For all his accomplishments as an actor, a best-selling author and the subject of multiple docu-mentaries, Rick Springfield’s first love has always been music, since the first time he picked up a guitar at the age of 12 in his native Australia. That passion for writing and performing songs, as well as playing guitar, comes through loud and clear on his new album, “Rocket Science”.
“Rocket Science” features classic Springfield compositions like the crowd pumping “Light This Par-ty Up”, the sensitive ballad “Let Me In”, the anthemic “All Hands On Deck,” the blues infused rocker “Miss Mayhem”, on which he collaborated with indie artist Tad Kubler of the band The Hold Steady. Rick also wrote “Down” —in the middle of an ice storm on a stranded tour bus—with Rascal Flatts’ Jay DeMarcus.
Springfield says “Rocket Science is my 18th studio album. It swears a bit and doesn’t respect au-thority but it does look after its invalid mother. It has some of the country elements I love but as much as I understand we should all be sucking up to Nashville, it's still a wide ranging pop/rock record. I hope u dig it!”
The new album, a pop/country blend fused with Springfield’s signature songwriting and perfor-mance style, features much of Springfield’s touring band joined by some guest players, and was mixed by veteran Justin Niebank, providing the album its tight feel. Other featured players in-clude iconic guitarist and longtime Springfield collaborator Tim Pierce, plus longtime songwriting partner, Elton John bass player Matt Bissonette.
With 25 million albums sold, 17 U.S. top-40 hits, including “Don’t Talk to Strangers”, “An Affair of the Heart”, “I've Done Everything for You”, “Love Somebody”, and “Human Touch”, as well as a 1981 Grammy® Best Male Rock Vocal win for his No. 1 single hit “Jessie’s Girl” behind him, Spring-field has more to say with his latest new release, “Rocket Science”.
Still playing nearly 100 live shows a year, Springfield’s bond with his audience is the subject of the recent documentary An Affair of the Heart, winning special jury awards at both the Nashville and Florida Film Festivals. He also recently wrote and recorded a new song with Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters / Nirvana) as well as being a featured guest in Grohl’s documentary about “Sound City,” the fabled San Fernando Valley recording studio.
His 2010 autobiography, “Late, Late at Night…: A Memoir”, for Simon & Schuster’s Touchstone imprint, entered The New York Times best-seller list at No. 13, hitting the Los Angeles Times and Publishers Weekly lists as well, with Rolling Stone recently naming it one of the Top 25 rock auto-biographies of all time.
With “Rocket Science”, Rick Springfield continues to do what he does best—applying his sardonic view to life as we live it today, offering a ray of hope in the midst of all the turmoil.