On 24 April 1981, Rick Springfield's father, Norman James Springthorpe, died. In October 1984, Springfield married his girlfriend, Barbara Porter, in his family's church in Australia. They had met several years earlier when Springfield was recording "Working Class Dog" and she was working as the recording studio receptionist. They have two sons, Liam (born 1985) and Joshua (born 1989). In 1985, when his first son was born and after the release of his "Tao" album, Springfield took a break from his musical career, to spend more time with his family, and to deal with the depression that had affected him since his adolescence. In January 2018, Springfield stated in an interview that he contemplated suicide in 2017. "Last year I was close to it, really close to it," explained Springfield on how he considered killing himself. "When Robin Williams and Chester (Bennington and Chris Cornell) and those guys… I didn't go, 'Oh that's terrible.' I went, 'I get it.' I get being that lost and dark."