Rick Springfield: Still Cute
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That's 15% off at SaatchiArt.com. S-A-A-T-C-H-I-Art.com. Ever wish your favorite TV show had twice as many episodes? Everyone knows that feeling, and so does Discover. Everyone wants more of their favorites. That's why Discover doubles another favorite thing, cash back.

That's right. Discover automatically doubles the cash back earned on your credit card at the end of your first year with Cash Back Match. Now that's a real crowd pleaser. Everyone knows how it ends. Double the cash back. See terms at discover.com slash credit card. I'm not Rob Lowe. You said, yes, you are. What are you talking about? Rob, it's me.

Hey everybody, welcome to Literally. It's me. Today's a good one. Today, all you teeny boppers, you 80s lovers, it's going to be very exciting. Representing 16 Magazine, Tiger Beat Magazine, obviously me, thank you, you're welcome, and Rick Springfield. I mean, come on, with that lab coat, who's he kidding?

And then all the great acting after, I mean, it's going to be a good one. And he and I have never really met or talked in spite of the fact that we look like we might be long lost brothers. Very excited for this. Hang on. Here comes Jesse's guy. How are you, brother? I'm good. How are you doing? Were you just singing Angie before you came on? Yeah, I was. It's so funny because it's so weird. I've been going through this Mick Jagger thing.

you know, Renaissance, like, like, like actively doing it. And then I woke up today to a text from a music manager. I know saying, Hey, it's mixed birthdays in two days. Will you do a quick video to say happy birthday? I literally, literally just did a birthday video for Mick Jagger. And then you come on and you're singing Angie. What is going on? He's everywhere. How old is he? 80. Oh,

That's freaking crazy. Crazy, right? But how great is it as an inspiration? Yeah. No, he's, uh, no one thought it would be going on that long. He's really, he's really the kind of the pinnacle of all that. Roger Dolce is close, but Roger's having, uh, you know, throat issues, but Mick still, he's still Mick. I mean, greatest front man ever, right? Okay. Give me your top, give me your top three. I have a very surprising, uh,

Number two, front man. And I think you're going to like it. Give me, give me your top three. Well, Hendrix would be number one and I consider him a front man because he was, yeah. Okay. He was the band. Um, yeah, I think Mick, uh, certainly, especially in, in the early days when it was, it was all new, you know, to him too. Um, and Bon Scott, ACDC. Okay. Well, fellow countrymen. Yes. Uh, yes, he is. Yeah.

My number two, a dark horse, fellow countryman of yours, Michael Hutchins. Yeah. He was a great frontman. I've seen a lot. I'm a big fan of music, and he was fucking sick. Yeah. I saw him at the Greek, I think. Frontman's a lost art in a weird way. I think everybody's too cool to try.

Well, there's music so split up now. There's the big Vegas shows like all the girls are doing. Yeah. And then there's the rock shows that we're still trundling out, you know? Yeah, right. But it's a different thing now. I mean, I'm sure there's...

50 million people that would say Taylor Swift is the best front man. Right, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What, um, you're on the, you're on tour, right? Are you in the middle of your tour right now? End of it? Middle of it? It's middle of the summer, so you've got to be right in the thick of it. No, we actually, we start August 1st, August 4th. Oh, okay. August 4th. I want my 80s tour with, who all's on the, who all is on the bill? Um, Hooters?

And they actually haven't toured America for a long time. So actually really excited to do that. Paul Young. Yeah. Every time you go away, the English singer. Yeah. And the tubes are on some, John Wade is on some and Tommy two tones on him as well. So it's a, you know,

We're mixing and matching here. Feeway Bill. What a great name. Feeway Bill of the tubes. Is that, is that his real name? I would, you're going to have to ask him. You know, he was a friend of his. Well, he wrote Richard Marks, a friend of mine. He wrote a lot of Richard Marks songs, the initial Richard Marks stuff with him. Yeah. So I have to have Richard Fee's real name. Feeway Bill. It's too good. It's a, that's such a great rock and roll name. I know. Um,

And, and she's a beauty is about a guy, a guy hooking up with a girl to find out that the girl is a dude, right? I am not familiar with the backstory on that one. Yeah. She's a, she's a beauty is my favorite tube song. Yeah. It's a great song. It's the David Foster one, right? Yes, that's right. Doug, okay. D Foss. That's how I know all these guys from defaults. Um, and, uh, and of course, John, wait, uh,

You have to tell him if he doesn't play the fucking theme from about last night on this tour, I will be livid with him. What's that? It's called If Anybody Had a Heart. Really good song. I haven't heard him do that. I haven't heard him do that. He's got all his great stuff. He's his top five voice. One of the top five voices for me. For sure, right? Yeah, he's amazing. I mean, Paul Rogers, Steve Marriott.

