SANTA YNEZ — Shaun Cassidy steers his Dodge Ram 250 into the parking zone of the Maverick Saloon and throws open the truck’s passenger door, refrigerated air whooshing out of the cab, the place he sits behind the wheel sporting sun shades, black denims and a black T-shirt.
The onetime teen idol who topped Billboard’s Sizzling 100 in 1977 together with his chirpy cowl of the Crystals’ “Da Doo Ron Ron” — this was seven years after Cassidy’s mom, Shirley Jones, and his half brother, David Cassidy, hit No. 1 because the Partridge Household with “I Assume I Love You” — has made a lunch reservation at a winery not removed from the place he lives in Santa Barbara County so the 2 of us can speak about his upcoming live performance tour.
“However the place is as huge as Knott’s Berry Farm, and I didn’t wish to spend 20 minutes in search of you,” he says, with amusing. “That’s why I assumed higher to choose you up right here.”
The drive additionally permits Cassidy, 66, to point out off a little bit of the picturesque area he’s referred to as dwelling since 2011, when he moved from Hidden Hills together with his spouse, Tracey, and their 4 kids. (He has three extra kids from two earlier marriages.) “It’s not as distant because it was earlier than the pandemic,” says Cassidy, who’s spent the previous couple of a long time working behind the scenes in tv. By means of the truck’s home windows, a panini store and a microblading clinic roll by. “COVID occurred, and all of the sudden it grew to become a part of Los Angeles — so much of recent folks,” he says.
“However I grew up in L.A. and New York” — Cassidy’s dad was the actor Jack Cassidy — “and I at all times envied those that got here from someplace else. My people advised us, ‘Don’t fear, we’re gonna purchase a farm in Pennsylvania or transfer upstate,’ and it by no means occurred.” Right here within the Santa Ynez Valley, Cassidy provides, “I’ve managed to manifest the household life that my father at all times advised me was necessary however one way or the other couldn’t discover for himself.”
Now he’s leaving dwelling for his most in depth run of exhibits in additional than 40 years.
Cassidy’s tour, which kicks off Saturday at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry and has dates scheduled by way of March, will revisit the light-weight pop pleasures of the musical profession he maintained alongside his function as Joe Hardy on TV’s “The Hardy Boys Mysteries.” Because the youthful brother of a longtime heartthrob, Cassidy got here in scorching: His self-titled debut for Warner Bros. Data went platinum inside months and spun off three Prime 10 singles in “That’s Rock ’n’ Roll,” “Da Doo Ron Ron” and “Hey Deanie”; Cassidy was even nominated for finest new artist on the Grammy Awards in 1978, the place he turned up onstage in a white pantsuit at age 19 for a bum-waggling rendition of “That’s Rock ’n’ Roll.”
“This younger man,” proclaimed the present’s host, John Denver, “is unquestionably going locations.”
Shaun Cassidy on the twentieth Grammy Awards in Los Angeles in 1978.
(UPI / Bettmann Archive / Getty Photographs)
4 extra LPs got here in fast succession, ending with the willfully eccentric “Wasp,” for which Cassidy recruited Todd Rundgren as his producer. Then, following a 1980 gig at Houston’s Astrodome, Cassidy abruptly stop music to give attention to writing and performing, which he describes as his actual ardour.
“I didn’t love being well-known,” he says, as we pull onto a dust street approaching Vega Winery & Farm. “However I believe I wanted to be well-known. I got here from a household the place everybody was well-known, and I didn’t wish to undergo life being somebody’s child or somebody’s brother. So I needed to kind of step out into the highlight and announce myself, and as soon as that was performed, I might determine what I wish to do.”
Why return to the stage now? For one factor, Cassidy says he’s singing higher in the mean time than he ever has — a declare supported by his previous pal Bernie Taupin.
“Shaun’s voice has matured in the easiest way potential,” says the lyricist identified for his half-century-long collaboration with Elton John. “However the different factor is that he’s a born raconteur.”
Certainly, Cassidy’s street present, which he’s been workshopping sporadically since 2019, is a songs-and-stories affair wherein he seems again on an eventful life he has but to recount in a ebook. “It’s important to be fearless and brutally sincere while you write a memoir,” he says, pointing to Patti Smith’s “Simply Children” (2010) as one price aspiring to. “David wrote a s— ebook, and my mom wrote a s— ebook, so I really feel a little bit of duty to symbolize my household precisely and truthfully.”
