DECATUR, Ill. (WCIA) — The Decatur Park District announced that Australian-American rock artist Rick Springfield’s “I Want My 80s Music Tour” with special guests Paul Young and Tommy Tutone will perform at the Devon Lakeshore Amphitheater in Decatur on Aug. 27.

Over the past four decades, park officials said Springfield is the creator of some of the finest power-pop of the ’80s. He’s a Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, and musician who has sold 25 million albums and scored 17 U.S. Top 40 hits, including “Jessie’s Girl,” “Don’t Talk to Strangers,” “An Affair of the Heart,” “I’ve Done Everything for You,” “Love Somebody,” and “Human Touch.”

The park district said Springfield has not only enjoyed longevity but remained vibrant and relevant at a time when many veteran artists would be resting on past laurels. This led Rolling Stone to dub this stage of his career “The Rickonaissance.”

“I guess it may appear like that, but in my head, I’ve never really left,” Springfield said. “I think it’s really important to stay connected to the vitality of your career. I have a certain pride that I’m not a total nostalgia act. I’ve never been the guy who hung the platinum albums on my walls because, to me, it was looking back.

Springfield added: “I’m very passionate about moving forward. I have to write new music. I have to record. I’m always working on the live shows. I have to always be working, otherwise, I think I’d just turn to smoke and disappear.”

Park officials said Springfield released his seventeenth studio album, “Orchestrating My Life,” in 2019, a career-defining re-visitation of a lifetime of hits. They said the album is a collection of all the hits the public loves re-recorded with an electrifying mix of rock and accompanied by a full orchestra. It also includes a brand-new song titled “Irreplaceable,” a song dedicated to his mother who passed away in 2017.

Music has always been a healing force in Springfield’s life. The son of an Army officer, the park said he and his family moved every two years.

“Which meant every time I made a friend, I knew I’d be leaving him,” Springfield said. “It was super stressful for me. I’d go to a new school and go through the trauma of trying to fit in.”

Officials said books and records became his savior. At age 11, they said he encountered his first guitar.

“This kid brought one to a Christmas fair at my school in England and it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen,” Springfield said. “He let me hold it. I hit two strings and the two strings happened to be the first couple of notes of the theme song to my favorite cowboy show at the time, Cheyenne. I realized instantly I could play the guitar. Some guys fall in love with cars, some with football teams. I fell in love with guitars.”

Though too self-deprecating to discuss his immense appeal, the park district said he will acknowledge that the fans connect with him through the music.

“I guess they think I’m honest,” Springfield said. “They must like my approach, what I write about. I think they like that I have a sense of humor in it at times. Because the ‘cute’ thing isn’t going to last forever.”

Springfield continues to tour throughout the country and around the world, performing nearly 100 shows each year.

The park district said Springfield is also an accomplished actor, starring in shows like “Ricki and the Flash,” “True Detective,” and “Supernatural.” Most recently, the park district said Springfield played the insane Pastor Charles on the hit series “American Horror Story.”

The park district said Springfield is also a published author, including his 2010 memoir “Late, Late at Night” which Rolling Stone named one of the 25 greatest rock memoirs of all time, and a 2014 comedic novel titled “Magnificent Vibration,” a New York Times Bestseller.

Officials said Springfield was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2014, located around the corner from the first apartment he lived in when he first arrived in the U.S. from Australia in 1971.

Tickets for the Aug. 27 concert go on sale Friday, May 5 at 10 a.m. online. Officials said ticket prices range $45-125 plus applicable fees, and will not be included in the 2023 Devon season ticket package.

Other acts scheduled to perform at the Devon Lakeshore Amphitheater this year include Travis Tritt, T-Pain, Riley Green, Elle King, the Goo Goo Dolls, Jo Dee Messina, and Smash Mouth.