Danny Bonaduce reveals how David Cassidy helped turn his life around

I was on the air when we got word that David Cassidy had passed. The first thing I did was call his "Partridge Family" brother Danny Bonaduce whom I became friends with when we were both working in Philadelphia. Danny just returned from his Thanksgiving vacation in Italy and called to talk about his "Brother."

When Danny returned home he found a long and heartfelt message from David's real brother Shaun Cassidy saying that it was important that he know that he was always David Cassidy's other brother and that David always said that about him. "I thought that was the sweetest thing in the whole wide world, but when I do talk to Shaun Cassidy, I will tell him that I did know that, that David ALWAYS told me that."

Danny talks about how his "brother" was there for him when he was down, and helped turn his life around.

"I had a decent job on a radio station in Phoenix, Arizona making certainly enough money to pay my bills, and I screwed it all up. I was drinking, doing drugs, punched a guy in a mini skirt, he was wearing the miniskirt, not me, and there was a lot of tabloid press and it was a big drag and I was fired and couldn't get a job. Nobody would hire me because I was trouble and then Cassidy calls and said 'Danny you're the funniest guy I've ever known, but now you're the joke, Stop being the joke.'" Bonaduce was mad but realized Cassidy was right.

Then David said "I'm going to give you a job, we're going to go on tour together. You're gonna show up on time and sober and somebody's going to give you a job right then and there." When the tour went to Philadelphia, Danny went on the radio, did his bit and was offered the job that Cassidy said would happen. "And I've been on the air every weekday morning for the next 28 years."

Despite his pop fame, David Cassidy always wanted to be a rock star and it tortured him. Danny referenced a Cassidy album called "The Higher They Climb"  with a song written by David called "When You're a Rock N Roll Star" which pretty much tells the story of David's fear. "He got to hang around with John Lennon and David Bowie and if they didn't have that much in common as rock stars, they had one thing in common for sure in that the level of fame and hysteria around them makes them members of a very unique club." Sadly, "The last 20 years of his life really didn't turn out the way he wanted them to."

Danny told the story of how David got him to actually play the bass that he supposedly played on the TV show when they performed at the Keswick Theatre in 2010. "It was the only night I've done it in my whole life but Cassidy said 'C'mon Buddy play the bass.' He knew I didn't know how to play and that this was going to be a big deal and I hired a teacher and for a month leading up to it, I learned how to play 'Doesn't Somebody Want To Be Wanted.' There was nothing that guy could ask that would be too much."

David Cassidy's last words tweeted out by his daughter Katie were "so much wasted time." Danny's reaction: "Broke my heart when he said those words, as heartbreaking as they are, they are spectacularly David Cassidy so much wasted time."

How will Danny remember his brother David? "I will remember David Cassidy as the biggest star in the world, I'll remember that crazy jumpsuit that he was in at the Cricket Grounds with a hundred thousand people watching, that's how I'll remember David Cassidy."

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