We’re seated now at a picnic desk within the shade, the place a server has introduced over a number of bottles from Cassidy’s line of wines — the road known as My First Crush, which is ideal — and a few Greek salads. “I don’t assume there’s something I’d be scared to put in writing,” Cassidy says. “My larger concern could be hurting folks.”
Who have you ever used as a comparability level to elucidate your ’70s stardom to your youngest youngster?
She has the poster on her wall: Harry Types. And I didn’t say it to her; her mom did: “You understand, your father was that man.” My daughter’s like, “That previous in man there? Not potential.” However there was a series you possibly can tie me into. My document had been No. 1 per week or two earlier than Elvis died, so when that occurred, a number of reporters referred to as me: “How do you’re feeling about Elvis passing? How do you’re feeling about strolling within the King’s sneakers?” I used to be like, “If he’s useless at 42, I don’t wish to be in these sneakers.”
Did you truly say that to a reporter?
I used to be too well mannered. However there’s numerous reality in it. Ricky Nelson had simply been a visitor on “The Hardy Boys,” and I bear in mind pondering that I didn’t wish to be visitor starring on a TV present in 20 years. Look, my brother David didn’t deal with fame effectively. I had a mannequin for what to not do, and I had a mannequin for what to do: my mom, who’s 91 and lives 5 minutes away and is as gracious and beautiful and comfortable a human being as you’ll ever meet.
I wish to say I’m in present enterprise, however I’m not of it. I really like the work and the creativity — I’m not a purple carpet man. She by no means was both. She was like, “They inform me the place to go, I present up, I do it.” And folks love her.
There’s a nice photograph of you within the L.A. Occasions in 1978 standing in your yard subsequent to a swimming pool.
I acquired “The Hardy Boys” after I was 18 — nonetheless residing at dwelling with my mother in Beverly Hills. My mother and father are separated — my father died whereas I used to be taking pictures the pilot, which was fairly traumatic — and I’m like, I gotta get out of right here. The household’s enterprise supervisor calls a financial institution and says, “He’s prime of present on a brand new collection making $2,500 per week.” They acquired me a mortgage to purchase a home with no down cost. So I went and purchased a home on the weekend whereas my mom was out of city.
Was she pissed?
No, she wasn’t. She was comfortable for me — kind of. Yeah, perhaps. I don’t know.
You went by way of the entire emotional spectrum in that reply.
It was bizarre. I solely lived there for like a 12 months as a result of now I’m making some huge cash, so the enterprise supervisor says, “You should purchase actual property and you could spend extra money,” which is dumb, because it seems. Preserve that little home you obtain along with your first test and put the remainder of it within the inventory market, and also you received’t want to fret about something without end.
So any individual finds me a spot on Mulholland. Warren Beatty is over right here, Brando and Nicholson are over right here — Valley view, Beverly Hills view, on a promontory with a pool. That is the home within the image. After I first go as much as see it, there’s a recording truck within the driveway and all this recording gear inside. Fleetwood Mac are there doing one thing. I’d met Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks.
Shirley Jones and Shaun Cassidy on the 73rd Tony Awards in New York in 2019.
(Bruce Glikas / WireImage)
What, as proud Warner Bros. recording artists?
Simply at events in L.A. earlier than they joined Fleetwood Mac. I used to be out on a regular basis. My mother and father despatched me to boarding college in Pennsylvania in ’73 — I ditched your complete time on a prepare into New York to go to CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas Metropolis. Danny Fields took me to CBGB’s to see the Ramones when he was managing them. And why did I do know Danny Fields after I was 15? As a result of he was writing for 16 Journal the place [editor in chief] Gloria Stavers was placing photos of me in there with no document deal: “It’s one other Cassidy — isn’t he cute?”
Danny was fascinating. He’d managed Iggy Pop, and I knew Iggy — Jim — from hanging out on Sundown as a result of this was the time Jim was residing in Hollywood form of between jobs. Sensible man — huge affect on me. Early on, I performed Rodney Bingenheimer’s membership. I’m there shirtless with a bow tie, screaming, wanting form of like Iggy at 14 or 15.
