Breaking: Rick Springfield Afraid of Vietnamese Hookers
Rick Springfield is back in the news today, this time in an Entertainment Weekly interview in which he announces his upcoming autobiography. Guess we can add "writer" to his mammoth list of accomplishments. In the interview, sent to me by the ever-so-lovely Sarah C., Springfield relays an anecdote about being in Vietnam in 1969 when he was just 17 years old (dude is 60 years old, let's not forget). He toured for three months performing for the troops, but his version sounds a lot more exciting than simply playing some gigs:
"I almost killed the band, blew us up with a hand grenade. And we basically lived off the good grace of the hookers there and bought dope off the little kids. I look back on that and I think, I’m lucky I’m not dead from it. The only way girls could make money back then was to be a prostitute. I was a young man, and we were all pretty cute, and they would give us freebies. I went home with this one, and I said, ‘Okay, I got to go back to the barracks now,’ because we stayed with all the soldiers in tents. It was pretty rough, it wasn’t like a USO tour at all. It was just this private guy that brought Australian bands over because we’re the closest occidental country to Vietnam. She threatened me, ‘She said, if you leave tonight I’ll kill you.’ So I said, ‘Okay, I’ll stay.’ [Laughs] You never knew who had an AK-47 under their bed in Vietnam back then….”
What's great about this story isn't that Springfield was almost killed by a Vietnamese hooker, or that he bought dope from little kids, but more that he correctly used the word 'occidental' in a sentence. Kanye West can use it, but it's more like, "Yo, my interruptin was occidental. My bad, bad." The article goes on to discuss the 25-year-anniversary of the movie Hard to Hold, his upcoming appearance in Californication, and his annual cruise. I'm gonna say it---Rick Springfield is officially relevant again.
"I almost killed the band, blew us up with a hand grenade. And we basically lived off the good grace of the hookers there and bought dope off the little kids. I look back on that and I think, I’m lucky I’m not dead from it. The only way girls could make money back then was to be a prostitute. I was a young man, and we were all pretty cute, and they would give us freebies. I went home with this one, and I said, ‘Okay, I got to go back to the barracks now,’ because we stayed with all the soldiers in tents. It was pretty rough, it wasn’t like a USO tour at all. It was just this private guy that brought Australian bands over because we’re the closest occidental country to Vietnam. She threatened me, ‘She said, if you leave tonight I’ll kill you.’ So I said, ‘Okay, I’ll stay.’ [Laughs] You never knew who had an AK-47 under their bed in Vietnam back then….”
What's great about this story isn't that Springfield was almost killed by a Vietnamese hooker, or that he bought dope from little kids, but more that he correctly used the word 'occidental' in a sentence. Kanye West can use it, but it's more like, "Yo, my interruptin was occidental. My bad, bad." The article goes on to discuss the 25-year-anniversary of the movie Hard to Hold, his upcoming appearance in Californication, and his annual cruise. I'm gonna say it---Rick Springfield is officially relevant again.
posted by Kraig Smith at
6:49 PM
2 Comments:
Dude...he has ALWAYS been relevant in the eyes of his die-hard fans. :-) He's highly intelligent as well and he's always been a writer. He writes all of his own songs and has since way back before Jessie's Girl, with the exception of a few covers here and there. He has an incredible sense of humor and I'm sure the book will be a great read. ;-) The fans have been practically begging for an autobiograhy for years. I can't wait to purchase his book!! If you wanna hear some kick-ass writing and the "harder" side of Rick...check out his angst-filled CD called Shock Denial Anger Acceptance. One of his BEST musical works to date!
Kelley68
Kelley68,
I am not about to disagree with you. In fact, half of my blog has been dedicated to proving that very point! He is...awesome.
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