David Cassidy

My mom used to take me down to the Jersey Shore when I was 7, 8, 9 years old. I can remember being down in that area - Belmar, Seaside Heights, Asbury Park and all those places that I went back and revisited.

I didn't end up some sad, tragic guy singing in a lounge somewhere. I never went out and took big money for nostalgia and became like an oldies act.

If you're not a daydreamer, you haven't got any imagination.

When you cut your life into a film - 90-some minutes of film - you end up taking snapshots and vignettes of the highlights of it - marriage, divorce, death, success, fame, loss. The up and the down and the up again.

Kids need role models, whether it's baseball players, actors or musicians: people to bring a little positive light into their hearts and minds. We need to be a little kinder to those people because it's not easy being that role model, looked upon as something we are all incapable of being - too perfect.

I was always really proud of the fact that I had a very positive influence as a role model.

Until I really dealt with a lot of the demons in my life - the fear and self-doubt and unresolved issues with my old man - I could never feel fulfilled and happy. I would wake up in the morning and feel bad.

All that stuff - 'teen idol' - that wasn't me.

Just do me a favor. Don't call me 'former teen heartthrob,' okay? It's as if they were constantly discussing your second year of college. I'm not back there anymore. I'm living in the present.

You know, many people who become famous and enjoy great success when they're young disappear after that. Maybe I've lucked out because I came back and went to work.

What happened to me during the last couple of years of 'The Partridge Family' was I became so famous and so isolated and so unhappy that I had to do anything I could to end it.

It is difficult to be famous and that successful where you can't even walk down the street without people chasing you, and having people build monuments to you and worshiping you - all that stuff - but I never took that to a place where I believed it. I saw it as being temporary and a phase.