A young George Michael interviewed David Cassidy about stardom, struggling with fame, and doing a comeback that was published in the June 1985 issue of the Ritz fashion magazine. Read the full transcript of the interview:
- When George Michael Interviewed David Cassidy (Ritz Magazine, 1985)
- George Michael Interview of David Cassidy (Part 2)
- George Michael Interview of David Cassidy (Part 3)
- George Michael Interview of David Cassidy (Part 4)
- George Michael Interview of David Cassidy (Part 5)
GM: I think, having seen some reviews of the stuff, there are a lot of sympathetic ears, and there are a lot of people who would slag you off for no reason. There are also people that would give it an open ear or even a biased beneficial opinion because they have memories of you from their youth and everything, like through rose glasses. I think the situation evens out in many ways, but it’s got to be better than the situation you had before.
DC: Much!
GM: Which is totally created by the people. Now, let’s go into something totally non-musical. Your permanent home is in LA now?
DC: I live on a farm two hours north of LA.
GM: Two hours is just outside in America isn’t it? It’s like the difference between London and Manchester over here…
DC: Well, it’s not quite that far, but it’s definitely outside; when you’re there you know you’re not in LA.
GM: Have you always had a passion for horses then?
DC: Yes, since the time I can remember breathing.
GM: They scare the shit out of me!
Dc: They scare the shit out of me sometimes too! They’re wild buggers, but I do have a passion for it. I love the racing. We breed them, but my real passion is, well, ultimately if anyone asked me what I really wanted in the world, I would have to say the one thing that I want more than anything else, more than an Oscar or a quadruple platinum album and single, and 15 Grammies, would be to win the Kentucky Derby. (Laughs) And after I’d done that, I’d probably want to win the triple crown and then …
GM: Would that be more important to you than having a string of No. 1 singles say?
DC: Yeah. It would be, although I look at it as two different things. It’s certainly, I think, easier to get a No. 1 single than to win Kentucky Derby.
GM: (Laughing) This is true!
DC: You know, you go in the studio with a great song, or you write a great song. It’s wonderful to get a No. 1 single. I’m just happy to be having success again. To be heard and listened and accepted again, and being back in the business, it’s the first step.
GM: So, it’s the first time you’ve taken on such a large musical responsibility?
DC: Yeah, it is, and as somebody who’s come from the 70s, the kind of records I used to make were made me and I was just told to sing. I had very little control over what I recorded and how I sounded, so there was very little creative freedom and satisfaction when they went to No. 1, coz they weren’t really mine. At least this is mine, and in the case of ‘The Last Kiss, when I wrote it and when I’d finished it, I felt it was the best record I’d ever written. It’s about something very real and important that actually happened to me.
GM: I find it incredible that I can write something very personal, but when it becomes a hit record, I almost forget what I wrote it about. It’s funny how the actual public and success of the record can take things away from you.
DC: In a way it does, because then that becomes the experience, as opposed to the experience on which you wrote it. I have to keep going back to that everytime I perform it, I have to keep getting back, in order for it to be real to me.
GM: I’ve found that if I actually tried on stage, as I did at a certain point, I realized I was no longer singing about the experience, but was singing a hit record. When I go back to the experience, I get too heavily involved, and my voice starts to waiver because my mind goes, and I start to lose control. You have to strike a fair balance between the two.
DC: I never thought I’d be saying this, but from the old days what I really is standing up on stage and being able to do that. Being the focal point, you understand this as well as anybody does, being the focal point to 10, 20, 30,000 people that love everything you’re doing, they know all the songs. They can’t wait for you to sing your next hit, the old ones. I have a lot of and a lot of hit songs that I honestly thought I’d never sing again. I’m gonna have the opportunity to be able to sing the ones I want, because I have a lot of hit songs to pick and choose from, as well as the new stuff. I’d never, for any amount of money, just go out and do that nostalgia act.
GM: I’ve often thought about the idea of trying to get out of the public angle of what we do, the decision you made in terms of stepping out of the limelight …
DC: Well, I did that – very drastically!
GM: … and saying, “Right, I’m going to make records, but I’m not going to do all the shit.”
DC: You can’t.
GM: Well, you can – you can still make records, but you can’t expect them to sell in anything like the same proportions. Was there a point when you said to yourself, “I really miss it?” That is the fascination for me. Every time I think it’s getting too much for me, and I’m not enjoying being part of everybody’s lives. I do have to say to myself what would my real reaction be if in two years from now I hadn’t been in a paper for a year.
DC: Well, after five years, of it, maybe six, I was so fed up with it, and it got to the point where it literally did take three years before I started even thinking about missing it, and thinking what fun it would be again, but I didn’t want to step back into the same situation again. I wanted to be able to have that momentary hit, and be singing and performing on stage, and having that experience again. I missed that. It becomes almost like a drug. When you go on tour, night after night, you come to expect it because it happens all the time, everywhere you go. It became the only thing I ever looked forward to, actually being on the stage. Being on the road is extremely frustrating and boring. I understand why a lot of people go completely nuts. When they walk into a hotel room, they’re so fucking crazy, they end up throwing TV sets out of the window. It’s just to break the monotony and boredom.
GM: I think to a degree, the late 60s and early 70s rock ‘n’ roll tour syndrome was probably a matter of people justifying their status. Normal people don’t throw TV sets out of windows! The whole thing is that you are told you’re not normal …
DC: If you were normal, you wouldn’t be doing that.
GM: I think some people can’t face how they’re written about in the most ridiculous terms, but all these terms are flattering and huge enlargements to their life, and they feel, “Oh my God, I’m just sitting here in my hotel room. I’ve got to do something larger than life. I’ll throw a TV out of the window.”
DC: Also in the late 60s and early 70s, you’d hear what ZEPPELIN did, and ZEPPELIN would hear about what BAD COMPANY did and what THE WHO did. It almost became like, well, I have to become more outrageous than they are. I’ve never got to the point where I was doing that, but I felt I wanted to. I guess I was just sane enough not to.
GM: If the room service was bad, you’d throw the TV set out of the window! Do you think you’ll ever do anymore acting?
DC: Definitely. Yes. But not for the next year or so because of this. I spent the better half of last year putting it all together and making it happen and I’ve come all the way from nowhere to where I am now, which is a great step in one year. In order to get involved as an actor again with film – it takes such a commitment – ten to twelve hours a day when you’re working on a set. You have no time to do anything else.
GM: You have to do one thing or the other …
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[…] PART 2: George Michael Interview of David Cassidy (Part 2) […]