Latest / The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast / Almost Famous Flashback with Richard Marx

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Almost Famous Flashback with Richard Marx · The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, this is the almost Famous podcast with Ben Higgins
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: and Ashley I flashback everyone. Today we have a very
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: different episode of the almost Famous podcast. We're gonna call
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: it the almost Famous Flashback. We have a guest today
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: that is so near and dear to my heart and
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: yet I've never met him before. Oh my god, I'm
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: having a fangol moment. Guys, the Richard Marks is coming
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: on the podcast. And if you're thinking, how is this
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: guy related to the Bachelor at all? Well, if you
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: don't remember, he was on Becca's season of the Bachelorette
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: and he had a very memorable moment with Chris ran Down.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: He was on that one on one date and he
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: really got some emotion out of Chris. I consider him
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: to be my favorite voice in all of this world.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: And before I go on and on without him here,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: I'd like to bring him in and and just fan
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: girl to his face. This is an almost famous flashbag.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Oh m g. Richard Marks has entered the chat. Richard,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: look at my shirt. Oh my god, it's a it's
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: an antique. It's it's quite vintage. What year do you
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: think this is? Uh? That has got to be that's
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: first tour holy moly, the year I was born? What
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: a year? Richard marks here and Ashley, I can eddie year. Richard,
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: I'm Ashley, and I am a hardcore super fan. I
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: think that, Oh my god, why do you know this?
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Did producer Amy tell you? Did you see my tweet
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: last year about McDonald's answered you? I think I tweeted
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: back at you. You were so sweet. By the way
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: my wife sleeps. My wife's sleeps in a shirt like that.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Your wife is super hot, Daisy Fuentes y. Hey, Richard,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I'm gonna get two words in
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: for the rest of this interview, So before she starts,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: I want to say hello, thank you for joining us,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: thank you for coming on the Almost Famous podcast. Ashley
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: is about the big fan I want to I mean,
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: I'm sure she'd tell you herself, but she did mention
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: to me at one point in our lives that you
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: she believes you have the best voice that exists on
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: this earth. So this is a big moment for her,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: which is why I'm just gonna take a step back.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna be here if things get weird and awkward,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna protect you, Richard from anything awkward. Said my Ashley.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: By weird and awkward, you mean totally awesome. Yeah, that's
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: how I see it. That's why we co hosted together
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: for the last five years. I think it's great. I
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: love these moments. But thanks for coming on, Yes, my pleasure.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: I know that Richard doesn't have like a Whitney Houston
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: like Adam Lambert voice like at but I want to
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: listen to Richard's voice more than any other voice. It
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: is the voice of angels. When I go to Heaven,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: I imagine that, like everybody has like that. That sound Okay, okay,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: do you do you agree with me? Like, do you
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: think that you could listen to Do you listen to
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: your own voice? Well, I mean I have to because
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: I have to listen to it for two hours every
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: night on stage, and I listened to it a lot
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: when I'm making an album, and um, I don't know.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: I think Heaven, if Heaven exists, the voice I might
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: hear it would be Gilbert Godfried's, but he's up there now.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah that's sweet. Yeah. Hey, do you believe you have
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: the voice of an angel? Richard? Was the question being asked.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: Do I believe? Can you imagine if I said yes,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: what what a total canoe move for me to go?