It’s wild that your most chaotic years occurred earlier than you had been even 18.
They cleaned me up. I used to be on “The Hardy Boys” enjoying a personality who actually couldn’t appear like a punk. My earring needed to go.
You ever really feel hemmed in by the job?
No, as a result of I used to be enjoying a personality, and my id wasn’t tied to the success of the present. Miguel Ferrer was certainly one of my closest mates, and his dad, Joe — José Ferrer, actual actor’s actor — I bear in mind he stated to me, “So, my boy, you’re pondering of going into the enterprise? Let me offer you a bit of recommendation: I’ve identified success and failure, and they’re each impostors.” He took it from Rudyard Kipling, I believe. Nevertheless it caught with me. Something I did, even “Wasp” — I don’t view that remotely as a failure. I view it truly as a daring awakening.
One of many nice pop-idol freak-outs, 1980’s “Wasp” discovered Cassidy alternately crooning, yowling and barking his method by way of new-wave-y covers of tunes by the likes of David Bowie, the Who and Speaking Heads whereas backed by members of Rundgren’s group Utopia.
“All I wished to do was work with Todd,” says Cassidy, who’d been sad making “Room Service” in 1979 “as a result of there was a lot stress from the document firm to dive into disco, which I used to be by no means a fan of and which felt utterly inauthentic for me.” By that point, Rundgren had produced hip information for the New York Dolls and the Patti Smith Group along with scoring hits of his personal like “I Noticed the Mild” and “Hi there It’s Me.” “He stated to me, ‘You’re an actor — let’s do some performing.’ So we created some characters and experimented with various things.”
The album bombed. “My viewers wasn’t prepared for it, and there was no new viewers exhibiting up on FM radio that was gonna embrace me,” says Cassidy. “I believe eight folks purchased it.”
Having been advised by a Warner Bros. govt that he ought to go away — “And he was 100% proper” — Cassidy “stayed dwelling for the ’80s,” he says. “My huge spending spree could be Friday evening. I’d take my rock-star cash to Crown Books and convey dwelling $250 price of books in my Porsche.”
In 1993, he let his brother lure him into co-starring within the musical “Blood Brothers” on Broadway.
“I turned him down thrice,” says Cassidy, as we open a second bottle of wine. “I already had a deal at Common as a author with an workplace and an assistant, and I’d bought a pair films for tv. I used to be on my method, and David’s pitching me: ‘No, no, no — we may be the kings of Broadway!’” He takes a sip. “Because it turned out, it was nice — actually emotionally satisfying. And the present was a giant hit.” (David died from liver failure in 2017.)
But “Blood Brothers” was sufficient limelight for Shaun, who shortly turned again to TV. “American Gothic,” the primary present he created, premiered in 1995 — an achievement that, he says, “meant much more than having ‘Da Doo Ron Ron’ as a No. 1 document.” Since then he’s been an govt producer on “Cowl Me,” “Chilly Case,” “The Company” and “New Amsterdam,” amongst different collection.
“He reinvented an entire new Shaun Cassidy profession,” says Steve Lukather, the Toto guitarist who’s been mates with Cassidy since he appeared in an episode of “The Hardy Boys.” Cassidy’s spouse, who’s additionally labored in TV, didn’t even know he’d been a musician after they met on certainly one of his exhibits.
“I stated, ‘The place you from?’ and Tracey stated, ‘Miami,’” the singer remembers. “I stated, ‘Oh, I performed Miami.’ She goes, ‘What place?’ ”
Nonetheless, Lukather reckons that extra just lately his pal “began lacking being onstage a little bit bit. He is aware of the place it’s at.” Cassidy, who plans to play bass within the present, referred to as Lukather not way back for some steerage on the instrument. “I advised him to play easy — don’t overthink it. It’s not like he’s going out and doing the Mahavishnu set.”
It’s half previous 3, and Cassidy has a digital pitch assembly for a brand new present at 4 p.m. However first he has to choose up his youngest daughter from college, so we hop again in his truck and head there from the winery.
On the trip he says he’s been engaged on a few new songs — the primary of his personal that he’s recorded for the reason that handful he positioned on his albums again within the day alongside stuff by execs like Eric Carmen, Brian Wilson and Carole Bayer Sager. One in all them sounds prefer it might’ve been lower by Mel Tormé, he says. “The opposite one, it’s very anthemic — I don’t know, perhaps just like the Killers.”
