Rick springfield shares new music video with aarp members

IS THERE ANYTHING YOU MISS MOST ABOUT THE ’80S? Being young. I turned 74, which is kind of freaky, but there you have it. WHAT’S THE BEST BIRTHDAY GIFT YOU EVER RECEIVED? My first guitar, on

my 13th birthday. It was very memorable. I actually asked my mom for a guitar, finally. About two weeks before my birthday, I said,_ _“No, I want a robot.” …  She goes, “Oh.”_ _I guess she

already bought [the guitar]. So I said, “No, no, no, no. I want the guitar. I want the guitar.”_ _I got the guitar, not the robot. I think it was a better choice. OVER THE YEARS, YOU’VE

EXPRESSED MIXED FEELINGS ABOUT YOUR SOAP OPERA STARDOM. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT IT NOW? It’s a double-edged sword. I finished _Working Class Dog, _and this opportunity came up to be on

[_General Hospital_]_._ I thought it was just for old ladies ironing. [It would] have no bearing on my music career. Maybe I could get away with it and it wouldn’t reflect on the music

career, but Keith Olsen — who produced “Jessie’s Girl” and was a big ’80s producer with Fleetwood Mac and Foreigner and all those people — said, “This is a great album. You don’t need to

take this silly TV show.” But I had three albums that had been out before and nothing had happened, and I was broke, and they were offering me 500 bucks a week. I said,_ _“I’ve got to take

this.”_ _And then it turned into the show it turned into, which surprised the hell out of me, and everybody, I think. The record took off, and then people started to put the two together. It

was a very powerful rocket liftoff, but it definitely still echoes with me. People still think I’m just kind of the one-dimensional soap opera geek, no matter what I’ve done. In certain

people’s minds, I’ll never really live that down. WHAT’S ON YOUR BUCKET LIST? My bucket list is just to be better at what I do and to be a better person, more spiritual. I wouldn’t really

call it “the bucket list.” I’ve met some great people that I grew up loving their music. I’ve done a lot of stuff. I’m going to jump out of an airplane at some point with a skydiver. That’s

probably about the only thing I can say is actually like a typical bucket list item — to just jump out and do a skydive. WHY DO YOU WANT TO DO THAT? Oh, because it’s scary. I’ve always

wanted to push myself. I think that’s why I got into playing live. The first couple of months in a band, I played with my back to the audience, because I was just really shy, and I

eventually figured it out and turned around. I think it’s a good thing to push yourself.