Jeff hangs with Richard Marx and talks new album Summer Show and oh that hair!

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Thanks for checking out the Eighties Showpodcast. I'm Jeff Stevens. Always always
loved talking to my buddy Richard Marks. Richard, how are you, I'm
good man. How about you doinggreat man? Thank you very much.
And I love that you're playing abig show with Mickey Thomas and Starship.
I would have to think over thecourse of the years, you probably bumped
into Mickey Thomas a few times.We did. The first time we met
was probably fifteen years ago, maybeeven more. We did a show together

(00:22):
in Trinidad, of all places.Oh, and Starship opened up the show.
And I'm a lifelong Mickey fan.I mean, I really really,
I think he's one of the greatestsingers ever. I agree, And so
I met him and he was heis if you've ever met him, he
is the sweetest guy in the world. I don't know if he's got to
be seventy ish at this point.I'm going to be sixty in September,

(00:44):
so I think Micky's got to beseventy at least. Yeah, but he's
still so youthful and his voice isamazing, and so yeah, we've we've
actually done a few gigs over theyears, but it's been a long time.
So I texted him a few daysago and said, hey, it's
your schedule because we should do asong together. And he was like,
oh my god, yeah, let'sdo that. My vote is for his

(01:06):
song that he did with Elvin Bishop, called fooled Around and fell in Love.
That's him saying I don't even knowfor the longest time. That was
him singing that I laid that truth. You know, I'm going to name
drop, but I'm buddy's. Oneof my best buddies is John Corbett the
actor. Yeah, yeah, andhe's got he's got a couple of things.
He's in this new Sex and theCity revival, and he's in the

(01:26):
new Big Fat Greek Wedding coming out. So we actually caught up on the
phone yesterday and he was saying,asking me about, you know, the
tour dates, and I said,yeah, I'm doing the show. And
I said, and Starship's gonna openwith Mickey Thomas. And I mentioned that
Mickey did Fooled Around Phone Love.He goes, no, no, no,
that was Alvin Bishop and I said, yeah, but he was he
was in Elvin Bishop because I alwaysthought Elvin Bishop saying that, I said

(01:49):
dude, go back and listen.It's totally Mickey. Yes, He's like,
wow, that's amazing. I didn'tknow that. It really is one
of those that I think a lotof people forget. I hope he does
that in his set by I wouldimagine he does. But I think he
does. I mean I've heard himdo it, okay, So I would
imagine, all right, well,let's talk about Richard Mars because we we
definitely know that, uh, we'regonna have some fun with you as well,

(02:10):
my friend, and uh, Ireally I was just been binging a
little bit getting ready to talk toyou, binging a little bit on songwriter,
which I know has been out fora minute. But what was it
like going through and saying, allright, I'm gonna, I'm gonna you're
such a great songwriter, such agreat vocalist. But to take on these
different styles and say I want tokind of present myself a little bit differently,

(02:34):
that had to be a pretty coolchallenge for you. Well, yes,
and no, you know it was. It was my Pandemic record.
You know, it was the albumthat started to form during the pandemic when
we were all sitting around, youknow, wondering if we were ever going
to go back to work. Yes, and I was, you know,
I just put out an album calledLimitless, which did pretty well, it
was, but it came out literallyFebruary of twenty twenty, so I didn't

(02:57):
get to tour really behind it,or so it was like, okay,
well, am I gonna make anotheralbum of original stuff? Like at this
point, guys like me and we'remostly we just tour and that's fine.
But as a songwriter, I can'timagine ever sort of hanging it up.
And so I started to think aboutwhat would a new album for me look
like, what would be fun forme? And it hit me that,

(03:20):
you know, at one point,I was thinking, well, I could
do sort of like a country ishkind of thing, or I could do
maybe I should just do a rockrecord again, or maybe I should just
do And finally I was like,wait a minute, why am I choosing
as a songwriter. My entire careerhas been to be a chameleon. Yeah,
my entire The success of my songwritingcareer has mainly been because of versatility
and being able to write songs inall these different genres. It's just that