I think Paul McCartney's up there just because he's got so many fucking voices. And Bon Scott and John would certainly be top 10 easy. It's amazing. When you were a kid growing up in Australia, what bands did you see that influenced you?

I saw the Beatles in 64. Okay, let's talk about that. Okay, what was that? What was it like? I have a friend who saw them at the Hollywood Bowl and said that they were glowing. Yeah, it was like the aliens had landed. First of all, it's Australia. So back then, Australia, we still had the pompadours and the leather suits, and we're still rocking the 50s. And only opening bands were that.

And then they came on with their shaggy hair and their Cuban heel boots and those instruments that we'd never seen before. And it was absolutely like the aliens had landed. I was 14 and my mouth opened up and I screamed like a little girl through the whole show. It was freaking awesome. Wow. Unbelievable. What was it? I mean, you kind of said it. It's the look, it's the instruments, it's the vibe, but like... It was a lot of things. I think it was a lot of things. I think...

First of all, you couldn't have, I mean, the fact that they were, I've heard them referred to as angels, four angels, that you couldn't have, if you'd scoured the country, you couldn't have found four more perfect people in a band. John and Paul, incredible writers, drove each other to great heights. Everyone was this incredible, they added something amazing to it.

And the fact that they're all born in the same town at the same time and in the same area and that they came together, it's absolutely predestined. And all the things that happened, you know, the crazy stuff that, but for this, like the Titanic, they could have missed, you know. Plus Kennedy's death, you know, there's the theory Kennedy's death, suddenly America looked elsewhere for their country.

their sucker and here were these four angels landed and said, "We'll make you happy." Just a combination of so much. It wasn't just, "Oh, they're cute and they've got some good songs." It was just this power. Their first appearance on TV changed every musician's life.

Every single one. It's, it's, it's almost a cliche to even talk about because I don't care who you are. Everybody's life who saw that was changed. Yep. And how, you know, how did a band who'd never played the country before and had what one hit record, two hit records do that to the audience? Have that many people tune in. It's, it's, it's just incredible. It's a, there'll never be another one. And we all wanted to be, you know, the next Beatles, but, uh,

The Beatles took care of that. It is amazing how everybody wanted to be the next Beatles. And instead of being the next Beatles, they were their own great thing. I mean, well, the Beatles wanted to be Elvis. You know, the Beatles wanted to be the, uh, the Emily brothers. Um, they became their own thing. So,

It's I always talk, talk about how, if you're lucky enough to be in something, a part of something that enters the zeitgeist, even in a, and it doesn't obviously have to be at the Beatles level. Like the irony is you don't get to participate in it. So I was thinking about like those four guys never got to enjoy the Beatles cause they were the Beatles. Do you know what I mean? They never, it's crazy. And even now I think, I think Paul enjoys it in retrospect, you know, uh,

I think Ringo has mixed feelings, but he's still, I know people who play with them and, you know, and they say they actually love to talk about it, you know, privately. But, you know, you come up and go, oh, Ringo, what was it like to be in the Beatles? You know, it's, privately, they're still, you know, they understand that it was a magic moment. I once asked Francis Ford Coppola what it was like to make The Godfathers. And he said, you know,

To me, the Godfather is like that lamp. It exists. People have their feelings about it. But making the Godfather was the Godfather. And I always thought that was... Yeah. I mean, did he say that making it was an amazing thing? Yeah, yeah. He said making it is when he thinks... Because it is that thing. You make something and it becomes... It's on its own. It has its own life. Yeah. Yeah. I mean...

