PowerfulJREJoe Rogan Experience #2550 - Rick Springfield
PowerfulJRE
Opening Talk on Alien Propulsion 0:01
The conversation opens with Joe Rogan and Rick Springfield speculating about how an alien species could ever reach Earth. Rick suggests a civilization would need faster-than-light travel or some way of folding space and time rather than moving in a straight line, and both agree the real obstacle is that such a species would need to survive long enough as a civilization to develop that technology. Joe raises the idea that violent, competitive pressures like war often drive innovation, and wonders whether a peaceful species would even have the motivation to advance. Rick floats the more unsettling theory that visitors might simply be watching humanity to see if it can survive its own adolescent, self-destructive phase.
Springfield Reflects on Longevity 2:01
Joe tells Rick, who is 77, how remarkable it is to see him perform Jesse's Girl with the same energy he had decades ago, noting how many of his peers have physically declined by comparison. Rick says the audience's energy is what recharges him even after playing a song a million times, and that he has stayed passionate because music was always what he wanted to do, dating back to holding his first guitar at age 11.
Guitar, Depression, and Leaving School 4:01
Rick explains he started performing around age 15 after getting kicked out of eleventh grade for simply not showing up. He was dealing with serious depression as a teenager and was failing at school, friends, and work, so he retreated into the guitar and into horror writers like Robert Bloch and August Derleth, which became his real education. He describes moving from Australia to England around age 10, where he discovered girls, guitars, and the band Cliff Richard and the Shadows, before moving back to Australia.
Touring Vietnam During the War 6:31
At 18, Rick's band toured Vietnam for about four months in 1968 and 1969, hired by Saigon promoters because Australian girls in the group reminded American GIs of home. They performed from Cam Ranh Bay up to the DMZ, arriving just after the Tet Offensive, and were shot at and hit with mortar fire while playing. He recalls staying overnight with Navy servicemen at Marble Mountain outside Da Nang, taking shelter in perimeter bunkers, and even riding along on an Apache helicopter mission. He describes the base experience as constant fear, sleeping in dusty hooches, and living by a wartime logic where anything felt permissible, including once witnessing forty men lined up for one sex worker and starting to smoke marijuana for the first time because everyone around him was doing it.
Coming Home and a Death 16:02
Rick recalls his mother telling him his eyes looked haunted after he returned, and that he flinched at a car backfiring without remembering it himself. He mentions GIs kept disturbing trophy photo albums of the dead, and that his band's leader, Pete Watson, died at 25 from a lung disease apparently picked up in Vietnam, possibly linked to Agent Orange, while the rest of the band tested clean.
Throwing the Mortar That Hit Someone 20:03
Rick describes the specific night at Marble Mountain when, from inside a radio shack, he was told to fire mortars toward reported enemy movement with no friendlies nearby, and did so without fully grasping what he was doing. The next morning he was told one of his mortars had killed a Viet Cong soldier, and he says that memory has never fully found a place to settle inside him, even decades later. He has written about it in his unpublished autobiography but not yet in a song, though he mentions a new album in progress that deals with aging, mortality, and themes that may draw on that experience, contrasting it with his first album Working Class Dog, which was written at 29 and centered on very different concerns.
Aging Rock Stars and Live Connection 24:00
Joe and Rick discuss how there were once no rock stars in their seventies, with the Rolling Stones being among the first to defy that expectation, and they marvel at Mick Jagger's continued physical intensity on stage, including his reported use of two trailers full of gym equipment while touring. They also praise Paul McCartney's enduring voice and groundedness despite his fame. Rick reflects that live performance offers a mutual gift, giving audiences ninety minutes or two hours of freedom from daily troubles while also freeing the performer from his own inner noise, and Joe compares a concert's shared, one-directional positivity to church, distinct from a sports event's split loyalties. Rick closes by acknowledging that ego draws people into the business and fuels the desire for an audience's attention, but that the wiser performers, citing Jagger and McCartney, learn to keep that need in perspective.
Ego and the Purpose of Craft 30:31
Rick Springfield and Joe Rogan talk about how chasing approval from others is a losing game. Rick says the healthier path is to shift energy away from wanting people to like you and instead pour it into the craft itself, whatever that craft happens to be. He notes that ego is what gets a performer started, since most people who enter the arts begin as outcasts craving attention, hoping fame will fill some inner hole. It never does, but once someone becomes grounded, the focus should move entirely onto doing the work well rather than on being noticed.
