Rick Springfield sings for Sahara's legacy

Cape Girardeau is beginning to feel like "home away from home" for Rick Springfield. For that, his fans in Southeast Missouri can thank Sahara Aldridge.

Springfield, a Grammy-winning musician and one of the stars of the TV soap "General Hospital," came to Cape Girardeau for a benefit concert between tour dates to promote his new album, "Venus in Overdrive," which includes three songs written about Sahara Aldridge, who died Nov. 5, 2007.

He performed as she battled cancer, including to a packed 2006 Show Me Center, in an effort to help her parents, Shannon and Amy Aldridge, pay their daughter's medical bills.

The Aldridges organized Saturday's solo concert, which quickly sold nearly 300 tickets, filling the Buckner Brewing Co. venue. Proceeds go to scholarships for Mississippi Valley Therapeutic Horsemanship. The Oak Ridge facility provides horse-assisted therapy to children and adults with disabilities. Sahara Aldridge participated in the program, thrilled to trade her wheelchair for a horse, according to her mother.

Buckner Brewing Co., owner Phil Brinson praised Amy Aldridge for "trying to keep her family going and work her full-time job and do this great big event. She has a lot of help, but she's driving this bus."

Brinson said Springfield was "an amazing person" for supporting the Aldridges.

"I'm really happy to be here," Springfield said Saturday afternoon before the benefit. "I loved Sahara deeply and still do. Her spirit's still around. I come here to give her a hug."

He spent the morning with Sahara's parents, touring Mississippi Valley Therapeutic Horsemanship, feeling overwhelmed by the lively connection between the horses and their disabled riders and leaving with a feeling that, between animals and humans, "there's more going on than we know."

At noon, he'd arrived at PMac Music on William Street to the whoops and applause of fans. A line of autograph seekers curled around the Cape Girardeau store's aisles and reached the door.

Saturday's show drew fans from across the nation -- Rosie Malthaner of Fishkill, N.Y., joined friends and Springfield fans from Utah and Washington who flew to Missouri and attended Springfield's concert Friday in St. Charles before driving to Cape Girardeau for Saturday's benefit.

Springfield's next show is Oct. 11 at Port of Spain, Trinidad, with REO Speedwagon.

pmcnichol@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 127

Were you there?

Does this affect you?

Have a comment?

Log on to semissourian.com/today

Rick Springfield performs at Buckner Brewing Co.

var inlinePlayerParameters = "f":"MOCAP","mk":"en-ap","containerId":"inlinePlayerContainer","type":"ByUUIDS","prop1":"1d231126-c4bf-4bb1-8b80-653767829971","skin":"0","headlineColor":"#AB0110","borderColor":"#BBDDEE","padding":"4","sort":"Default","sortdir":"Descending"</script><script type="text/javascript" src=""></script>