Eighties rocker Rick Springfield made a shocking confession on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast this week, revealing he killed a Viet Cong soldier while visiting Vietnam to perform for U.S. troops. In 1968, more than a decade before he shot to fame with “Jessie’s Girl,” Springfield was a little-known 17-year-old musician who traveled to Southeast Asia to entertain American servicemen during the Vietnam War. The Australian singer-songwriter, now 77, told Rogan he was staying at a U.S.
Navy encampment near Da Nang when the base suddenly came under attack. I mean, as a young kid, I didn’t really understand what I was doing.” Springfield said he dropped a mortar down and was told the following day that it had hit someone. You got one!’” he recalled.
This revenue helps to fund journalism across The Independent. Asked by Rogan how long he had carried the experience with him, Springfield said: “I think it’s still there.” “It’s hard for me to face that I was responsible for the end of a life,” he said. I don’t know what I’m doing here,’” he remembered.
The “Love Somebody” and “Don’t Talk to Strangers” singer wrote about the Vietnam incident in his 2010 memoir, Late, Late at Night. Springfield’s big breakthrough came 13 years after his trip to Vietnam, in 1981, when he released the album Working Class Dog. Its lead single, “Jessie’s Girl,” became a huge international hit, reaching No. 1 on the Hot 100 in the U.S.
That same year, Springfield landed the role of Dr. Noah Drake on General Hospital, a role he would reprise intermittently on the long-running soap opera until 2013. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Extract — continue reading at the source.
