David Cassidy has long struggled with the sudden mega-stardom that Keith Partridge brought to his life.
It has ranged from the frenzied 1970s when girls of all ages were throwing themselves at him to more recent struggles with drunk driving arrests and bankruptcy. Cassidy’s woes continued on the eve of his Tuesday shows in The Villages. He and his band got caught up in the Delta Airlines computer outage. And then his guitar wouldn’t function properly in his first show at Savannah Center.
But as always, Cassidy persevered.
And his fans loved him. As always.
Susie Carpenter Geletka of the Village of Briar Meadow was lucky enough to score a private audience with David Cassidy before the show. She had met him in 1994 when he was touring in a performance of “Blood Brothers.”
It seemed all of the women were in pursuit of their private moment with Cassidy who rocketed to fame in the 1970s television show, “The Partridge Family.” Images of those days gone by flashed on the screen throughout Cassidy’s performance.
Eleanor Mullaney of Tampa approached the stage wth a handmade sign indicating she was Cassidy’s cousin, but the singer couldn’t confirm the lineage.
Elaine King came from Fort Myers and got near Cassidy as he reached down from the stage. She soaked up every moment of the show from her front-row seat.
And Gail Reardon of the Village of Del Mar got a little question-and-answer session with Cassidy as he invited her near the stage.
Cassidy told stories from his Keith Partridge days.
He spoke of rebelling when producers wanted him to do the spoken word part of his big Partridge hit “Doesn’t Somebody Want to Be Wanted.” His famous father, Jack Cassidy, called him and ordered him to do it.
Cassidy then performed the song with a little self-mocking, but said he has come to terms with it.
He performed plenty of songs from his thick catalogue of musical influences, including B.B. King (whom he met at age 17 at the famed Whiskey A Go Go), John Lennon (describing getting drunk with him in 1975) and Davy Jones of the Monkees. Cassidy then launched into the Monkees’ hit “Cheer Up Sleepy Jean,” and led the audience in a sing-along.
Cassidy closed the first of two shows with the Partridges’ monster hit, “I Think I Love You.”
And smiling audience members agreed. They think they still love him, too.
