At 63, Rick Springfield’s teen-idol days are long behind him, but many of his eternally entranced fans have stuck with the singer throughout his career. In addition to a new album of sometimes dark, revealing songs called “Songs for the End of the World,” which drops on Tuesday, Wednesday sees the premiere of “An Affair of the Heart,” a documentary about still-obsessed Springfield followers, at the IFC Center.
Your new album is pretty revealing, including a song called “I Hate Myself.” Do you consider your work to have always been this confessional?
Always. Even [the 1982 hit] “Don’t Talk to Strangers” was about my then-girlfriend, who later became my wife. I was being a bad boy on the road, and I assumed she was doing the same. It was sexual paranoia, but housed in a pop song.
In your 2010 memoir, “Late, Late at Night,” you were open about your marital infidelities. Was that tough, considering how it would affect your wife?
I gave the manuscript to two of her best friends and said, “Make sure she doesn’t come off looking like some betrayed, stupid wife.” They read it and said, “You were honest, but it reads as a love story.” My wife wasn’t happy about it, but she understands that I’m a writer, that what I write about is my life, and that she’s the major part of my life.
On “Californication,” you played a wild-man version of yourself. Why take that role?
Because it’s so counter to the image of me, like if Julie Andrews played some heroin-addicted hooker. Initially, they sent me a script that wasn’t as wild as the original stuff I’d read. I called them and said, “Don’t hold back. I know what the show’s about. I’m willing to go for it.” So they took me at my word and went for it.
What was filming like?
They needed sounds of me and the woman I was supposed to be having sex with, some off-screen screaming and panting like we were having sex. So we went into this room on a soundstage, and I started making the sounds. We walked out, and everybody started laughing.
Have you splurged on anything cool lately?
I bought a pretty expensive ’63 Corvette [last year] and promptly got a DUI in it, which is kind of the yin/yang of the whole thing. It was because of the car. It was so loud the officer pulled me over, and then smelled alcohol.
It was reported that you threatened to kill the officer and his family. Did you say that?
No. They exaggerated that. I was very upset that he wanted to tow the car, but I would never, in a trillion years, say, “I’m gonna kill you and your family.” You can give me a lie detector test that I didn’t say that, but [the press] still go, “It’s in the report.” It’s not in the report.