Richard Marx

The “Right Here Waiting” hit-maker opens up about the 14 number ones he’s penned and the grateful life he leads. He takes it back to his early days when Lionel Richie called Marx’s family home (!) to encourage him to make the move to LA, and Kenny Rogers bought his song when Marx was still a young backing singer. He also explains how Barbra Streisand passing on one of his songs proved to be the biggest break of his career, and why Twitter proved to be an unlikely meeting place for him and his now-wife, Daisy Fuentes. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our Way with yours truly Paul Anka and my buddy
Skip Bronson, is a production of iHeartRadio. Hi, folks, this
is Paul Anka.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
And my name is Skip Bronson. We've been friends for
decades and we've decided to let you in on our
late night phone calls by starting a new podcast.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
And welcome to Our Way. We'd like you to meet
some real good friends of ours.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Your leaders in entertainment and.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Sports, innovators in business and technology, and even a sitting
president or two.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Join us as we asked the questions they've not been
asked before, Tell it like it is, and even sing
a song or two.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
This is our podcast and we'll be doing it our way.

Speaker 3 (00:47):
I wanted it this moment to happen when you don't
expect it, and the song went to number one. It
just defied the odds, and I remember my record company
like saying this is never going to go and pop radio,
and the song became number one single. And then, as
will happen, sometimes I just got paged. Is this romantic balladeer?

Speaker 4 (01:06):
Guy Any Richard?

Speaker 5 (01:21):
Hey Paul of what's happening? I've spoken to you a while?
What you do?

Speaker 6 (01:25):
I'm glad you're using my real name too. Can't hide
behind can't hide behind the nickname. People are getting confused.
I getting a lot of Texan well because we had
two Richards. Because your friend Richard Marx is coming on today,
and yeah, I'm really looking forward to talking to him.
I can't believe this guy's got just one of his
songs on Spotify has five hundred millions. It's his mind

(01:48):
by me, and he's like you, he's always working. Another
energizer bunny that's always out there working. I've got but
I've got to tell you, I've got to ask him.
I saw the reference to Kenny Rogers when I was
doing my research on him. Kenny and I, as you know,
Kenny and I were very close friends. He was just
a very special friend of mine. I can't wait to

(02:09):
talk to him about him. Yeah, you're gonna love him
talking Richard. I've known a guy a long time and
he's really one of those guys that's lasted predicated on talent.
And he said so many hits. He said Billboard Chide fourteen,
number ones. He's written for other people. He's got fascinating
stories about you know, Lionel Richie in his life how

(02:30):
that started. His father was a great jazz pianist, and
when I met him, he was so young, and I
just you know, there's certain It's like you and your deals.
You know, he can smell a deal and you know
that it's got legs to it. You can meet certain artists,
you really can that when you hear them, whether it's
working with Jackson or John Prine or any artists that

(02:52):
really turned it on for me. He turned it on
for me when I first met him, and we went
away and we wrote together. But I knew that this
guy had to last. And when he comes on, you're
gonna you're gonna see a guy that's had a full
career and still doing it, still working.

Speaker 5 (03:07):
And that's and I'm so proud of them.

Speaker 6 (03:09):
The thing that I love is when we get these
guys that you've known for such a long time. Tony
Orlando is an example. They don't talk about themselves. They
talk about you, oh, which is really pretty special. I
just love that part. But this is a guy I'm
interested in hearing about his relationship with his wife, Daisy Fuentes,

(03:29):
who we first saw on MTV Great. I want to
hear about the people he collaborate with you know, you
and I talked nightly. But when I mentioned the fact
that he's had five hundred million downloads of one song
just on one platform. That's only Spotify, that's not Apple,
that's not Amazon, just one platform. Could you've ever imagined

(03:50):
anything like this when you've now first getting out. I mean,
if you sold, you sold records, what did you need?
How many records typically did they have to sell to
get gold record? Five hundred thousand, five thousand, Yeah, they
were just records.

Speaker 5 (04:04):
Yeah, he'd got multiple gold records.

Speaker 6 (04:07):
This is a whole in the world different, it's changed
to Any of the dynamics from the fifties, sixties do.

Speaker 5 (04:13):
Not prevail today. What do you like about it and
not like about it?

Speaker 6 (04:17):
The whole streaming thing, Well, I can't look at it
that way because I'm a guy that I have no
rear view mirror.

Speaker 5 (04:23):
I think we need evolution. I think we need change.

Speaker 6 (04:27):
I think what I don't like about it today is
you new young great artists can't get record deals because
you know, I defy you to name the head of
any of these record companies. Maybe we'll seean Grange, but
they don't invest in artists they don't give them a chance.
You know, they're upredicated on finding and developing new people,
and so many good people out there today, so they

(04:48):
don't have a shot and they sit around with old
catalog These companies today they're making their money. But with
the steaming and the way it's changed, Skip, I.

Speaker 5 (04:57):
Mean, I defy it. Okay, tell me what's the number one?
We'll go there today?

Speaker 6 (05:00):
I couldn't tell you, but I could tell you this
that that's the point. One of the number one songs
on TikTok is put your head on my shoulder. Okay,
oldie Goldie. No, they're using it like crazy.

Speaker 5 (05:12):
Thank you, thank you.

Speaker 6 (05:14):
But the point is it's so changed that you don't
know who and what that next hit is or how.
And I take artificial intelligence, which you know me, I'm
all that bad wagon for years. That's going to even
make it even more complicated. So you know, I like it.
I'm optimistic the music industry they'll have. They'll be doing

(05:37):
AI Paul Ankers, they'll be writing songs scripts me. It's
all open, you know, it's just send me the check.
What are you going to do at eighty three? I've
done it, you know, just give me my little piece
of a pie and go do what you want to do.
But there's this sapp I told you that I'm high
on called perplexity, which is an AI driven form of
like a search engine. And you wrote an entire song,

(05:58):
no exaggeration, twenty seconds and you know it's not going
to replace songwriting the same way.

Speaker 5 (06:06):
You know.

Speaker 6 (06:06):
I know in the past you've talked to guests that
we have about songwriting and why that's so critical, not
just singing, not that just anybody could be a singer,
but to have that special talent of being a songwriter
is like in my business, whether you're developing shopping centers
or casinos or golf courses, it's about storytelling. So that's

(06:28):
our form of songwriting. You know, we don't use lyrics,
it's different, but storytelling. That's the key to everything at
this point, isn't it.

Speaker 5 (06:38):
Yeah? Yeah, sure is.

Speaker 6 (06:39):
I mean, you're reminded me of when Gates and what
was Buffett that called Gates was with them and the
same machine and app that you're on. Gates showed them
the original machine, the g whatever it is, and he said, Paulie,
I got to sing. Gage just brought it and I
asked the machine to give me four different versions of
my way, and in two minutes it's spit out four

(07:02):
different versions, and by way incredible and I couldn't believe
it when he told me. Then it's evolved into what
we're talking about today. It is incredible. Licensing has to
be a disaster because if you sing a verse of
a particular song, Jordan gets nervous, right because of the
copyright everything that goes along with it. And yet you
can do things now with these apps where you know

(07:25):
the people are just spitting stuff out. Yeah, exactly. Yeah,
it's going to be interesting. Lawyers are going to be busy.
China is going to become interesting because they we don't
get royalty from Russia or China, and we are we're
on the path now with BMI and ask gap to
try to get over there and get I don't get
a sent out of China or Russia. It's like all

(07:47):
the bogus bags that are made and jewelry and Rolexes
that are over in China that you can go and
you can get the French government. Because I was just
in Hong Kong, have gone to China and said look,
no more bogus handbags, brick and bag. We shut down
those places, and they're starting to shut them down to
protect the properties of air mess and we'll be telling

(08:11):
all of that. But we don't get a thing out
of China.

Speaker 4 (08:13):
It's amazing.

Speaker 5 (08:14):
Yeah it is.

Speaker 6 (08:15):
Well, you're gonna go to drink some alligator tea here,
some new concoctions. No, no, no, I gave that up last month. Seaweed, seaweed, seaweed.
I gave him alligators. See, it's still just sticking my throat.
That a tooth come through my nose. Hen't wait here
the next concoction. That's all I can tell you. Well,
it's working so far anyway. I love your brother, You're

(08:38):
the best. Just love you to death. I'll catch up
with you tomorrow. You just get some sleep, you got it.
You sound like you don't need it. You're full of energy.
Love me, skip, Love you too. Thanks for calling your brother.

Speaker 3 (08:58):
What do you say? Kids? Yeah? Hey, how you doing, buddy?

Speaker 1 (09:03):
You're back from the tour?

Speaker 3 (09:05):
Huh? Well for a minute, yeah, well's I know what
you mean.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
Still, let's skip Bronze and my buddy skip skip.

