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<\/div>\n\nBy Forty years ago, a 21-year-old David Cassidy pitched up in Italy, with the sole intent of travelling around Europe incognito. He\u2019d just become famous in the States thanks to his role in TV series The Partridge Family, where he played Keith \u2014 the eldest son in a fatherless group of musicians who toured America in their psychedelic van \u2014 but was as yet unknown throughout most of Europe. <\/p>\n He went sightseeing unrecognised in Rome, Florence and Paris before heading for his final destination, London. <\/p>\n \u2018All I had were my skis, my guitar and my suitcase,\u2019 he says. \u2018It was wonderful because no one knew me and I was living like a gypsy.\u00a0<\/p>\n Scream Idol: David Cassidy at the height of his fame in 1972<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Looking good: David has retained his handsome features<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018Then I flew into Heathrow thinking no one would have heard of me, but then this giant roar came up from thousands of kids who were waiting for me. The Partridge Family was showing in the UK, and it turned out I had a big following.<\/p>\n \u2018Police had to escort me everywhere and in the end I was politely asked to leave my hotel because the fans kept singing my songs outside, disturbing the other guests. <\/p>\n Then the BBC complained because the fans swamped the studios when I performed. It was,\u2019 he says, grinning happily, \u2018complete madness.\u2019<\/p>\n It was Cassidy\u2019s first taste of Britain and it\u2019s still the place that Cassidy\u2019s relationship with his fans has evolved from the screaming The original: David Cassidy sparked the same hysteria in fans that Justin Bieber provokes now<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He was Justin Bieber before Justin was even a twinkle in Pa Bieber\u2019s \u2018The fans now are different from before. I have stalkers, and some His wife of 24 years, singer-songwriter Sue Shifrin, suggested I ask \u2018We only discovered her when she took a Set for stardom: David Cassidy’s role as Keith in The Partrdige Family catapulted him into the limelight<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Up close and very personal: David Cassidy, seen here in 1973, went through women at a phenomenal rate\u2019 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n As he acknowledges, only a handful of people have ever experienced the noxious levels of fame that he encountered and unlike peers such as Michael Jackson and John Lennon, he survived \u2014 though at a price. <\/p>\n Drugs, drink, near-bankruptcy, breakdowns and marital discord have all played a part in his life, yet despite everything he appears to have come through with his humour, marbles and looks largely intact. <\/p>\n He\u2019s impressively trim, resolutely youthful-looking (he admits to We\u2019re at his home in Fort \u2018Our pets have become like children ever since Beau Dizzying heights of fame: Seen here in 1974, the actor says at the height of his fame he felt incredibly isolated<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Obsessed: Cassidy’s fans were driven to distraction by the star, who retired at the peak of his fame in 1974<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s telling that the relationships which have most profoundly shaped him have been those he has had with the males of his family. His father Jack Cassidy, the brilliant yet tortured star of stage and screen (including several episodes of detective series Columbo), was a domineering and at times fearsome presence in his son\u2019s life and their relationship ultimately affected the manner in which David raised his own son.<\/p>\n Following in her father’s footsteps: Katie Cassidy, David’s daughter, appears in Gossip Girl, but he has warned her about the perils of fame<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018Learning how to be a good parent was easy in the end because I\u2019d basically had the What Not To Do manual,\u2019 he says. \u2018I was very wary of repeating my father\u2019s behaviour and did everything not to act like he did. I turned up to all my son\u2019s performances and baseball games because my father never did that for me. <\/p>\n \u2018I idolised him so much and all I wanted him to do was put his arm around me and say \u201cGod, I\u2019m so proud of you\u201d, but the more successful I became, the more he resented it.\u2019<\/p>\n Jack Cassidy lived in the shadow of the success enjoyed by his second wife Shirley Jones. She played David\u2019s on-screen mother in The Partridge Family. David\u2019s real mother was actress Evelyn Ward, who was Jack\u2019s first wife. \u2018Shirley was an Academy Award winner and America\u2019s sweetheart, but while he was a good actor, it wasn\u2019t till the end of his career that he had any real kind of recognition and that tormented him. <\/p>\n \u2018He never said I was worthless, but his resentment would come out in these little mean ways. Then when The Partridge Family came along, he said in an interview that I got lucky with my success and that just broke my heart.\u2019<\/p>\n The Partridge Family ran for four years, spawning hit singles such as I Think I Love You and Come On Get Happy and creating total Cassidy mania, with lovelorn teens snapping up David Cassidy lunchboxes, pillowcases and bubblegum. <\/p>\n Cassidy, just another young actor trying to make it in Hollywood, was suddenly a superstar \u2014 his concerts smashing box office figures and causing levels of hysteria and even rioting rarely seen before or since. <\/p>\n \u2018But at the height of that fame, I was definitely the most isolated I\u2019ve ever been,\u2019 he says. \u2018I\u2019d be working seven days a week for most of the year and it never let up. When I got home, I isolated myself, just so I could rest. And because I couldn\u2019t go to the bank or shop like normal people, I had a housekeeper who took care of everything. <\/p>\n \u2018That creates a certain immaturity and even though I was 24 by the time the series ended, I was about 19 emotionally. I hadn\u2019t lived; I\u2019d devoted myself to the business of David Cassidy, rather than the person.