David Cassidy on the Web
At last, balance
Kicking back in upstate New York is one of David Cassidy's great joys. Rested and relaxed, he'll play The Canyon on Saturday
August 17, 2006
By Mark Wyckoff
VenturaCountyStar.com
History runs deep in Saratoga Springs, deeper even than the flowing mineral waters that helped give this idyllic Victorian city in upstate New York its name. Iroquois Indians hunted there, fur traders used it as a base and a tide-turning American Revolution battle was won in the area in 1777.
Today, this upper-crust burg is known as a horse-racing mecca, roughly doubling its population of 26,000 every summer as horse owners, breeders, jockeys and fans descend upon the venerable Saratoga Racetrack for six weeks of racing, thoroughbred sales, picnics and parties.
Entertainer David Cassidy, who performs Saturday at The Canyon in Agoura Hills, has been visiting Saratoga Springs as a horseman for more than 30 years, indulging a passion for breeding and racing that stretches back to his red-hot days on "The Partridge Family" television series in the early 1970s, when he was starring as shaggy-haired Keith and cutting hit records like "I Think I Love You," "Could It Be Forever" and "Rock Me Baby."
But for the 56-year-old Cassidy, the appeal of Saratoga Springs goes far beyond the city's reputation as an equine epicenter. He has a history with the town dating back to his childhood, and he feels at home there like no other place in the world. Though he and his wife of 15 years, songwriter Sue Shifrin, and their 15-year-old-son, Beau, spend most of the year in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Cassidy's vagabond soul feels most centered when he's summering in Saratoga Springs. It's an emotional plateau he feared he'd never reach as his 38-year career took him on a wild ride across the globe.
"There's a certain romantic atmosphere here that doesn't exist anywhere else I've been," Cassidy said by phone last week from Saratoga Springs. "I spent a lot of time as a kid out here with my mom (actress Evelyn Ward) and father (the late Tony-winning Broadway star Jack Cassidy) when they would do summer stock. There were these tent theaters back then. I don't know how many of them still exist, but they were in a beautiful, beautiful country atmosphere. I have such vivid memories of that. I wake up every day and I feel like I'm home.
"I can be anywhere I want to be, and this is where I want to be," he said.
Shattered by the wayside Cassidy didn't always have that luxury. Despite sporadic success in the '80s, including the title role on Broadway in the original production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" and a Top 10 hit in England with the song "The Last Kiss," he struggled to find work. Thieving business managers and bad investments in oil and real estate had obliterated his "Partridge" profits. By 1986, he was twice divorced, $500,000 in debt and forced to live in the guest bedroom of a friend's two-bedroom apartment. His horse business? Gone.
Reconnecting with Shifrin, whom he first met in the mid-1970s, helped kick-start his heart and his career beginning in the late '80s. Intensive analysis was key, too.
He slowly set about rebuilding his career, first writing songs for Heart, Cher and Asia and then scoring a Top 30 solo hit with "Lyin' to Myself" in 1990. Broadway beckoned in 1993, where Cassidy delivered a powerhouse performance in the Willy Russell musical tragedy "Blood Brothers."
A five-year stay in Vegas came next, where he headlined the MGM Grand's $70 million production show "EFX" from 1996 to 1998 and starred in his own show, "At the Copa," at the Rio Hotel in 2000. He also created and produced "The Rat Pack is Back!," a tribute to the old-school Vegas cool of Frank Sinatra and Co. that played the Sahara and the Desert Inn.
By 2001, longing for a slower pace, he and his family headed for the golden beaches of South Florida. Using Fort Lauderdale as a base, he built his horse business back up and now has some 30 horses racing in Florida and New York. He also hit the concert trail in earnest, playing all over America and England. His 2002 album, "Then & Now," shot to No. 5 on the British album charts, stayed in the Top 75 for 15 weeks and went platinum.
For Cassidy, life in 2006 is all about balance. He tours when he wants to and takes "The Rat Pack is Back!" on the road when he feels like it.
"You know, it's taken me 30 years to get to a point where I wasn't just working or wasn't working at all and hoping, wishing I could work," he said. "I've had offers to go to New York and work in the theater and I've declined only because the projects were not things I wanted do. I don't want to go to Broadway just to go to Broadway. I don't want to do a television series just to say I'm in a television series. I don't! I don't need to do it. I love the fact that I don't need to do it."
