Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Okay, this is the almost Famous podcast with Ben Higgins
(00:05):
and Ashley I flashback everyone. Today we have a very
different episode of the almost Famous podcast. We're gonna call
it the almost Famous Flashback. We have a guest today
(00:25):
that is so near and dear to my heart and
yet I've never met him before. Oh my god, I'm
having a fangol moment. Guys, the Richard Marks is coming
on the podcast. And if you're thinking, how is this
guy related to the Bachelor at all? Well, if you
don't remember, he was on Becca's season of the Bachelorette
(00:46):
and he had a very memorable moment with Chris ran Down.
He was on that one on one date and he
really got some emotion out of Chris. I consider him
to be my favorite voice in all of this world.
And before I go on and on without him here,
(01:08):
I'd like to bring him in and and just fan
girl to his face. This is an almost famous flashbag.
Oh m g. Richard Marks has entered the chat. Richard,
look at my shirt. Oh my god, it's a it's
(01:28):
an antique. It's it's quite vintage. What year do you
think this is? Uh? That has got to be that's
first tour holy moly, the year I was born? What
a year? Richard marks here and Ashley, I can eddie year. Richard,
I'm Ashley, and I am a hardcore super fan. I
(01:50):
think that, Oh my god, why do you know this?
Did producer Amy tell you? Did you see my tweet
last year about McDonald's answered you? I think I tweeted
back at you. You were so sweet. By the way
my wife sleeps. My wife's sleeps in a shirt like that.
Your wife is super hot, Daisy Fuentes y. Hey, Richard,
(02:10):
I don't know if I'm gonna get two words in
for the rest of this interview, So before she starts,
I want to say hello, thank you for joining us,
thank you for coming on the Almost Famous podcast. Ashley
is about the big fan I want to I mean,
I'm sure she'd tell you herself, but she did mention
to me at one point in our lives that you
she believes you have the best voice that exists on
(02:31):
this earth. So this is a big moment for her,
which is why I'm just gonna take a step back.
I'm gonna be here if things get weird and awkward,
I'm gonna protect you, Richard from anything awkward. Said my Ashley.
By weird and awkward, you mean totally awesome. Yeah, that's
how I see it. That's why we co hosted together
for the last five years. I think it's great. I
(02:52):
love these moments. But thanks for coming on, Yes, my pleasure.
I know that Richard doesn't have like a Whitney Houston
like Adam Lambert voice like at but I want to
listen to Richard's voice more than any other voice. It
is the voice of angels. When I go to Heaven,
I imagine that, like everybody has like that. That sound Okay, okay,
(03:14):
do you do you agree with me? Like, do you
think that you could listen to Do you listen to
your own voice? Well, I mean I have to because
I have to listen to it for two hours every
night on stage, and I listened to it a lot
when I'm making an album, and um, I don't know.
I think Heaven, if Heaven exists, the voice I might
hear it would be Gilbert Godfried's, but he's up there now.
(03:37):
Yeah that's sweet. Yeah. Hey, do you believe you have
the voice of an angel? Richard? Was the question being asked.
Do I believe? Can you imagine if I said yes,
what what a total canoe move for me to go?
I mean, I guess I kind of uh, I have
(04:01):
grown over the decades to uh two. The early and
early on it was hard for me to listen to
my own voice. And now as I've gotten older, I
kind of like it. I kind of like, I'm I'm
proud that I still can sing all the high notes
(04:21):
and that I've taken care of my voice somehow. I mean,
I haven't taken care of it. I don't do anything,
I don't warm up, I don't do anything. But I've
just been I think it's one of those use it
or lose it kind of things where that's why Tony
Bennett at nineties something was still I mean, he's retired
now because of Alzheimer's, but I saw him a few
years ago in Vegas. Dasty and I went to see
him in Vegas, and he was unbelievable at ninety one
(04:45):
or something like that because he never stopped touring, you
never stopped using his instrument, and so hopefully that will
happen to me too. Now, why do I feel like
you got your start by being more of a song
writer than a singer. That's because that's true, Okay, great,
because I know my stuff all right. So did you
(05:07):
know you had a good voice when you were like
crafting songwriting? Did you think that you would ever be
the one performing your songs. It was always my dream
to become, you know, a rock star and to be
an artist. I started writing songs in high school. Really
I knew. I always knew I could sing. I mean
I was I was singing on TV and radio commercials
(05:30):
when I was a little kid, so I knew I
could sing in tune and I had a good voice
for a kid. And then when I was in high school,
I had this mad crush on this girl, Sarah Blackwell,
and I didn't know how to talk to her. I had.