Speaker 3 (09:11):
How are you pleasure?

Speaker 7 (09:12):
How are you doing? Real name Richard.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
Till Richards so so skippy.

Speaker 7 (09:16):
Listen.

Speaker 1 (09:16):
We've been so damn lucky because we get all our
buddies on here and we get to share our experiences
with our thousands of listeners. And today's no exception. You know,
two of the most important days in our lives, the
day you're born and the day you figure out why.

(09:37):
And our guest today figured out at a young age
when I met him, and I've talked to you about him,
and I've known him for so many years and admired him.
He sold like over thirty million albums worldwidees been on
the Billboard charts forever. But he's kept his ship together
all these years. He's still working, still viable all these

(10:00):
listening is the chunk of being a movie star. And
I keep prodding him.

Speaker 5 (10:03):
Give this up.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
I mean, this fucker is so good looking. So but
I'm so happy to have him on and introduce you
to him. He's done it all, he continues to do
it all. And I've been blessed with probably two of
the most talented people out of Chicago, from where Richard
is from, originally John Prine, who I took to New York,

(10:24):
and that I'm started and then Richard and I met
up and we've had this connection all these years, right
up until now, and I'm thrilled to have him all
with us and share my experiences with him, because he
is some kind of cat. Richard. Welcome, folks. Richard Marx
my buddy. I'll tell you right out front, let's tell

(10:46):
about this great career years.

Speaker 3 (10:48):
Well, first of all, I want to say thank you.
I'm so happy to be here with you. And yeah,
I mean you kind of said it all. I was
blessed enough at I think I would just nineteen or
I was just a couple of months into my nineteenth
year when I met you and was such a fan
of yours, respected your songwriting so much as well as

(11:11):
your artistry, and we met and you I think to
this day one of the things that's always set you
apart is that you've always tried to spot young talent
and not only nurture it, but embrace it in a
way that to see, hey, maybe this could help me,
Maybe this is good for me, rather than these insecure

(11:34):
people who want nothing to do with up in the commerce.
You know, and Paul has always been this guy who
has championed younger people, but has also been smart enough
to go maybe that is something good for me in
my you know, my songwriting in my career. So I
benefited from that when I was nineteen, and can I

(11:55):
try I tell the great story of how we are
songwriting life together.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
It's all about that today and more. Absolutely, But I
want you to do me, do us and you okay.

Speaker 3 (12:06):
Well, okay, okay, but but it's important. This is a
great story.

Speaker 1 (12:10):
But if you got something really great to say, go ahead,
I'll send them down.

Speaker 3 (12:15):
Well this is actually this, this whole story is in
my memoir which came out a couple of years ago
called Stories to Tell.

Speaker 1 (12:22):
Great book.

Speaker 3 (12:23):
Thank You. So I I met Paul and within a
couple of months he called me and he said, hey,
I got to go to Hawaii, to Honolulu. I'm playing
a few shows and I'm going to rent a house there.
Why don't you come over. I'll bring you all fly
here to I'll put you up and we'll write songs,

(12:43):
you know, after my shows or during the afternoon. We'll
just you know, we'll write songs every day. And I said, wow,
that sounds great. So sure enough, you know, a couple
of weeks later, he flies me to know why. I'm
with my girlfriend at the time. I brought her with me,
so I'm thinking, you know, I'm going to be here
to work, but in between, we can hang out and
go to the beach. So the first day I get

(13:05):
to my hotel and Paul's assistant calls me and she says, listen,
Paul wanted me to call you and he's very busy today.
It's got a lot going on. He said, just enjoy yourself,
go to the beach, hang out. He'll call you tomorrow
and we'll figure it out. Oh okay, great. Tuesday comes
same phone call. Paul's crazy busy. He's very busy today.
This went on every day for four or five days,

(13:28):
and now it's the last day of the trip and
I'm thinking, holy shit, like I feel horrible. I haven't
done anything. I haven't worked, I haven't last day. Paul
calls me himself and he says, Richard, it's been a
crazy week. Here's the plan. You'll come to my show
tonight and then then after the show, you'll come to
the house that I rented and we'll go right And
I'm thinking to myself, after a week of shows, this

(13:50):
guy wants to write songs. Okay, I go to the show.
It's phenomenal. I meet him at this house that he's
rented on the beach and I'm sitting I'm waiting for
him to come downstairs, and I'm sitting at the piano
and I'm just noodling. And he comes down the stairs
and he doesn't even say hello. He goes, what is that?
And I said, I don't know, I'm just new. He goes,

(14:12):
that's beautiful. Play that again. So I'm playing this melody,
and of course he and I remember the melody I
was playing. I was going but you, and he went,
no more wine and roses. Keep going and we wrote
this song in about eleven minutes. I'm playing melodies. Paul's
spitting lyrics like he's rehearsed them. I've never seen anything

(14:34):
like it. And we have a song. It's like no
time and I'm so happy. And I said, wow, that
was amazing. Impulsays, yeah, it's beautiful. It's really good, really
really good. And I said, okay, well that was fun.
He goes, wait, what are you talking about. Let's keep
going and we wrote I think it was four or
five songs between that, like eleven o'clock at night and

(14:58):
three point thirty in the morning, and every one of
those songs that we wrote that night got recorded. One
wasn't a Kevin Costner movie. Paul recorded one of them.
That kid Glenn Madaneros cut one of them. And it
was the most fruitful evening of songwriting. And it was
such a masterclass in just getting the shit done. It
was unbelievable. And that's how we started working together.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
But I saw in you unlike a producer we won't
name that didn't think you had it. Instead, just write song.
If you want to mention his name, go ahead.

Speaker 3 (15:29):
Well, I will say his name. His initials are David Foster.
And he told me when I was at that same
age that I shouldn't sing. That was the He looked
at me and said, you should not sing. So you know,
what are you gonna do?

Speaker 1 (15:44):
Meanwhile, sonically, when the record pubby heard you, forget what
it was, they freaked because we know sonically amazing your voices.
You know, we all listened for told with artists and
everybody in the beginning absolutely knew. And then you just
you went from there. But you had dinner one night
you told me the story which I never knew that year.

(16:05):
Big break came when I think nyl Rich called you
your else when you were a kid.

Speaker 3 (16:11):
Yeah, I was.

Speaker 1 (16:12):
Fascinated that because that's one of the things I didn't
know about you. But I love you. Tell Skip Skip
You'll love this story. Check this out.

Speaker 3 (16:18):
Yeah, it's pretty amazing. So I was in Chicago. I
was in my senior year of high school, and at
that time I had written three or four songs. You know,
it's my first handful of arms. And because my father
was in the jingle business, I had access to a
decent recording studio and some good musicians, studio musicians, which
I had to pay for. By the way. My father

(16:38):
wasn't like, you get no free studio time. You pay
it just like anybody else. And I'd saved up some
money to record some demos, and I had this cassette
tape and I'd sent it to a friend of mine
who was He was a year older than me, So
he was freshman year in college in Atlanta, Emory University.
I tell you this because it's a very important part
of the story. His roommate, his dorm mate, they would

(17:01):
play music all the time, like you do in school, right,
But it was the music of the day. It was
Ario Speedway again, it was Queen, it was whatever. And
so my my friend would play my demo tape along
with those other records because he just loved what I
was doing. And his roommate says, who is that? That's
really good? And my buddy says, my buddy from Chicago,
Richard Marks, and does he have a record deal? Note,

(17:23):
And so his roommate says, you know, I grew up
with this guy who knows a guy who works with
the Commodores, and I wonder if we could get this
tape to Lionel Richie. Well, you know, this is just
ridiculous on its you know, on the face of it,
but I remember getting excited about even the possibility of it.
And six weeks later, my parents' phone rings and it's

(17:45):
Lionel Ritchie on the phone. He had not only gotten
the tape, but he listened to it. And my phone
number was written in pencil on the back of the
cassette box, and he called me on the phone to
tell me that he really liked my songwriting, that he
really liked my voice. What was my plan really encouraging
this was when he was he and Michael Jackson were

(18:08):
probably the two biggest artists on the planet, and he
took the time to call some kid in Chicago he
didn't even know. It tells you everything you need to
know about Lionel Ritchie. What a class act he is.
So he encouraged me and I, you know, I thought
about maybe going to college and studying music after high
school because I didn't really have a plan. And he said,
you can always go to school. Your parents are going

(18:28):
to kill me, but you need to come to LA
You need to try it out here. This is where
it's happening. So I my parents actually gave me their
blessing and they said, you know, not go as soon
as I graduated, and Lionel had given me his number,
so I looked him up and he was recording his
first solo album when I arrived in LA like six
months later, and he invited me to enter the studio

(18:48):
and he just happened to be recording background vocals on
this song called You Are, which became a huge hit
for him, and I overheard in the conversation in the
control room that they'd been working on these background vocals
for two days. And I come from the jingle world
where you've got to have that shit done in two
minutes two days to do background vocals on a record,

(19:11):
like who's got the time and money for that? But
I couldn't believe it. And they were struggling to find
this blend that Lionel was after, and he had these
three other singers and he was singing with them, and
I was watching. I was sitting on the couch in
the control and watching the session, and he was getting frustrated,
and finally he looks into the controller me, points to me.
He says, come here, and I come out and he said,

(19:32):
you've been listening to you. Do you know what part
I was singing? I said, yeah, I think so, and
he said, okay, you sing my part, and Debbie, you
changed this party. You do this, And he came in
the control room and they rolled the tape and they
hit record and we all sang and Lionel Richie hit
the talk back and said that's the sound I want.
And I had a job and he said come back tomorrow.

