Rick Springfield on depression, his dog and the 'Working Class' album cover

Rick Springfield chats with Yahoo Entertainment's Lyndsey Parker about his dog and the "Working Class" album cover, as well as his experience with mental health.

Video Transcript

LYNDSEY PARKER: You've been-- you know, you've been really frank for years about your mental health struggles and issues. How are you coping right now with what everything's going on?

RICK SPRINGFIELD: I'm keeping myself so busy, I don't have time to think about being depressed. My depression isn't caused necessarily by things that happen, although, you know, there are real things that can actually get you depressed. Mine is more, I'll wake up one morning, and I'll just have it.

So basically what I do, I've been in the studio a lot, been recording some funny things. I started out with a video of human touch, about no human touch. We just did one called "Glove Somebody." That's my favorite, because it actually has our dog singing along with.

[MUSIC - RICK SPRINGFIELD, "GLOVE SOMEBODY"] You've got to glove somebody. You've got to glove somebody.

LYNDSEY PARKER: You mentioned dog. Going back to what I was asking about before about depression, mental health, especially right now, a lot of people are turning to pets for comfort. Actually one of the good things, one of the few good things that's coming out this is the shelters are emptying out. Everybody's adopting dogs.

RICK SPRINGFIELD: If you want a companion during this lockdown, there's no better companion than a dog.

LYNDSEY PARKER: In general, how have dogs helped you through, like, whatever dark times you've had? Have they been helpful to you in that way?

RICK SPRINGFIELD: Oh, absolutely. My second one after Ronnie passed away was Gomer. And I would get depressed, and I'd just go on and lie-- he had a big bed. And I'd go and lie on the bed with him and just hold him. It absolutely helped. I called him Prozac on legs.

LYNDSEY PARKER: I mean your breakthrough album here in the States was "Working Class Dog." Tell me about Ron. He's one of the most famous rock and roll dogs. I know you're a real big dog person.

RICK SPRINGFIELD: I was actually breaking up with a girlfriend before I started dating my girlfriend that became my wife. And we were still living together in a house, because neither of us could afford to live separately. So it was pretty damn stressful having broken up and still live together. But she got a boyfriend and then started to be able to go over to his place.

And she called me and said, I just found his dog. I picked this dog up it was wandering, being almost hit by cars in the library parking lot. It looked all dirty, and so I threw him in the back my car, and he's in the garage of the house if you want him. So I go home, open up the garage to this house, and this little black and white bull terrier comes running sideways at me, wagging his tail.

And it was love at first sight. I mean, he was he was my guy. And the reason I use him was because I don't like photos of me, so I thought I'm going to put my dog on the cover. And this is-- I just joined "General Hospital," which at that point was the most popular show on television. For some reason, it became the show everybody was talking about.

I just happened to be on it at that point, and the record company is going, Wait, you're on the most popular show on TV, but you want your dog on the album cover? So I really-- I had to arm wrestle them for that one. I finally showed him a photo, and they went, oh, I get it. And it actually was nominated for a Grammy. So my boy did well.

LYNDSEY PARKER: Why didn't you like photos of yourself? Because without, you know, trying to embarrass you or whatever, I mean you're known for being a heartthrob. You're known for being a good-looking guy.

RICK SPRINGFIELD: Because I don't consider myself that.

LYNDSEY PARKER: Do you not?

RICK SPRINGFIELD: No. No I don't-- I mean, I don't know anybody who goes, man, I love looking at photos of myself. Anyway, and I was walking along the street with Ronnie, my dog, and a couple of girls were walking towards me, right? So I kind of get ready to kind of say, you know, hey, girls, you know? They ignored me totally and go, oh, look at that dog. He's so cute. That was when I decided I'm going to put him on the cover.

LYNDSEY PARKER: I know you had him on at least two. You had him on "Working Class Dog" and "Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet." I've always wondered, how did you get him to wear the clothes?

RICK SPRINGFIELD: He was a champ. I don't know how we got around to it. For "Working Class Dog," I had to go buy the shirt myself. For "Success Hasn't Spoiled Me Yet," we actually had enough money to have somebody make him a shirt that fit him. But I walked into a big and tall man's store. I don't know if anyone remembers them. It was for bigger guys.

I need a shirt for Ronnie, and I said I needed a white button down shirt. And he said, what size neck? And I had measured his neck. I said, 18 inches, or 20 inches or something. He had a big, thick neck. And he goes, what size sleeve? I said, it doesn't matter. And he looked at me like, what? So, you know, because I had to cut the sleeves or fold the sleeves up, because his arms were about this long.

But yeah for-- and he was cool with it. I mean, he sat with that. It was, like, a two-hour photo session. Of course, I had cookies, you know, up here, saying come on. But the one in the limo, he was probably, you know, pretty hip to it by then.

LYNDSEY PARKER: He was getting used to the attention from the ladies by then, because--

RICK SPRINGFIELD: Yeah, those poodles either side are both male, too, by the way.

LYNDSEY PARKER: Oh, that was groundbreaking. Did he have his own, like, fan base?

RICK SPRINGFIELD: Yeah. My money manager at the time made me insure him, because he was sure someone was going to steal him and hold him for ransom, because he was, you know, because everybody knew him. I mean, I'd been driving down the street with him sitting in the car, and people would be pointing at him and, you know, walking him down the street, and people would recognize him. So they actually made me insure him.

LYNDSEY PARKER: There's a dog barking, by the way, which I think is very appropriate for this interview.

RICK SPRINGFIELD: That's great stuff. You can't get that in a studio.

LYNDSEY PARKER: That dog knows I'm doing this interview with you and is excited. He heard us talking about Ron and ran over.