Rick Springfield Bringing His “I Want My 80’s” Tour To New Jersey

Rick Springfield is currently on a 26-city tour that will bring him here to New Jersey on August 12 in Atlantic City.

The "I Want My 80's Tour" showcases Rick, along with Tommy Tutone, and the Hooters (with John Waite doing an occasional show as well).

Rick also has a brand new album, Automatic, that was just released on Friday, August 4th.

Rick Springfield no stranger to WDHA listeners having joined Jim Monaghan on All Mixed Up back in May 2020.

Best known for his #1 hit single "Jessie's Girl" in 1981, as well as his role as Dr. Noah Drake on the soap opera General Hospital, his music career began in the late 60's playing in bands in his native Australia.

After he moved to the United States in 1971, his debut album, Beginnings, was released a year later and got to #100 on the Billboard 200 chart.

Springfield's major breakthrough came in 1981 with the release of his album Working Class Dog with three huge hit singles - "Jessie's Girl," "I've Done Everything for You," and "Don't Talk to Me About Love."

"Jessie's Girl" reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and also earned Springfield a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

Springfield has released 23 albums including his newest, Automatic. He has also written several books, including his autobiography, Late, Late at Night which was published in 2010.

JIM MONAGHAN - We welcome Rick Springfield here at WDHA. How are you?
RICK SPRINGFIELD - Hey, I'm good. We almost did a duet there.
JM - Almost. Rick brought out the harmonica. I have a guitar with me. But enough of that. A 26 city tour that's about to start that will get into our area in just a couple of weeks. "I want my 80's tour." Rick, tell our listeners about that.
RS - Yeah, it's me and the Hooters who actually haven't played in America for quite a while, so we're very happy to have them on the bill. Paul Young, "Every Time You Go Away." Tommy Tutone and occasionally the Tubes. And John Waite will be joining us. So it's great - all hits and the package sure is kind of what I grew up with. When I was a kid, you go to a show, there'd be five acts. Even when I saw the Beatles, there was five other acts on with them. So I love doing that. It's a great way to give value back to the people because I know it ain't easy getting out to shows these days. It can be expensive proposition. And I have always wanted to give back as much as I get.
JM - And you did more you did that recently, too, with the tour that you did a while back with John Waite - you just mentioned him - and Colin Hay from Men At Work. Last year's tour was with Men At Work. And Tommy Tutone and John. And John's one of my favorite singers. I love to have him on the tour. He's a great guy and so is Tommy. Tommy's very weird and lovely. And the Hooters - I'm really looking forward to. And Paul Young - I was a big fan of whenh is first record came out. I actually loved thebass sound on his record and had the bass player, Pino Palladino, come over to play on my album too because I loved the sound so much in his playing.
JM - I don't know if you know the story - you mentioned Pino Palladino, he was the bass player on the Don Henley song "Sunset Grill." And Pino did not know what the Sunset Grill was. Just a little hot dog stand at the time in Los Angeles or Hollywood. And Henley took him past the hot dog stand and Palladino looked at henley and said, "All those notes for that?"
RS - He's a great bass player. He stepped in when John Entwhistle died and played with The Who like two nights later and killed it. I saw him at the Hollywood Bowl and I flew him over here, actually after the Paul Young album because I loved his sound and he had a very chorus kind of fretless sound. And I flew him over him for the Tao record an dhe got in the studio and I said, can you get that sound that you had on the Paul Young record and he went, well, that wasn't me, that was the engineer. But he played great, he played some amazing stuff, but it was the first time he'd actually come over to America was on the Tao record.
JM - Rick Springfield, my guest here at 105.5 WDHA. We mentioned the 26-city tour and you're going to get into Atlantic City on August 12th at the Hard Rock Live. For the Hooters, that's kind of a homecoming for them because they're from Philadelphia, so it's not that far away for those guys.
RS - Yeah, I think they're looking forward to the show as well. Looking forward to the whole tour.
JM - And one of the things that you mentioned was it's hit after hit after hit. We just had Bret Michaels Parti-Gras doing a show for the radio station and it was Bret and it was Steve Augeri from Journey and Night Ranger was there and Jefferson Starship and it was one of those shows. By the end, Bret had everybody out on stage with him and I think they were doing "Sweet Home Alabama." But it was just a great night and you're sharing music and memories with your family and your friends and it's one hit after the other after the other.
RS - Yeah, that's kind of what the package shows are about and it's a great way to commune with the audience. I kind of look at it as the new church. You get together with people, like-minded people and you're looking in one direction and you're celebrating past times and the current party and I get a great lift from it. The reason I tour and put up with all the traveling is the time I spend on stage with the audience. There's nothing like it.
JM - Micky Dolenz of the Monkees famously said, "We tour for free, we get paid for the travel."
RS - Oh, dude, that's my line! He stole it from me! Bastard! (laughing)
JM - One of the highlights of your shows in some recent years has been the medley that you do - What if Jesse's Girl was Stacy's Mom and her number was 867-5309. With Tommy Heath being on the bill with you from Tommy Tutone, please tell me he's coming out to do that with you.
RS - That's actually something that I do in my solo set. We do a medley where we do a little bit of "Jenny." Right. Then I say that's not because a lot of people someone sent it to me the other day, they said her name was Jenny and she said, yeah, I love your song. I said, that's not my song, it's Tommy's. So a little bit of confusion there. But I have a track that we played. I have a Sirius radio show that I kind of laughingly do a DJ thing for. And we played the track where I had actually Tommy singing the "Jenny" parts, me singing the Jesse's Girl parts and the Fountains of Wayne guy singing the "Stacey" parts, all the original singers doing the song and it's actually came out really great. It's very cool.
JM - In addition to the tour, you have a new album, Automatic, that is due out as well.And I've heard about a third of it and it sounds really great. Rick, tell our listeners about it.
RS - Well, I recorded it here in the studio and there's 20 new songs and there's so many because I would write a song out in the kitchen or the gazebo or wherever and then come in here to record it and then go out and write another one and come in here and record it. And I did that rather than writing all the songs together and going in and recording them with a band. And I played pretty much everything on the album because it was easiest to do that because I knew what I wanted and I didn't have to call people in. And we'd record it fast and it was a very different experience. And halfway, well, three quarters of the way through it, my engineer, studio engineer, passed away, Matty Spindel. And there's a song on the album that I wrote for him called "She Walks With the Angels" that talks about him and the loss that we had to deal with losing Matty.
JM - Well, the new album, Automatic comes out early August and the tour, a 26-city tour, August 4 through September16, and it gets into New Jersey August 12th atthe Hard Rock Live in Atlantic City. All the details on the tour are online at rickspringfield.com. Rick, always great catching up with you. Best of luck with the tour and the new album as well. Thanks for your time this morning here on DHA.
RS - Thanks, man, appreciate it.