the perfect segue into Jesse's girl. Like talk about a song that fucking song has its own. I mean, how many lives does that song have? Do you think? Uh, yeah, going through, I mean, it's got, it had its first hit, you know, that's the kind of song that what happened to that song. You can't predict. You can't, even if it's a hit, you can't say, yeah, that's going to,

be that, you know, let me ask you this though. When you, when you, I always have these, like, I always feel like, man, I'd love to be in the room when they played that back for the first time. And they all look around and go, yeah, I think that'll work. Like, did you have that moment with that song? Yeah, this works. I didn't actually think it was the best song in the album. I was actually Keith. I took all my demos to Keith Olson. He said Keith Olson was a

a big eighties producer. He's gone, he passed away, but he was, uh, a good friend. He became a good friend. And, um, he did, you know, Fleetwood Mac, he did the foreigner, he did Pat Benatar. He did all the, a lot of the real big eighties hits. And he, I was at sound city at the time managed by, uh, the guy that owns sound city. I don't know if you saw that Dave Grohl documentary, but he did a great documentary on that. That's a sick documentary. It's amazing. Um,

So I was in that because I was one of the Sound City rats, you know, hanging around and happened to record there and have a successful record. And Keith Olsen...

He agreed to do two songs with me on what was considered my first album. It wasn't with my fourth. He said, bring your demos over. So I brought my little four-track demos over to his house and played them. He picked Jesse's Girl, and I was going, fuck, why did he pick that? That's not the best song on the album. But he picked it, and then he wouldn't pick another one. I was even more upset because he brought in the Sammy Hagar song, I've Done Everything For You. I said, what's wrong with one of mine, dude?

But it worked out, you know. So, yeah, I wasn't sure that that was the right song. In fact, neither was the record company. They actually released I've Done Everything for You first. And nothing happened with it. And then the radio stations picked up Jessie's Girl and started playing it, which couldn't happen now because radio stations don't do that anymore. You don't have DJs finding great songs and going, I'm going to play this because I like the song. Isn't that amazing? That in and of itself is amazing. It makes you think of

All of the things that were lost. God, that was an amazing time. Yeah, music business is very different now. Well, so every business is. The acting business is different. Everything's different. To get a part, they check your following on the internet, your Instagram following. Yeah, yeah. It's unbelievable. I mean, that's why...

I have a, I mean, you almost have to have some presence on social media and I, and I, I kind of have mixed feelings about it. I really super, super enjoy it. And then I, then you kind of have to monitor it and you go down rabbit holes. It's a, it's such a weird thing, but it is a part. It's a, it's very important. Very important. Yeah. It's because, you know, like the music business is what it is. The movie business is what it is. It's become what it's become. There's no point, you know, fighting it going on. And I wish that, you know,

which it was how it was, it's not. That's how it is and it'll change again. - It's really true. - Working with it is the smartest thing rather than trying to fight it.

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qualifying plan required wi-fi were available on select us airlines deposit and hilton honors membership required for 15 discount terms and conditions apply which do you prefer making music or acting well i i've been writing songs since i was 14 and they're pretty horrible songs too but um that i music is with me 24 7 but i love acting too you know it's uh

Especially the writing seems to have gone to TV now, and there's some amazing writing there. And as you know, it starts with the writing, obviously. And when I'm in the acting thing, it's all there is. And I love it. And when I'm in the music thing, it's all there is. So it's really the same thing.

Driver is just a different skill set, is really the thing. It's the same driver, the same creative driver that makes you want to do it and makes you either good or mediocre at it. I've always thought about the skill it must require to do a soap because of the sheer volume. It's the hardest thing in the world. It has to be, right? Yeah, I don't even think it's acting, really. For me, it was all about line memorization.

Well, I mean, and I wonder today, that was in the, did they have, did you guys have teleprompters or cue cards? You did. Yeah. We worked those suckers too. We had, uh, they don't know actually, which, uh, would totally screw me up, but it was so much, they're talking heads. There's no action and it's, it's repetitive and,

And it's really is the hardest acting game because you're never satisfied with what you do because it's generally first take. And if nothing fall, no lights fall or anything, they'll go with it. Literally it is. It is literally the first, you're not even kidding. It's like, if they get anything resembling, they're, they're moving on. Yeah. Moving on. And, and, and the staging always makes me laugh too, which is, it's like, there's a person, a huge space, uh,

And two other people in the scenes going, I go, why is there a big space there? And sure enough, inevitably somebody else is going to come in and stand in the hole. Right. It's the greatest. Excellent blocking. Yeah. Um,

How many, okay, walk me through a day on a soap in the late 70s. Well, I joined it in 1980. I think I joined it in 1980, just as General Hospital was about to take off. And I was fortunate to walk on at that moment that it became like the big...

the biggest show on TV for the summer. It had nothing to do with me. It was just, you know, a combination of all the great characters and Gloria Monte, who was the producer who picked me and picked Laura and Luke and all. Laura and Luke, man. Yeah. I saw him actually. He lives in Amsterdam now. I saw we played, did something in Amsterdam.

