'David Cassidy - The Human Being'

 

This entry was written by my close friend, Doreen Walker, I think 2 years ago. For my book about DC. I was writing and she was reading online, and we talked about it a lot, and once I asked her to write  something for me, about seeing DC in 'Time', in 1987, and also about David ..in general, what she thought about him as a person.

Doreen's been a fan of David for 51 years, she saw him in concert in the 70s and 80s, she has a great collection of articles and videos, she's a real expert, a walking DC encyclopedia. We met in person for the first time in November 2018, and we've been whatsapp friends since then. At first it was a bit of distrust and rivalry between us..And our discussions were..agitated. Sometimes we even quarreled, of course because of David. Eg how many fans really were injured during the White City concert? or who wrote 'David's Personal Letter to You' (The Official David Cassidy Magazine)..Other girls from our group laughed at us. 'Oh no, W. and Doreen start again!'.. I mean it's taken us some time to really become friends, and trust and respect each other. I know I always can ask Doreen for advice and she's never let me down. And  I'm so happy we are going to spend a day together soon, in London.. just me and Doreen..and  David Cassidy (we will be talking about him..I know)

Doreen Walker : 'David Cassidy - The Human Being'

‘David Cassidy was a complex person who needed love from those around him to give him a certain confidence in what he wanted to do.

I have been a fan of David Cassidy for 51 years now and I think I know something of the human being behind the persona. Although I have never met David, wish I had,  I have always felt that there was this partially shy, sensitive, kind, compassionate, caring, intelligent, humble, charismatic, sexy man that I wanted to know more about and understand, the real person not the image that was portrayed at the beginning of his career. One impression I have got from interviews etc is that he needed to be unconditionally loved for him to be able to feel that it was worth doing what he did best in acting, singing, song writing, music, producing, breeding/owning/racing horses.

I feel that I know the loneliness that David had, I don’t mind being on my own now and again, but not all the time. David hated being alone, occasionally was ok, but not all the time, he seemed to want to be with either just one individual friend or with a group of friends and /or family.

David seemed to be a good listener if any of his friends had a problem they wanted to discuss and would give advice if it was needed. This is the true sign of a friend and that David loved to help anyone.

David was sensitive and was easily upset by anyone close to him being ill or hurt in some way. This included any animals as their figure quite a lot in David’s life, he definitely had an affinity with animals, look at any pic of David with animals, look at any pic of David with animals and you can see how much he loved them.

It is known that David did not get that much support from his father Jack, who I think was jealous of David’s success. David always craved the approval of his father in what he was doing, but appeared not to get it, although on occasions Jack did give David some sensible advice, but it was not that often.

This need to get his father’s approval stemmed from when his Mum and Dad divorced as they decided not to tell him at the time, he was about 4 years old when that happened and David only found out when he was playing with some of his friends where he lived with his grandparents and his mother, David was 6 years old. This all shook David to his core at the time and appears to have affected him for the rest of his life as David would not trust..anyone until he had got to know them.

David was a shy person until you got to know him, not that I ever know him. This shyness came from the way he found out about his Parents divorce not being able to trust people before knowing them, trust was a big thing for David.

One thing David had that shone through was his sense of humor, it was a cheeky, lovable, and impish sense of humour, especially in the ones taken by his friend and photographer Henry Diltz.

There is a side to David that everyone should follow and that is being kind and compassionate to others no matter what. David was always polite and kind to everyone even if he didn’t necessarily like someone. His philosophy in life was to be kind to one another, love one another and every animal around the world.

David supported many charities over the years, often anonymously, as he wanted to help those that needed help, he started doing this way back from the early 70s, without the media circus, this was well before it became something that celebrities do now on a regular bases with the media in tow. David was interested in the environment all around us, animals, and the way we treated the world and was involved with the Keep Britain Tidy campaign in 1973 and appeared on posters , in adverts etc.

David hated all the wars and hatred in the world and wished everyone could love one another and live in peace with one another.

It’s difficult to put into words about David - The Human Being, I can only think of one to describe David and that is unique. David hated being compared to anyone, so I am not going to, because I cannot think or know of any one person, I can compare David with. My opinion on all that I have said here is that David seemed to be several people rolled into one completely unique human being, that is loved and missed all over the world, but especially by this long-time fan, who will always love David and wishes she could’ve helped him in some way.”