Rocker Rick Springfield, who has battled depression most of his life, says even reaching his highest levels of fame couldn't help him in his lifelong struggle. In the above video from "Oprah: Where Are They Now?", Springfield has an honest conversation about the shadow that has followed him since puberty.
"It's like a life sentence, it's not something I can go to rehab for," Springfield says in the above video. "And that's a real drag."
"To a degree, suicide still sits on my shoulder every now and then," he says, becoming emotional. "Which is a horrible thing to say, but it's true, especially since I already tried it once when I was 17 and got a pretty strong signal that wasn't the way to go."
In 1981, Springfield's success was at an all-time high -- he was cast as Dr. Noah Drake on "General Hospital" the same year "Jessie's Girl" hit number one on the music charts. In the beginning, he says, it made him happy.
"I was sure that once I achieved fame and had money and all the worries would go away and depression would leave ... But it settled back down after a while on me, and it always does because you can't heal it from [the outside], you can only heal it from within," he says. "And that was a big revelation to me, that fame is not healing."
Super stardom did have some benefits though, Springfield admits. In the video, he details how it "affected my libido pretty severely."
"Oprah: Where Are They Now?" airs Fridays at 9 p.m. ET on OWN.
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