(19:53):
I got another song I want you to sing on.
And I ended up singing on like four songs on
his first solo album, but more important and then Paul
Will really understand on the importance of this. It wasn't
just the gift of having a little paycheck and a
credit on a big record. What Lionel said to me
that day was, I don't know what work I'm going

(20:13):
to have for you. You know, there might be another
song or two for bere to sit on, but I
just want you to know, as long as I am
in this room meeting in the studio, you're welcome to
be in this room. And I went into every day.
I didn't miss a single session. I watched them cut
basic tracks. I watched them do string overdubs. I watched

(20:34):
them do horn overdubs. I watched the horn arrangements being
tweaked and created. I watched percussion overdubs. I sang back
on vocals, And I went to Hit Records school for
three or four months, and I've never missed a day
of that session. And the gift that Lionel Richie gave
me was just so incredibly powerful at that time. And

(20:55):
then he tells his buddy Kenny Rodgers, you got to
hire this kid. You gotta have you doing a new album.
You I get this kid to sing on He can
sing anything. He sings really high he can sing anything
great pitch. So Kenny Rodgers people call me and hire
me for a session, and then I end up writing
songs for Kenny Rodgers, which launched my songwriting career, and

(21:16):
I had two number one songs with them out of
the box. So I mean it. But it all traces
back to Limebridge, who I to this day. I every
once in a while, every few months, I text him
and I just I literally do this. I go, hey, buddy,
just wanted to thank you again for my career. Love you.
And he always texted me back, laughing. He says, you
did it. You did it, man. It was like I
couldn't have stopped it. But no, you know, Paul.

Speaker 1 (21:39):
Right, fourteen number one songs later, right man. But the
lu the Luther Vandros. You know, at first, really it
came out, you know, well, I'm going my way, you're
doing your thing. I had no idea you had written
that with Luthor.

Speaker 3 (21:53):
Did you just say you're going on? Did you just
say I'm going my way? Did you say that?

Speaker 5 (21:57):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (21:58):
Yeah, I was going my way. You were half a
song there, But I didn't know in the beginning. And
when I found out you wrote that with him, probably
one of the greatest voices, if not the greatest, right.

Speaker 3 (22:09):
Agree, the right one hundred percent.

Speaker 1 (22:12):
How did that come about writing that with him?

Speaker 3 (22:14):
Well, Luther and I met at the American Music Awards
in the early nineties and we were both as I recall,
he won Favorite R and B Vocalist and I had
just lost Favorite Pop Vocalist to Bobby Brown, I believe.
But you know how you at those awards things you go,
if you you're nominated, that you're presenting or whatever, there's

(22:36):
always like a press room in the back after you
walk off the stage, and there's press that wants to
talk to you. And it just happened to be Luther
and I were back there at the same time, and
we had never met, and Luther came over to me
and he just said such wonderful things that I was
a huge fan of his, and like you said, Paul,
I mean from back then to the day he died,

(22:58):
I think he was in the top three best scene
we've ever had, and for sure, so I was just
it was a lot of mutual compliments, and we exchanged
numbers because we just sort of immediately, you know, you
just click with somebody, right, you could tell like you
get a good vibe from somebody. And we were both
touring a lot, so we ended up becoming friends on
the phone. We would call each other from whatever, God

(23:19):
knows wherever town we were in on tour. And then
I came home. My first son had just been born,
so I was taking a little time off, and Luther
and I started hanging out and becoming friends. And he
came and sang background vocals on some tracks on my
you know, the album that I was making at that time,
and then he called me and said, I'm doing a

(23:39):
new album. I'd love to try to write a song
with you. I'm doing a Christmas album. So we wrote
a song called every Year Every Christmas, which became a
pretty big hit on his Christmas out. It was the
only single from his Christmas album, and it was effortless.
It was very unlike you and me, Paul. It was
I wrote several songs with Luther, including Dance of My

(24:00):
and we were never in the same room. It was
very much like an Elton John b Berniey Topplin thing,
where in a distance it was separate. Yeah. I wrote
the music. Luthor would listen to the music. He wrote
the lyrics which is opposite of Bernie and Elton, but
that's how he would do it. And so we wrote
several songs over the years, and one day he called

(24:23):
me two thousand and three, I guess it was, and
he said, I have just a title and it's danced
with my father. And all I know is I have
to write it with you because years before, like several
years before, I had very tragically lost my father in
a car accident, and it was we were very close,

(24:43):
and it really wrecked me for a while. And there was,
you know, a lot of my loved ones and my
friends tried to be there for me and help me,
but no one could seem to pull me out of
this depression and this grief. And one day I got
a call from Luther, and I don't it wasn't even
the specifics of what he said to me, but we
talked for an hour and at the end of that

(25:04):
conversation he just knew what to say to me. He
helped pull me out of this depression I was in.
And we talked a lot about fathers, and he his
father had passed away when Luther was like eleven or twelve.
He barely knew his father, but he had these very
vivid memories of his dad dancing around the kitchen with
his kids and his and his and Luther's mom, and

(25:25):
it was such a beautiful image. So he said, I
don't want to write a song called dance with my father,
So go write me something. Go write me some music.
And so I immediately went to the piano and I
came up with you know what became the song, and
I sent it to Luluther and he was like, yes, yes,
that's exactly what I wanted. I got, but I got
so many lyrics. I'm gonna can I change some of

(25:46):
the verse melody? I said, do whatever he want, so he,
you know, he wanted more syllables and and within a
couple of days he called me and he said this
is it. I'm calling I'm going into the studio tomorrow
and I'm gonna cut this song. And he ended up
using my you know, I did a little demo in
my studio, so there was MIDI you know, the the

(26:07):
files were there, and he just took my piano part
and then built the track around it, sweetened it, yeah,
and uh mixed it maybe ten twelve days later called
me said I'm FedExing you this the mix, and he said,
I just want to say that this is the most
important song I've ever been a part of. He said,
any I remember him saying, this is my piano man,

(26:30):
this is my signature song. This is going to be
the song I'm really going to be known for. And
I went, don't say that. You're putting too much pressure.
You're putting like it's just a beautiful song, man, Don't
don't over hide a bit. You know, he knew. He
just knew it was going to resonate, and you want
to Grammy And we won the Grammy, and like two
weeks after he mixed it, he had a stroke. And

(26:51):
you know, he lived to see us win Song of
the Year at the grounds, but he didn't get to go.
I went and hung out with him in the hospital.
After that, I went right from the Grammy stee New
York and spent a day with him, and then he
hung on there with us for maybe another eight months
or ten months. I missed him every day. He was Paul.
I've said this if you can believe it. He was

(27:11):
as funny and kind as he was talented. That's how
cool that guy was.

Speaker 1 (27:16):
That was his reputation everybody felt the same way about it. Yeah, yeah,
so that voice unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (27:23):
Oh yeah. I used to say you could sing the
menu to a Chinese take up place, and I was.

Speaker 1 (27:27):
The phone book, the phone, the phone book.

Speaker 8 (27:29):
Yeah, so bring it up to real time, you know.

Speaker 7 (27:43):
No matter how well Paul and I know the guests
that we have on this podcast, we still do our research.
I was looking and I found that your song right
here waiting, which everybody knows. Everybody knows that song has
five hundred million downloads on Spotify.

Speaker 1 (27:59):
Where's my check it's coming?

Speaker 7 (28:02):
But think about this, that's only one platform. That's not Amazon,
that's not Apple Music, that's just Spotify alone, five hundred million.
I mean, neither of you could have imagined when you
first started in your careers that there could be a
phenomenon like this where you know you'd get this type
of exposure. But I want to ask you about Kenny

(28:23):
Rodgers for a minute. I can't explain to you, Richard,
how close I was to Kenny Rogers.

Speaker 3 (28:28):
Oh really.

