This week we welcome Rick Springfield to the podcast.We spoke about the Stripped Down show he’s going to be playing here in Cleveland on Valentine’s Day and also his new album, Rocket Science. The album finds Rick experimenting with some country sounds and instrumentation and features collaborations with Tad Kubler of the Hold Steady and Jay DeMarcus of Rascal Flatts on a couple of songs.Rick wrote the bulk of the album with longtime collaborator Matt Bissonette and as you’ll hear in the interview, he tells us, “It’s still a pop album, what I’ve recorded. But there’s a lot of layers and there’s some very cool things, pedal steel and banjo and some fiddle stuff. You know, the guitars are still a dominant thing, but there’s some interesting textures that the [other instruments] add.”Rocket Science is another solid entry into Rick’s catalog and he’s made some great albums over the past decade, going back to his Shock/Denial/Anger/Acceptance album in 2004, all of the way through Songs for the End of the World, which was released in 2012.The new album will be released on February 19 and Rick will be previewing songs from the record (we still call 'em "records" here) along with his hits during a Yahoo! live broadcast of his concert on February 12.He’s doing a few in-store performances leading up to the album release, where he’ll be playing a few songs and also signing albums. Cleveland gets one of those in-store dates, which will happen on February 14 at the Exchange in Parma Heights prior to his show at the Hard Rock Rocksino that same night.Fans will be able to buy the new album early at those in-store performances before it goes on sale officially on the regular release date.It's always a pleasure to speak with Rick and talk music. As I mentioned during the podcast, I've interviewed him a few times. Here's a link to our 2013 chat and also the story/interview that I wrote in 2014.Visit Lost Together on Twitter and Facebook or subscribe to our show feeds via the Lost Together website.Thanks for listening!Photo Credit: KJM PR