I had no game, zero game. And so I thought,
maybe I'll try to do what Elvis did in those movies,
which is I'll just sing songs, sir. So I wrote
(05:52):
these songs really trying to get with Sarah, and and
then it just sort of started. By loved writing songs,
and and so when I was in a senior in
high school, I was starting my senior year in high school,
this tape of my first four songs. UH managed to
get to Lionel Richie, who was just leaving his group
(06:14):
the Commodorees and starting his solo careers eight one and uh.
He listened to my tape for some crazy reason and
my phone number was written on the back and pencil
and he called the number and I was like, hello, Hey,
this is Lionel Richie. I thought I was being punked
(06:37):
for sure. And he talked to me for like a
half an hour. He was so gracious and he is
and he's just the best. I don't know if you
guys have ever went into him, but I have met
him through our producer, Amy Sugarman, And oh my gosh,
that I is so sweet. Amy. That's right, Amy's your producer.
I looked. So he said to me, I don't know
(06:57):
what your plans are, but you should move to l A.
And you've got a great voice, and these are your
first four songs as a songwriter. You've got a great
future as a song er. You should just come out
here and to l A and try it. And so
when I graduated from high school, I was like, screw college,
I can do that later. And I moved to l A.
And he hired me to sing background vocals on his
(07:20):
first album, So and then not only did I sing
a bunch on that record, but he let me just
hang out and watch him make the record, and I
learned so much about producing and stuff. And so then
he recommended me to his buddy Kenny Rogers, who was
huge at the time, and I had a job singing
on a Kenny Rogers album and I overheard Kenny saying
(07:43):
he needed a song, and so I came in the
next day to sing on some more songs, and I
I did this thing that would normally get somebody fired,
which is the background singing, and went up to the
artist and said, hey, I've got a song, but in
in true Kenny Rogers form, instead of kicking me out
of the studio, he sat down and listened to it
and he loved it. And so I ended up writing
(08:04):
songs on that album, and that sort of launched my
songwriting crew. But I always wanted to be an artist,
and so the first couple of years I was trying
to get a record deal and it wasn't happening. I
had the producer David Foster, told me I shouldn't sing.
That was just quote, You shouldn't sing, you should just
write songs. Um. So I had a lot of people
trying to stomp on my dreams, but I just kept
(08:27):
at it and then I finally, you know, I found
the right circumstances. I finally got a record deal. At
first song out of the box was Don't Mean Nothing,
and that was it. And at this point, when you
(08:47):
first moved to l A, you were how old again? Eighteen?
How is that? I mean, being an eighteen year old
leaving where'd you grow up? Chicago? Chicago to Los Angeles list,
being in studio with two massive names at the time, Yeah,
trying to figure out your way. Can you tell us
a little bit of insight into what your life looked
(09:10):
like at that point. My life was completely focused on
music career um learning my craft, so I would spend
as much time in the studio with those guys as
they would allow, which in especially in Lionel's case, he
was just I'll never forget he said. I remember the
sentence he said to me after I sang on this
(09:32):
first song, which was a big hit for him, called
you Are you Are? Son? Do you Are? I'm singing
on that, I'm singing on all night long. I'm singing
on a bunch of his songs, but he said to
me one day we were leaving the studio after I've
done some vocals, and he said, by the way, you know,
I know that you you want to learn everything about
(09:54):
what we do. And as long as I'm in this room,
meaning the studio, he said, you're welcome to be in
this room with me, which was an open invitation, Like
it didn't matter what he was doing or if I
had any place to like if he was doing horns
on a song, I was allowed to come in and
watch and just soak it in and like learn what
(10:14):
the engineer did and what the arrangers did, and what
those musicians do and how do you interact with them?
