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The Joe Rogan Experience
The Joe Rogan Experience

#2550 - Rick Springfield

September 08, 2026 • 2h 21m

Summary

⏱️ 14 min read

Overview

Rick Springfield joins Joe Rogan for a wide-ranging conversation covering his legendary music career, his time in Vietnam as a teenage performer, surviving and thriving at 77, and the journey from Australian musician to American rock icon. The discussion touches on everything from witnessing war firsthand to creating one of rock's most enduring hits, his unexpected soap opera fame, and his philosophy on longevity and health.

Early Music Career and The Beatles' Influence

Springfield discusses his early musical journey, starting with discovering the guitar at 11 years old during a period of serious depression in England. He talks about how music became his salvation and education when he stopped attending school. The conversation covers his time in the Australian band Zoot, their psychedelic Eleanor Rigby cover, and the massive influence The Beatles had on his generation. He reflects on how the British Invasion changed everything and his own aspirations to be in a band.

  • Got kicked out of 11th grade for not showing up, discovered guitar and it became his education
  • Was the guitar player in Zoot, an Australian band that recorded a heavy psychedelic version of Eleanor Rigby
  • Saw The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Who, and The Kinks live in Australia in the mid-1960s
  • Met Elvis on a plane in the early 1970s, discussed his manager Steve Binder
" I discovered the guitar and I started staying away from school because I couldn't face going to school. But, you know, instead of playing video games and getting stoned, which wasn't available to me at that point, I was reading Robert Bloch and August Derleth and great writers because I loved horror, and playing the guitar. And that was my education, really. "

Vietnam War Experience as a Teenage Performer

Springfield recounts his harrowing experience touring Vietnam as an 18-year-old musician in 1968-69. He describes performing for troops, staying in military bases, getting caught in mortar attacks, and even throwing mortars during a firefight at Marble Mountain. The experience was intense and dangerous, with the band traveling from Saigon to the DMZ, befriending Navy personnel, and witnessing the brutal realities of war firsthand. This traumatic period still haunts him, particularly the knowledge that he may have killed someone.

  • Toured Vietnam for four months as an 18-year-old in 1968-69 with his band
  • Stayed in military bases and experienced rocket and mortar attacks while performing
  • Threw mortars down a tube during an attack at Marble Mountain and later learned he had killed someone
  • The band leader Pete Watson died at 25 from a disease contracted in Vietnam
" I was in a place called Marble Mountain. It's outside Da Nang. And it was a Navy encampment on the beach. And I was in the radio shack. And the band members were in the perimeter boxes...they said, hey, you want to throw some mortars down the tube? And it was John Wayne time, you know. As a young kid, I didn't really understand what I was doing. I said, oh, yeah, let's fire a gun, you know. So I threw the mortars down, about five or six mortars...And they came in the next morning and said one of them had hit a VC. "
" I think it's still there. I mean, it's hard for me to kind of face that I was responsible for the end of a life, even though it's distant and it's war and I didn't really have anything to do with it and didn't really know what I was doing. "

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