If it's Tuesday ?
On this particular morning, Cassidy is upbeat and talkative, still buzzed about the second-place finish the day before by his horse, Dove Wing.
He had the house to himself because his wife, a licensed pilot, had gotten up early to fly her plane, a Beechcraft model Cassidy said "doesn't go fast but gets you there safely."
It was a non-racing day at Saratoga, so Cassidy was busy attending to the business of being David Cassidy. That meant doing interviews, working on the March 2007 re-release of his 1994 autobiography and listening to his phone ring incessantly.
"The world decided, "It's Tuesday, let's call David," he joked.
People were faxing, too. One dispatch in particular caught his eye.
"Oh! Look at this. I just got this offer for a recording contract right in front of me. ¿Peter Bunetta - Producer,' it says. Love that!"
Cassidy has been in talks for several weeks with an unnamed label to do a new record with Bunetta, a Calabasas-based producer he worked with in 1998 on "Old Trick, New Dog."
That album, released on Cassidy's own Slamajama label, featured a mix of original songs and retooled Partridge classics. Although a slinky update of "I Think I Love You" stiffed at radio, the Lulu-penned follow-up single "No Bridge I Wouldn't Cross" hit No. 1 on Los Angeles radio station KBIG (104.3 FM). Nationally, it hit No. 16 on the Radio & Records' adult contemporary chart and No. 23 on the Billboard AC chart.
Not bad for an indie label, but not good enough for Cassidy. That's why he's approaching this new offer with healthy skepticism.
"I don't want to put anything out on a small scale," he said firmly. "I've done so many things that I'm really proud of that most of the world has not even been aware of. If I'm going to do it, I have to know there's a commitment from the other side to reach, from a broadcasting standpoint, as many people as possible. And I'm not just talking about radio. I'm talking about television. I'm talking about retail.
"And I believe I might have found the spot where I can be successful."
Bunetta, in a separate interview, agreed.
"I'm sure you'll hear it once we do it," he said. "People use that phrase now, ¿the complete package.' Well, David had the original package.
"He was like the prototype of multimedia, with his acting, his records and his concerts. What I learned about David working with him before is that he has an ear for a great song and a love for a great song. And that continues to drive him."
Looking over the contract details outlined on the one-page fax, Cassidy seemed pleased with the business end of it. "Creative conversations" hammering out whether the disc would be all-original tunes or a mix of both like on "Old Trick" will be the next step in the negotiating process.
"This will be music and material that I feel fits me and I fit it," he said. "The creative aspect of it has to be fleshed out and I want us all to be on the same page. I don't want to go into the studio and waste my time and their money on something we don't all agree on."
If the record scores at retail next year, it could pave the way for a boxed set of all his solo albums. "BMG has been talking to me about the potential," he said. "But pulling the trigger on a package of that size is an enormous investment. So it may take a step in between that, and this new album might be that step."
If negotiations over the new CD break down, Cassidy has no qualms about walking away from the table.
"I don't have to do it," he stressed.
"It's not my livelihood. It's kind of like icing on the cake, you know?"
Like father, like son
If Cassidy passes on the deal, he'll have more time to spend with his son Beau, a budding performer who plays bass in his own rock band.
They've had a blast together this summer, hanging out at the track, traveling and, in an "electrifying" father-son moment, singing the National Anthem together before a Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field on Aug. 1.
"It was one of the most enjoyable, proud moments of my life," Cassidy said. "I said to him, ¿I don't want to put any pressure on you, let me sing the harmony.' And he said, ¿No dad, I'm singing the harmony.' I just marvel at him.
"He sang at Carnegie Hall with his choir last June, right after he graduated from middle school. He's going to be a sophomore in high school this year and he's already sung at Carnegie Hall. Stop it! Slow down, boy!"
Cassidy was equally floored by his son's dramatic turn this summer in an acting-camp production of "Blood Brothers." Beau played the show's tragic hero, Mickey Johnstone, the same part Cassidy played on Broadway and London's West End.
"He did it all on his own," Cassidy said. "He was 5 when I did it, so it wasn't like he had ever studied me. He created the character himself and that was pretty thrilling. I think my wife thinks he was better than I was."