And it was like going to hit record college. And
it just says so much about how gracious he wasn't is.
But yeah, when I was in between those sessions, it's
not like I was out clubbing. I was home in
my shitty little apartment writing songs, you know, just always
(10:39):
so focused. I didn't date. I was just like focused
on getting my career going, especially the first couple of
years until I started until I had a hit song
by Kenny Rodgers when I was nineteen or twenty, and
then I started making a little bit of money and
I bought a nice car, and you know, I was
I was starting to like have an actual life at
(11:00):
that point. Yeah, it's what an incredible transition and how
fast that things changed. And that was only twenty three
when I had my first hit as a singer. So
it was like one of those things where the song
came out, don't mean nothing came out and then MTV
jumped on the video and it was literally like, well,
like I'm sure for you to actually it was like Tuesday,
(11:24):
no one really knows you, notices you or knows who
you are, and YouTube and it's like and then Wednesday,
people are going, hey aren't you. Yeah, you know power,
the power of television has always been that, and yeah,
people were hearing me on the radio, but it was
connecting the dots. It was seeing me in my video
and MTV just pounded the video and so it was
(11:45):
literally an overnight, complete change, just as I'm sure it
was for you guys. So how did you You said
that you wanted to be a rock star, and you
wanted to because you know, you're a little kid and
you had a crush on a girl, so like if
you could turn my little boy Dawson into like a
soft rock king like you. I would be just like,
(12:06):
that's my dream, and I think that's his dream too.
I know he's six months but like he just wants
all the attention and he yeah, and he just like
music really makes him chill out and like zone in.
It's really cool. I see him on stage already. I'm
gonna stop talking. But you go from you know, saying
you want to be a rock star to like endless
(12:28):
summer nights now and forever, um, hold onto the nights
right here waiting like the most amazing soft rock songs,
which is my favorite musical genre. Um, so, how did
you veer into that category? It wasn't even like a
you know, look, the ballads, the love songs make up
(12:50):
still to this day, the smallest percentage of my recorded work.
It's just that those songs and this is not this
isn't just me. It's like Journey and Brian Adams and
Phil Collins and all these other guys who started at
as rock singers. The biggest songs, the most memorable songs
(13:12):
of all of us tend to be the big power
ballads or the love songs. Um. I you know, I
had just as many hits you know on the radio
that we're up tempo. It's just that I think it's
just the public sort of just loves those kind of
songs that they can dedicate to other people, or they
they apply them to a moment or a period in
(13:35):
their lives. I do the same thing, like other people's
music marks the soundtrack to my life. My own does, obviously,
but it's other people's songs like when I was leaving
home and what song was I listening to when I
was in love with that girl? Or you know, music
is just so powerful, and I think that those kind
of songs that are emotional, uh, just tend to grab
(14:00):
people the most standard test of time, the most um
go through generations. You know what. My favorite, my favorite,
like deep cut of yours is One More Try, Guys, Yes,
I love it so much. If you want to go
you know, beyond the greatest Hits, download Richard marks one
(14:23):
More Try. Wow. I love that So that was from
the nineties. That was like the mid nineties. If you
want to go, oh my god, I won't standing I do.
I really like that song so good. I think we
need a podcast, like a spinoff called Almost Famous Ashley
(14:46):
fan girls every week. We can do it. We could
co host together. He's like, okay, girl, I am like
one of the most incredible songwriters of my time. Not
going to do a podcast with you. Hey, you never know,
you never know. You catch me on the right day
if I've had a tequila or two sending bottles of tequila. Now,
(15:09):
that's how I got here. And five years later, we're
still doing this thing. Richard. I wonder from your perspective.
You know, Ashley just said stand the test time I
would put the word iconic. You know, they they've lasted. Obviously,
Ashley was born in which is why she has this
T shirt. Yet she can name off right now. Uh,
(15:31):
deep cuts Uh? And also your hits, songs that have
stayed with her that she has enjoyed. What does that
feel like for you as an artist? Uh? And as
a professional that somebody that was born in still considers
you one of their favorite artists. And who's your voice
has been you know, the soundtrack to her life? Uh?
(15:55):
For me, that feels really cool. I'm sitting here, but
I want to hear from you. What does that feel like?
