as did the British Invasion, Cream, The Yardbirds, Peter Gabriel, Queens of The Stone Age and even Taylor Swift.

The “I Want My 80′s” tour also popped up in the conversation. The tour is Rick with The Hooters, Paul Young, Tommy Tutone, and on some dates John Waite and The Tubes. Being all the acts are not acquainted with each other yet, Rick said it would take some time to see if they end up jamming together during the shows. On last year’s tour Rick said he, John Waite and Colin Hay of Men at Work ended up jamming together on the Free song “Alright Now.” You can see all of Rick’s upcoming shows here. Below you can check out some tracks from “Automatic” and some tracks from the live “Working Class Dog” album as well.

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