Rick Springfield is ready to rock again after COVID-19 halted touring for many acts

LANCASTER —  Like many other musical acts, Rick Springfield was grounded during the COVID-19 pandemic. But he is back on tour now and will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday at Ohio University's Wendel Concert Stage as part of the Lancaster Festival.

"I had a long break," Springfield said. "We all had a long break over COVID. So it's great to be back. Hopefully, COVID will stay some distance away so we can get this whole tour thing going."

Springfield will perform with the Lancaster Festival Orchestra and conductor Gary Sheldon Saturday.

Springfield has sold about 25 million albums and has 17 U.S. Top 40 hits, including “Jessie’s Girl,” “Don’t Talk to Strangers,” “An Affair of the Heart,” “I've Done Everything for You,” “Love Somebody,” and “Human Touch.”

He also portrayed Dr. Noah Drake on General Hospital, along with several other acting roles during his career.

Springfield's local stop is just one of many on a busy summer for him. He will also tour with Men at Work and John Waite. Those two performers will not be at the Lancaster show, however. He is also celebrating the 40th anniversary of the "Working Class Dog" album, which featured "Jessie's Girl."

Springfield said he puts on a different show when playing with an orchestra.

"It's not the kind of full-on band show that we usually do with the rock show," he said. "It's more like Frank Sinatra does rock 'n' roll. With the symphony orchestra show, we hook up with the local symphony orchestra and do a day of rehearsing.

"Then hopefully if we've all got it together the show works. It's kind of a scary thing because when you're playing with a lot of musicians a lot can go wrong."

Springfield played with the Columbus Symphony at an outdoor show in 2018 and joked with and talked to the audience a lot during that show. Expect the same Saturday.

"Yeah, I love playing live," he said. "That's really one of my great pleasures, is playing live. So I do it for the audience. I connect to them as much as I can."

Much of the audience will no doubt connect with him during "Jessie's Girl," his massive '80s hit. The song's story is true, as he wrote it about a fellow student when he was taking a stained-glass window course.

"She wanted nothing to do with me so I wrote a song about it," Springfield said. "I got a good deal out of it, I think."

He said he didn't realize the the legendary status the song would achieve when writing it.

"No, no I just thought it was another song for the album," Springfield said. "I didn't even think it was a single, actually. I just thought it was a good album cut. Fortunately, I was wrong."

He also said he doesn't know why the "Working Class Dog" became so successful.

"I think it was just the right album at the right time," Springfield said. "If I knew I'd probably write 1,000 of them. A lot of it's timing and just people's attitudes and society. And it was a great summer. Everyone was sick of disco and ballads.

"I had a guitar album that was ready to go. I tried a couple of disco songs that were horrible. So I just I'm going to write songs for my guitar because I'm a guitar player. And it seemed to be what people wanted to hear on the radio at that point. Just one of those things. The first hit is always luck."

For the future, Springfield said he will appear in an upcoming movie and he will release an as-of-yet untitled album and continue to tour.

He also currently has a weekly show on SiriusXM called "Working Class DJ," in which he spins some of his favorite tunes by other artists.

"It's kind of tongue-in-cheek," Springfield said about the radio show. "I make a joke about me wanting to be a DJ since I was a little kid until the guitar took over. So be careful what you wish for."

There is free parking for the outdoor events at OUL and mobility assistance area for those needing help getting into the grounds. There is an area for those with table seats to park near the main gates.

For those not parking onsite, there is a free shuttle from the Fairfield County Fairgrounds at 157 E. Fair Ave. and one from the River Valley Mall at 1635 River Valley Circle South.

Tickets for the Springfield show are $40 for general admission in advance and $45 the day of the show. Tickets for those 3 to 17 are $10.

Tables in section G-J are $550 and tables in section K-N are $500.

Visit www.lancasterfestival.org to see the complete schedule of events and to buy tickets.

The festival office is located at 117 W. Wheeling St. and the phone number is 740-687-4808.

jbarron@gannett.com

740-681-4340

Twitter: @JeffDBarron

This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Rick Springfield is ready to rock again after COVID-19 halted touring