\u2019<\/p>\n Tragic: Bernadette Whelan was 14 when she suffered a heart attack and died after she was crushed at a David Cassidy concert at White City Stadium in 1974\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Added to this was the obvious difference between Cassidy and his on-screen alter ego, Keith Partridge. While Keith was sweet, wistful and wholesome, David was experimenting with everything from LSD to heroin and getting through assorted women at a phenomenal rate. <\/p>\n \u2018I was way different to my character, and the fans had no idea\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2019 he grins. \u2018I wasn\u2019t ever a bad guy and I was never arrested or anything like that, but I was a wild boy in many respects. Also, I felt very conflicted about who I really was and who I was portrayed to be and that does terrible things to your head.\u2019<\/p>\n After 14-year-old fan Bernadette Whelan died following being crushed at one of his concerts at London\u2019s White City, Cassidy, distraught and exhausted, retired from the stage in 1974 at the peak of his fame. <\/p>\n He suffered \u2018several successive breakdowns\u2019, burrowing himself away in his home \u2018and dulling my existence by drinking\u2019. An attempted rapprochement between David and his father yielded little joy and then in December 1976 Jack Cassidy died in a fire at his home, which had started after he fell asleep holding a lit cigarette. <\/p>\n \u2018I was very sorry I hadn\u2019t seen my father for the last months of his life,\u2019 says Cassidy, \u2018but while he was alive, I had such bad experiences with him that I didn\u2019t want to know him. He had abandoned my mum and me totally David\u2019s parents divorced when he was three and so it was hard. <\/p>\n \u2018After he died, I realised he just couldn\u2019t cope with his life. Unfortunately he was a manic depressive at a time when the right medication just wasn\u2019t available. And he was a raging alcoholic, too, at a time when problems like that were swept under the carpet.\u2019<\/p>\n When I first interviewed David three years ago, he admitted he had been in recovery for a year with a drink problem and last November it appeared to have resurfaced when he was arrested in Florida on a drink-driving charge. <\/p>\n His car had been spotted weaving across the freeway and an open bottle of bourbon was found on the back seat. He was subsequently ordered to pay \u00a3300 in fines and attend a \u2018victim impact panel\u2019, which required him to meet people affected by drink-driving accidents.<\/p>\n Waking up the morning after the incident took place, he felt, he says, \u2018ashamed, embarrassed and lucky that I didn\u2019t hurt anyone or myself. It was a significant wake-up call and I thought to myself that this was a real lesson and I\u2019ll never do that again.<\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s both enlightening and frightening to see how one second of stupidity can change the course of so many people\u2019s lives. I want to do community service and speak to people who\u2019ve been arrested for drink-driving, because I shudder to think what might have happened. But I\u2019m not making excuses for what I did.<\/p>\n \u2018I could go for many years without drinking a drop at all, but then there would be times in my life when something happened that was really painful and I\u2019d start drinking. <\/p>\n Right after my father\u2019s death I spent probably a month being drunk and then I just decided: \u201cNo, that\u2019s enough.\u201d\u2009<\/p>\n \u2018What happened in November was that I\u2019d been to the funeral of a good friend of mine. I\u2019d had a couple of drinks and dropped someone off at the airport who had a bottle of bourbon with him. He couldn\u2019t take it through security, so he left it with me. I was lost, weeping and preoccupied, and I was tempted \u2014 so a very bad, sad day got a lot worse.\u2019<\/p>\n Though the David Cassidy brand made around half a billion dollars globally, having signed away the rights to his own likeness Cassidy himself pocketed only around \u00a310,000 and was brought to the brink of bankruptcy twice by unscrupulous business managers.<\/p>\n Many might have succumbed to bitterness, but instead Cassidy picked himself up, re-emerging to critical acclaim as a West End and Broadway star in productions of Time and Blood Brothers. With his recent appearance in Celebrity Apprentice alongside Donald Trump in the U.S., he\u2019s managing to keep himself in the public eye. <\/p>\n He was married twice before Sue \u2014 his first marriage, to actress Kay Lenz, lasted four years; his second, to horse breeder Meryl Tanz, two\u00a0 \u2014 but though he once admitted that successful relationships eluded him, his third marriage reaches its 25th anniversary next year. <\/p>\n The couple had enjoyed a brief fling during Cassidy\u2019s heyday and got back together during the mid-Eighties, after which they never separated. <\/p>\n \u2018The secret to a long marriage? You have to find someone you respect and someone you can climb a mountain with and you also have to accept that there are going to be parts of that person you may not like, but you still love them. And no, I won\u2019t tell you what they are because it\u2019ll haunt me for ever! <\/p>\n \u2018I tell you what, though \u2014 I\u2019ve enjoyed long relationships with females who are friends and I\u2019ve had lots of meaningless flings, too, but I will never understand women,\u2019 he says, shaking his head.