Tony Geary. Yeah. Five years, about 10 years ago. And we met up with him and we all went to a stoner bar and got totally stoned out of our brain. And he's walking around leading us all around Amsterdam, showing us Amsterdam. It was insane. Unbelievable. I mean, and he's such an unlikely leading man. Even then he was a very unlikely leading man. Totally. Yeah. But he was, he was, I watched, I mean, and I am not,

I'm, I'm what, 16, 15, something at the time, not the audience. And I was, I was watching and it was, and it was him. It, by the way, for me, it was, I mean, Laura Gray, whatever it was, he, he was dude, he had, he, I don't know what, he just had something. Yeah, no, he did. He is a, I think he's a really, really good actor. And, and it's hard to be a good actor on the soaps because, you know, it's all, like I said, it's all line memorization. It's first take. It's, um,

I mean, like when I was on it, I was also doing gigs on the weekend. We went playing to a flying 24-7 before the airlines took a nose dive.

So I'd go out, I'd finish the show Friday night, jump on a plane, fly somewhere, play a show, get up early morning, fly to another place, play a show, get up early Sunday, fly to a show, get up early Monday morning, like about three in the morning, fly back to LA in time to walk onto the set at eight o'clock in the morning. And so you didn't have a lot of time to learn the lines. I'd be rehearsing them on the plane with my tour manager playing the girl, like speaking like this, you know?

It was crazy. What a time. Yeah, it was pretty wild. It's a time-honored tradition. It started probably by Ricky Nelson back in, right? He'll be the first one to be on a TV show and flying back. And then David, of course. I think my research tells me that you and I shared the cover of

16 magazine. I bet we did. Uh, many, many times, uh, teen beat. Here it is. Here it is. The, the December 83, uh,

teen beat cover wow we're still around baby how about it huh we're still cute we're still kind of cute i think you know it's really funny i was recording an album uh called rock of life in nassau in the bahamas right and then the morning we we'd go down to the beach and i'm down there and this guy comes up to me and goes rob and i go no i'm my name is rick he goes

no, it's me. Whatever his name was. Rob, Rob Lowe. It's me. I'm going, I'm not, I'm not Rob Lowe. He said, yes, you are. What are you talking about? Rob, it's me. The guy wouldn't, wouldn't take no. It was so weird. That's amazing. I think, you know, I think it's interconnected with us too, is John Taylor from Duran Duran. I think he's in our, he's in our,

he's in our club right yeah we we need to have our own club and have a name for it it's me you john taylor maybe johnny stamos maybe we'll let him in yeah he he'd have to work his way in that's what i feel i i have to prove himself i i i agree i i i agree although he's a hell of a drummer i mean yeah yes he is you're right you're right to play an instrument

I played shitty five open chord, you know, rock and roll. Rhythm guitar. That's right. But you know what? I, but you know what? I compose like no other. That's all that matters. Oh, dude. I, so I was, I, I remember, um, I'm a big Bruce Springsteen fan. And I remember when Patty Scalfa joined the band and even before they were together and she's an amazing background singer. And we were talking during one of the early tours, because Bruce wants me to play.

on the next tour and I don't play guitar at all. I'm learning. I go tell, and I was learning at the time. So I was like, tell me what he's telling you. What is he telling you to do? He says, he's telling me one thing, play in front of a mirror because the pose is half the battle. And I did a movie. I was lucky enough to do a movie with Meryl Streep called Ricky and the Flash. Yeah. Where I, I played what her, her boyfriend and a band member. Right. And she had never played.

you know, played and done the rock and roll thing. And she learned guitar, unbelievably, which is so her. But we're doing the, we're shooting some of the scenes in the club. And she's asking me questions. And it was very astute that you would say all that because she said, how do I stand? And how far do I get from the microphone? She wanted to know the right look, you know? It's how...

