{"id":2275654,"date":"2026-02-10T11:58:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T11:58:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2275654"},"modified":"2026-02-10T11:58:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T11:58:16","slug":"shaun-cassidy-70s-teen-heartthrob-returns-to-the-stage-in-madison-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/shaun-cassidy-70s-teen-heartthrob-returns-to-the-stage-in-madison-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaun Cassidy, \u201970s teen heartthrob, returns to the stage in Madison | Music"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

When Shaun Cassidy performed for 55,000 people at the Astrodome in 1980, he had no idea it would be his last show for four decades.<\/p>\n

Cassidy spent most of his career as a television writer and producer, working on shows like \u201cBlue Bloods\u201d and \u201cNew Amsterdam.\u201d But he might be best known as a \u201970s teen icon \u2014 his poster was on many a teen\u2019s wall \u2014 and a member of one of the era\u2019s most famous families.<\/span><\/p>\n

His mom is Academy Award-winning actress Shirley Jones, and his father, Jack Cassidy, is a Tony Award-winning actor. Half-brother David Cassidy was also a teen sensation, releasing hit records and starring (with Jones) in the \u201970s hit show \u201cThe Partridge Family.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1980, Shaun Cassidy decided to leave performing behind. He started touring again 40 years later, spurred by the solitude of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/span> He\u2019ll stop in Madison<\/span><\/a> as part of his \u201cThe Road to Us\u201d tour on Feb. 18 at the Barrymore Theatre, 2090 Atwood Ave.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI missed this connection with people,\u201d he said. \u201cI found that storytelling, which has been my job, became the key for me to go back out on the stage.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At first, Cassidy \u201cwrote a one-man storytelling show without any music, and I did it for some of my friends. And they were like, \u2018Yeah, stories are great, but people are going to throw things at you if you don\u2019t sing \u201c<\/span>Da Doo Ron Ron.<\/span><\/a>\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The show is funny and emotional, and Cassidy has realized how powerful nostalgia can be.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n \n <\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n

Shaun Cassidy returns to the stage on his tour, “The Road to Us,” which stops in Madison on Feb. 18.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n


\n ASHTYN RAE<\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n


\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cI see 25-year-olds tearing up as they look at their moms, because they\u2019ve heard that their moms felt this way about me over the years, and they didn\u2019t really know what that meant until this night,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Cap Times talked to Cassidy ahead of his Madison show about stepping away from performing in his 20s, refusing to let others label him and whose poster he had on his own bedroom wall.<\/span><\/p>\n

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s wild that you didn\u2019t know the Astrodome show would be your last show \u2019til now. When did you make that decision?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t \u2014 it just sort of happened. I got married really young. I had two kids by the time I was in my mid-20s, and, like many people in their mid-20s, I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life.<\/span><\/p>\n

I could have kept acting \u2014 I did a lot of theater \u2014 or kept making records or whatever. But even while I was working on \u201cThe Hardy Boys,\u201d I found myself more interested in writing than anything else.<\/p>\n

When I was 29, I sold my first movie, a television movie. And on the heels of that, I wrote a pilot called \u201cAmerican Gothic,\u201d which became a big deal. A lot of people couldn\u2019t quite put together the idea that this boy-next-door kid \u2014 who they thought I was \u2014 had written this very dark story, and that opened the door to me to be able to kind of do anything.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once you\u2019re out of whatever lane people think you belong in, you get to play in all the lanes, and that\u2019s been the story for me ever since.<\/p>\n

What should people expect from your show?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The show is a combination of songs many people will know, some new songs, and some songs my family is known for, all mixed with a series of stories.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not totally scripted. I go off-book a lot, but there is a beginning, middle, and end. And the theme of the show \u2014 \u201cThe Road to Us\u201d \u2014 is about our collective journey. The audience and mine, speaking to those who may have been at my concerts back in the day and have come again, and to the large percentage of the audience who are new.<\/span><\/p>\n

I feel like at this point in the world, it\u2019s so important to get people out from behind a computer and out of their house and into a room where they can have fun together and have our collective humanity spill out over each other, and music and storytelling are great ways to do that.<\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n <\/span><\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n \"110_8766-Edit.jpg\"\n <\/div><\/div>
\n

<\/p>\n

Shaun Cassidy will play the Barrymore Theatre in Madison on Feb. 18.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n


\n HOLLIS BROWN<\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n


\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

I was reading an\u00a0interview you did with the LA Times<\/a>, and Bernie Taupin (Elton John\u2019s songwriting partner) said you sound better now than you did when you were 20.<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s really sweet of him to say \u2014 he\u2019s a dear friend. In all humility, I do because I haven\u2019t sung every night for 40 years. If you have hit records from a certain decade and you\u2019re out singing them over and over and over again, you\u2019re probably gonna end up hating those songs because you\u2019re so tired of them, and you\u2019re probably going to burn your voice out.<\/span><\/p>\n

Neither of those things happened to me. I get to sing these songs with a level of passion and commitment I would never have if I had continued doing it. It all feels very fresh to me.<\/span><\/p>\n

What is it like revisiting songs you wrote in your teens? Do they resonate with you differently as you talk about them four decades later?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s one of the most thrilling parts of doing this, because it\u2019s like you\u2019re doing archeology on yourself and wondering, \u201cWhat was I thinking, or what was I writing about?\u201d Some songs feel like I anticipated, somehow, potentially singing them in 40 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My show is a lot of shared discovery and shared experience. I talk about my family a lot, and I\u2019m very open \u2014 it\u2019s not all shiny and glossy. It\u2019s very real.<\/span><\/p>\n

When I first started (performing again), I was speaking kind of generally about my family, and it didn\u2019t land. The more specific I got, the more open I got, the more honest I got, the more people felt like I was talking about them.<\/span><\/p>\n

This question was literally submitted by my mom: Who did you have a poster of on your wall when you were a teen?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think I had a female pin-up. Is your mom coming to the show?<\/span><\/p>\n

No, she\u2019s in Miami.<\/strong><\/p>\n

(laughs) Well, I ask because I answer that question in the show.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source captimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Shaun Cassidy performed for 55,000 people at the Astrodome in 1980, he had no idea it would be his last show for four decades. Cassidy spent most of his career as a television writer and producer, working on shows like \u201cBlue Bloods\u201d and \u201cNew Amsterdam.\u201d But he might be best known as a \u201970s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2275655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[21800],"class_list":["post-2275654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Shaun-Cassidy-70s-teen-heartthrob-returns-to-the-stage-in.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2275654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2275654"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2275654\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2275656,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2275654\/revisions\/2275656"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2275655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2275654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2275654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2275654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}