David Cassidy in the News
I think I love you: David Cassidy still makes women swoon
Keith Partridge and his fans are all grown up, but not much has changed.
October 7, 2002
By Michael Zitz
The Free Lance-Star, Virginia
THERE'S NOT really that much difference between then and now--aside from the women's underwear.
Almost three decades after "The Partridge Family" went off the air, the lust remains.
The pubescent girls who bought millions of teen magazines with David Cassidy on the cover are now middle-aged. But they scream louder than ever on his current concert tour to promote his latest Universal/Decca Records album, "Then and Now."
He's 52 now, but women in their 40s and 50s still go crazy when he sings "I Think I Love You," the Partridge Family song that was the biggest hit of 1971.
"It's a lot more intense now," Cassidy said in a telephone interview. "It's different when teenagers do it. When you hear adults that really and truly are letting themselves go, it's incredible.
"They're throwing their bras and underwear," Cassidy said with a chuckle. "So it's pretty cool--I have to be honest. I'm having the time of my life."
In middle age, Cassidy remains laid-back, youthful and likable, much like his alter ego, the singing teen heartthrob Keith Partridge.
The show revolved around a family that traveled the country as a pop band. Cassidy's real-life stepmother, Shirley Jones, played his mother on the hit sitcom.
Life imitated art when Cassidy became a real pop performer. He had the biggest fan club in music industry history and sold millions of records.
He later shifted gears and returned to acting, appearing on Broadway and London's West End, where he earned critical praise as a dramatic actor.
But in the '90s, VH-1 helped start a nostalgia craze that re-energized his music career and helped him become a big Las Vegas attraction, go on a world tour and get a new major-label record deal.
"After I diversified and had so many different opportunities working on Broadway and in Las Vegas, it's come full circle the last year," he said about the release of the new album and the tour.
"It's probably the most satisfying time of my life," Cassidy said. "I'm strapping on my guitar and feeling like I'm 19. The most amazing thing is the reaction of the audience to me and the material."
"Partridge Family" co-star Danny Bonaduce, who played younger brother Danny Partridge, had plenty of problems in life after the show went off the air.
But Cassidy, who was out of high school when the show began taping, never really was a child star and escaped emotionally unscathed. He said he never had any problems as a result of becoming a star at a young age.
Cassidy declined to talk about a former relationship with co-star Susan Dey, who played his sister Laurie Partridge on the series. That relationship was the focal point of a made-for-TV movie about "The Partridge Family."
"We have an obsession with celebrity relationships and the sex lives of celebrities," he said. "I don't get it. I don't care what other people are doing."
When he was a teen idol, Cassidy had a very full social life. That was then. He's married now.
"I've been with the same woman for 16 years," he said. "We're happy together. So life is good for me."
Suddenly, Cassidy sounded 52, not 19.
"I don't understand people's preoccupation with their [private parts], preoccupation with sex everywhere you look," he said.
He said it's had a bad effect on society.
"There's no innocence looking at what we're looking at on television today," he said.