It's incredible. And this is the lesson. Anything in life, half of it is confidence. Yeah. If not more, don't you think? Yeah, absolutely. Especially in a reading room when you're reading from heart. I have to ask you about the most obscure thing ever.

High tide. Oh my God. Now, now listen to me. Now hang on with me guys. This could be, I could be right or I could be wrong. Is it possible that the show runner creator that I'm currently working with on nine one one lone star did high tide Tim Minear? Oh my God. Tim is awesome.

Yeah. So it is, it, it is. Tim wrote, yeah, Tim wrote the first series, the first season of High Tide and we're going, this guy's great. He'd like, remember, you know, he'd keep the storylines going and it was incredible. And, oh, you're very lucky to be working with him. I knew he was going to do great things because he was just, he was a cut above everybody else on the, you know, in the production team. And, uh,

And then he did American Horror Stories, right? Yeah. Yeah, which I loved. He had me on there for one episode and it was so much fun. He's incredible. Loved him. He also did Feud, which is one of my favorite limited series as well. And we love working on season...

This will be season five of, Oh wow. He's so great, dude. I loved him. I'll give him a big hug from you for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That we have, we, we spent, we spent 10 years, one, uh, one year in New Zealand, Tim, John, who is actually, uh, the guy that played my little brother is, uh, is on the longest running show in Canada, the Murdoch mysteries. I don't know if you, if you're familiar with that. Yes. Yeah. He's, he played my younger brother. He's been on that show for like,

12 years or something. I actually worked with him. Oh, you did? Yeah, he's great. Yeah, he's a lovely guy. He's a big-hearted dude. And yeah, Tim, him, and I were the kind of... We were the ones kind of going, you know, what the fuck is this production company up to? Tim tells great stories about how it just...

It was like apocalypse now. Like, like who's in charge here? Ain't you? Like, it was like, Oh, you mean high tide? Yeah. Yeah. Like getting down there, dude, it was insane. We were the first ones actually. One of the first shows to film in New Zealand was before Lord of the Rings and any of that stuff. And these guys that they, we came in and all these New Zealand production people thought they had to do everything we wanted.

I learned my lines audio wise, you know, I talk them into the tape recorder and I listen to them as I work out and stuff like that. And they couldn't find a tape recorder that recorded and played back with a speaker. I don't know, like whatever in New Zealand. So they had to fly to some other country to get me this tape recorder.

And it was just, they did all this, like, just went over the top to make us, you know, they thought Hollywood was moving into New Zealand. It was very, very fun. That's, that's, oh, I know, I know what I need to ask you about. You, am I imagining, do I remember seeing you at Live Aid? Yeah, I was on, after Run DMC.

Actually, before the Hooters. I think the Hooters were on there with me. Were you at Philly or in London? Philly. Yeah, we're in Philly. Boy, that was a thing. Yeah, it was pretty nuts. That was a thing. What do you remember about Live Aid? It was really exciting. There was electricity backstage, sure. I bet.

I was a bit into my, hey, don't talk to me mode. I don't know if you went through that. You go through, hey,

you know, stay back. You know, you go, you go through that till you realize, Hey, wait, that's, I'm being a real frigging jerk. Uh, and, and Eric Clapton wanted to meet me cause we had the same, uh, agent and I go, sorry, man, I'm about to go on. I can't meet Eric. Amazing. Unbelievable. I turned down the chance to meet Eric Clapton. What a fucking idiot. Amazing.

I, I, when I met Eric, he was the, by the way, the nicest man ever. Yeah. He said the greatest thing to me that I'll never forget. He said, you should really come see me play live. I think it's what I do best. And I just like, Oh, you do, do you? You think playing, playing live is what you do? No, no kidding.

I'll agree with that. Yeah. You also are in the TM club. You practice TM. I do. Yeah. I have depression, and that's really been one of the things that's really helped me, actually. It's impossible for me to be depressed when I'm truly meditating and connected. Really, it's been a great savior for me.

How do you, um, do you do it the way like religiously twice a day, the way people say it or as needed? Like how do you practically work it? Um, I started twice a day, then I cut it back to once a day. Uh, now it's once a day in the mornings. Um, but you know, I'll do it on the road at any time. Um, cause there's a lot of spare time on the road. Um, but my wife and I practice it together, which is really, uh, very, very, very connecting and,

And, you know, there's someone there to make sure you don't skip it, you know? No, it's really true because I'm new-ish to it. TM, for those of you who may not know, is Transcendental Meditation. And I've been trying to meditate. I've been trying to figure out meditation for literally over 20 years. Yeah, I have too, actually, since mid-'80s when I used to fall asleep, you know? Yes, yes!

