Rick Springfield Reveals His Secret to Staying Sexy at 73 — See His Shirtless Thirst Trap (Exclusive) - PEOPLE

Watch out, Jessie — Rick Springfield's still got it.

At 73, the '80s icon is as fit as ever thanks to a combination of his rigorous workout routine and a healthy diet (plus he's got the abs to prove it).

"I work out every day," Springfield tells PEOPLE in this week's issue, on newsstands Friday. "I just got a trainer, and I've been working out with him. Basically, I watch what I eat, and I try and stay active."

Though he's tried eating vegan in the past, Springfield says he maintains a pescatarian diet now.

"I tried being a vegan, and it made me feel great, but I looked like hell," he explains. "A friend of mine came up to me and said, 'Are you OK?' I got so thin. So I had to put fish back in [for protein]."

Rick Springfield on tour in 2022.

Springfield adds he's "fortunate" that his wife of nearly 40 years, Barbara Porter, is an "amazing chef."

"She's absolutely incredible," he says. "And I'm certainly not a cook. When I was a bachelor, I'd make a big pot of brown rice, chop up an onion and put that in the rice with a can of tuna. I'd have that, a baked potato and salad and live off that for a month. Barbara comes up with these incredible things. She loves cooking."

Set to embark on his I Want My '80s tour on Friday, Springfield anticipates getting even more in shape on the road.

"Our show is very active and aerobic," he says. "It takes a lot of energy. We actually come off the road in better shape than we went on."

Not only does Friday mark the start of Springfield's tour, it also is the release date of his new album, Automatic. The 20-track record was largely inspired by love and the loss of his front-of-house mixer Matty Spindel, who died last October of pancreatic cancer.

"Songwriting is like talking about it with someone," he says. "It really helps you try to find a place within you to have it live. You have to find that, otherwise it's tough to go on."

Springfield — who has long been open about his journey with depression — says he also finds meditation helpful for his mental health. Plus, "it's hard to be depressed when you're on stage and there are a bunch of people singing along to you," he says.

"I try and do something creative when I do get down," he says. "Honestly, depression made me look deep into myself early on. That's food for a writer, really."

During his live shows, Springfield makes a point to talk about depression while introducing his 1988 song "World Start Turning."

"'World Start Turning' is the first song I wrote about having to deal with the dark side," he says. "It's a truthful thing, and I'm not ashamed of it. When I wrote about my depression in my autobiography [2010's Late, Late at Night], I only mentioned it because it was part of my life, and it wouldn't be complete if I didn't talk about it. I thought everyone would kind of focus on the gratuitous bulls— sex stuff in the book, but everybody focused on the fact that I talked about being depressed. That surprised me, but I realized then that it hit something in a lot of people."

"I say this on stage: 'It's not about the new car or the beautiful wife or the house or the career. It's about what goes on inside,'" he continues. "That's what I had to learn. I thought success would heal me, but I was the most successful I'd ever been in 1985, and I was more depressed than I'd ever been. And I had to figure out why that was."

Rick Springfield in 1985.

Ebet Roberts/Redferns/Getty

Now, Springfield says he feels a "certain degree of being settled."

"I wouldn't say I'm happy — it's a difficult thing for me," he says. "I feel happy at times, but I do have stuff I have to deal with in my head, and it's not always good. But I love where I live, and I love who I love."

A "rock" through all the ups and downs has been Porter, 61, with whom Springfield shares two adult sons.

"We've certainly been through our dark and broken times — there's no relationship that doesn't go through that — but we didn't want to give up because we knew there was gold at the end," he says. "You always have to get through the garbage. And my wife and I have always been open to talking somebody."

"Life is hard, and marriage is incredibly difficult," he adds. "You see bands that hate each other, and they're not even having sex. So marriage could be brutal. You've both got to want to make the relationship work."

Rick Springfield and wife Barbara Porter.

Lisa O'Connor/Shutterstock

In his life and in his work, Springfield says he's ultimately striving for "cosmic significance."

"I love to make songs universal, but they all start from a personal point," he says. "And Automatic is a work from my heart."

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