Musical, medical

A familiar face is roaming the halls of ABC’s daytime soap “General Hospital”: Rick Springfield.

The 56-year-old actor-singer is reprising his role as Dr. Noah Drake on the long-running drama. The Australian-born Springfield starred as the hunky Dr. Drake on the series from 1981 to ’83. During this stint, Springfield also became a Grammy Award-winning pop star with his bestselling album “Working Class Dog” and its No. 1 hit, “Jessie’s Girl.”

Since leaving “General Hospital,” Springfield has continued to act on such series as “The Human Target” and “High Tide” while releasing albums and touring.

His latest CD, “The Day After Yesterday,” features him performing songs by Human League, Foreigner and Mister Mister.

Springfield also took several years off from acting and recording to be with his sons, now 20 and 16.

“It went on and on and on,” he says. “I became a house-husband. I went through three years of therapy. There was a lot of stuff I wasn’t dealing with when I was on that early rocket ride. My dad died at the very start of it, and I had to push that aside.”

Springfield, who began his return engagement on “General Hospital” on Friday, will continue on the series through the first week in January. Word has it, though, that he may return for more episodes.

So they have extended your stay on “General Hospital”?

It was originally for four, and then they called up and said, “The writers are having so much fun, we want to write some more episodes.” They asked, “What are you doing the rest of the year?” I said we were going to Japan in December and I’m going to Australia for Christmas and we have a show in New York. We sent them all the dates, and they booked more shows around that. I am written in for about five more shows. I have done seven.

Has “General Hospital” asked you over the years to come back?

No, not at all.

I was looking at alternate ways of getting it known that my record is out because radio is such a mess now. Simply Red had a record out and appeared as Simply Red on a soap, in a club playing a song, and it really sparked record sales. We contacted a couple of soaps to see if there was anything like that.

We heard back from “Days of Our Lives,” and I went to meet with them, actually, and they wanted to bring me on as a character. Well, I said, that is the next best thing. But it wouldn’t work out because of my schedule.

We had approached “General Hospital” about it, and they said they write so far ahead they didn’t have anything that could be in a club. They called back in mid-October and said, “Would Rick be interested in recurring his role for a couple of episodes?” I thought about it, and it seemed like it was too good an opportunity to miss. I don’t know if there has ever been a character that reoccurred after 23 years.

But it must have been weird to return after two decades.

The weirdest thing was seeing the clothes hung up in the dressing room with a tag saying “Noah Drake” on them. That was the biggest kind of “wow.”

It is at a different studio, and only about eight or nine people who are there I remember from before.

What brings Noah back to “General Hospital”?

There is a main character that needs a neurosurgeon, and one of the doctors who is attached to his case goes looking for this great surgeon who used to be in Port Charles to come back and save this guy. She finds him in a bar. His life has gone to hell. He’s in New York.

What happened to him?

They gave me some back story, and I don’t know how long I’ll be on it to bring it out, but it’s interesting stuff. It is all stuff I can relate to, having lived another 23 years.

I have gone through a lot of stuff myself, and as an actor it only helps to bring it to your character. He has a son whom he doesn’t have a very good relationship with. He’s divorced, and something bad happened to the family. He basically brings his son in to do the operation because he knows he can’t do it.

Are you going to sing on the show?

We talked about that originally when I first was on it. I was hired as an actor, and then they found out I was a singer and then the record hit. But it didn’t fit with the character.

How many weeks a year do you tour?

We have done as much as 150 shows a year. We go out for four days and then we come home for a week, which is great.

We all have families, and we have homes we like to be in and other things we want to do. We don’t want to go out three months to Europe and come back a completely different animal.

Do you try to release a new CD every year?

No, it’s hard for me to get writing again every time. I’ve got to wait until I have something to say, until I am dragged in there.

Do you enjoy playing your old songs in concert?

I love playing the old stuff. I love the attention they get. They are like favorite children, especially since I wrote them -- I have a deeper connection to them. But [touring] just can’t be for that. For me, it’s got to be something new that I am excited about.

I am very humbled by my fans. I used to take them so much for granted. Probably the biggest thing that has changed about me since the early days is my attitude toward the people who like my music or are interested in me as an artist.