Speaker 7 (28:29):
I met Kenny because I worked with Steve when at
Mirage Resorts, and Steve was close to Kenny. We became
good friends. We did fun things together. I'll never forget
the time Kenny White to go to Kenny Rogers Roasters
and go through the driving lane. And we went to
the driving lane, and I can only explain to you
what the guy what it looked like when he gave
the order to the guy, and it was Kenny Rodgers

(28:50):
ordering at Kenny Rodgers Rops.

Speaker 3 (28:51):
Sounds like Kenny. That sounds like Kenny.

Speaker 7 (28:53):
But that was that was Kenny, right. So Kenny and
I probably played one hundred rounds of golf together. I
went to his farm in Athens, Georgia, hung out with
him there. He was just a special guy. But while
this was going on, my wife left me and I
was devastated. I was just literally upside down. Kenny Rogers

(29:18):
was my shrink. I swear to God. He called me
every day to check in how you doing, Here's how
you get through this, this is what you do? Do
that and call me tomorrow. He had good experience, but
he you know, he was just such a remarkable guy.
But then again, in doing the research, I read where

(29:40):
you had said that Kenny wrote one line in a
song and he wanted fifty percent of it. I was
just curious, how'd that come about?

Speaker 3 (29:49):
The story is, and I mentioned it in Passing a
minute ago. But so I got hired when I was
nineteen to sing on Kenny's album that he was making.
I was booked for two days, so I went in
and I sang on one or two songs, and they
really liked what I did, so they said, come back tomorrow.
We've got a couple more songs for you to sing on.

(30:11):
And I overheard Kenny talking to his producer, a guy
named Richard Perry very, you know, successful producer Kenny. I
overheard Kenny say, you know, Gos, we still need that
one ballad, We need that that Lady, We need the
next Lady, we need that song, that that love song.
But it's just you know, over the top, like no

(30:34):
brainer one listen, And I knew. I had a session
the next day, and I went home to my apartment
and I sat at my little electric piano and I
wrote Crazy, this song called Crazy, and I modeled it
after Lady and Lionel's truly And so I like wanted
to do a one word title. And you know, Paul understands,

(30:56):
like you you got to you got to write smart,
you gotta you had to really think about what the
target is, and I wrote this thing that I knew
Kenny's range because I was a fan of his and
I so I came in the next day and I
did exactly what you should never do if you're there
to be the background singer. This is a good way
to get fired, to go up to the artist and
say I'm a songwriter too. You know, I got a

(31:18):
song for you. That's bad form. But I couldn't not.
It was like it was the opportunity was too good
to pass up. So I at the end of the session,
I did my work so I wouldn't get fired before
they had me sing. I went up to him. I
remember my legs were shaking, and I said, you know, no,

(31:38):
I overheard you yesterday. I called him, mister Rogers, I
overheard you yesterday saying you're still looking for a song
and I'm a songwriter and I wrote something for you.
And you could see the look on Kenny's face. I know,
here we go, but he was gracious, says, you know
skip and he said, well, let's hear it. So I
started to reach into my pocket for the cassette. He goes, no, no, no, no,
just go to the piano. I was like, oh my god,

(32:00):
Now I got to play the piano and sing the
song fan like I'd just written it, you know. So
we went to the pian and he sat next to
me and I played it and he he was had
his eyes closed and he said, this is really good.
This is really good. And at the end of the
song there's a line that I had written with this, iigh,
note you are the dream that finally came true. And Kenny,
at the end of the song, he said, go back
to that part. You are the dream that finally came true.

(32:24):
I said, He goes, is there any way you could
say you are the dream that finally came true for me?
And I sat the pian, I looked I said, yeah,
I just go for me, just the end of line,
whatever you wanted. And he said, great, I'm now you're
co writer. And we wrote this song together fifty to fifty.

(32:46):
And I'd heard these stories about that stuff being done,
and for whatever reason, instead of me being offended or
feeling like how dear, I was like, one hundred percent
of nothing is nothing and to have my name next
day is on a song is good for my career.
So that I gladly gave into that and skip, you'll

(33:09):
because you were friends with him too. I was friends
with him to the end. In fact, the last email
I got from him. He wasn't a text guy. He
was an email guy. And remember he would always email
in all caps. He would always yell at you in
his email, yelling right. It was about two months before
he passed, and he I'll never part with it. I've
saved it. I look at it. Everyone I saw because
I stayed friends with him to the end of his life.

(33:31):
So I really loved the guy, and I loved spending
time with him and talking to him on the phone
and getting emails. And he said something like, we both
know you really wrote that song, but I still get
half the money.

Speaker 7 (33:44):
I didn't know he had some Morris.

Speaker 1 (33:46):
It's called yeah morse LEVI heard again, and it's called
write a word, write a word and get a.

Speaker 3 (33:54):
Third, get a third, or in this case, just ask
for half and you got it.

Speaker 1 (33:58):
Well, I did it with Johnny Arson, right you. I
felt the same way you did, man, you know exactly.

Speaker 3 (34:04):
And look at what we did the right We made
the right move. My friend.

Speaker 1 (34:07):
Yeah, half a something, half of something.

Speaker 7 (34:09):
When you were hanging out with him, did you ever
encounter Rob Pinkus.

Speaker 3 (34:13):
You know that name. I do, but I don't remember.
I just remember the.

Speaker 7 (34:16):
Name he was. He was Kenny's sort of bodyguard arranger.
You know, he collected all the phone numbers, right, you
know he was. He was his right.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
Hand of the plumber the electricians.

Speaker 7 (34:29):
But they were like Batman and Robin. You know, Rob
got Rob got the leftovers. But you know it was
quite a it was great thing. I have to ask you.
When we have Michael Boobley on, I asked him this question.
I'd like to ask you the same question when you
first decided you want to I know your dad was
a jazz musician. Yeah, but my father was a window trimmer.
That didn't inspire me to went to his business. When

(34:54):
you first started, why not rock and roll as a
young person, wasn't that the un that was the whole
big thing to be a rock and roll star, to
be you know up on the stage.

Speaker 3 (35:04):
Well I was, I was. I started, I started at
rock radio.

Speaker 7 (35:08):
You had some rock songs at first, but you pivoted
from that, right, I mean, you wouldn't consider yourself a
rock and roll artist.

Speaker 3 (35:15):
I don't think I'm considered that now as much but
they was it was. I mean, my first hit was
a song called Don't Mean Nothing that featured three of
the Eagles, and my first single in nineteen eighty seven
was actually went to number one on the rock chart,
so I and I crossed over from rock to pop

(35:35):
and the song became a top five pop single. And
then the next song was that front row Seat. No,
frontwar Seat was just not that long ago. That was
that was way way later in my career. Don't Main
Nothing was the first single, and then the second single
was a song called shit None Better that became a
huge rock hit, and then another and crossed over the pop.
But at the end of that album, that first album,

(35:55):
I had written this about one. There was one ballad
on the album called hold On to the Knights, and
I had arranged it and recorded it. You know, I
was very influenced by Peter Gabriel at the time, and
still I'm a big Peter Gabriel fan, and I loved
the sparseness and the space that Peter always created in
his records. Open real open, yeah, very open, not commercial really,

(36:18):
So I even though the song was was a very memorable,
catchy melody, I deliberately produced the record with all this
space and to the point where it didn't like nobody's
gonna sit through that on the radio. Well, guess what, well,
I loved it.

Speaker 1 (36:32):
I'll interrupt you because that's one of my favorite. The
drums did not come in for about a minute and
a half exactly, and then that great guitar solo. Whose
guitar solo was it Mike Landau? Was it Landau Guitars? Anyway,
go ahead, I know exactly what you were doing with that.

Speaker 3 (36:47):
Oh, I love that you just pointed that out. Yeah.
I said, I want there to be this moment like
in the Air to Night by Phil Collins. I wanted
this moment to happen when you don't expect it. And
the song went to number one. It just it defied
the odds, and I remember my record company like saying
this is never going to go and pop radio, and
the song became a number one single, and then, as

(37:10):
will happen, sometimes I just got pegged as this romantic
balladier guy and it was hard to like come back to.
I did have another couple of rock hits. I had
a song called Sa Satisfied. It was number one, and
you know, big on the rock charts. But I started
to get sort of pegged as this romantic balladeer. And
then the record company at the time they knew what

(37:32):
was easy. Just give him more of that. Oh he's
he's a love song guy. Girls love him. Let's just
keep hyping then, and I would say, okay, we can
do that, but I'm also a rocker, like, let's keep
let's not lose that. It was a matter of a
year and a half, two years. It was sort of
like rock radio went now he's a pop guy, and
that was that. So then I just dove headfirst into Yeah.
I never stopped making rock records. I mean, even my

(37:55):
last album has probably some of the hardest rocking songs
I've ever done. But I'm just not that's not the perception,
and that's okay with me.

