REVIEW for Late, Late At Night

Once again, a HUGE thank you to Simon & Schuster for sending me this book - I had been dying to read it!

TITLE:                      Late, Late At Night

AUTHOR:                Rick Springfield

GENRE:                   Memoir

RATING:                  4 Stars

By the time Rick Springfield “became” popular through is acting on General Hospital and with his music, I was already pass the age of “teeny bopper” adoration. Having said that, I always enjoyed his music immensely, although I never actually watched him on GH.


In fact, I have to say that although I always thought he was good looking, I kind of forgot about him over time – and thought he had all but disappeared – which, as it turns out, is one of the prevailing themes throughout this memoir.


Although I am always fascinated by the world of entertainment, I am also always harshly reminded just how horrible it can be – superstar one day – forgotten the next. Actually, Springfield ’s story reminded me a bit of David Cassidy and, in fact, Springfield does refer to Cassidy at some point.


The surprises: I had no clue that Springfield had actually had a career much pass the first album. I was sure he had given it all up to do something entirely different. The second surprise is how committed he actually was to his music, including his lyrics. For him, the music and the authenticity in the music and lyrics is what it is all about and I admire him greatly for that. Third surprise – he is pretty resilient considering all of the things that have happened to him (and that he actually “made” happen for him – in a bad way).


It is hard to review this memoir without giving up a lot of spoilers, but let’s just say that it is obvious by Springfield ’s brutally honest narrative that he suffers from addiction and is quite conscious of it. His struggles with the addiction are painful, raw and very real.


I was also amazed at his love of dogs – in fact, dogs figure incredibly prominently in this book and at times, as I was reading some passages, I found I had tears in my eyes.

Finally, for those fans of General Hospital who are hoping to get some great “inside” scoops you will be extremely disappointed. He really goes right by this period in his life by simply noting that he did appear on the soap and that is it. It is obvious that being on GH was a means to an end and nothing more for him.

I admire Springfield for his very courageous and raw writings. I am not sure that I would have been able to be so forthcoming – but it is also obvious by his writings (and Springfield himself admits this) - “this is the one place in my life where I am always honest”.


4 stars well deserved.