Fall asleep, get bored. And I find this is the only one where I still fall asleep sometimes when I'm done. They say you must need to then.

That's right. That's what that's. I love there's no way to screw it up. You know, you just kind of I here's my other philosophy. I all my people that I know in TM, I think they give us all the same month. We obviously never share your mind. No, you can't tell a man. And I'm and I never have. And no one is no one I know has ever told me their mantra. That said, we suspect there's only one mantra and we all have. We all think we all think we're special. Yep.

They picked this one specially for me. Yeah. I don't recall them asking any particular special questions about me, so how do they know? Yep, yep. You seem like you're a ooga-booga, ooga-looga, mooga guy. Yeah. There's your mantra. Yeah. Ooga-booga-balooga.

Beluga for sure would be my mantra. I'd be very down with lots of, uh, well, they don't think of it. I mean, it's supposed to be, you know, if you, if I had Beluga, I'd be constantly thinking of, you know, a white whale. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. It's supposed to mean nothing to you. Nothing to you. Yeah.

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Qualifying plan required. Wi-Fi were available on select U.S. airlines. Deposit and Hilton Honors membership required for 15% discount terms and conditions apply. Well, it's funny because I also saw in my research that you, I don't know if it's a current song of yours, one of your songs that you just have recorded, Automatic, came to you in a dream. Is that true? In a dream. Yeah. Yeah. The new album's called Automatic, and that's kind of the focus song, one of the focus songs.

There's 20 songs on it, so we have a choice. But it was just, I couldn't stop writing. I'm here in my studio where I recorded it. And usually when you dream a song, and it usually happens when you're writing, in a writing binge, you know. And usually when I dream a song, I wake up and I go, oh man, that was a great song. And then I go, yeah, it was a great song when the Stones wrote it.

You realize it's somebody else's song. But I woke up at three in the morning with this song in my head and said, oh, I wonder who wrote that. And it was nobody. So I wrote it, got up and wrote it down. You know, you got to finish it, obviously. But yeah, when that happened, it's very rare and it's pretty exciting. The reason I brought it up is I think it has something to do with meditation because I recently, this never happened to me,

I dreamed an entire new, I'm starting a production company. One of the things we like to do, we're doing is, is we're working on, um, uh, creating game shows, fun, new game shows. And I created a brand new game show from rules to the set, to the name, all like, literally it was like, it came to me like it was a crystal clear document in my dream.

And as a producer, you know, I, we go in and we pitch things to networks and, and to, into studios and whatever. I've never had anything bought in the room as I pitched it. I've had things bought, but never in the room. I, so I have the game show idea. I make an appointment to go and pitch it. I sold it the next day. Wow. So from dream to reality.

one day. That's incredible. It's called word bridge. So it's at some point it'll be coming out and I'll talk about it, but literally came completely out of a dream. Well, I'm, I'm a big believer in the shoemakers elves. Um, you know, the story, right? Where the, the guy, the shoemaker is a poor shoemaker and he's not doing well and he goes to sleep in these elves and make the shoes for him as he's sleeping. And, and, um, I, when you go to bed with a,

with a thought. I remember when I was writing my autobiography, I'd go, how the hell am I ever going to remember what happened 40 years ago? You go to bed, and I knew I'd wake up, and it's all back there, and it's brought forward, and that happens for me with songs. When I'm having a problem with a song, I'll go to sleep, and I'll wake up with an answer. When you concentrate on something

really focus on something, then your mind, you know, your subconscious does a lot of the work while you're sleeping. And I suspect that's kind of what happened with you. You know, it feels like magic, but it's really, I think you're, you know, the gods also, the gods have a hand in it, I believe, but it's also your mind doing the work while you're sleeping. Like the shoemaker's elves, I call them that. The other breakthrough I had was it's super hard for me to wake up

really hard. And so the notion of people like you were like, and then I woke up and I wrote it down and I went back to, I'm like, I'm not, I can't tell you how many ideas I've had where I'm like, that's a great idea. Oh God, I got to wake up. And then, and then, and then I actually wake up and it's gone. So what I discovered like, duh, is I can go,

Hey Siri. Yeah. Write down blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I did it. And that's the only reason it's, it's around. But if I had to get a piece of paper and write it to forget, I'm not doing that. Well, you got to get a dog. Don't wake up. Yeah. A dog wakes us up at five in the morning. Don't believe me. I have them. Yeah. I'm sure you do anything. Oh, Oh, I know. Hang on. Hang on. Hang on. Made your acting debut.

on an episode of the $6 million. Can I just tell you for me, that was it. The $6 million man. Come on. I mean, there's nothing bigger. I was such a fan of that show.