It's hard to describe. Then it's like it's the most humbling.
It's just it feels. I'll tell you what the word is. Privilege.
It's a privilege, you know, I um, It's one thing
for people who got turned onto me when I hit
(16:19):
who are older than me or my age or a
little bit younger. It's another thing for people who come
up to me Ashley's age or younger. And I know
that it was probably because of the music that their
parents listened to. And so when you when you get
(16:39):
old and old like I am, I'm about to be
fifty nine, but you get to a point where you
realize that you are now generational. There's like multigenerations of
people who like what you do. And it's hard to describe.
I mean I can't really and absolutelyd in in I
(17:02):
could probably write a lyric about it easier than I
can tell you how it feels. But it's a privilege.
It's you know. It's also bizarre because I never said it.
I set out I wanted to be successful. Obviously, I
wanted to have a great career and have hit songs.
But I never wrote songs thinking oh this is a hit,
or knew even knew what that even means. I just
(17:25):
wrote songs that I liked. I just wrote songs for
me and and for my own selfish purpose. Is the
biggest song, arguably the biggest song I ever wrote, right
here Waiting. I didn't even want to record it. I
tried to give it away. I tried to get to
Barbara streisand she was she asked me for a song
around that time. And I had no intention of recording
right here waiting because a it didn't fit the album
(17:45):
I was making. The second album was pretty rock album,
and this, you know, this really sparse, intimate, delicate ballot
just didn't fit the album, I thought. And it was
also just too personal. It was a song I wrote
as a love letter, you know, and and I just
felt like I'm not and we're going to record this
(18:06):
at this And then enough people who in my world said,
are you an idiot? Like this is a this is
a one listen smash. So I was like, okay, well
I'll go in this, I'll cut it, I'll just I'll
sing it down a couple of times and see if
you know. And that was it, like everybody who just
lost their minds and it became a song that you know,
(18:29):
thirty something years later, like everybody knows the song like
kids know it in Sri Lanka. I mean I played
in Sri Lanka. Daisy was with me, and she was like,
and I play all these crazy places, but Sri Lanka
was the place that Daisy was looking at the audience.
She was like, there ten year old kids out there
singing along to your songs, you know in broken English.
(18:49):
That's just just crazy cool. So you taught uh, Chris
ran Done and Becca Koufrin on their day on the
Bachelorette how to encapsulate feelings into a song. Have you
(19:13):
ever written how did you guide them through that? And
have you ever written songs about girls that you've known
for just a few days. Oh yeah, I've also written
songs about situations that I necessarily I wasn't necessarily in,
(19:34):
but I can imagine because if you only limit your
your writing to your own experiences or your own uh journey,
it's gonna be limited. You know, it's going to be
a little. So I have a vivid imagination, and I've
written songs where I just put myself in scenarios or
I've I've written songs about girls I've just seen in
(19:58):
a cafe or you know, passed on the street and
just sort of not just oh she's hot, but like,
oh she's really interesting looking. All right, I won't and
then I conjure up a whole storyline of someone I
don't even know. Um. I wrote a song called Angelia
that was a big hit for me. Back that's a
(20:19):
completely fictional song. I mean, I have been dumped, which
is basically what the song is. The video we turned
it Michael Bay actually directed the video for that. Yeah,
he turned it into a she died storyline in the video,
but in the song it's just that she left me
and um. But beyond that sort of real generic theme,
(20:44):
all those lyrics are just imaginary circumstances. But as far
as the the Becca thing, she was a fan and
she's she was so sweet. I really liked her a lot.
Um that was done you know, the magic of editing.
Uh you know, it wasn't like we really kind of
sat in the room and hashed it out. It was
(21:05):
like we had good cuts and I said, Okay, why
don't you say this, and I'm going to suggest that
you do this, And so we kind of a little
did it a little piece by piece. But at the
end of the day, I did put was it was it?