Early Fame and Teen Magazines 32:31
Rick recalls that his first hit was not Jessie's Girl but a song called Speak to the Sky, written for his mother, which reached number ten after he moved from Australia to the United States in 1972. That success got him picked up by teen magazines, a phenomenon he had never encountered in Australia, and he was startled to see interviews twisted into fluff like "Is Rick Too Tall to Love." He briefly leaned into that image, writing serious songs about suicide and infidelity while being marketed as a teen heartthrob, and it went nowhere until he left the managers pushing that direction.
Meeting Elvis on a Plane 34:30
Rick describes needing to prove he wasn't taking an American's job to get his visa renewed around 1973, during the Nixon era. On a flight back to Australia that stopped in Hawaii, he found himself seated near Elvis, who looked strikingly healthy at the time, in a powder blue suit with jet black hair. Elvis got up and personally signed autographs for passengers, something Rick says he never saw another celebrity do, and Rick got him to sign one for his girlfriend Allison, only for it to vanish after Australian customs searched his tape recorder.
Managers Who Isolate Stars 38:02
The conversation turns to Colonel Tom Parker, whom Rick calls a jerk with no real intent beyond control, contrasting him with Brian Epstein, who genuinely understood the Beatles and helped shape them well. Rogan and Springfield agree it's strange how often deeply talented people end up surrounded by exploitative handlers, and they suggest Parker isolated and enabled Elvis, especially once pills became part of his life, pushing him into grueling Vegas residencies to cover gambling debts.
His Father's Death and Health Habits 42:01
Rick explains that his drive to stay healthy traces back to his father, who died briefly at fifty-one after an artery burst, was revived after fifteen minutes without a heartbeat, but came back with the mind of a five-year-old, unable to recognize family. Watching that unfold pushed Rick toward vigilance about his own body, including using Prenuvo full-body MRI scans and regular blood draws, plus a lifelong habit of running, clean eating, and skincare he once felt embarrassed to admit to bandmates.
Regenerative Skin and Stem Cell Treatments 47:01
Rick describes a four-year trial with a company that grows serum from his own ear cells to apply to his face, which he prefers over treatments using donor tissue. He and Rogan compare notes on stem cell therapies, including bone marrow injections and newer muse cell technology, and discuss regenerative treatments like Regenokine that require travel abroad, along with a clinic in Austin offering hyperbaric chambers and red light therapy.
Saunas, Cold Plunges, and Recovery 52:31
Rogan cites a Finnish study showing that four sauna sessions a week at twenty minutes each cut all-cause mortality by forty percent, crediting heat shock proteins and cardiovascular benefits similar to static cardio. He also describes his own routine of cold plunging before workouts rather than after, since post-workout cold exposure can blunt muscle growth, and both men note the mental toughness and endorphin rush that come from doing something uncomfortable on a routine basis.
Supplements and Creatine Benefits 57:31
Rick shares that he takes a daily supplement called IM8 along with creatine before workouts and protein afterward. Rogan explains that creatine's benefits go beyond muscle, pointing to research showing it boosts cognitive performance, especially for people who are sleep deprived, making it useful to carry while traveling or facing exhaustion.
Diet and Creatine Habits 59:01
Rick takes ten grams of creatine twice a day, once in the morning and once at night, and says it completely mitigates the brain fog that comes from sleep deficit. His diet is roughly eighty to ninety percent meat, with fermented vegetables on the side, though he allows himself the occasional sandwich, pizza, or chicken parmesan. Chicken itself is off the menu for him personally, a holdover from childhood, when his family raised chickens as pets and then ate them, and a specific memory of the smell of scalding water used to pluck feathers came back to him decades later and killed his appetite for it permanently. Joe, by contrast, has no issue eating chicken but avoids turkey less consistently, and the two trade thoughts on turkey hunting, noting how sharp turkeys' eyesight is and how hunters use ghillie suits and decoy calls to get close.
