Long before Rick Springfield became a rock star and heartthrob, the Australian singer had a frightening encounter with the Vietnam War. Springfield said a decision he made during an attack ended another man's life and has remained with him for decades, as reported by Fox News.

Springfield discussed the experience during an appearance on the "Joe Rogan Experience" podcast. His unlikely exposure to combat began after his band traveled to Vietnam in 1968 to perform for American troops during the war.

The singer explained that the soldiers "wanted to see, you know, girls that reminded them of home." Having female performers in the group therefore helped the band secure work in the war zone.

"So as long as we had a couple of girls in the band, they would hire you, and you could tour Vietnam during the war zone," Springfield said.

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What sounded like another performance opportunity quickly placed the musicians near the dangers of the conflict.

The trip was not brief, either. "It was pretty insane. We were there for about four months."

Springfield said he entered the situation with few expectations beyond the possibility of earning a paycheck. Instead, he and the band spent what little they earned while they were there.

"It was insane. I thought, 'Oh, great. We'll make money, you know.'" Springfield said the plan did not work out as he had initially imagined.

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"And, of course, we didn't make any money. We spent it all at the PX, and we weren't making much money anyway."

The experience took a far more serious turn after Springfield and his band met a group of soldiers and decided to remain with them overnight.

An attack then sent everyone into bunkers as Springfield stayed inside the radio shack.

"We met these guys, and we really got along well, and we stayed overnight with them, and we all got in the bunkers, in the perimeter bunkers, and I stayed in the radio shack, and we got attacked, and I'm throwing mortars down the freaking tube of the radio shack."

Springfield described the experience as "freaky." He was not simply watching the attack unfold because he was directly involved in firing mortars from the radio shack.

The full weight of his actions did not immediately register with him. Springfield said the hardest part came when he later learned that one of the mortars he had dropped down the tube had struck somebody.

"The hardest thing for me was that I had thrown a mortar down, and it had hit somebody," Springfield recalled.

The soldiers delivered the news to him the following day. Springfield remembered them saying:

"Hey, you got one. You got one."

That message became the part of the experience that Springfield could not leave behind after returning from Vietnam.

He said the knowledge that his action had contributed to the end of a life still has no comfortable place in his mind.

"And that still has a hard place to land in me, you know?" he said. "That's really kind of the one thing I brought back with me that I couldn't really find a place for that to land."

While speaking with Joe Rogan, Springfield also offered more detail about what happened before he fired the mortar.

He recalled hearing a warning over the radio about movement nearby, followed by confirmation that no friendly forces were in the area.

Springfield said someone then offered him the chance to send mortars down the tube. "They said, 'Hey, you want to throw some mortars down the tube?'"

"And it was John Wayne time, you know," Springfield said. The singer connected his reaction during the attack to his youth and his limited understanding of what he was actually doing.

"I mean, as a young kid, I didn't really understand what I was doing."

That youthful view eventually gave way to a much more painful understanding of what happened. "I think it's still there, you know?" Springfield said of the emotional weight he continues to carry.

"It's hard for me to kind of face that I was responsible for the end of a life, even though it's distant, and it's war," Springfield explained. He said he did not fully understand his role in the moment.

"And I didn't really have anything to do with it and didn't really know what I was doing, but you know as a kid and playing, like I said, John Wayne."

New: Joe Rogan was in total shock when musician Rick Springfield admitted that he killed someone when he was 18 years old:

“It’s hard for me to face that I was responsible for the end of a life.” CONTEXT: This wasn't Springfield serving in the military. Before he became the… pic.twitter.com/FeP5ffXYmP — Fan Commentary: Joe Rogan Recaps (@JoeRoganRecaps) September 8, 2026

Even with that context, Springfield said the reality remains difficult for him to confront. "But it was... pretty heavy when I think about the reality of it."