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: Did you come from a reasonably affluent background? What was the background in terms of your parents?
DC: (Laughing) 10 bucks a week and that was it!
GM: I know what’s that about, you see I didn’t get a penny. I had to wash the windows if I wanted to make any money! But my parents lived in a big house, my dad had a big car so the 10 bucks a week story …
DC: I wish this interview was going the other way, coz then I’d ask you the next question. What are you doing with all your money?
GM: What I’m doing is – I’m earning a huge amount of money – (Laughing) you know, this is really going to interest Ritz coz they like this kind of thing – most of which I’m keeping and a certain amount for my conscience, I give away to various things, like Ethiopia.
DC: Are you doing this to satisfy yourself?
GM: I’m doing it to satisfy my conscience and because of guilt. But at the same time, I also feel I’m in a privileged position to be able to do something which is giving great amounts of money to good causes and it doesn’t make a big dent in my pocket. My success causes some success in some other areas. I think that’s why a lot of pop stars do it …
DC: I think everybody appreciates that. Honestly, I think they view you as someone who does have a conscience.
GM: This interview is turning round now!! I think we’d better be careful.
DC: Yeah, you’re right. I’ll shut up.
GM: OK, what do you do with your money, DAVID?
DC: (Laughing) I think it’s fantastic that at the age of 21 you’re living at home …
GM: Not anymore, I’ve just move out. It’s 47A …
DC: I think it’s fantastic that you’ve been able to maintain your life style and who you are. You’re still probably very much the same guy as when you started. I look back at the times when I was in my early and middle 20s and I was a tragically wealthy and unhappy person. You’re making more money that you ever imagined – filthy money that people are constantly trying to steal from you …
GM: My money’s not filthy! I iron my money! Do you know, I know somebody who does that … (Laughing) Really!! When are you going back to LA!
DC: Mid-June approx. It’ll be a total rest to get away from working. It’s really about going home. I’ve been here the best part of a year and five months straight. Now I’m really mentally exhausted and I need to go home and let the well fill up a little bit and relax. Also I have the horse business over there – I miss my farm and the horses and I miss being in America – sitting with my feet up on my coffee table relaxing.
GM: I find that you can walk into an American hotel room and in terms of attitude, it’s like a completely different planet.
DC: Why?
GM: (Laughing) You’re not supposed to be asking me questions – but I find it very much more self-centered in America.
DC: It’s pretty slick.
GM: Tell me what you hate and/or love about London.
DC: The weather – that’s a definite hate! What I love about it is that it’s like a big small town to me. I feel safe here, I’m not paranoid when I walk down the street for the most part.
GM: And you’re saying that you are in New York?
DC: Oh yeah. I lived in New York for six months – almost as long as I’d lived here, a couple of years ago. I love New York.
GM: As the car sticker says!
DC: Honestly, it’s a great place. It’s the capital of the world. Everything to be found on this planet can be found there except some green grass and fresh air! It’s a very exciting city and I think London has the best of what New York has and a lot less of the worst that New York has, which is the filth and the poverty and the frightening screaming sort of loneliness you see people walking around New York with. The thing that strikes me every time I go there is that there are thousands and thousands of homeless people.
GM: Unfortunately too there are a hell of a lot more here in London that there used to be.
DC: I’ve noticed more this time, not having been here in eight years. I think London has changed in that respect. I am a lot more aware of it now than I used to be. New York is such an intense city that it is almost like a drug. Once you get hooked on it as I have been, I need to go back there often to get a fix of it.
GM: Some people don’t take to it and in a large number of cases there’s a certain danger to New York which is exciting. Somebody may come up and say hello but they may also come up and blow your head off!
DC: I once saw a guy walk by in New York with a bullet in his head and his head bleeding. I have experienced that in New York and it scares the shit of you. You think if you just happen to turn the corner 10 seconds earlier you could have caught that bullet.
GM: I remember the first time ANDREW and I went to New York, and I was absolutely paranoid for the first two days but by the third day, I started to feel at home and more relaxed. I sat there saying to ANDREW, “It’s great here and I can’t understand why I was so scared shit of it,” but then somebody got stabbed outside the hotel we were eating in!
DC: It slaps you in the face.
GM: I saw Harlem a couple of weeks ago because we were playing at the Apollo and I’ve never been in a Western high street where there was not one white face other than my own and that was half-way down the seat in the back of the car!
DC: It does make you feel a little insecure because we’ve all been told we should be frightened.
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