Cassidy's other child, 19-year-old actress Katie Cassidy, is from a previous relationship. She grew up in Ventura County's Bell Canyon with her mom and step-dad and graduated from Calabasas High School.
Her own career began to skyrocket this year, with roles in the No. 1 films "When A Stranger Calls" and "Click," which starred Adam Sandler. Last month, she signed on to play Lucy Ewing in a big-screen version of "Dallas," which will star John Travolta as Texas tycoon J.R. Ewing.
Though her relationship with Cassidy has been an icy one in recent years, it appears to be thawing. In April, she flew out from Los Angeles with her boyfriend, pop star Jesse McCartney, to see Cassidy perform in Sparks, Nev.
"Katie and I have found a fantastic way of communicating through our cell phones from 8,000 miles away," he said from the stage that night with obvious affection. "She's become a very sought-after young actress."
Fear and loathing, revisited
Cassidy's relationship with his own father, the late Jack Cassidy, was troubled, too. Cassidy felt abandoned as a young boy when his dad divorced his mom and married "Oklahoma!" ingenue Shirley Jones, who would go on to play Cassidy's mother in "The Partridge Family." When his father was killed in a 1976 apartment fire, Cassidy hadn't spoken to him in more than nine months.
Their turbulent love-hate relationship was chronicled in Cassidy's 1994 biography, "C'mon Get Happy: Fear and Loathing on the Partridge Family Bus," but Cassidy wasn't pleased with the results.
When Headline Books releases the updated book in March the narrative will be markedly different, Cassidy said. It will also sport a new title and sidebars on various aspects of Cassidy's career, penned by pop historian Ken Sharp.
"The core of the original book was left on the editor's floor and that was incredibly disappointing to me," Cassidy said. "So now, 12 years later, I'm trying to fill in the gaps. My problem is that most of the things that are important to me, that mean a lot to me, are rather serious things. It's not entertaining, it's not funny. I keep hearing from my wife and people who know me and love me who say, ¿You don't want to tell that story, it's so dark.' Well, I'm sorry it's so serious, but it is."
Cassidy live
In stark contrast to the tone of the book, Cassidy prefers to keep his concerts light, eschewing the darker, introspective material he's done on albums like "The Higher They Climb, The Harder They Fall" in favor of sunnier pop hits like "Summer Days" and "Echo Valley 2-6809."
Though hard-core fans keep imploring him to dig deeper into his catalog, Cassidy won't budge.
"The majority of the people who come to my shows to connect with me have connected with me because of the lighter stuff," he said.
"I can't ever go ¿too far inside' just to please a much smaller group. I do "Common Thief" now, which the hard-core fans love, but there's no way a song like that is ever going to connect with a broad audience like ¿I Think I Love You' does."
Cassidy may believe that, but it doesn't explain why "Cry" - a song he didn't start doing until 1991 - has morphed into such a fan favorite.
Cassidy closes many of his concerts with the riveting ballad, a 1951 Johnnie Ray hit that Cassidy has clearly put his stamp on.
"It's mine now, so I sing it and love it and will forever," he said. "My father used to love that song and he sang it to me as a kid. If anything, it's kind of a tip of the hat to my dad. It's me saying, "Thanks for the talent, Dad." And thanks for the memories.
"Thanks for all of it."
Photo by Amy Shatzen
"I love to play live," David Cassidy says. "It does it for me. I love to play the music and I love to play the songs and I get it back in spades from the audiences."
JAG Entertainment
David Cassidy, wife Sue Shifrin and son Beau share a group hug with a dolphin at Hawk's Cay Resort in the Florida Keys. It's moments like this, Cassidy says, far away from the spotlight's glare, that give his life balance.
Photo by Tod Marks
David Cassidy, left, and his wife Sue Shifrin are all smiles as they stand in the Saratoga Racetrack winner's circle last year with Cassidy's horse, Sleeping. "As a horseman, Saratoga is the place to be," Cassidy says.
JAG Entertainment
Photo by Bob Vorwald / WGN-TV
Singing the National Anthem with his 15-year-old son Beau this month at Chicago's Wrigley Field was "electrifying," David Cassidy says.
