Why Shaun Cassidy walked away from performing music for more than 40 years

Staff AuthorWed, July 29, 2026 at 4:46 PM UTC

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Shaun CassidyCredit: kpa/United Archives via Getty; Michael Tullberg/GettyKey Points -

Shaun Cassidy is sharing why he hung up his microphone for more than 40 years after becoming a successful teen pop star.

The actor and singer, 67, explained that he gave up playing stadiums in order to have “something closer to a normal life.”

“A normal life, a grounded life, a stable life was something I really didn’t have as a kid. So I yearned for it as an adult,” he said.

Shaun Cassidy is shedding light on why he decided to put his successful music career on pause for more than 40 years — and what brought him back.

Years of playing iconic stadiums, the former teen heartthrob, 67, told PEOPLE that he chose to step away from the microphone at age 21 so that he could focus on having a more “normal” and “grounded” life.

“I played the Houston Astrodome for 55,000 people. And I said, ‘Goodnight. See you soon,’” Cassidy told the outlet. “And I didn’t do another concert until 2020, 40 years later.”

Shaun Cassidy performs at An Evening With Shaun Cassidy at GRAMMY Museum L.A. Live on September 04, 2025 in Los Angeles, California.Credit: Monica Schipper/Getty

The “Da Doo Ron Ron” singer, who was signed by Warner Bros. Records while in high school, went on to clarify his reasons for walking away from his chart-topping career.

“It wasn’t because I didn’t love doing concerts,” he elaborated. “It wasn’t because I didn’t love playing music and being in front of an audience, but I just found that writing and producing television, which has been my main job for much of the last three, four decades, just allowed me to have something closer to a normal life.”

He continued, “And a normal life, a grounded life, a stable life was something I really didn’t have as a kid. So I yearned for it as an adult and it took me a while to find it, but I did, and I’m really grateful I did.”

In addition to his music, Cassidy was also juggling a thriving television career as Joe on The Hardy Boys at the time. He continued to act throughout the 1980s on shows like Breaking Away and General Hospital before moving behind the camera to write and produce television shows like American Gothic, Invasion, Cover Me, Blue Bloods, and, most recently, New Amsterdam.

Over the last four decades, Cassidy explained that he’d been asked multiple times about touring but that he “always felt like I was going to be either trying to recreate the success I’d had at 20” and was “afraid I might jeopardize my writing career” because people wouldn’t take him seriously anymore.

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However, when he eventually agreed to go on tour in 2020, the response that Cassidy received was better than he ever could’ve expected. “I didn’t know if anyone would come. I didn’t know if anybody would care,” he said. “I didn’t know if I’d like it, but I loved it and people showed up. And not only did they love to hear the songs, the old hits from back in the day, but they were excited to hear new songs, which I’ve written.”

Cassidy added, “And they were really excited to hear these stories of my life, and more importantly, their life, our connected life.”

Shaun Cassidy performs in Los Angeles.Credit: BuzzFoto/FilmMagic

While the tour was ultimately halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, Cassidy embarked on a massive tour last year that visited 57 different cities across North America. Following its success, his agent suggested Cassidy hit the road once again, but he declined due to his hectic work schedule.

To remedy the issue, his agent instead pitched him a holiday tour, titled 2026 UNWRAPPED Holiday Tour, that will see the star perform across the U.S. starting in November.

“This is a new, old thing, but it’s great to approach it after not having done it for so long because it feels fresh,” Cassidy said. “One of the benefits of not having continued doing concerts all these years is none of these feels tired. I don’t hate the songs because I’ve been singing them for 40 years. They’re fresh. And I feel that with the audience and they feel it. It’s fresh to them, too.”

He noted that this version of touring is much “more gratifying” than his early concerts because “I actually feel like people know me or are getting to know me now,” adding, “Then, they were looking at a young kid whom they may have had a poster of or something, but they didn’t know who I was.”

Especially since now, the age gap between him and his fans isn’t as large as it was in their teen years. “My audience was very young. I was very young. But I’m 18, 19, 20, there’s a big divide between 12, 13, 14, which is primarily what the audience was,” he said. “Now, we’re all kind of in the same boat and our acne has cleared up, which is nice.”

on Entertainment Weekly

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”