Chris was that the thing did put Chris in a
room to say, just right, don't worry about lyrics, don't
(21:26):
worry about rhyming. Just write what you feel about her
right now, of what you know of her, which is
not a whole lot at that point, write down what
you feel, write down what you think about when you
think of her. And then I kind of helped him
put that into a little lyric and I did the
same with her. How I mean, how cool of a
day would that be? Right? I mean that's why they
(21:47):
show so special. Sometimes. Yeah, sometimes you get an opportunity
like that where it will be a memory for a lifetime. Richard,
you know you, I think we'd be uh would be
a mistake if we didn't ask did you know of
the show before you went on? Are you a fan
of the show? Do you and Daisy watch the show?
Or I mean you can It's fine if you say no.
(22:10):
I never seen There's no one on earth who doesn't
know about the shows. So yeah, I was very aware
of it, but I've never It's not just the Bachelortte
or Bachelor. It's I have never really watched any reality shows,
including music reality shows. It's just never been something on
my radar. I watched so little TV anyway. UM, so
(22:32):
I was aware of it, and I was also aware
of the opportunity of it because we had a record
out and I thought, you know, that's that's a lot
of eyeballs and and a lot of ear drums too,
you know, appeal to um. The original pitch to me was,
as this happened many times on those shows, to have
(22:54):
an artist come on at the end and it was
like a surprise song, and they asked if they could
license this. I think it was right here waiting and
can we have a performance of him? We had it
all set up. No, I mean that's like I could
do that my sleep. No big deal. Great, it's a
great opportunity. And then the producers I think they'd seen
something I did on Funny or Die or something, and
(23:17):
they came and said, we we would really like to
incorporate you more into another storyline. That's not you performing,
that's just you with Back and Chris and interacting with them.
And we sort of just made it up as we went,
and I was open to it. So, but I will
say this, it was it was a pretty painless day yeah,
(23:39):
and then I think it was maybe the show aired
a few months later, and for a solid month, everywhere
I went, somebody came up to me and said they
saw it way beyond any When I do a TV show,
and you know, even if I just on uh, you know,
(24:01):
Kelly and Ryan or something like that, I'll have people
for a day or two go, I saw you and Kelly, Ryan,
You're sound a great and just like done. This was
for a month and I had people Daisy would be
at a restaurant and the whole table of people who
would be like pointing, and at first I'm thinking, oh,
it's almost like it's again. I'm like, oh, of course
(24:21):
they recognized me, and yeah, they saw me on the Bachelorette,
so they were like, you know, completely fan girling and
fan boying because of that. So it was a pretty
amazing experience. That's awesome. Well, don't get me started when
you were the guest judge on American Idol, or not
the judge but the mentor, because that was fantastic stuff
(24:45):
back on the heyday. All right, Well, I can go
on and on, but Richard, it has just been an
honor to talk to you. And if I ever go
back on the show. For some strange, strange reason. I
hope they they put me on a date with you.
Ye Richard, great talk to you can said. Uh, congrats
on the success, the continued success. Thanks for coming on
(25:05):
Almost Famous Flashback. UM means a lot to all of us,
especially Ashley. So you just made her world her year.
She'll talk about this day for a long time. So
thanks coming on. It was my pleasure. I'm glad you
guys asked me. And actually, I'm sure you're in l A. Right,
I used to. I lived in l A for five
and a half years. I now live in Rhode Island.
But whenever you come to Boston or anything like this,
(25:28):
I'll be there. I'll be there. Yeah, excited to meet
you in person. I think it's on. Yeah, we'll work
it out and we'll we'll you'll come backstage and we'll
hug it out. Okay, we'll DM on Twitter. Yes, Okay, talk,
Thank you see you. Well. That was your first episode
(25:49):
of Almost Famous Flashback. It is not a podcast in itself,
but it's kind of like the new in depth. We
still continue to do in depth episodes, but we'll also
continue to do ashback episode. So if there's a Bachelor
Franchise guest that you would like to revisit with, we
would love to do it. Give us ideas on our
(26:09):
Facebook or email us at Ben and Ashley at iHeart
media dot com. They're all going to have to stand
up to that experience, though, so we've set the standard high.
I hope you guys enjoyed. Love you so much, signing off,
I've been Ashley. Follow the Benn and Ashley I Almost
Famous podcasts on I Heart Radio, or subscribe wherever you
(26:31):
listen to podcasts