RICK SPRINGFIELD: Lifelong struggle with depression
Rick Springfield says, "Being alive’s a struggle, honestly." In a People magazine exclusive, he admits, "I'm happy I’m alive when I’m happy I’m alive."
The Australian singer-actor has fought depression since puberty. "I suddenly started feeling really insignificant and useless and unpopular. It was just something that was stirred in me that I could never really put my finger on. I ended up staying home from school because I couldn’t face it... I really just hated being in my own skin."
One of the most poignant tracks on his new blues album The Snake King, "Suicide Manifesto," describes his dark times.
The issue even nagged him at the peak of his career, causing him to take time away. "I thought fame and success would heal me. I achieved it, and it didn’t help. That was shattering to me... I just pulled the plug and started going to therapy in lieu of basically shooting myself.”
People's new issue goes on sale Friday.
CHICAGO: More on the way from the vaults
Chicago's upcoming VI Decades Live box set is, of course, a group effort. But founding member Robert Lamm credits trumpeter Lee Loughnane for being the band's archivist and for restoring old tapes for the April 6th release.
Chicago's Robert Lamm credits bandmate Lee Loughnane for his work on restoring many of the tapes in the upcoming Six Live Decades Live box set:
"Lee Loughnane, who's kind of been the guy in our band who taken it upon himself to be the archivist -- so he has built a studio where he lives in Arizona -- anything that do whether it was archive material or even our documentary that we did, he fastidiously make everything sound better than the original, if possible."
JACKSON 5: Motown's greatest stars
As we mark Black History Month for 2018, it's no surprise that we found a best-of list on Motown, music's most famous black-owned label.
Business Insider has posted what it says are the Top Seven Most Successful Artists from Berry Gordy's company.
- The Jackson 5
- The Four Tops
- The Temptations
- Marvin Gaye
- The Supremes
- Stevie Wonder
- Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
Though Business Insider cites sales, chart positions and other accolades, the list isn't based on metrics.
ALICE COOPER: Looking forward to better times
Alice Cooper has had a pair of scares in 2018, but he's looking forward to the rest of the year.
Cooper was in Hawaii during that false alarm for a nuclear attack, and he recently was in a head-on crash that totaled his car. Grateful that "both of us walked out of it without a scratch," he tells Billboard, "I did come out of it with a 1965 350 Shelby Mustang -- a real Detroit car. That's where the insurance money's going."
Alice, who turned 70 last week, is planning a dramatically different live show for 2019. It'll be "a bigger show and won't look like his current production." Admitting "there's no way from getting away from the 15 songs for so you have to do," he's focusing on how they're staged. "How do you approach them? What's the look of Alice? What's the look of the band?"
Alice is already booked for Easter Sunday, when he'll play King Herod on NBC's live production of Jesus Christ Superstar. "I do rock theatrics in front of an audience, y'know? Musical theater is pretty much what I've done for 50 years. I think it'll feel pretty natural."