Rick Springfield and Richard Marx play acoustic concert at Sands Bethlehem Event Center on Dec. 9
From a press release:
It was announced today that Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, actor, and author Rick Springfield and chart-topping singer, songwriter, and producer Richard Marx will play an acoustic show featuring two full separate sets and songs performed together at the Sands Bethlehem Event Center on Saturday, Dec. 9 at 8 p.m.
Tickets, which are $55, $65, and $75, go on sale this Friday, Sept. 29 at 10 a.m. and can be purchased at sandseventcenter.com, the Event Center box office (77 Sands Blvd., Bethlehem), ticketmaster.com, all Ticketmaster outlets, or by phone at 800-745-3000.
Rick Springfield’s first love has always been music, a lifelong passion ignited after picking up his first guitar at the age of 12 in his native Australia. Mastering the craft of songwriting far preceded his accomplishments as an actor and best-selling author.
With 25 million records sold, a Grammy Award for his No. 1 smash hit “Jessie’s Girl,” and a whopping 17 Top 40 hits, including “Don’t Talk to Strangers,” “An Affair of the Heart,” “I’ve Done Everything for You,” “Love Somebody,” and “Human Touch,” Springfield has no intention of taking his foot off the accelerator.
“I put everything I’ve got into making records,” he says. “Sometimes people think they have you pegged, but I trust my music shows them otherwise.”
In the early ’70s, Springfield had a handful of hit records in his native Australia before emigrating to the United States. Bouncing between record labels and looking to make ends meet until his musical career took hold in the U.S., he resorted to acting and eventually landing the role of Dr. Noah Drake during the heyday and cult phenomenon of daytime TV’s “General Hospital.”
Simultaneously, the explosive success of his breakthrough 1981 album “Working Class Dog” was followed by “Success Hasn’t Spoiled Me Yet,” “Living in Oz,” the “Hard to Hold”” soundtrack, and “Tao,” establishing him as a multi-platinum superstar. Despite his original and unwavering passion for music, many at the time mistook Springfield for a soap star hoping to convert daytime success to a faux and possibly fleeting music career. History proves that nothing could have been further from the truth. Springfield is content to let his music and four decades of productivity speak for itself.
“If you pay attention to where I’ve put my time, who I really am becomes clear.” In addition to “General Hospital,” his other notable TV roles include a four-episode arc on “Californication,” “Hawaii Five-O,” “Drop Dead Diva,” “Hot in Cleveland,” and the 1994-1997 TV series “High Tide.”
Never one to be confined to the recording studio where the music is born, Springfield has toured for over 30 years, hand-delivering the hits to millions of fans worldwide during his legendary, high-energy live shows. Hardly content walking in his own footprints for very long, 2013 saw Springfield reinvent himself yet again performing for the first time as a purely solo act. Rick Springfield’s “stripped down” performances offered an intimate glimpse in to the amazing life he’s experienced through music, with personal stories introducing each song in the set.
Springfield’s latest musical effort is “Rocket Science,” his 18th studio album released through Frontiers Music. Written largely with his longtime collaborator and former bass player Matt Bissonette, the album delivers the expertly crafted wide-ranging pop rock songs Springfield is known for.
“I wanted the album to be very open and electric – rock and roll with some country elements, and always with great hooks,” he says.
The lyrics largely address matters of the heart with the irreverence, wit, and dark humor that has always permeated his work.
“The songs usually start with titles for me,” Springfield continues. “A title will catch my eye and inspire a lyric. Both Matt and I are happily married, but there’s some heartache on this one. You can’t just write about how everything is all good and bore people out of their minds. When different emotions come up, I just go with that. I don’t set out to write about anything in particular. I just look for something that feels true and that I can hopefully say in an interesting way.”
Richard Marx has achieved countless highlights over his three-decade career, selling more than 30 million albums worldwide, starting with his self-titled debut, which went to No. 8 and spawned four Top 5 singles, including the chart-topping “Hold on to the Nights” and “Don’t Mean Nothing,” which earned him a Grammy Award nomination for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance.
His second studio album, “Repeat Offender,” hit No. 1 and went quadruple-platinum with two No. 1 singles, “Satisfied” and “Right Here Waiting.” When both his next record, “Rush Street” (with two No. 1 hits in “Keep Coming Back” and “Hazard”), and “Paid Vacation” (with its No. 1 hit “Now and Forever”), went platinum, Marx achieved a seven-year string of triumphs that rivaled any in pop rock music history. To this day, he is the only male artist in history to have his first seven singles reach the Top 5 on the Billboard charts.
For most artists, that would be impressive enough, but Richard Marx didn’t stop there, launching a second, very successful, incarnation as a songwriter and producer, with songs like “To Where You Are,” the first hit single from Josh Groban’s debut album, as well as the NSYNC smash “This I Promise You.” He went on to earn a 2004 Song of the Year Grammy for co-authoring Luther Vandross’ “Dance with My Father.”
Across all formats, Marx has scored a total of 14 No. 1 singles (including Keith Urban’s No. 1 smash “Long Hot Summer”) both as a performer and songwriter/producer, making him a true multi-talented threat who continues to challenge himself and his fans. He has also written with Jennifer Nettles, Sara Bareilles, and Vince Gill. He holds the honor of being one of a handful of artists who have had a No. 1 hit in each of the past four decades.
Releasing his eighth album, “Beautiful Goodbye,” in 2014, Marx created all new material that fans found unique compared to past albums. He set out to create a deliberately sexy album that turned into “a thrill beyond anything I’ve done in the studio.”
“The songs on this record were influenced greatly by everyone from Sade to Bebel Gilberto to various EDM artists to even Chopin. I’m known for romantic music in the past, but this music I wrote is all more sensual and ethereal, and the lyrics are more adventurous than I’ve been willing to go in the past,” Marx explained.
Marx has made a commitment to several different causes, from donating the royalties from his hit single “Should’ve Known Better” to build a room at the NYU Medical Center for pediatric cancer patients, to his recording of “Children of the Night,” which brought attention to the plight of homeless children on the streets, raising more than $500,000 for the Children of the Night Foundation. He has also performed benefit concerts over the years for the TJ Martell Foundation, Toys for Tots, Make a Wish Foundation, the American Cancer Society, Best Buddies, and the Special Olympics.
Marx and his band entertained the U.S. troops stationed in Germany and, since 2008, he has hosted an annual event in Chicago for the Ronald McDonald House Charities, the first of which featured a concert by him and Kenny Rogers. Additionally, he organized an annual all-star benefit concert for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, raising more than $4 million for research to cure the disease.