Speaker 7 (38:02):
Just reading your memoir, you talk about you're having had
a mysterious illness. Yeah, but you don't you don't say
what that illness was. I don't know if you want
to say.

Speaker 3 (38:12):
It here, but I would if I knew what it was.
To this day, we don't know where it.

Speaker 1 (38:15):
Was mysterious illness. He didn't know what it was at all,
What were the symptoms Richard, what were the symptoms.

Speaker 3 (38:21):
The symptoms were very COVID like, and it was at
the very it was even a couple of months before COVID.
So I woke up in a hotel in New Jersey.
I was playing show somewhere and I was shivering with
cold chills. I had a one hundred and four fever
and I started, having never happened to me before. I'm

(38:42):
a very healthy guy. I started having convulsions. I started
to seize like I was. I remember thinking I'm going
to have a heart attack because I couldn't stop thrashing
in my bed. And it lasted for several minutes and
I couldn't even reach for the phone call somebody who
called nine one one. I couldn't. I was just convulsivet

(39:03):
I was having a seizure and it finally subsided, and
just as I was about to try to move, it
happened again. And I remember thinking I'm gonna die in Inglewood,
New Jersey. This is not sexy. But I got through it.
Ended up doing the show that and I because Paul,
you know, the show must go on. My voice was okay,
so I was like, I pulled myself together to get

(39:25):
on stage. And do a show. I ended up going
to the infectious disease experts at UCLA Medical Center. I
went to CEDARS. I got tested for everything you can imagine,
no COVID, no lupus, know this, all the things that
could have explained this fever that would not stop. I

(39:46):
had a fever at least one hundred and two forty
four straight days well, and so of course my doctor
thought I had an mphalma. Somebody self said I had
a heart infection. I kept getting tested for everything, nothing,
and it finally went away about you know, after forty
four forty five days, and that was four years ago,

(40:07):
four and a half years ago. I haven't had the
sniffles since. So it was just this crazy mystery illness
that hopefully never returns.

Speaker 1 (40:16):
Fright me, fright.

Speaker 7 (40:17):
I have to give a plug to Paul's and my
doctor at UCLA, Robert Spinner s HPI in e Er.
He's the doctor that the other doctors send people to
when they can't figure out what's wrong, and they refer
to him as doctor Clouseau. Yeah, he's the most remarkable guy,
and he just he just can figure things out that
nobody else can figure out.

Speaker 3 (40:38):
Oh, text me his number. You got it just in case.
We help each other, We look each other up, we
help each other out. We're brothers.

Speaker 1 (40:46):
You know something people have lost, the meeting of friendship.
Skipstered my rap on this. I try to teach my son.
People have to get back to understanding what real friends
are and how to treat them and be with them.
We've lost that. They've lost it. I agree, And you're
that buddy. Other than when we go to dinner, you
overdose me with Rod Stewart, who you're madly who you

(41:08):
are madly in love with, and I've choken on my
fucking foot. But tell Skip a budget, you're all appeal
with the with Stewart.

Speaker 3 (41:17):
I just you know, I've always been a huge, huge
Rod fan since I was a kid and met him
in passing at like an award show or a radio thing,
and he was always very nice, but you know, not
hanging out. But he was the only person really who
I when I would run into him or I would
see him, and there were even times I would see

(41:38):
him in a restaurant and I didn't know him well enough.
I didn't want to interrupt him or whatever, but I
would just be like, he's so fucking cool. Rod Stewart
is so fucking cool and not like from Uh. He'll
be the first to tell you he's not like this.
You know, he's not Sinatra vocally or you know, p variety,
But it's the sound of his voice, it's his phrasing.

(41:59):
I think he's a really nderrated songwriter. Maggie May Tonight's
the night. Some of these songs he's written, you wear
it well anyway. I'm a massive, massive band and seen
him in concerts so many times I was in. I
did a tour in Australia at the beginning of last
year and I had been talking about him for a
couple of days in the interviews, mentioned his name to

(42:22):
my band a couple of times. This is like two
days in a row, three days in a row. And
we ended up going to Perth to finish the tour
and we're having dinner and he just walks right in
front of us, like right. I had mentioned his name
about ten minutes before we sat down, and then he's
in this restaurant in Perth, Australia. I couldn't believe it,

(42:43):
and I hesitated again because they don't know him, know him,
and I thought he was leaving with some people, and
I was like, fuck that. I went Rod and he
turned he looked to me and I said, it's Richard
and he looked like did he go? And he came
running over. He gave me the biggest hug, introduced himself
to everybody. He had met my wife Daisy before because

(43:04):
they had done some events on with MTV, and so
he had met Daisy before. And we stayed and talked
and then he said, are you busy tomorrow night? Do
you want to get get together for Drakes or something?
That's okay, We're gonna be here for another two days.
So we ended up getting back together the next day
and we just hit it off and that was it.

(43:24):
And from that point on, we're in touch all the time.
I'm seeing him in a couple of days because we're
both playing the Mountain Winery in Saratoga back to back,
so I'm staying over to hang out with him, and
he's just become, like you said, Paul, like once in
a while. And I feel like this has happened since
our reconnection. There are people you just go, you know,

(43:44):
I have to deal with so many people day in
and day out who like don't really care for. If
you connect with somebody and you you become friends with
somebody where there's mutual respect, there's mutual interest, there's laughter.
You gotta hold those people close, you know, you gotta
like make the time. And that's what that's what I

(44:08):
do with Rod, even though it annoys you. I see you,
I see you even more than I see Rod. See
what does that tell you?

Speaker 1 (44:14):
You have good judgment? But you just glanced saying the
word Daisy. And I know your passion for your music,
and you know how blessed guys like you and I
who have made the longevity trip, we hope we submit.
But like Skip with his wife, my woman, Michelle, you
know when I go out to dinner with you and Daisy,

(44:36):
that is in our world alone, the business that we're in.
What an amazing and beautiful love story that is. Because
I know some of the nuts and bolts of the
two of you and whence you came, and you wear
that so well and how much it means to you.
You know, some of us too late in life realize

(44:56):
if you don't have that other person, that that's kind
of friend that's there for you, you're missing a whole lot.

Speaker 3 (45:03):
In that piece of ply, I agree.

Speaker 1 (45:05):
Tell us about Daisy, how you guys connect it up?
Oh my good woman. And I'm so happy for both
of you.

Speaker 3 (45:11):
Yeah, I know, and she loves you too. She has
actually thanked me a couple of times. She's like, just
spending time with somebody like Paul and Michelle. She loves Michelle,
she says, it's just that's like, that's time well spent.
As she said, you know, and well, where do I
even begin. I mean, she's had an incredible career as
a TV personalities and as a model, but she is

(45:33):
a really smart business woman who started her own brand
in twenty years ago. It's one of the longest running
celebrity brands. And she started it when a lot of
people were like, oh no, no, no, we don't do that,
We're too serious. Where she was like, I want to
be a you know, I want to do everything. And
she's had this incredible brand, that clothing brand, sunglasses, home furnishings, perfeme,

(45:59):
you name it. She was the only person on MTV
who I never met all those years, I would beat
I have. We have found video of her introducing my videos.
Never met her. I met everybody else at MTV. I
was fancyater, as they'd say. I always thought she was,
but it was more than just her physical beauty. For me,
it was all of this. When I would see her

(46:19):
on TV. There was something about Daisy that made me
think I would want to hang with her. She was cool,
there was something she was funny, and we just never
our paths never crossed. And then we found each other
on Twitter, of all places, we ended up we were
following the same person and this thread of tweets connected us,

(46:43):
and so then we started following each other. And then
it was maybe a year or two later we didn't meet,
and it was not It wasn't I wasn't flirting with her.
I wasn't like what they called sliding into her dms
at that point. It was very respectful. I just was thought, Oh,
Daisy's like, she's so cool. I bet she's really cool.
And I was Mary at the time for a very
long time, but my marriage was starting to unravel and

(47:05):
I was on my way out of that marriage. And
I'm a very private person. I've never been in the
top boys. Nobody taught you know, there's nothing to talk about.
So I was separated for quite a while before anybody
knew publicly, and I did a show in La ten
years ago, nine years ago, ten years ago, and I
invited Daisy. I didn't even have her number. I just

(47:27):
messaged her on Twitter and I just said, Hey, I'm
going to be doing a show in LA at the
Grammy Museum. If you're in town, i'd love you to
be my guest. And Daisy, to her credit, saw the
message and didn't answer me. She immediately called her publicist
and she said, Hey, Richard Mars just invited me to
the show he's doing in a couple of weeks at
the Grammy Museum, and I'd like to go, but i'd
like to answer him and say that I already have tickets.