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, I guess I kind of uh, I have
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: grown over the decades to uh two. The early and
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: early on it was hard for me to listen to
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: my own voice. And now as I've gotten older, I
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: kind of like it. I kind of like, I'm I'm
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: proud that I still can sing all the high notes
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: and that I've taken care of my voice somehow. I mean,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: I haven't taken care of it. I don't do anything,
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: I don't warm up, I don't do anything. But I've
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: just been I think it's one of those use it
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: or lose it kind of things where that's why Tony
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Bennett at nineties something was still I mean, he's retired
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: now because of Alzheimer's, but I saw him a few
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: years ago in Vegas. Dasty and I went to see
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: him in Vegas, and he was unbelievable at ninety one
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: or something like that because he never stopped touring, you
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: never stopped using his instrument, and so hopefully that will
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: happen to me too. Now, why do I feel like
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: you got your start by being more of a song
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: writer than a singer. That's because that's true, Okay, great,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: because I know my stuff all right. So did you
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: know you had a good voice when you were like
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: crafting songwriting? Did you think that you would ever be
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: the one performing your songs. It was always my dream
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: to become, you know, a rock star and to be
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: an artist. I started writing songs in high school. Really
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: I knew. I always knew I could sing. I mean
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: I was I was singing on TV and radio commercials
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: when I was a little kid, so I knew I
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: could sing in tune and I had a good voice
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: for a kid. And then when I was in high school,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: I had this mad crush on this girl, Sarah Blackwell,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: and I didn't know how to talk to her. I had.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: I had no game, zero game. And so I thought,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: maybe I'll try to do what Elvis did in those movies,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: which is I'll just sing songs, sir. So I wrote
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: these songs really trying to get with Sarah, and and
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: then it just sort of started. By loved writing songs,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: and and so when I was in a senior in
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: high school, I was starting my senior year in high school,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: this tape of my first four songs. UH managed to
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: get to Lionel Richie, who was just leaving his group
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: the Commodorees and starting his solo careers eight one and uh.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: He listened to my tape for some crazy reason and
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: my phone number was written on the back and pencil
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: and he called the number and I was like, hello, Hey,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: this is Lionel Richie. I thought I was being punked
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: for sure. And he talked to me for like a
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: half an hour. He was so gracious and he is
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: and he's just the best. I don't know if you
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: guys have ever went into him, but I have met
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: him through our producer, Amy Sugarman, And oh my gosh,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: that I is so sweet. Amy. That's right, Amy's your producer.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: I looked. So he said to me, I don't know
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: what your plans are, but you should move to l A.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: And you've got a great voice, and these are your
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: first four songs as a songwriter. You've got a great
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: future as a song er. You should just come out
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: here and to l A and try it. And so
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: when I graduated from high school, I was like, screw college,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: I can do that later. And I moved to l A.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: And he hired me to sing background vocals on his
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: first album, So and then not only did I sing
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: a bunch on that record, but he let me just
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: hang out and watch him make the record, and I
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: learned so much about producing and stuff. And so then
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: he recommended me to his buddy Kenny Rogers, who was
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: huge at the time, and I had a job singing
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: on a Kenny Rogers album and I overheard Kenny saying
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: he needed a song, and so I came in the
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: next day to sing on some more songs, and I
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: I did this thing that would normally get somebody fired,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: which is the background singing, and went up to the
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: artist and said, hey, I've got a song, but in
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: in true Kenny Rogers form, instead of kicking me out
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: of the studio, he sat down and listened to it
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: and he loved it. And so I ended up writing
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: songs on that album, and that sort of launched my
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: songwriting crew. But I always wanted to be an artist,
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: and so the first couple of years I was trying
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: to get a record deal and it wasn't happening. I
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: had the producer David Foster, told me I shouldn't sing.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: That was just quote, You shouldn't sing, you should just
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: write songs. Um. So I had a lot of people
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: trying to stomp on my dreams, but I just kept
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: at it and then I finally, you know, I found
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: the right circumstances. I finally got a record deal. At
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: first song out of the box was Don't Mean Nothing,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: and that was it. And at this point, when you
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: first moved to l A, you were how old again? Eighteen?
