Rick Springfield has been candid about his mental health battles — so much so that his revelations about depression and suicidal ideation in his memoir, Late Late at Night, generated much more press attention than that tell-all book’s more stereotypically rock ‘n’ roll confessions about his sexual exploits. But in an interview conducted shortly after the May 7 release of his lockdown benefit single “The Wall Will Fall ” — an anthem about “a soul that dreams of peace” and “no longer turning a blinded eye to a heart that’s cryin’ to be free” that resonates even more now during a time of great social unrest — Springfield said the pandemic hadn’t directly affected his current mood.
“My depression isn’t caused by necessarily by things that happen, although there are real things that can actually get you depressed,” he told Yahoo Entertainment. “Mine is more like, I’ll wake up one morning and I’ll just have it.”
That being said, while Springfield has since respectfully paused his online musical series with his “The Wall Will Fall” co-writer Vance DeGeneres due to the current climate in America, he has kept busy over the past few quarantined weeks, since making music is a way for him to keep a handle on his mental health. In addition to “The Wall Will Fall,” he recorded social-distancing parodies of his own songs, like “We Don’t Need Human Touch” and “Glove Somebody.” Said Springfield of the latter Instagram goof, “That’s my favorite, because it actually has our dog singing along with it.”
On the subject of dogs — a subject very near and dear to Springfield’s heart — the singer recommended pet adoption to anyone struggling right now, saying, “If you want a companion during this lockdown, there’s no better companion than a dog.” He fondly recalled how one of his past dogs, Gomer, helped him through some dark times. “I would get depressed and he had a big bed, and I’d go lie in the bed with him. And just holding him, it absolutely, absolutely helped,” he reminisced. “I called him a ‘Prozac on legs.’”
This article was originally posted on yahoo.com/entertainment/.
