{
  "id": 6633525,
  "title": "Rick Springfield Claims He Killed a Man While Entertaining Troops During Vietnam War",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/10/rick-springfield-claims-he-killed-a-man-while-entertaining-troops",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-09-10T20:11:10.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Consequence",
    "slug": "consequence",
    "url": "https://consequence.net/2026/09/rick-springfield-vietnam-war-joe-rogan/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Rick Springfield, a musician best known for his hit \"Jessie's Girl,\" claimed during a recent appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience that he accidentally killed a man while entertaining American troops in Vietnam during the 1960s. At the age of 19, Springfield, then a member of the Australian band MPD Ltd., spent several months performing for troops stationed in South Vietnam. Their base was attacked while Springfield was in the radio shack, and he was invited to load mortars into a firing tube. He fired around five or six mortars during the battle. The next day, soldiers informed him that one of his mortars had struck a Viet Cong fighter. Springfield expressed that the incident has weighed heavily on him for nearly six decades, causing him to jump at car exhaust and leave him with a \"haunted look.\" He previously spoke about his time in Vietnam in a 1992 Los Angeles Times interview, admitting that touring as a teenager was a \"very, very stupid thing to do.\"",
  "summary": "The \"Jessie's Girl\" singer was 19 years old when he traveled to South Vietnam with Australian band MPD Ltd. Rick Springfield Claims He Killed a Man While Entertaining Troops During Vietnam War Alex Krinsky",
  "key_points": [
    "Rick Springfield claims to have accidentally killed a man while entertaining troops in Vietnam.",
    "Springfield, 19 at the time, was part of the Australian band MPD Ltd. in South Vietnam.",
    "Incident has haunted Springfield for six decades, causing him to jump at car exhaust."
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "Billboard",
        "title": "Rick Springfield Says He Killed a Man in Vietnam While Performing for Troops as a Teen: ‘It’s Hard for Me to Face’",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/11/rick-springfield-says-he-killed-a-man-in-vietnam-while-performing-for",
        "published": "2026-09-11T00:34:40.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}