(03:44):
I bought the sort of rule Isigned up to the rule book that somebody
created that as an artist you reallycan't do that. You have to sort
of stay in a lane. AndI went, screw that. I can
do whatever I want. Nobody.It's not like the world is out there
waiting for another Richard Mark's record.Anyway. I was, well, I
appreciate that, but you know whatI mean, It's like so I thought,
I remember, I remember, Ijoked to my wife. I said,

(04:05):
you know, look, if Ido a record like this, what's
the worst that could happen is thatthe people who already don't like me are
going to not like me. Morelike, what's the what's what's the risk?
And so then it opened up thiswhole fun thing where I thought,
well, what if I just didfive rock songs and five pop songs and
five country songs and five And itbecame this project that, uh was a

(04:30):
blast, really blast blast to do. It was very collaborative. I ended
up, you know, using moreco written songs than ever before, because
you know, I write most ofthe stuff by myself. Yeah yeah,
but I ended up having you know, these collaborations with everybody from Keith Urban
to Burt Backrack, rest his soul. So it was it was a really

(04:50):
really fun project. Well, ifif somebody listening hasn't checked it out yet,
it's called Songwriter, and h Thecool thing I like about it is
just, you know, even justkind of randomly plucking songs, you know,
just saying all right, I'm justgonna listen to this one, and
you you think, okay, thisis Maniscullot edge too, it's got a
little rock to it. Then thisis definitely a straight pop song. I

(05:11):
can hear a country you know,angle on this, But at the same
time, it's it's your voice,it's your songwriting, and so I think,
you know, your voice ties thewhole thing together. And so I'm
listened to it going. I mean, I like all kinds of music anyway,
but but I just really really enjoyedit. And I think anybody who
likes Richard mars or for some reason, if they haven't given you a chance

(05:31):
before, should definitely listen to Songwriter. It's fantastic. Thank you, brother.
I wish i'd had that quote forthe promotion of the album. Hey
that's a free one. That's afree one, you can tell you.
And when that album came out,which was the last time I saw you,
you were actually pretty sick, kindof right before COVID started. Yeah,
I mean that was the first nightthat something and it wasn't COVID.

(05:55):
It turns out it wasn't COVID,but I and I did write about it.
That was my other COVID project wasin my book Stories to Tell.
But yeah, the whole the bookopens with basically, it was that week
of shows. I think it wasNovember of nineteen, so I write a
few months before the pandemic. Myeah, end of October. Guy,

(06:15):
you guys were the first gig whereI showed up and I was like,
man, I'm not feeling well atall, and my voice wasn't one hundred
percent. You guys were everybody.You were so patient and understanding, but
I kind of I got through itand I thought, Okay, it'll be
fine, and then I just gotsicker and sicker and sicker. But the
good news is there hasn't been anything, not even the sniffles, in the
last four years since then, orthree years since then. So I will

(06:38):
show up this time one hundred percenthealthy, ready to have a hot,
sweaty summer show. Love it.Well, I'm so glad you're feeling better.
And that's another thing folks should dotoo, is read your book because
it's also fantastic and it really doestalk about more in depth about what you
just explained. So I was watchingyou on Kelly Clarkson with your sons.

(06:59):
How surreal to sit there and sayingone day Longer with Brandon Lucas and Jesse's
it was, you know, look, I've gotten to work with my sons
quite a bit, but to doa I mean it's not the first major
TV show we've done together, butthat particular one, there was just something
so special about Kelly Clarkson was justso sweet. But she was like she

(07:24):
was there during the rehearsal of therehearsal and she just said to me,
this is a dream. Like shebecause I've got kids, the idea that
someday I could be doing a TVshow and my kids are singing harmonies to
me. And but you know it'sJeff, it's even more. I just
had lunch with Brandon actually, likeI just hugged him goodbye right before I
called you. We're really close.They're like they're my best friends. We

(07:46):
all lived very close to each otherin La and we make music together.
You know. Lucas was a bigpart of the last two albums. He
produced another one Down and co wroteit with me, and he wrote and
produced the single from Songwriter, SameHeartbreak, Different Day, which was also
you know, pretty successful, youknow, to be collaborating with them.
My youngest son, Jesse, andI did two tracks on the Songwriter album.

