NEED TO KNOW
In a new podcast, Shaun said, “I carry a lot of my dad with me,” but also spoke about their strained relationship
Shaun Cassidy says that he aims to carry his late brother David’s legacy, nine years after his death.
In a Monday, January 12 interview on the podcast Nostalgia Tonight With Joe Sibia, Cassidy, 67, said his current tour is meant to pay homage to David and their mother Shirley Jones — as well as their late father Jack, with whom he had a strained relationship.
Shaun’s mother Shirley, 91, is an Oscar-winning actress; his dad is Tony-winning actor Jack Cassidy, who died in an apartment fire in 1976 (the two married in 1956 and divorced in 1975); and his half-brother is fellow teen idol David of The Partridge Family fame, who died in 2017 of liver failure.
“I carry a lot of my dad with me. I talk about him in my show,” Shaun shared on the podcast. “I talk about David a lot in my show, and my mom. I feel like I’m kind of carrying the torch for my whole family in the show.”
Danny Feld/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Shaun himself shot to stardom in the 1970s with hit songs like “Do You Believe in Magic” and “That’s Rock ‘n’ Roll,” in television appearances, and on posters in seemingly every teenage girl’s bedroom.
But the former teen idol has since shared that the spotlight was never for him and he retreated from public life in the ‘90s, beginning a career as a writer, producer and creator of TV shows.
He came back to the stage more recently, kicking off a country-wide The Road to Us tour at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry on Sept. 13, 2025, marking the singer’s first full arena tour since 1980 and his longest tour ever.