Wild Animals and Australia 1:02:31
The conversation turns to game meat, with Rick noting he prefers mammals because they are more nutrient-dense, richer in iron and amino acids. He recalls having ostrich and possibly kangaroo in Australia, which leads into a longer detour on Australia's invasive species problem: camels outnumbering those in Arab states, kangaroo infestations, imported rabbits and cane toads that were brought in to fix one problem and became worse ones, and Asian water buffalo roaming the Northern Territory. Joe brings up the platypus, which Captain Cook brought back to England looking so strange that people assumed it had been stitched together from three different animals. They also discuss red kangaroos, which can stand on their tails and disembowel a person with their back legs, prompting Joe's line that they are like deer that went to prison.
Citizenship and Jury Duty 1:06:01
Rick explains he became a U.S. citizen years ago, partly out of love for the country and partly, he jokes, to be eligible for jury duty. He was actually called up once, during a lawsuit nicknamed buttgate, in which a woman claimed he backed into her with his rear end during a show and injured her, a claim he refused to settle and fought instead. He was dismissed from jury duty because of that pending case. He then admits, more seriously, that the real reason for citizenship was tax related, since if he or his wife died first as a non-citizen, the surviving spouse would face a heavier tax burden. He has lived in the United States since 1972, calling it his real home now, and mentions his mother lived to ninety-six, which gives him hope for his own genetics.
Longevity and Loving the Work 1:10:00
Rick and Joe discuss the Rolling Stones, particularly Keith Richards, who looked frail decades ago yet is still touring, drawing crowds of over a hundred thousand at places like Circuit of the Americas. Both agree that loving what you do seems tied to longevity, citing Mick Jagger's own admission that he still loves the roar of the crowd. Rick reflects that many people stay in jobs for the retirement benefits rather than love of the work, and both men acknowledge how much luck played into their own careers, alongside hard work that lets you capitalize on that luck when it comes. They touch on fear of success as a real psychological barrier that keeps people from pursuing bigger opportunities.
Writing and Early Band Zoot 1:13:32
Rick describes himself as a writer first, someone who only started performing because no one else would record his songs. He has written novels, an autobiography, and is working on a health-focused book. He recalls his first band, Zoot, formed around 1969, where he played guitar and arranged a heavy version of Eleanor Rigby that predated his exposure to Black Sabbath. The band originally dressed in pink under a marketing theme called Think Pink, Think Zoot, which he hated and eventually convinced them to drop by staging a joke cover photo of the group naked from behind in high contrast, which the label then printed uncensored, mortifying his mother. The band eventually split, with members going on to form Little River Band and other projects, while Rick moved toward guitar-driven rock, inspired partly by the rise of Led Zeppelin.
The Musical Explosion of the Sixties 1:19:32
Joe and Rick discuss how radically music changed between 1959 and 1969, comparing the shift from Buddy Holly to Jimi Hendrix as one of the most dramatic transformations in music history, driven by psychedelic drugs and the anti-war movement. They talk about Led Zeppelin's origins, including how singer Terry Reid turned down Jimmy Page's offer to join the band because of a prior commitment with the Stones, and instead recommended Robert Plant, who was playing in a pub band with John Bonham. Rick praises Bonham's unique feel and sound as unmatched among drummers. The conversation moves to England's outsized musical output relative to its size, jokingly attributed to centuries of invasions and mixed genetics from Romans, Vikings, and Germans, and closes with reflection on the Beatles' historic impact, arriving in America shortly after Kennedy's assassination and offering a distraction from national grief.
Elvis, Michael Jackson, and Unsustainable Fame 1:27:02
You hear Rick Springfield and Joe Rogan agree that the level of fame Elvis reached was almost unmanageable for a human being, especially since there was no roadmap for it. Michael Jackson, they say, took that fame to an even more extreme place. Rogan points out that the Jackson 5 and the Beatles both started in 1964, noting that Paul McCartney was 22 and George Harrison was 21 at the time. Springfield recalls watching a documentary about Jackson preparing for a show, saying he looked physically weak but still fully in command of what he was doing, and that the pressure of that fame must have been overwhelming since Jackson couldn't go anywhere without being swarmed.
