David Cassidy in the News
For David Cassidy, the beat goes on
October 04, 1991
By Hartford Courant
Baltimore Sun
It's a situation that cries out for Reuben Kinkaid.
The agent on "The Partridge Family" would know exactly what to do if every time Keith Partridge went out on a latter-day solo career, his record companies were bought out or went bankrupt.
But David Cassidy's solution is: Just go out and tour anyway.
The still impossibly boyish '70s TV star and one-time teen idol, now 41, is on his first tour in 15 years.
And as much as he tried to carve an image away from the Keith Partridge character on his "David Cassidy" album, released last fall on the now-defunct Enigma Records, he is bringing back, to open the show, his fictional little brother: self-described "has-been," radio personality and recent police-blotter item Danny Bonaduce.
"It's an exciting thing to happen," Mr. Cassidy says of his tour, which stops at Max's on Broadway Monday night, "to know that there's an audience out there, and to want to go back and play songs I haven't sung in 15, 16, 17 years."
The last time songs such as "I Think I Love You," "Doesn't Somebody Want To Be Wanted," "I'll Meet You Halfway" and "Cherish" were sung live, they were echoing in arenas over the screams of frantic preteens.
"I always said I'd never be a nostalgia act. And I turned down a lot of money to do that kind of thing," Mr. Cassidy says. "But as a result of stopping at the top -- I mean, the last concert I played was for 40,000 people -- you're not a joke, you're not sad, you're not pathetic; you leave with integrity."
But Mr. Cassidy's career during the last two decades has been thwarted by record deals that have gone sour. An album that was a hit in London in 1985 never made it to the States because the label was bought out. His warmly received new album, which featured the single "Lying to Myself," was stopped cold when the record company, Enigma, went out of business.
He sat out after the first disappointment and wrote songs, some of which have turned up here and there; "I'll Never Stop Loving You," which he wrote with his wife, Sue Shifrin, and John Wetton of Asia, was recorded by Cher for her "Love Hurts" album.
Momentum was rolling with last fall's album, he says, until the record company went bankrupt.
"It's a mess," he says. "The music business, I never intended it to be like this.
But he adds, "I could either sit back and be angry and bitter, or I could just look at the fact I did something really positive. So I'm very proud of that, and I'm feeling very positive about going out on the road."
David Cassidy
Where: Max's on Broadway, 735 S. Broadway
When: Oct. 7, 8 p.m.
Tickets: $10 in advance, $12 day of show.
Call: 481-6000.
