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Rick Springfield saved from depression by meditation

By April MacIntyre Oct 17, 2010, 5:06 GMT

07/25/2010 - Rick Springfield - 28th Annual Festival of Ballooning at the Solberg Airport in Readington - Rick Springfield and Chelsea Musick in Concert - Solberg Airport - Readington, NJ, USA © Tom Walck / PR Photos

Grammy Award-winning singer and actor Rick Springfield, who was outstanding as a guest star on Showtime's "Californication" last season, is making the rounds promoting his confessional autobiography Late, Late At Night.

Springfield serves up details of his tormented childhood and a years-long struggle with sex addiction that threatened to destroy his marriage and career. 

He talked to Parade.com about the book.

On telling the truth:

"I write to be truthful in my songs, which is why I wrote what's painfully truthful about my life in my autobiography. Sex with different women was a habit for me. When you're married with a family, you start to understand what you might lose, including even your sanity. The danger in promiscuity is that it's always barking at your heels."

On sex as a drug:

"It becomes the thing that you use to make you feel good. It's not, 'Oh, I'm feeling turned on tonight.' It's a power thing. It's like, 'If I have sex with this pretty girl that's got to mean something -- she is OK with having sex with me. So there must be something OK about me' -- because you start so far down in your own self-esteem. That's my home down there, and I've had to fight that depression all of  my life."

On shocking his fans:

"I think some of them probably suspected even worse. But there's a lot of things in the book that I've never talked about, starting out with my attempt at suicide at the age of 17. It's one of the most terrible things, and it comes back to haunt you, especially once you have kids. I was there mentally. I was ready to go. I've tried to show in the book how much a gift my life has been because I didn't succeed."

Check out the full interview here: http://www.parade.com/celebrity/celebrity-parade/2010/1015-rick-springfield.html