Thriller Breaking Radio and MTV Barriers 1:28:31
Springfield remembers a Boston rock station, WCOZ, playing Michael Jackson's Billie Jean even though it wasn't a rock song, because the album was simply too big to ignore. He also recounts that MTV initially refused to play Jackson's videos, telling people they didn't play Black artists, until an Atlantic Records executive threatened to pull all the label's artists from the channel unless Billie Jean aired within ten minutes. Rogan connects this to Thriller as a film-level production, noting that Jackson brought in Rick Baker, the special effects artist behind An American Werewolf in London, to create the transformation sequences. The conversation drifts into Rogan's own werewolf statues, made by Pat McGee, which Baker later corrected for accurate proportions.
Elvis, Beatles, and Jackson as Transcendent 1:31:31
Rogan and Springfield settle on Elvis, the Beatles, and Michael Jackson as the three acts that truly transcended music, each doing something categorically different. Springfield argues that the Beatles wrote so many of the best songs that there aren't many great ones left to write, and marvels at how fast their sound evolved. Rogan suggests this kind of unified cultural moment isn't possible now because audiences are fragmented by age and genre, whereas back then there was just one shared culture between kids and their parents. They agree rock and guitar music has faded from the mainstream, with Springfield noting that hopefully the window is still open for it to return, since people still love the old music even if new rock bands rarely get exposure anymore.
How Jesse's Girl Broke Through 1:34:30
Springfield explains that Jesse's Girl wasn't released as a planned single but became a hit because DJs personally liked it and kept playing it, driving phone requests that pushed RCA Records to release it. He was 29 or 30 when it hit in 1981, having believed for years through visualization and manifestation that success would eventually come. Before fame arrived, he was living in a $180-a-month Hollywood apartment, eating TV dinners and scavenging quarters for milk, even as teen magazine fans wrote imagining he lived in a mansion. The song climbed the charts slowly, and producer Joe Gottfried of Sound City eventually showed up with cheap champagne to announce it had hit number one.
Taking General Hospital for the Money 1:38:00
Springfield reveals he took a role on General Hospital, the biggest soap opera of its era due to the Luke and Laura storyline, mainly because he needed the $500-per-episode paycheck, having gone nine months without acting work and with four albums that had gone nowhere. Producer Keith Olsen, who'd worked on Jesse's Girl and also produced Fleetwood Mac, Pat Benatar, and Foreigner, told him he didn't need the soap because the record was strong, but Springfield took it anyway for financial security. The label initially wouldn't release the album, unsure how to market a guitar-based pop record in an era of disco and ballads. The first single pushed was actually a Sammy Hagar-written song, Springfield's own composition Jesse's Girl only became the second single at the DJs' insistence.
Disappearance of Radio Tastemakers 1:42:02
Both men lament the loss of influential DJs like Wolfman Jack, who once had the power and personality to make or break a song, including nearly refusing to play Springfield's record over its subject matter before coming around. Springfield contrasts that era of local, personality-driven radio, citing names like Mark Parenteau and Charles Laquidara in Boston, with today's landscape where no one can name a current DJ and executives seem to pre-select which songs get pushed. They discuss how album covers used to be treated as art, crediting the design company Hipgnosis for iconic imagery like the Pink Floyd covers, and Rogan shares a personal memory of his uncle working for Howard Marks Advertising, which produced Kiss album art, including meeting Ace Frehley without his makeup as a child.
The Feeling of Sudden Fame 1:47:30
Springfield describes the excitement of fame arriving after ten years of trying, saying he directed the energy into writing and performing rather than partying, and that seeing fans nearly tip over a police car made him realize this was what stardom felt like. He recalls first understanding that feeling as a teenager watching the Rolling Stones, Beatles, Kinks, and Who in Australia, and then experiencing it himself at a Beach Boys Fourth of July show, where Brian Wilson, a soap opera fan, stared at him in the same starstruck way. He also recounts Sammy Davis Jr. tugging his jacket to say he loved him on the show, and later meeting Paul McCartney, who jokingly asked for ten pounds for a photo before the two shared a genuine picture together, one Springfield still treasures alongside a signed Sgt. Pepper's cutout of H. G. Wells.
General Hospital's Unrepeated Cultural Reach 1:52:30
Rogan and Springfield reflect on how strange it was that General Hospital, a daytime soap opera, briefly became a mainstream cultural phenomenon that even non-soap viewers followed, something Springfield says has never happened again, with today's most popular soap drawing only about a third of the viewership General Hospital had then. Springfield recalls that before MTV, musicians typically needed three albums out before being widely recognized, so going from anonymous to recognized on the street within two weeks of the show airing felt disorienting and unlike the way fame usually built.