With almost fifty years of Rock Radio and New Jersey history under our belts, WDHA was always a groundbreaking station, committed to our listeners, community, and ROCK MUSIC!

Every so often we like to look back at our legacy and have a few laughs and see how far we have come AND look to the future of "THE ROCK OF NEW JERSEY" -

It has been our pleasure! Check out 10 fun WDHA "legacy" memories!

In 1983, WDHA was the FIRST radio station in the country to play a "Compact Disc"! Revolutionary!

The sound quality of the CD at the time was truly audible on the air and the station decided to capitalize on our trailblazer reputation by offering our listeners the opportunity to hear the quality difference (at the time vinyl and carts were the source of all of our audio) by offering two features- "Laser Lunch" and Digital Dinner" with one band exclusively played from CD and the two players we were so proud of!

Memorial Day Weekend - 1983- The US Festival was historic with Van Halen, Bowie, Stevie Nicks, Judas Priest, Scorpions, and a ton of 80's bands- It was EPIC!

WDHA gave away a trip to this GINORMOFEST! Offering "entry blanks" at our studios and various sponsor locations. Imagine having to GO SOMEWHERE to enter? Ahhhhh the days before the internet- they kinda ruled, didn't they?

As early as 1980, WDHA started making customized station shirts, boxers, specific show shirts, and of course JACKETS! This vintage 80's jacket is a rarity and TC has a pristine, new one hanging in her station office closet.....NO ONE is allowed to touch it!

WDHA put out seven NJ Rock albums and CD's ending with NJ Rock 7 in 1990.  There was a fantastic angle to many of these albums as the proceeds from many NJ Rock collection went to local charities including The Children's Hospital AIDS Program at United Hospitals of Newark, and The AIDS Center provided by Hope House in Dover. 

WDHA's original owner Bob Linder dies of AIDS in the early 1990s and his mission was to educate and give back to the local community. He was a radio visionary and always felt the power of his local station and all the good rock and radio could accomplish.

Grabbing a sandwich? Grab a playlist! WDHA printed out playlists weekly available at the station and local record and convenience stores so you could browse the tunes!

WDHA Rock The Park shows were not always at Yogi Berra Stadium and PNC Bank Arts Center.

They started as FREE shows in local parks like The Arboretum in Morristown, Echo Lake Park, and Branch Brook Park.

Some of the bands that played? The Spin Doctors, Blackfoot, David Crosby, and Gov't Mule.

Good news? They were free to get in......bad news? Adult beverages were not served. They have since evolved, but man we remember those fun shows on hot summer days in our local parks!

We  STILL get people telling us how much fun they had at WDHA Clam and Jam shows in the early to mid-1990s!

Take a parking lot in Mt, Arlington, buy a bunch of clams and beer, grab some awesome rockers, charge admission, and LET'S PARTY!

Shows featured The Screaming, Cheetah Wheelies, the late Neal Casal, and of course our brother Zakk Wylde.

We clammed and jammed!

Our collection dates back well over 40 years with vintage gold and platinum from Bon Jovi, Journey, Pink Floyd, and hundreds more! It's so awesome when artists visit and walk the halls looking for their records- we LOVE that!

WDHA opened our station to the public in the 1980's with "WDHA OPEN HOUSE" parties with artists (including the Smithereens) playing live on the lawn and the chance for listeners to stop by and hang with us.

We have continued the tradition with open houses throughout the years and of course our now summer "Parking Lot Party" series!

Nuff Said on this! Better safe than sorry right?