(47:48):
Can you help me get tickets? Classy move right? Her publicists,
he's my client. She goes, what the fuck are you
going to tell me that? She goes, I don't talk
about my he doesn't know.

Speaker 7 (48:00):
You're like ying.

Speaker 3 (48:02):
She goes, you'll come with me. So my publicist brings
Daisy to the show. And there's a hang in the
dressing room after rooms, all these people around, and the
door's over been and I'm kind of talking to some
people and I keep looking at the door because I'm
not sure if she's going to come backstage or not.
And all of a sudden, she walks through the door. Now, Paul,
you and I both know we've written song after song

(48:24):
about that lightning bolt thing. It's good poetry. I never
really experienced it until that moment. I'd written songs about it,
fantasizing about it. But when she walked through the door,
all I remember thinking was I'd never experienced anything like that,
seeing a human being and she's walking to me. All

(48:47):
I remember thinking was my life just changed. And I
didn't know what that meant. I didn't know she could
have been married. I didn't even know if she was
involved whatever. I just knew everything that I've known up
until this moment is different now because of this presence
of this person. And so she came over and she
gave me a hug, she told me how much she
loved the show. There's a photo there was a Getty photographer,

(49:09):
so we have a picture of the moment we met,
which is pretty amazing that we have framed in our house.
And then we just she gave me her number and
we started talking, and we very slowly started dating. I
was still kind of even though I was the one
who sort of made my way out of my marriage.
It was a very hard time for me. It wasn't

(49:31):
like hey party. It was a lot of partache and
it was painful time. So we went pretty slow, and
also because Daisy didn't want to feel like she was
just a rebound relationship, you know. But we found our
way to this beautiful romance that always had this major

(49:52):
component of being best friends. Like, she's the best friend
I've ever had in my life. I trust her more
than I've ever trusted anybody else. Be married nine years
in December, Paul knows. I mean, in a limited time
you spent with her, she's just remarkable. She's a really
remarkable person. Yeah, I'm a lucky guy.

Speaker 1 (50:10):
You guys are cool. And you've got three sons.

Speaker 3 (50:13):
I got three sons who are grown.

Speaker 1 (50:15):
Men in the music business.

Speaker 5 (50:16):
Right.

Speaker 3 (50:17):
They're all in the music business. They're in their thirties
and they're trying it. You know, they're they're very talented.
But it's tough.

Speaker 1 (50:22):
It's tough tough time for business today, is it, Richard. Yeah,
it's so changed.

Speaker 3 (50:27):
But you know, this is an important thing to mention.
Three sons who are in their thirties and they're one
of their best friends. Is days. You know, you hear
about these when you you know, somebody's married for a
long time, they have kids, and then they remarry and
then the kid there's there's drama with the kids and
the new wife, and it's just the most seamless vacation together.

(50:47):
My boys are around all the time. They hang out
with her when I'm on the road. Sometimes one of
them will call me and say, I'm gonna go over
and talk to Daisy about this girl. I don't know
what you know. I went to Daisy's advice on this,
So let's listen.

Speaker 1 (51:01):
You think of the alternative, which can be so miserable.

Speaker 9 (51:04):
Exactly, you're so lucky it works that way.

Speaker 7 (51:17):
So you said that you have sons in their thirties,
after say, you look like you're in your thirties.

Speaker 3 (51:22):
Go on, this is my favorite show I've ever done.

Speaker 7 (51:25):
Yeah, you know, but well late thirties, but thirties. So
what's your regimen?

Speaker 1 (51:29):
He met nineteen thirty.

Speaker 7 (51:31):
Yeah, exactly, what's your routine? Like you get pick get
up early, get up late. Do you do you work out?
If you work out? How do you work out?

Speaker 3 (51:40):
I get it pretty early these days. I wake up
and I do some crystal math to get started. I
get really whacked out. No, I work out.

Speaker 1 (51:49):
He is a health nut like I am. You I am,
and we're just one of those kind of creatures, you know.

Speaker 3 (51:55):
Yeah, yeah, we're I'm very very careful with my diet.
No sugar, no no rehre at me since I was eighteen.
You know, I've always had a pretty healthy diet. But
I work out like a maniac because a I want
to live as long as I can, but in a
healthy way. I don't want to just live to be old.
I want to be vital. I want to be able
to travel and do whatever I want and stay active.

(52:17):
You know, Paul and I talk about this a lot,
because you know, Paul's an inspiration too. I mean, look
at this guy.

Speaker 7 (52:22):
But when you say work out like a maniac, just
describe what that what that means?

Speaker 3 (52:26):
Well, First of all, I don't take days off, even
on the road, even if I'm tired. I get an
hour at least in the gym uh weightlifting, strength training,
because that's really important as we get older. I used
to do a lot more cardio in place of that,
and I was just skinny. I wasn't I was lean,
but I wasn't fit. And then I switched to strength

(52:49):
training and I work out like usually two different body
parts a day and I just alternate them. And you
got to you got to shock your body. Everyone. You
can't do the same thing all the time. You get it,
like introduced new stuff. I do pilates with Daisy, which
when she first asked me to do it, I was
like as the girls, and she was like, just come
to one session with me. This is a couple of
years ago, and it kicked my ass harder than anything

(53:12):
I'd ever experienced. And it's an incredible full body workout.
So I try to do pilates at least once a week.
You know. My only advice is I like a martini
or two at night. You know, that's it.

Speaker 1 (53:23):
Martini or two twelve.

Speaker 3 (53:27):
If I'm with Rod Stewart, it's twelve.

Speaker 1 (53:28):
Who's up stage, Skippy, She's waiting there with a martini.
I mean he's not even off stage. You see an
arm Yeah right there, boom.

Speaker 3 (53:37):
He's there with a martini and a kiss in that order,
in that order.

Speaker 1 (53:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (53:42):
But what you're talking about with your teen it made
me think of friend of mine, David Geffen, he had
just lost like fifteen pounds, was looks really great. So
another friend of brace said, so, David, did you use
those empic? He said no. He said, oh, big use Banjaro?

Speaker 3 (54:01):
He said no.

Speaker 7 (54:02):
He said, well, what did you use? David leaned in
and said discipline.

Speaker 3 (54:07):
Yeah, exactly, I mean those You know, I know that
some people tout those drugs as being affected for them
in ways that other things weren't, but it really it's
just not for me. I think that there's there's payback.
Payback's a bitch with stuff like that.

Speaker 7 (54:20):
By the way, those drugs are saving a lot of lives.

Speaker 3 (54:23):
Yes, I agree, I agree. I'm not putting it down.

Speaker 7 (54:25):
I'm just saying, no's some people it shouldn't be doing it,
but the ones that really needed it is helpful.

Speaker 1 (54:30):
It's big time. But you know, I got up one
day's skip and I just said, I've eaten enough. You know,
the way we've been brought up and Vega. I just
looked at the goddamn food. It was plates and piles
of shit, and I said to myself, I've fucking eaten enough.
And from that dayay forward, I don't need messages we
see aha eat.

Speaker 3 (54:51):
Yeah, but look at you Paul, Like if you look
at pictures of Paul in the beginning of his career,
I mean, yeah, I remember because you were You were
a little chubby when you.

Speaker 1 (54:58):
Were a teenage, very chubby when I was a teenager.

Speaker 3 (55:02):
From the time from the time he became a star,
and then you look ten years later in his career,
he looks exactly the same. Ten years later when he's forty,
he looks the same. And he's always been fit, and
that's he's just maintained that. It's a very consistent thing
for him.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
But how can we work. You look at a lot
of guys we know Richard who can't sing anymore because
they've abused themselves. Yeah, and when you start like I did,
and you've been aware of it, you know what those
guys in Vegas they're drinking and smoking and that's at noon.

Speaker 3 (55:34):
Yeah, and you just.

Speaker 1 (55:35):
Make a decision. I can't sing, I can't go on stage,
I can't write if I'm buzzed out or whacked out.
And some say or even overweight, I can't go on
stage to overweight can't do it.

Speaker 7 (55:46):
Yeah, it's remarkable. Yeah, I have guys that I play
golf with and they're hammered and they play good golf,
and it's like, are you kidding me? I mean, if
I have a sip of bourbon and I try to
play golf, I can't. I can't perform, But they can't perform.
Here's the trick. They can't perform without it. Yeah, you

(56:06):
know they need that in order to go out.