Elizabeth Taylor on General Hospital 1:55:00
Rick recalls sharing scenes with Elizabeth Taylor on General Hospital, describing the surreal experience of walking past her on set and hearing her ask, deadpan, whether acting was stupid. He remembers castmate Tony Geary breaking rehearsal decorum by blurting out that it was really Elizabeth Taylor, voicing what everyone else was thinking. Rick also describes how poorly written and quickly shot the soap was, with three-page scenes handed out twenty minutes before filming, forcing him to master reading a teleprompter while appearing to act naturally, since for him the job became more about memorizing lines than real performance.
Golden age of General Hospital 1:57:00
He talks about castmates like his friend Doug Davidson, who played Paul, and praises the genuine talent some actors on the show had, even though casting often favored good looks over ability. He recalls producer Gloria Monty listening to phone calls from viewers to gauge reactions to characters and storylines. General Hospital became a massive cultural phenomenon, drawing 30 million viewers for the Luke and Laura wedding, with universities rearranging class schedules because students would skip class to watch. Rick notes there has never been anything comparable since, calling it a genuine golden age with no real explanation for why it got so big.
Behind the soap opera fame 2:00:30
Rick describes how his singing career and his soap fame collided unexpectedly, with producers wanting him to perform songs like Jesse's Girl on the show, something he resisted at first but eventually did years later. He shares a story about the actress who played Laura being only twenty and still living at home, too young to legally drink champagne at a set celebration, and recounts a party scene with the actor who played the Professor on Gilligan's Island where the cast got so drunk they had to reshoot the scene the next day.
Writing novels and lyrics 2:02:30
Shifting to his writing, Rick explains his two novels, Magnificent Vibration and World on Fire, both dark comedies about a plague wiping out much of humanity, the first published in 2014 and reaching the New York Times bestseller list, the second in 2021. He says writing was always something he was good at, tracing back to strong grades in essays as a kid, and that he still writes by hand less and more on computer now, though he kept the original handwritten paper for Jesse's Girl tucked away in a closet.
Collecting Beatles artifacts 2:05:32
Rick describes his hobby of collecting handwritten Beatles lyrics through a friend who authenticates memorabilia for major auction houses, along with other collectibles like a Titanic lifeboat plaque and vintage robots. His prized piece is a handwritten copy of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, which carries drawings by Paul McCartney, including an early Victorian concept sketch for the Sgt. Pepper cover. He recounts the real story behind Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, that it came from a painting John Lennon's son Julian made of a school friend named Lucy, only coincidentally resembling the acronym LSD, though John was drawing on his love of Lewis Carroll's writing for the lyrics.
Talent, volume, and luck 2:10:02
Drawing on Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers, Joe describes how the Beatles' grueling Hamburg residency, playing several hours a night for years, forged their tightness as a band, tying into the idea of ten thousand hours of practice producing mastery. Rick compares this to blues guitarist Robert Johnson's rapid improvement and the myth of him selling his soul to the devil. He also shares how Paul McCartney ended up on bass almost by accident after Stuart Sutcliffe left the band for love. Both men reflect on how success often looks like fate in hindsight but really depends on staying in the game long enough for lucky breaks to happen and being ready to seize them.
Stage fright and staying ready 2:14:30
Rick recalls playing with his back to the audience for the first three months in his first band, a rough Australian blues group, out of sheer nervousness, until he eventually turned around, though he can't recall the exact moment it happened. He jokes about being the last virgin in the band as the youngest member and taking teasing for it.
Jesse's Girl and closing thanks 2:16:02
Rick tells the origin story of Jesse's Girl, written about an unnamed girl he met in a stained glass class during a stretch between record deals, when he was trying to make a living crafting things by hand. She had a boyfriend and showed no interest in him, so he went home and wrote a song about her, testing names like Gary and Randy before settling on Jesse. He mentions Oprah's show once tried to track her down but found only that the stained glass teacher had died and the records were destroyed, meaning the woman likely still has no idea the song was written about her. The conversation closes with Joe praising Rick's career and a viral video of him performing shirtless, encouraging listeners to catch him live in concert.
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