Sex, Drugs & Rock and Roll at 75

THE '80S ICON GETS CANDID ABOUT AGING, SECRETS TO A LASTING MARRIAGE AND 44 YEARS OF FAME AFTER 'JESSIE'S GIRL'

- BRIANNE TRACY

An Enduring

Star "I have a lot of gratitude for where I am," says Springfield (in 2023; inset, in 1981).

With perfectly intact swoop ing hair, chiseled abs and swoon-worthy vocals, Rick Springfield is still living up to his heartthrob title at 75. And yet the rocker has never felt connected to his status as an ’80s darling. “I can’t really relate to it,” Springfield admits over the phone from his Malibu home. “It’s what other people put on me. People also put on me that I was a one-dimensional soap opera actor that got lucky with one song. All I can do is be me and try and do the best work that I can.”

Since he rose to fame in 1981—both for his No. 1 hit “Jessie’s Girl” and for his role as Dr. Noah Drake on the daytime soap General Hospital—the Australia native has proved naysayers wrong, remaining a steady presence in music and on screen, with 25 million albums sold throughout his career and roles in films like Ricki and the Flash with Meryl Streep in 2015. Most recently he released Volume 2 of his Greatest Hits album, and he will set out on his I Want My ’80s tour on May 28. “I still feel like I’m in my 20s in my head,” he says of his busy schedule. “Then I see people dying from old age and disease and go, ‘Wow, I’m the same age as old people!’”

What Matters Most

"I'm proud of my sons and the woman I married," says Springfield (with son Joshua, who is studying to be a child therapist, and wife Barbara in 2014).