IF YOU WERE a young lady growing up in the 1970s, you very likely had a Shaun Cassidy poster hanging on your bedroom wall. After a multi-decade touring hiatus, the once-upon-a-time teen idol is once again back on the road discussing his new holiday show and sharing some surprising Hoosier connections.
You stepped away from touring at the height of fame in your early 20s. What was the spark that made you want to get out there again?
It was a cumulative effect, honestly. I was certain I was never going to do any live performing again. My last concert was at the [Houston] Astrodome in 1980. I said goodnight, and I didn’t know I wouldn’t do another concert for 40 years. I was fortunate to transition into writing and producing TV, and that’s still my main job. Around 2019, I sat down thinking about a memoir and ended up writing a one-man storytelling show. Friends said, “People are going to throw things at you if you don’t sing ‘Da Doo Ron Ron.’” I did a few little shows and people ended up coming from all over the world. It was kind of astonishing. I planned a tour to go out in 2020 and then, of course, the pandemic happened. Last year, I did the biggest tour of my life—65 cities all over North America with a show called The Road to Us, and it was very successful and a lot of fun.
Who’s your audience these days?
Sixty or 70 percent of the audience are the kids who came to my shows in the late ’70s, all grown up. And that’s gratifying because we’ve all lived lives, and we can share our experiences through the show. And now, a lot more second-generation people are coming. The Hardy Boys has been on Peacock for five years, so there are a lot of 25-year-olds asking, “Where’s that kid I watch on TV?” Now they see a guy who looks like his dad.
You’re also active on social media and manage your own accounts.
I do. I was a very reluctant new member of social media about 10 or 12 years ago. I had a show on Amazon; they insisted I open Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts. I did it purely to promote the show, and then the show was over, and suddenly it’s like you’re dating a girl and you have to break up for no reason. I felt bad, so I just kept talking to people, and I found that it actually was really gratifying. I like conversing with people and sharing stories, so social media has been a blessing that way for me.
What’s the question you get asked most often?
“Why are you so normal?” People ask me all the time. I don’t know that I am. The life I’ve lived, at least on the surface to a lot of people, seems very extreme. We know lots of stories about people who had similar first acts to mine and did not make out well, if at all. I think the answer to the question why I am happy and grounded is that I was able to step away from the spotlight for a long time. That was a good thing.
TV writing and production have been the focus of your career for decades now. (Cassidy’s television work has included American Gothic, The Agency, Cold Case, Emerald City, and New Amsterdam.) How does that experience inform your approach to live performance?
My true calling is writing. Everything I do is story-driven. There’s an arc to my show. It’s not completely scripted, but I have thought about what I’m going to say before I ever get onstage. In a sense, it’s like a Broadway musical in that the songs are there to either reveal character or advance plot. I’ve structured all my shows—this is my third one, now—with a beginning, middle, and end.
What inspired you to do a holiday show?
Christmas is an emotional time. It can be fun, it can be reflective, it can be crazy. I’ve had all of those experiences, and I think I’ve woven that into the show and found songs to support the stories. I wrote two new Christmas songs. They’re tricky because it’s hard to avoid all the tropes. It took me a while to think about a new idea that hasn’t been mined to death.
We’ll still get to hear some of your greatest hits, too?
I mean, they’re staples now. The audience wants those, and I like to play them. The good news of not touring for 40 years—they’re not stale. And in all humility, I think I’m a better singer now than I was when I was 20, so I get to show off a little bit.
Do you have a favorite Christmas song?
Nat King Cole’s “The Christmas Song,” written by Mel Tormé. I’m not doing that because the bar is just too high. But I am singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” which is my mom’s favorite Christmas song. And I’m singing “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” a Queen song not many people know called “Thank God It’s Christmas,” “Sleigh Ride,” and “Do You Hear What I Hear?” in a very different arrangement.
How familiar are you with Indiana?
My son is a sophomore at IU. Many years ago, I did a television series based on the movie Breaking Away. I’m a huge fan of Bloomington. I love that town. I was there for the IU-Northwestern game in a very fancy dean’s box. I look across the stadium, and there’s John Mellencamp smoking in his little private chamber. I was also there visiting him several months ago and Oklahoma! was up playing. I called the head of the [Indiana University Jacobs School of Music] and said, “I don’t know if your theater students want to hear any Oklahoma! stories, but my mom (Academy Award-winning actress Shirley Jones) starred in the movie.” I ended up talking to the whole cast and crew and the directors. And I saw the show, which was great.
What’s next for you after this tour?
I’m writing the book for a Broadway musical, and a new television pilot I just sold that I’m excited about. I’ve got a new SiriusXM show called This Side of Sunset. It’s three hours every Sunday, playing records and telling my coming-of-age stories from 1970 to 1980.
Any fun family holiday traditions?
My wife in recent years decided she wants real mistletoe to hang from the chandelier in our living room. Last year, my 21-year-old son and I went out mistletoe hunting at dusk. We live in the wine country of Santa Barbara with a lot of beautiful old rolling oaks, and that’s apparently where the mistletoe grows. We found a tree, but it was very high, and it was getting dark. So we climbed the tree, and we were up there with our flashlights, and a friend of mine drove by, rolled down the window of his truck, and he said, “Hey, look, it’s the Hardy Boys.”
That definitely sounds like a Hardy Boys adventure.
It does, right? The Mystery of the Missing Mistletoe.
