Article published May 19, 2005
Diverse interests keep Cassidy busy
By DAVID YONKE
BLADE STAFF WRITER
David Cassidy said he's never grown tired of singing his bubble-gum hits from the 1970s for a couple of reasons: One, he likes the songs and, two, he doesn't sing them all the time.
The former teenage star of The Partridge Family television show, who will be in concert Saturday in Tiffin, has been keeping busy lately but not just as a nostalgia act.
Cassidy, who turned 55 last month, is heavily into horse racing, hoping one of his thoroughbreds will be ready in the not-too-distant-future to compete in the Kentucky Derby.
"I have been riding horses since I was 9 years old," Cassidy said last week from his South Florida home. "I've been a horse lover my entire life and have been a pretty successful breeder and owner. It really is my passion."
Cassidy also has starred in a number of musicals including Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Blood Brothers on Broadway and EFX at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
He co-created and produced a Vegas show called The Rat Pack Is Back, which he said he is now getting ready for the stage in London and, he hopes, Broadway.And Cassidy has continued to write songs and record new material long after mothballing his crushed red velvet Keith Partridge stage outfit while cutting back on his touring and Vegas performances.
"I'm trying to keep a balance," he said. "For nine straight years I was doing eight to 10 shows a week, 50 weeks a year. Believe me, I love the work and I love what I do, but your body gets to a point where the work is so physical, it just wears you down."
He said he's grateful to have been able to work in diverse areas of entertainment, which has kept life interesting for him.
"I've been busy as an actor, writer, director, songwriter, entertainer. ... When I do my own show, every show I do is different. There's no set patter. Every night is like a first night and I never get bored with it. It's not like a lot of recording acts where that's all you've been doing for 35 or 40 years.
"Tom Jones is a great example," Cassidy said. "He's a great entertainer, but he doesn't do anything but that. How many times can you do, 'What's New, Pussycat?' It's a great song, but he's probably sung it half a million times. How he does that, I don't know."
Cassidy said his role in The Partridge Family, whose debut season of 1970 has just been released on DVD, was a character he played and not a mirror of his offstage self.
While he was singing pop ditties like "I Woke Up in Love This Morning" and "I Think I Love You," his favorite music of the era included Jimi Hendrix, whom he saw perform in concert five times, Eric Clapton and Cream, B.B. King, and Marvin Gaye.
"Keith Partridge was very different from me. I was an actor. I read the lines, talked the talk, and sang the songs that were designed for the character. My own musical tastes had nothing to do with it," Cassidy said.
David Cassidy will be in concert at 8 p.m. Saturday in the Ritz Theatre, 30 South Washington St., Tiffin. Tickets are $29 to $69 from the box office, 419-448-8544.
Contact David Yonke at:
dyonke@theblade.com
or 419-724-6154.
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