(08:09):
We just we worked together, wesing together, we hang together.
I'm just like the luckiest dad inthe world, well and the coolest dad
in the world, and without questions, still with the best hair. And
I'm so jealous, you know,the hair is hanging in hey man,
I'm like, I'm really really excited. Like every day. I'm like because,

(08:30):
like I said, I'll be sixtyin September, and it's not going
anywhere. Not very very grateful.No, that's for sure, my friend.
And it's funny because and this isnot to knock anybody else, some
people came out with some different looksafter COVID, right, you know,
people let their hair go a littlebit. Yeah. Yeah, and the
people come out and you're like,um, who's that again? Yeah.

(08:52):
Well, I did go through Idid go through a I went through a
little period where I couldn't get myhair cut for a while because it wasn't
safe, and so my hair growsreally fast and my hair is actually really
curly, so I just let it. We were at the beach, so
I just let it go. Andwithin three or four months I kind of
had a Chris Cornell vibe going,and because I always like he was like

(09:18):
the ultimate, you know, rockgod. Yeah, handsome, so talented.
So I thought, we'll look ifI can just take a little page
from the Chris Cornell hair department.But it ultimately just didn't suit me.
You know, I couldn't tell ifI all of a sudden, I was
like, well, is it ChrisCornell or is it more carrot top?
You know what I mean? Itwas like, yeah, okay, all
right, Yeah that you don't wantto go down that road. Yeah,

(09:39):
that's not that's not the Richard Marksroad right there. Yeah, if you
if you got to ask the question, it's probably best to just cut it
off. That's true. That's true. By the way, it's so fun
following you and Daisy on Instagram,and I remember seeing your pictures that you
were putting out at the time,and it's you guys seem so fun and
so happy and so love and uhand you know that. So it's really

(10:03):
cool seeing you guys. You seemto be in a really good spot.
Richard, you know, thank you, brother. Yeah, we're really we're
having so much fun together. AndI think we talk about this all the
time, but I think there's somethingabout meeting someone later in life. You
know, when you've had experiences,you've had relationships. I had a very

(10:24):
very successful, long marriage to awonderful woman, Cynthia, for you know,
um, it just that we endedup going our separate ways and then
I thought, well, you know, I can't imagine having a long relationship
ever again. And then I metDaisy so quickly after that and always knew
about her, always sort of admiredher from afar like the rest of us.

(10:45):
I mean, I had I certainlyhad a TV crush on her for
years and we just we never metin all those years of me being on
MTV and her being on MTV.That's amazing that you find a relationship.
I know, it's crazy, rightbecause we've we've done the the research,
we've been we were in the sameroom countless times, we just never met.
But to find someone, find arelationship later in life. There's something

(11:07):
just a little sweeter about it.It's we're more grateful, we are more
it's more precious time, and weare We're just we're making the most of
it. We're having the best time. And I appreciate you saying that.
Well, that's awesome. And beforeI let you go here, what can
everybody look forward to at the show? I mean, obviously we're going to
get get the best of Richard andand uh, you know, why should

(11:30):
why should people go out and buythe ticket and come out and see you?
And Mickey Well, I can't speakfor Mickey, but like I decided,
I'm going to do something really specialand different for this show at the
phrase, which is I'm the wholeshow is going to be only songs that
I wrote that we're not ever goodenough to actually make it onto an album.
So none of the singles, noneof the hits. Good good folks,

(11:54):
come see it. It's the Unknowntour. And I'm not going to
play or a guitar. I'm gonnaplay accordion. Oh dude, it's it's
so I gotta say. And youknow, a little bit of a humble
brag, but I look down atthe set list when I'm doing these gigs
now, and I'm so honored andgrateful that I can do a whole show

(12:18):
of songs that people know yet,and the set list is always sort of
like, I find only two orthree slots for either songs that were album
cuts that I just love to playlive, or songs from the newer album
just to say, hey, here'ssomething new. But the bulk of the
show are is just the greatest hits. And I wrote all these songs.

(12:41):
I still absolutely adore singing them andplaying them with the band. I've never
had more fun playing live than Ihave in the last few years, and
it just seems to just keep gettingmore fun and sweeter every year. So
we're gonna have quite a party.I love that venue. I've always had
great nights there, and we're gonnatear it up. Oh, you couldn't

(13:01):
have said it better, my friend. You got a brother