What was that? First of all, what was the $6 million man doing in your episode? Was he bending steel? Was he jumping off of a building? Do you remember anything about it? I didn't actually. I was. What was I? I had just been signed as a contract player at Universal. It was the first.

regular money I'd ever seen in my life. And I was one of the last contract players because they eventually ended the whole thing. But you still had to, you know, read for the part and they still had to want you kind of thing. You couldn't just walk in and take it. So I read for this part and I hadn't gotten anything up until then. And it was for a rollerblader. Remember rollerbladers? This angled track, you know, you go around and bump each other. It was for that. And they said, can you roller skate? And I said, of course.

Right. Never been on a pair of roller skates in my life. And so I got the part and I was amazed. I said, well, you're our new, you're our Niles or whatever the hell his name was. So we're filming this in this roller rink.

And I want to walk up the ramp, right, the roller rink. So I take one skate off and put my foot down. And then the next foot I put down has a skate on it. So it slips out from under me. And I bring my hands up. I whack myself in the eye with the skate in my hand and blacken my eye. And so they had to shoot me from the left side for the rest of the show.

Unbelievable. But I never met, I never did a scene. I don't think I did a scene with, uh, with Steve Austin. I think, I think I met him, but, um, Lee majors, Colonel C he's a man barely alive. What's that? He's a man barely alive, but we can rebuild him. We have the technology. Yep. The greatest opening sequence ever.

The $6 million man opening sequence. I'm telling you, if you're, if you're not pumped for that, like, let's go. My, my favorite now is $6 million. There are cars that people buy for 6 million. Now I keep, that's going to build a leg. Yeah. It's also like, I watched a rerun of the show heart to heart, another big eighties hit. And they're like,

There's, there's Roger Hart or whatever the voiceover says. Yeah. He, he's a millionaire. He better not retire then. You got to do, um, titles adjusted for inflation, I think. Yeah. Yes. Well, that's where the million dollars come from, right? From, uh, um, you know, the,

From Austin Powers. Yes. It's the best. It was a lot of money once. It was a lot of money. One million dollars. That's one of my favorite Austin Powers moments. By the way, the title doesn't quite roll off the $600 million man. The $6 billion man would be closer. Yeah, but that feels like too much to me. I could build three of them.

See, now we've figured out why they've never done that as a reboot. Although I hear Mark Wahlberg's doing it. It did it. Really? It's coming out. That's what I hear. Well, it's $6 million, man. It's kind of like Kleenex. You just accept it, you know? Oh, okay. Yeah, he had a really expensive pacemaker put in. Good for him. Yeah, after Robocop that costs, you know, multi-millions of dollars, $6 million, man. I was like, wow, I got a great deal on that. It's really...

Did you ever do like incredible hulks or any of that? I did. I did two incredible hulks. Actually, I did a pilot one that was going to be a pilot and about, cause I, I did, I was doing a lot of karate and, and, um, and they, uh, they had this whole pilot written where I was a cop that also was a karate master, you know, and, and they said that was going to be a buy. No, you gotta be a cop or a doctor or a lawyer. Right. Back then. That's right. That's right. That was it.

And they were going to do a pilot, but they said they folded it into an episode of, you know, what you said, the Hulk. I called it The Disciple and was hoping it would get picked up from that. And of course, it was just another episode of the Hulk. But yeah, I did a couple of Wonder Woman. So I did one.

Eddie Capra mysteries. It was, oh my God. So the horrible TV where it's the same script, they just send it around. Oh yeah. The TV was, was horrible in, in, in that era. And yet it was just a factory, a total factory. And just, just crap, just absolute crap.

And yet we remember it so fondly. Well, you know, you're younger. You remember the great young moments that you have changed their form in your mind as you've gotten older and become something absolutely beautiful.