Speaker 3 (56:09):
I think skip that there's a bow. There's a happy
medium there for me. I never ever drank. I was
not a drinker at all, and I never ever did
any drug until I was fifty and then I took
a little hit of something, a little little puff of something.
I never smoked a cigarette in my life to this day. Yeah,
and I'm not a drug guy at all. But Daisy

(56:31):
introduced me to Martinis to buy a Martinis and it's
just clean and so it's something that I found. If
I have a few SIPs of a martini before I
go on stage, and I don't know what it is
because I don't get nervous. I'm sure Paul's is saying, wait,
we get excited. I can't wait to get out there
every night. I'm never nervous. It's not nerves, but there's

(56:52):
something about the sort of like extra little tiny bit
of relaxed that I think works for me and gott
to be coincidence because I never really had I never
had much problem with my voice prior. But when I
say this, in the last eleven years that I started
like having a little sibit of Martini on stage, or

(57:14):
I have lost my voice once like I could sing.
I wake up at seven o'clock in the morning and
I could do two hours. My voice is just so
like I'm knocking everything that he can knock because you
don't want to jinx it, but my voice is just
so there for me.

Speaker 1 (57:27):
Are you doing a scales or warm up before you'd
go on?

Speaker 5 (57:30):
Richard?

Speaker 3 (57:30):
Never? Never, never warm up?

Speaker 1 (57:32):
See I do about twenty minutes. And I got a
steam kettle because steam takes the cords and shrinks.

Speaker 3 (57:38):
So yeah, I try to do that in my hotel room.

Speaker 1 (57:40):
Very important.

Speaker 7 (57:41):
You know, my son is vegan. He wanted me to
ask you a few and days. You're vegan at this point.

Speaker 3 (57:46):
We're mostly vegan, but we're not one hundred percent vegan anymore.
We've introduced a little bit of dairy and you know,
so no chicken or fish or meat of any kind
but a little bit of dairy and I feel a
little better from it. But it's I'd say that we're
eighty percent Degan, you know at this point.

Speaker 7 (58:05):
So when you were talking about the MTV days, did
you ever cross paths with Bob Pittman, John Sykes any
of those pictures? Sure, because this platform that we're on
is iHeart and that was the chairman and CEO is
Bob Pittman.

Speaker 3 (58:20):
Yeah. I met John also when he was at A
and M right with an idiot A and M.

Speaker 7 (58:25):
Yeah, he's a very close friend of mine. He's just yeah,
a wonderful, wonderful Yeman.

Speaker 3 (58:29):
Love him, give me my best.

Speaker 1 (58:30):
But if our ratings drop, there's no friendship there.

Speaker 3 (58:34):
You know that exactly.

Speaker 1 (58:36):
Right out the window.

Speaker 7 (58:37):
You'll find this on Spotify.

Speaker 3 (58:39):
Well, you know, speaking of Vegan Skip, I don't know
if you if you knew or know Tom Freston from
those days, but I know very well his ex wife, Kathy,
who's a big animal rights Activistygan. She's she's a power
of ours and really wonderful person, really really lovely lady.

Speaker 7 (58:56):
And I feel the same about Tom.

Speaker 3 (58:58):
He is terrific Yeah, he's alway. It's been a gentleman
to me today, you.

Speaker 1 (59:01):
Know, speaking of pals Skippy. Probably in the late fifties,
I fell in love, you know, musically with a guy
that became just an amazing influence in my life and
an idol. And Richard and I through the years were
very very close to him, and he was uniquely unlike

(59:22):
any other artist composer that we've seen in the music industry.
And Richard got very close to him near the end.
And I've spoken to you about him, Richard. But Bert
Bacharach was a good buddy of ours. And Richard has
so many wonderful moments he had spent with this amazing talent.

(59:43):
And you know, guys like us, Richard and I, we
like to keep the names alive of those that were
such huge influences in our lives. But tell us about
Burt Bacharak who you and I loved and you were
right down to the end with Burt, and so many
of our listeners I know are totally into Burt.

Speaker 3 (01:00:01):
Yeah. Well, and again I'll talk about him. I talk
about him all the time because I don't want anybody
to forget. I have the same thing with Luther Bert
I was obviously, you know, like everybody else. I mean,
he wrote, he was part of the American Songbook. I mean,
he was just such an incredible composer. I ended up
when I was doing before I had a record deal
in those days when I met Paul, and I was

(01:00:22):
making a living as a session singer and I played
keyboards or sometimes on records. I got a call. Kenny
Rogers had done a song with Bert for a movie
of Burt Lancaster Kirk Douglas movie, and Bert wrote the
music for the movie and wrote the theme song and
Kenny recorded it. And I had already worked with Kenny

(01:00:43):
for a while, so Kenny said, get that kid, Richard Marks,
and you're to sing all the harmonies. He's quick, he's easy.

Speaker 7 (01:00:48):
You'll like it.

Speaker 3 (01:00:50):
So I went into the studio with Bert and he
produced a session and it was just me singing harmonies,
and we spent about an hour and a half doing
vocals on this Kenny Rogers, and it was such a pleasure.
I was nervous, obviously because it was Burt, but he
was just so kind and such a pro and it
went easy. It was easy. And then I ran into
him a few months later at some event and he

(01:01:12):
was so complimentary about me in front of me to somebody.
He said, I just worked with this kid. He was
such a pro. Like made me so happy to hear
him say that in front of me. And then that
was it. I never I never ran into him again,
but I always had this dream of writing a song
with him, and I would mention it every once in a while,
would say, you know, that's really the person who's left
on my list is Burt. And when I started dating Daisy,

(01:01:36):
you know those early days of dating, you ask all
those questions like what's your favorite city you've been to,
what's your favorite color, what's your favorite cuisine, blah blah,
and I said one day we were sitting I said,
what what music do you like the most? And without
missing a beat, she turned to me she goes, I
love Burt background, and I remember thinking, oh, for fox Ske,
I have to marry her now. It was not what

(01:01:56):
I was expecting. You know, she's this sort of spicy Latin.
She loves you know, Latin music, and she loves hip
hop and she loves you know, but she the first
thing she say is Burt backgrack. Well, flash forwarding a
year After that conversation with Daisy, we go on sump
trip to Cabo. I remember was Cabo and we're walking

(01:02:16):
through the airport and I'd hear there's a bird song
playing San Jose or walk on by, And whenever there
was a bird song would come on, Daisy and I
would be we would be aware of it and we
would dance. And because we just our mutual love of Bert, right,
so I said, oh, it's Bert, and I said, God,
I'd love to write with him. And she turned to
me very deliberately, she stopped. She said, Richard, make it happen.

(01:02:41):
Just make it happen. You know what to do, Just
make it happen. If you want it that bad, just
make it happen. And I was like, oh my god,
you're right. We get to the hotel, I said, give
me a few minutes before I changed for the beach,
and I got on an email and I thought, who
do want to know? Who knows somebody? And I figured
it out. I did the trail and I sent an email,
and I sent email and the next day I got

(01:03:02):
an email back saying Bert would love to write a
song with you. Holy shit. So I mean at the time,
and he was just turning ninety, I think, and he
was on tour in Europe, and so it was like, well,
it's going to be a couple months because he's doing
this and he's doing that. But I ended up going
to his house and we wrote this song over a
couple of days called Always. That is one of my

(01:03:24):
favorite things I've ever been a part of. And the
experience of writing with him and spending time with him
was incredible. But the friendship that formed out of that
where we started just talking and we would call each
other on the phone. We texted a lot. I you know,
he had a very small birthday dinner of his last birthday,

(01:03:46):
and I'm very honored that Daisy and I were there
at this table with him, and he and I became
like pals, real pals, I'd say, just because we're talking
about it, and Paul, you'll you'll understand why I feel
the need to say this, But to admire someone that
much for so long and have this dream of working

(01:04:07):
with them, but never thinking about what might transpire personally,
to think that the last two and a half years
of his life, every time I talked to him on
the phone, when we hung up, we said, I love
you to each other. That's how close we became. And
I've saved every voice message he's left me. I have

(01:04:27):
every text he ever sent me, every email. He became
not really a father figure but a mentor at a
time when I didn't think that was possible for me
at my age. And he was just so wonderful. And
we all knew that, you know, Paul, we knew that
he was getting he was getting so frail. He never

(01:04:48):
ever he was sharp, mentally sharp, one hundred percent to
the end, but he was. He was getting so frail
that it wasn't a shock when when I got the call,
but it fucking killed me. And I miss him all
the time. I think about him all the time.

Speaker 7 (01:05:05):
So what's next for Richard Marks? What's the next chapter
for you?