“It’s been enjoyable to see him to go the piano as an alternative of the pc as an outlet for his ardour for storytelling,” Tracey tells me later, although after all Cassidy is aware of that followers will present as much as his gigs wanting to listen to the classics.
Who did you lengthy to be on the peak of your teen idolhood?
First live performance I noticed was the Rolling Stones on the Discussion board in 1972, with Stevie Marvel opening. I took photos and put these photos on my wall. Mick and Keith in ’72 — that was a present. I noticed David Bowie on “Diamond Canines” in ’74. And I noticed Iggy so much. Someplace in between these three is the place I wished to be. Clearly, I used to be safer than that.
What do you see while you watch the child singing “That’s Rock ’n’ Roll” on the Grammys?
He’s assured, however he’s not cocky. I bear in mind afterwards Lou Rawls stated to me, “Son, by no means flip your again on the viewers.” I stated, “They appeared to love it after I shook my ass.”
You misplaced finest new artist that evening.
So did Foreigner. Lou Gramm someplace remains to be upset.
I questioned in the event you remembered who else was within the class.
Debby, after all.
Debby Boone, who received — one other nepo child.
Hey, in case your dad owns a ironmongery shop and you are taking over the ironmongery shop, I’ve no situation with that in any respect. I don’t know who else. Andy Gibb?
Stephen Bishop and Andy Gibb.
I knew Andy a little bit bit.
Sort of an identical deal to you, proper? Youthful brother of a pop sensation.
He had a unique problem, although. That is me being shrink, however I don’t assume that anyone acquired to essentially know who he was, as a result of Barry [Gibb] was so robust. And I don’t assume Andy had an issue with that. I’m certain rising up, he was like, “I wish to be a Bee Gee too,” and Barry stated, “OK, right here’s how we do this.”
David Cassidy, left, with Shaun Cassidy, circa 1975.
(Michael Ochs Archives / Getty Photographs)
What was your relationship like with David when it comes to the recommendation you took or rejected?
David by no means gave me recommendation. I believe it was very troublesome for him as a result of he was at a profession low level. I’d ask him, “What do you consider this?” and I might inform he was conflicted about it. It wasn’t that he didn’t need me to have success. However he was in a spot the place it was laborious for him to take pleasure in my success, I believe. And I knew that, so I didn’t speak to him about it.
What’d you assume when he posed nude on the duvet of Rolling Stone?
I assumed it was dumb. That was his “Wasp” second — I assumed, You’re placing a bullet in one thing right here, whether or not you realize it or not. Now, I’m not so certain. It’s a cool image. All I do know is he complained so much within the press. He had a chip on his shoulder as a result of he wasn’t Eric Clapton or Jimi Hendrix or any individual that he revered. It’s like, “OK, play in addition to Hendrix and perhaps you’ll be Hendrix. However you’re a very charming man on a giant hit tv present, and eight billion persons are in love with you. Inform me why it is a dangerous deal.”
Why did you perceive that and he didn’t?
As a result of I’m Shirley’s son and he’s not. And I acquired to observe him — I noticed how one can deal with it in a different way.
You by no means burned to be taken severely?
I took myself severely. I’m very safe, and that’s uncommon in present enterprise. I by no means wanted the love of the viewers to really feel like I used to be complete.
You bought that love elsewhere, and David didn’t.
He would say that.
Was he not proper?
Perhaps. I imply, to my mom I might do no mistaken — to the purpose that she had no credibility. However in the event you’re going to err on one facet, that’s a greater facet than, “The place are my mother and father?” Each of his mother and father had been actors — they had been gone so much. Then his father left his mom to marry a film star and have me. David would have each purpose on the planet to hate me as a little bit boy, however he didn’t.
My brother was a very candy — I’m gonna get choked up speaking about him — he was a very candy soul who acquired damage and couldn’t overcome that. I’m not a psychiatrist, however I spent numerous time with him. Once more, “Blood Brothers” was nice as a result of it was an equalizer. I wasn’t the flavour of the second, and neither was he. That’s one of many issues I miss most about him — that he was the one particular person on the planet I might speak to about our expertise.