I mean, can you imagine the production meeting where Lou Ferrigno shows up for the first time and he's in the Hulk? They're like this at eight o'clock. We're all getting together, everybody. And we're going to see the Hulk look. They've been working on it for a really long time. And he walks in with spray paint on him and that wig. Yeah. And someone said, yeah, I think that's good.

And the green sneakers that they would shoot every accidentally every now and then he had green sprayed sneakers. He said that that would have been the worst gig ever. He had this, had that all day long, no matter how long the show went and he'd have to sit in a refrigerated trailer or the paint would run. No. Yeah. Like super air, super air conditioned or the green paint would run. So. Can you imagine getting it, taking it off? I'll tell you what would happen to me.

Cause I've done special effects stuff for a long time. Like how about taking that off after a 13 hour day, sitting there and they take the painstaking, taking it off only to have it put on tomorrow. I'd be like, you know, fuck it. I'm, I'm just going to be green. I'm going to be green for, for my life. I did a show where I played an old guy and they had full face makeup on and it took like three hours and I,

I had that on for 24 hours. It was back, you know, when they just keep shooting and shooting and shooting and shooting. I had it on for 24 hours and it was just like having this on your face for 24 hours. It was horrible. Those were the days. Those are the days. They continue to be the days. Amazing. This is great. Thanks, brother. Yeah. Great to talk to you. What a nice guy.

So sweet. And his tour, I Want My 80s, coming to a city near you sometime in August. All right. You know what time it is. Let's check the lowdown line. Hello. You've reached literally in our lowdown line where you can get the lowdown on all things about me, Rob Lowe. 323-570-4551. So have at it. Here's the beep.

Hey, Rob. Ryan Becknell here from Charleston, South Carolina. I'm a lifelong surfer. Life is one surf trip to the next. We don't have a ton of surf over here, but what I want to know is I can tell that you're a lifelong surfer. Your enthusiasm when you insert those nuggets in the podcast get me really stoked. Can you please tell the audience your surf origin story? Hey, Ryan. Shaka brah.

Love you. Listen, check me out on TikTok, by the way. I just posted my latest surf video from Kelly Slater's surf ranch. It's pretty sick, I have to admit. It might be my favorite footage ever of me and my career. So I'm from Ohio. No ocean there. I moved to Malibu when I'm to Malibu of all places. One of the meccas of surfing. I moved there at 12. I go down to the beach. I try to surf. They beat the living shit out of me.

And I'm not going to be surfing anytime soon. Malibu was gnarly then. They were not having it. It's not like today where every sort of MILF is out there pushing their four-year-old on a foam board. That was not going to fly in those days. And the notion of some 13-year-old trucking out from Ohio, learning was not ever going to happen. But I did learn to body surf and boogie board. You could do that in the short break.

So I learned the mechanics of the wave and I loved it. And I learned how to paddle into wave, be in a wave, how to fall, how to get to all that stuff, but never surfing because I was not allowed. Flash forward many, many years and I'm in Hawaii with my family. I'm 40 years old and I take my first surf lesson and I learned to surf. I loved it.

and became obsessed with it. And at 41, paddled back into that Malibu break where they used to beat me up at Little Doom. And I've been surfing there ever since. As you know, it's an obsession. I love sports and I dabble in almost everything and I'm probably intermediate. I'm not...

an expert at anything. I'm close at surfing and close at skiing, but I do a lot of stuff. And golfing and surfing are the only two that have that addictive last thing you sleep about, think of before you go to sleep at night quality. I mean, I never think about the backhand I hit in tennis as I'm going to sleep, but I will think about a wave that I caught surfing. Yeah. So seeing the, seeing the breaks, see out there until next week.

This is me signing off, and I will see you back at Literally. You've been listening to Literally with Rob Lowe, produced by me, Nick Liao, with help from associate producer Sarah Begar, research by Alyssa Grahl, editing by Jerron Ferguson, engineering and mixing by Rich Garcia. Our executive producers are Rob Lowe for Low Profile, Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross, and myself for Team Coco, and Colin Anderson for Stitcher.

Booking by Deirdre Dodd. Music by Devin Bryant. Special thanks to Hidden City Studios. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time on Literally with Rob Lowe. This has been a Team Coco production.

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