David Cassidy on the Web
An Interview with David Cassidy
November 14, 2006
By Cherry Butler
www.50connect.co.uk
The original teen idol talks about fame and his new album.
Those who remember the 1970s will need no reminding that David Cassidy was a huge teen idol. Brought to an audience of millions by The Partridge Family TV series, his fan club boasted more members than any other. Even today, everywhere he goes, although he is no longer the fresh-faced young man with the long hair, people recognise him - and he rather likes it.
"They say, it's so great to see you," David says. "It's a wonderful compliment to get that every day, all over the world."
In between posing for photos with press and fans at London's Hard Rock Cafe, where he was launching an auction of Cassidy memorabilia, David attempts to explain his especially intense experience of fame.
"Touring then was absolute madness. People who didn't see that hysteria wouldn't really know what it is - pop fans today scream and so on but not like that. I was playing to 70 thousand people and the scale of it became unmanageable, I had to take so many security people with me everywhere and have decoys. No hotel would have me so I had to stay in a boat on the Thames - fans dived into the river, they were picked up by the police and had to get tetanus shots - it was insane."
Being famous could be extremely lonely, though David found common ground with one of the Beatles.
"I talked a lot with John Lennon about it. We shared a similar experience, although he had three guys to be with while I was alone. I had my security people with me, and they became good friends."
Fame and fortune for their own sake never interested David, unlike many modern pop stars.
"Today, there are people who just want to be famous, but it's not for anything. I don't understand that way of thinking. If you've been the most famous person in the world, be it for a minute or years, there's nothing in it - other than you usually get a good table at a restaurant!"
Journalists wrote about every aspect of David's life, which obviously he found hard, but he thinks it is worse for stars today.
"Your life gets exposed, they write a lot of negative stuff, anything about you they can take a shot at. It's now much more mean spirited, look at what Paul McCartney's going through, it's horrible."
David coped by keeping a firm dividing line between work and home.
"I've purposely lived a very private life. I'm a reclusive person and I view my job as the antithesis of that. When I'm doing an interview or concert, I'm happy to perform - when I go home, I can close the curtain."
He learnt to do this from his father, actor Jack Cassidy, who was married to David's stepmother and Partridge Family screen mother Shirley Jones between 1956 and 1974.
"He wasn't as famous but his wife was very famous, they were celebrities. He drew the line - as a kid I remember thinking that's the right way, you've got to separate the two otherwise you lose yourself."
Growing up with his father and mother, actress Evelyn Ward, immersed the young David in the world of entertainment. He followed his parents onto the stage in the 1980s, starring in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Jesus Christ Superstar among others.
"My father was arguably one of the greatest American theatrical actors and my mother was a very accomplished theatrical actress and singer, so I was in the theatre from the time I was in a crib, so it is what I know. I love performing live and the theatre, for me it's the most exciting venue. I play live because I love the interaction with an audience, every show I do is different. I know a lot of people that have a script but that's not creative to me, it would be like wind-me-up," said David, doing an impression of an automaton.
David's enthusiasm for performing is matched by that of his fans for seeing him, although they are calmer these days. He will be embarking on a tour round the UK in April 2007.
"I'm going to sing some of the songs that I haven't sung for many years. I have a lot of very enthusiastic fans still, it's different but they're great, because people listen and want to hear the songs, as opposed to screaming the whole time."
Could It Be Forever is the latest album, it features the greatest hits of David Cassidy and the Partridge Family. Only 19 years old when he began recording, over 30 years later he thinks his hits sound just as good.
"The work that's on this new CD is some of the best I ever did. I've done a lot of other things but I'm still really proud of it. I chose the songs on this album. It's a history of my entire recording career, from my very first tracks to the last ones for RCA, plus some things never heard on CD before."
As a young man, David worked with the best in the business to record the songs.
"I worked every night in the studio with the greatest songwriters, musicians and guitar players. I soaked it up like a sponge, what I learned in five years would take a person two or three lifetimes, it was an education that money couldn't buy. I consider myself very fortunate that I had the chance to do it and be successful."
In 2003 David played live in the studio and re-recorded the early hits for the album Then and Now, which went platinum. He did it because his record company at the time wanted him to, and he feels that these days the business is all about money.
"They didn't really view me as an artist, but just as an opportunity to make money, which is the way the music business is now. In the old days it was run by people who recorded music, but now it's run by managers, accountants and lawyers. It's a marketing business - and you don't have to be able to sing."
There's a lot to be said for people who purely make money, according to David, but he feels his new record company is interested in developing him, which is important to him because he relishes creativity.
"It's the only thing for me. I've got some good songs and ideas, but I welcome creative input - there hasn't been any of that."
David would like to make another recording, which may involve his wife, Sue Shifrin-Cassidy.
"I'd like to do it the way I recorded 99 percent of all my material, as I played in the 70s, live with a band in the studio. I've been writing and my wife has also been writing, she's a great writer."
His wife is a keen charity worker too, she founded KidsCharities.org, and those who watched this year's Children In Need will have seen David performing live and helping collect donations for youngsters.
"It's an opportunity to give back - children are our future," he says.
Currently David, who has been interested in horses since the seventies, is fundraising for the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation and the Thoroughbred Charities of America. He has donated a selection of his clothes, instruments and other memorabilia to an auction, taking place on 16th December 2006, so serious David Cassidy fans can now own a piece of the legend. David explained that he is selling the items because they mean a lot to the people that grew up with him, who he knows will treasure them.
"I had the things in storage until I got them out 10 years ago. I have photos of them all, and this is a positive way to distribute them."
Anyone can bid online, at www.juliensauctions.com, and for those who can't stretch to a jewelled parrot jumpsuit - estimated to sell for around a thousand dollars - there are more affordable pieces.
"I've donated six Partridge Family lunchboxes, which were the only thing I was given from the show, and I'm very proud that it's the most successful lunchbox in history! It reminds me of the freewheeling 70s - I'm still a hippy at heart, despite the hair."
You can purchase Could It Be Forever - The Greatest Hits by David Cassidy & The Partridge Family from all good record stores.