Speaker 3 (01:05:09):
I'm going to go and do a long hike in
the hills to stay fit. What's next for me? It's
a couple of things, you know. I'm very happy to
say that I'm touring like a maniac. You know, at
a time when people are seemingly like struggling to fill
seats and canceling tours, and I'm doing two tours at once.
I'm doing my own shows, And I'm also doing this

(01:05:29):
tour with Rick Springfield, who's an old friend in mine,
where we instead of it being I do, is say
he does is that we do the whole show together
and it's two acoustic guitars and we just take turns
backing each other up on our hits and it's just
nothing but our hits for two hours and it's a
fun show and it's really connected with people. They keep
adding shows for that show, as well as my own

(01:05:50):
tour to Australia in November, Singapore and September. I'm touring
all over the world. New album next year that I'm
still in the midst of recording because I never want
to stop making new music. I think it's really important.
Paul knows this. You got to you gotta keep writing
and we're going to do something.

Speaker 7 (01:06:10):
Skip.

Speaker 1 (01:06:10):
I'm gonna top my buddy and we're going to do something.

Speaker 3 (01:06:13):
Yeah, we are for sure. Yeah, I think it's a
no brainer. I mean, just for the fun of it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:16):
I got some ideas.

Speaker 3 (01:06:18):
Yeah, okay, I'm in. I mean I would love for
us and do stuff together.

Speaker 7 (01:06:22):
You got you gotta workaholic there that that just said that.
It's boy, Paul just loves to work.

Speaker 3 (01:06:27):
He's yeah, but that's why he's still at the top
of his game. That's why he's still you know, you
listen to this guy now, you would think that maybe
there's a little bit of like loss of the vocal
bay or the presence. It's like he's just like he's
just at the top of his fucking craft. It's so
inspiring he is.

Speaker 7 (01:06:46):
He's timeless.

Speaker 3 (01:06:47):
Hey, he's so handsome.

Speaker 7 (01:06:48):
Look at that. So, speaking of time, we took a
lot of your time and really appreciate your doing this.

Speaker 3 (01:06:54):
It was time well spent, gentlemen. I enjoyed it very.

Speaker 1 (01:06:57):
Much, as as Daisy would say, time well.

Speaker 7 (01:06:59):
Spent, very well spent.

Speaker 1 (01:07:01):
Richard will be real, really appreciated man, my pleasure. I'm
glad that my friend here, the other Richard, got to
rap with you a little bit and give our love
to Daisy.

Speaker 3 (01:07:10):
And Anton Michelle.

Speaker 1 (01:07:11):
I'll see you real soon and probably dinner in a
couple of weeks. You got it, I said, Skip, he
goes out when he says, oh, I go to a cause,
he goes out sold out. That people fucking freak out.
I mean, you know, I hear, because we all know
what we're each doing in the business, and he walks
out with his guitar no overhead. Right now I'm slepping
fifteen people and he kills it everybody right, which you'll

(01:07:35):
love to hear because there's so many acts today skips.
As he said, it's scary today because the consumer really
knows what they want and only what they want. People
that you think would do the business set aside, Taylor Swift,
it's just not happening. They don't want to sit up

(01:07:55):
in the back, they want to sit in expensive seats,
and they're just not showing up for a vast array
of people, and it's frightening. But you know, Rich Scott
his core audience. I'm blessed with a core audience. We're
very lucky and as long as we can do that,
we do it, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:08:10):
But you know, we just what you just touched on,
and you know this is something that not to mention
your art rival, Rod Stewart, but one of the things
that you have in common with him is that whenever
I'm hanging out with Rod and whenever I'm hanging out
with you, I'm always aware that we're always talking about gratitude.
We're always we always mentioned how lucky we are in

(01:08:32):
our lives, and a lot of people need to take
a breath and take a minute and be grateful because
think about you know, we all look around at the
misfortune that befalls so many people, and we are we
are really really lucky.

Speaker 1 (01:08:49):
Well, I live with I'm prepared to go back and
live in Ottawa, Canada and whatever else.

Speaker 3 (01:08:54):
Yeah, I'll come visit you.

Speaker 1 (01:08:56):
No, seriously, I prepared.

Speaker 3 (01:08:58):
In the wizard now, not in the winter.

Speaker 1 (01:09:00):
Fuck that that's why I left.

Speaker 3 (01:09:03):
Friends. Don't ask friends to come to Autawa in the winter. Listen.

Speaker 1 (01:09:07):
I was working on my father's restaurant. He wanted me
to run a restaurant, so you know how quickly and
went to music and I'd sit at home. Back in
those days, you couldn't open a window. He had three
little holes, and I used to poke my pencils through
the hole just to look outside at sixteen feet of
snow outside that I said, if I don't get out
of here by sixteen I'm want to kill myself because

(01:09:30):
you know, you're just inundated. The first time I get out,
Richie was you don't know. But I started adding the
paper that said if you collected Campbell's Soup Rappers. You'd
win a trip to New York. And every record I
was playing was recorded in New York.

Speaker 4 (01:09:46):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:09:46):
It was only a couple of places. And I say, shit,
I got to get to New York. But we couldn't
afford it, you know. So I went and got a
job at ig Fusta's and I write down the name
all these women buying the soup cans, and I rip
off what I could in the back warehouse. Then I'd
go to the women and get the soup cads, tear
off the wrappers, right my name, put it at a box.

(01:10:08):
What about two months later I won the contest.

Speaker 3 (01:10:11):
Oh my god, with forty other.

Speaker 1 (01:10:13):
Kids across Canada. I was like fifteen fourteen, and I'm
now on a train schlepping down to New York City
with a fucking sandwich, a ham sandwich that was lunch.
And I get there and they pook me at the
Sloanhouse and I'd never seen the high rise in my life.
You know, oto, what dann it is like you right?
And I said, man, one day I got to come

(01:10:35):
back to this place. And it was a year later
that I bought a hundred bucks and I went back
and to the word you use got lucky with Diana
Don Costa.

Speaker 3 (01:10:46):
Yeah, you wrote your own destiny, you wrote your way out.

Speaker 1 (01:10:50):
I had no shot if I wasn't writing at you. Now,
what it is the longevity to you? Answered me. If
I wasn't a writer, I'd be still peeling fucking potatoes
in the back of a restaurant. I mean, you know,
I played Diana for Chuck Berry a broken backstage when
he was in town, and he was an idol like
all of us, and I went and sang Diana to him.

(01:11:11):
He said, the worst song I've ever hearded back to school. Well,
that was my first rejection Chuck Berry. Right, But if
it wasn't for that, there's no way I'd have a career.
Nobody's going to write for me in the fifties.

Speaker 5 (01:11:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:11:25):
But that's another thing that you and I have in common,
which is that in our careers as artists, when there
have been periods of like we're not getting loved at radio,
or we're having up a down period as artists, we
just said, Okay, I'm gonna write songs for in Sync
and Luther Vandross and Keith Thurban and this one and
that one and you did the same thing. It's what

(01:11:46):
sustains an overall career. And then when you can come
back out and you got on stage and you do
all the hits that you had, but then you do
the hits you wrote for other people. That's a special thing.
I know that every night when I do the songs
that I wrote where hits for other people, my audience
goes crazy. They didn't know, they don't read liner notes.
They're like, holy shit, it's a really great thing.

Speaker 1 (01:12:07):
So true. Man was so blessed to be the writer. Yeah,
we are the gravatas of being the writer. It's so important.
It's a difference in a lot of careers, I must
tell you. Even though the world I came from, guys,
it was the brill building and writers were writing for
all the artists, not a lot of the artists. When
I first met the Beatles, they weren't writing. They'd sit

(01:12:27):
with me over in England. They came to my show
they say, you know, we walk to be like you.
You know, you write your old songs. You produced you
because they were a cover band.

Speaker 3 (01:12:35):
Yeah, they did all Chuck Berry and everything.

Speaker 1 (01:12:38):
They were ripping him off. They sat in that studio
and turned it out. Man, they turned it out some
great stuff. Well you keep doing the great stuff.

Speaker 5 (01:12:46):
Man.

Speaker 1 (01:12:47):
I love you.

Speaker 3 (01:12:47):
I love you to your pal and.

Speaker 1 (01:12:49):
I'm so glad you showed and Skip and I love
to have you on here.

Speaker 3 (01:12:53):
It was a real pleasure, guys. I really enjoyed it.
Thanks for having me.

Speaker 7 (01:12:56):
Thanks Uchue.

Speaker 3 (01:12:57):
Doc sitting by Skip for sure. See it.

Speaker 1 (01:13:08):
Our Way with Paul Anka and Skip Bronson is a
production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (01:13:13):
The show's executive producer is Jordan Runtogg, with supervising producer
and editor Marcy Depina.

Speaker 1 (01:13:20):
It was engineered by Todd Carlin and Graham Gibson, mixed
and mastered by the wonderful Mary Do.

Speaker 7 (01:13:28):
If you like what you heard, please subscribe and leave
us a review.

Speaker 1 (01:13:31):
For more podcasts on iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows

Speaker 4 (01:14:06):
From