Daddy Dish: Rick Springfield rocks the lullaby with new album (part 1 of 2)

Can you feel the I recently read a tweet by the amazing Xeni Jardin of Boing Boing where she said, "Part of my 'job' as blogger/reporter/whatever is repressing fandom til after interview or artist encounter ends in professional capacity."

That's my deal, too--unless I'm interviewing actor and musician Rick Springfield.

I have crushed on Rick since 1981, when I watched him sing "Jessie's Girl" on the show "Solid Gold."
Now that I'm a grown woman and a blogger/reporter/whatever, I find myself in situations where I get to interview him for stories. Case in point: My personal guitar lesson with him last year (we also talked about Father's Day.) As Shine Healthy Living editor, Jessica Ashley, puts it, I become all "hee-hee-girly-crushy" and giggly. Because the man makes me laugh.

Rick just released a new album of lullabies called My Precious Little One (US$12, amazon.com). Back in March, I hopped on a plane and flew down to Malibu so I could get the scoop on it. We sat at a coffee shop for an hour and chatted about kids, parenting, the entertainment business, and soap operas. (And now I want to chat with him again about his new gig on a few upcoming episodes of "Californication" on Showtime. Apparently he'll be stripping down for it. Heh.)

I've broken up the interview into two parts and today we're talking about "My Precious Little One." When you watch, just remember: hee-hee-girly-crushy and giggly. Also? We're outside so there's some local color (and noise).

Rick wrote the songs on "My Precious Little One" for his sons, Liam, 23, and Josh, 20, when they were babies. He admits it's slightly embarrassing because it feels like he's sharing a diary of his emotions from a certain point in time.

And if you're a new parent and you're looking for some tunes to help your babe drift off into mellowness, Rick's new album might put your own precious little one to sleep. And guess what? It's all cool with him because it means his lullabies just worked their magic.