David Cassidy in the News
David Cassidy Former Teen Idol Says He's Grown Up, So Should His Fans
A few moments with ...
May 5, 1991
By Charles Fishman
The Orlando Sentinel
There's an urgent message from David Cassidy -former teen heartthrob, former lead singer for the Partridge Family, poster-boy fantasy for a whole generation of dreamy-eyed girls: Grow up!
Cassidy's not Keith Partridge anymore. Keith, he says, is ''that shallow sort of twit I played on the Partridge Family.''
Cassidy insists he's grown up -he can produce a son, just 7 weeks old, in case you need a sample of his maturity.
''All that stuff -''teen idol' -that wasn't me,'' he says. Until now the conversation has been sliding along, filled with dull, polite celebrity vacuity. Suddenly we find the topic about which David has a genuine passion, an authentic attitude and an actual thought or two: the fact that people want to connect David the man to David the pop idol.
''Just do me a favor,'' he says. ''Don't call me ''former teen heartthrob,' okay? It's as if they were constantly discussing your second year of college. I'm not back there anymore. I'm living in the present.''
And what is the David Cassidy of the present doing, besides being Star of the Week out at Disney World? Why he's writing and singing grown-up pop music. No sticky adolescent sentiment here:
''Oh baby / I love the way you make me feel / Everything that we do / When I'm lyin' alone with you. / Oh but baby / No one else makes a cut so deep / I guess it's the things that you don't say / The secrets you keep.''
The songs on this comeback album, David Cassidy, show that during the last 15 years, David has had time to really infuse his work with a wide emotional range.
There's this line from ''Lyin' to Myself'': ''Without you baby nothing's been right.'' This from ''Livin' Without You'': ''Since you've been gone baby nothin's been right.'' And from ''All Because of You'': ''No nothin's right since you've been gone.''
Remarkable how much growing up David's done since the Partridge Family's hit, ''I Think I Love You.''
MY FIRST GLIMPSE OF DAVID Cassidy since The Partridge Family: He's sitting in the front seat of a 1950s convertible, a blond under each arm, having his picture taken. His hair is shoulder length, the smile is easy, wide, Pepsodent bright.
Cassidy is mugging cheerfully for the Disney publicity machine. The girls flanking Cassidy are park guests. The photographer asks the girls if they could look up at Cassidy in that starry-eyed way girls used to. ''You don't have to scream,'' he says. ''That's already been done.''
Cassidy, who may be the youngest-looking 41-year-old on the planet, is friendly and professional, chatting with the girls and signing autographs when the shooting is done. To a publicist he says teasingly, ''Could you put something in the caption to help my image? Like, ''When David goes to the drive-in, he always has a girl on each arm?'
Among the on-lookers are an infant (who keeps sliding out of his stroller), a young woman who might be the toddler's mother, and a nanny. This is the group Cassidy joins. Is the child his? ''Yes,'' he says, hoisting the baby a bit gawkily. ''This is my son, Beau, Beau Devin. He's 7 weeks old.'' He plunks Beau back in the stroller and the woman shows Cassidy how to thread his son's feet through straps that come up between his little legs. ''There you go, that'll keep him in. It'll rupture him, but it'll keep him in. I think you're a little young for this experience, son.''
Cassidy doesn't introduce the woman. I'm a little hesitant to assume her relationship, given the complexity of celebrity sex, love and breeding (even Cassidy has been the target of a paternity suit -from an L.A. tanning salon worker).
Is she Beau's mom? ''Yes, I am.'' David's third wife? ''Yes.'' Her name? ''Susie.'' Susie from the album liner notes (''without her none of this ever gets read or heard or discovered or remembered'')? She brightens. ''Yes, that's me.''
Cassidy does have three appearances during his first day as Star of the Week. He has stagey, extravagant gestures -shooting his arm into the air to acknowledge applause, tossing his hair -like someone doing a parody of a self-important star.
In a private VIP lounge, Cassidy requires a little coaxing to go beyond the album-promotion platitudes (''I think people really wanted to see me succeed''). Since Keith, he has been through two marriages, a stint singing in England, three years in psychotherapy and a period breeding race horses (he still owns three).
What about fatherhood? ''Well, the baby wasn't a decision we really made,'' Cassidy says. ''We were definitely looking at a life without children. With my focus on my career, it's just a very self-centered, a very selfish, a very self-involved time. But when she told me she was pregnant'' -he doesn't actually mention the name of the mother of his son, though she's standing behind him -''I embraced the idea. It's by far the most exciting thing to happen to me. Susie had to have a C-section, and I have pictures of him coming right out of her stomach.''
Cassidy went almost straight from high school to the Partridge Family. Does he regret never going to college? ''Yeah, because while everyone else was screwing around in college, I was working.''
What does he hope he can look back on having accomplished 15 years from now? ''I just want to continue to produce good work. I don't want to do junk. I don't want to end up being some joke on a bad TV series.''
If he's so worried about being thought of as a former teen heartthrob, why produce a comeback album of pop love songs? ''I guess I can never make another record again, is that what you're saying?''
Of those who insist on remembering him as a Partridge, Cassidy is understanding but firm: ''I'm well aware of the impact I had on a whole generation of teenagers. But hey, you gotta let me get on with it.''