<\/p>\n One woman he at least partially understands is his 24-year-old daughter Katie, from a brief relationship he had with model Sherry Williams. Currently starring in the TV series Gossip Girl, Katie had little contact with her father growing up, though the two are now close, \u2018and I\u2019m so proud of her,\u2019 says Cassidy.<\/p>\n \u2018When she was 15, her mother got her a recording deal because she was my daughter \u2014 and I went insane. This was when Britney Spears was at her peak and every teenage girl wanted to be Britney, but I said to Katie: \u201cDon\u2019t do this \u2013 you\u2019re going to regret it.\u201d <\/p>\n \u2018We had many conversations about it and she\u2019s thanked me for it since. Now, she\u2019s doing something she really loves to do and she\u2019s worked hard for it. It\u2019s never about the fame and money \u2014 it\u2019s about doing the work.\u2019<\/p>\n So, what then of all the fans who can\u2019t quite get used to the fact that their idol is now in his seventh decade \u2014 the feather cut replaced by a sensible hairdo, the cheesecloth having given way to golf shirts. <\/p>\n \u2018Well, it was funny because I was at some event in the late Seventies just after I\u2019d got married and I\u2019d gained about 10lb. Some woman walked by and said \u201cWhat happened to you? You\u2019re so fat!\u201d and I promise you, she didn\u2019t even have any teeth! \u2018I just smiled and said \u201cYes, we all eventually have to weigh more than 119lb\u201d, and moved on. But generally people are very kind and I don\u2019t ever get that feeling that I\u2019m disappointing them when they see me. They accept that I\u2019m a father and they accept that I\u2019m a grown-up now,\u2019 he says, adding with a twinkle, \u2018well, I almost am.\u2019<\/p>\n \u25a0 David Cassidy is performing for one night only on April 12, at the hmv Apollo, Hammersmith, at 8pm. For tickets, call hmv ticket line 0843 221 0100, Ticketmaster line 08448 44 47 48 or log on to www.hmvapollo.com <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
\nLina Das<\/a>
Last updated at 12:44 AM on 25th March 2011<\/p>\n![\"Scream](\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/542fe036539_468x426.jpg.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Looking](\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/a0e04c41975_233x380.jpg.jpg\")
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\nholds some of his fondest memories. To that end, he\u2019s giving a special
\nconcert at London\u2019s Hammersmith Apollo on April 12 \u2014 his 61st birthday \u2014
\n\u2018because it\u2019s only appropriate I give back to the British people after
\nall they\u2019ve given me,\u2019 he says. \u2018I don\u2019t really want to tour any more,
\nbut I did want to do something special to mark the 40th anniversary of
\nmy first visit to Britain.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nhysteria of the Seventies (\u2018fans tried to take a piece of me home with
\nthem and stick it on their wall\u2019) to the less hormonal yet still intense
\nadoration that greets him today. <\/p>\n
\neye and even though his admirers are now of a certain age, he still has a
\nhuge following. While others might have resented the continued
\nattention, Cassidy remains remarkably stoic.<\/p>\n
\nare old ones and some are new. Some people just don\u2019t get reality: that
\nthis is my job and something I love to do.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nabout \u2018the woman in the air conditioning\u2019. \u2018Oh yeah,\u2019 says Cassidy,
\n\u2018about ten years ago there was this woman from Belgium, around 22 years
\nold, who found her way into our house and slept in the air conditioning
\nduct for six weeks. <\/p>\n
\nwalk outside in the middle of the night and started screaming when
\nsomeone tried to abduct her. I paid for her flight back to Belgium,
\nasking her never to return.\u2019 Cassidy shudders. \u2018I mean, that air
\nconditioning looked onto my bathroom, so she was probably watching me
\nthe entire time. I can\u2019t bear to think about it.\u2019 <\/p>\n![\"Set](\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/1d782a7d587_468x306.jpg.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Up](\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/77301b53991_468x304.jpg.jpg\")
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\ndyeing his hair, \u2018as I was silver by my mid-30s\u2019) and claims to be free
\nof surgical enhancement aside from an operation decades ago to remove
\nfat from under his eyes. <\/p>\n
\nLauderdale, Florida \u2014 Cassidy relaxing on the sofa, while the family\u2019s
\nBichon Frise, Mickey, dozes on his lap and their parrot Bailey nestles
\non his chest.<\/p>\n
\ntheir 20-year-old son went to college,\u2019 he says. \u2018I really miss him
\nand it was because of Beau that I stopped touring. I made a commitment
\nto my son that I wouldn\u2019t do it and I\u2019m glad that I didn\u2019t.\u2019<\/p>\n![\"Dizzying](\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/a1d33d04299_468x345.jpg.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Obsessed:](\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/848a88c4444_468x338.jpg.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Following](\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/116292e8172_233x423.jpg.jpg\")
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