INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

How David Cassidy Blew Up His Bubblegum Career With The ‘Naked Lunch Box’ ‘Rolling Stone’ Cover

By Georgia Makitalo
Published on: 09:27 PST, Nov 25, 2017

The year was 1972. David Cassidy, barely 22, had gone from the son of two actors to the “King of Bubblegum Rock.” Cassidy and his feathered locks and youthful smile instantly became the biggest marketing sensation in the United States. His wholesome image was used for peddling breakfast cereal to lunch boxes. So, when David Cassidy posed naked on the cover of Rolling Stone, his career literally imploded.

In the early days of Rolling Stone magazine, most musicians considered it the peak of their success to be featured on the cover of the prestigious rock magazine. Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show even wrote a song called “Cover of Rolling Stone.”

Yet, for David Cassidy, gracing the cover of Rolling Stone was not to honor his bubblegum pinnacle, but to jumpstart his reinvention. According to the Daily Mail, during this time, Cassidy was “the highest paid solo artist in the world.” Yet, the publication claimed “he longed to shake off his goody-goody image.” Rolling Stone was his way out this fishbowl.

On the May 11, 1972 issue, the Partridge Family star graced the cover of Rolling Stone and was featured in an article entitled “Naked Lunch Box: The Business of David Cassidy.” This was the beginning of David Cassidy’s reinvention.

The black and white cover, photographed by a young Annie Leibovitz, was of David Cassidy naked, laying on the grass with his arms up and under his head and his torso showing “just enough bare hip” to send the message that he was nude.

This was not the dreamy sort of photo of the superstar with perfectly feathered hair that was emblazoned on teen magazines and in bedroom walls. Instead, this was a raw, sensual photo of the pop star.

As if the risqué cover was nor controversial enough, the writer of the article, Robin Green, reported that the bubblegum star was smoking pot while on the road and spoke about taking psychedelic drugs. Cassidy swore a lot and spent quality time discussing his private parts. This was hardly the wholesome boy image that he portrayed in commercials, featured on lunch boxes or on the Partridge Family.

In addition to the interview with David Cassidy, this particular issue of Rolling Stone featured an interview with counterculture writer William Burroughs, and an article entitled “True Dope Tales: The Promoter Was a Narc.” This music publication was a far cry from the bubblegum contents of Tiger Beat.

When the Rolling Stone issue with the naked photo of the Partridge Family singer came out, the fallout was, in Cassidy’s own words, “seismic.”

“I didn’t tell my management I was doing that. They went insane. We shot it at my house in Los Angeles.”

Evelyn Ward, David Cassidy’s mother, was so shocked and hounded by the press, she sought refuge in Mexico.

Cassidy immediately lost lucrative endorsements from Coca-Cola, amongst others. But he was quickly replaced. Donny Osmond was now the new bubblegum star and David Cassidy’s marketable image was toast.

Annie Leibovitz revealed that she was quite “sad” at the disaster that ensued after the magazine came out. At a later time she ran into David Cassidy, and he didn’t see this as sad. Instead, admitted that he “sort of” destroyed his own career to move forward.

“He did this thing he really shouldn’t have done and got into deep trouble for it. In retrospect, I feel sad. But since the shoot, I’ve seen him on a couple of occasions, and he thanked me because he said it moved him on. He desperately wanted to get off the show and he sort of committed professional suicide to get out of his contract. That ended one period of his career.”

Yet, despite the backlash in the United States, Cassidy still had two more years of the same, but this time across the pond.

The Independent revealed that after the Rolling Stone naked cover, the Partridge Family star “got a second chance at doing fresh-faced and squeaky-clean” in the United Kingdom.

Cassidy enjoyed tremendous success on the U.K. charts between 1972 and 1974, with seven top 20 hits, including his number one U.K. hit, “Daydreamer”/”The Puppy Song.”

Then, he announced he was quitting. He has spent four years devoted to “the business of David Cassidy,” and he was tired of living in a fishbowl. He had his finale U.K. tour, and then he needed to get his life back.

The concerts were filled with screaming, hysterical fans everywhere he went. The shows became a chaotic frenzy, complete with stampedes. It was so crazy that one show was called a “suicide concert” by the director of the British Safety Council.

Sadly, tragedy struck at White City, near London. Bernadette Whelan, a 14-year-old girl, died. The official cause of death ruled that she was “a victim of contrived hysteria.”

Cassidy was quite heartbroken. He wrote to her family, but he could not go to Bernadette’s funeral for the fear of mass chaos.

By this time, the Partridge Family was over and David Cassidy was determined to be taken seriously as an actor and a singer. His days as a pop superstar were over, yet it took him years to overcome the stigma of being Keith Partridge.

Did David Cassidy purposely sabotage his successful pop career? [Image by AP Images]

[Featured Image by AP Images]

SaveSave

SaveSave

Share this article: How David Cassidy Blew Up His Bubblegum Career With The ‘Naked Lunch Box’ ‘Rolling Stone’ Cover
More from Inquisitr