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: How is that? I mean, being an eighteen year old
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: leaving where'd you grow up? Chicago? Chicago to Los Angeles list,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: being in studio with two massive names at the time, Yeah,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: trying to figure out your way. Can you tell us
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: a little bit of insight into what your life looked
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: like at that point. My life was completely focused on
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: music career um learning my craft, so I would spend
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: as much time in the studio with those guys as
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: they would allow, which in especially in Lionel's case, he
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: was just I'll never forget he said. I remember the
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: sentence he said to me after I sang on this
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: first song, which was a big hit for him, called
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: you Are you Are? Son? Do you Are? I'm singing
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: on that, I'm singing on all night long. I'm singing
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: on a bunch of his songs, but he said to
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: me one day we were leaving the studio after I've
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: done some vocals, and he said, by the way, you know,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: I know that you you want to learn everything about
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: what we do. And as long as I'm in this room,
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: meaning the studio, he said, you're welcome to be in
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: this room with me, which was an open invitation, Like
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: it didn't matter what he was doing or if I
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: had any place to like if he was doing horns
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: on a song, I was allowed to come in and
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: watch and just soak it in and like learn what
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: the engineer did and what the arrangers did, and what
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: those musicians do and how do you interact with them?
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: And it was like going to hit record college. And
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: it just says so much about how gracious he wasn't is.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: But yeah, when I was in between those sessions, it's
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: not like I was out clubbing. I was home in
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: my shitty little apartment writing songs, you know, just always
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: so focused. I didn't date. I was just like focused
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: on getting my career going, especially the first couple of
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: years until I started until I had a hit song
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: by Kenny Rodgers when I was nineteen or twenty, and
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: then I started making a little bit of money and
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: I bought a nice car, and you know, I was
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: I was starting to like have an actual life at
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: that point. Yeah, it's what an incredible transition and how
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: fast that things changed. And that was only twenty three
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: when I had my first hit as a singer. So
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: it was like one of those things where the song
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: came out, don't mean nothing came out and then MTV
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: jumped on the video and it was literally like, well,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: like I'm sure for you to actually it was like Tuesday,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: no one really knows you, notices you or knows who
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: you are, and YouTube and it's like and then Wednesday,
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: people are going, hey aren't you. Yeah, you know power,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: the power of television has always been that, and yeah,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: people were hearing me on the radio, but it was
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: connecting the dots. It was seeing me in my video
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: and MTV just pounded the video and so it was
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: literally an overnight, complete change, just as I'm sure it
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: was for you guys. So how did you You said
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: that you wanted to be a rock star, and you
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: wanted to because you know, you're a little kid and
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: you had a crush on a girl, so like if
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: you could turn my little boy Dawson into like a
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: soft rock king like you. I would be just like,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: that's my dream, and I think that's his dream too.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: I know he's six months but like he just wants
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: all the attention and he yeah, and he just like
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: music really makes him chill out and like zone in.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: It's really cool. I see him on stage already. I'm
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: gonna stop talking. But you go from you know, saying
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: you want to be a rock star to like endless
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: summer nights now and forever, um, hold onto the nights
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: right here waiting like the most amazing soft rock songs,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: which is my favorite musical genre. Um, so, how did
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: you veer into that category? It wasn't even like a
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: you know, look, the ballads, the love songs make up
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: still to this day, the smallest percentage of my recorded work.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: It's just that those songs and this is not this
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: isn't just me. It's like Journey and Brian Adams and
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Phil Collins and all these other guys who started at
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: as rock singers. The biggest songs, the most memorable songs
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: of all of us tend to be the big power
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: ballads or the love songs. Um. I you know, I
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: had just as many hits you know on the radio
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: that we're up tempo. It's just that I think it's
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: just the public sort of just loves those kind of
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: songs that they can dedicate to other people, or they
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: they apply them to a moment or a period in
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: their lives. I do the same thing, like other people's
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: music marks the soundtrack to my life. My own does, obviously,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: but it's other people's songs like when I was leaving
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: home and what song was I listening to when I
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: was in love with that girl? Or you know, music
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: is just so powerful, and I think that those kind
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: of songs that are emotional, uh, just tend to grab
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: people the most standard test of time, the most um
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: go through generations. You know what. My favorite, my favorite,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: like deep cut of yours is One More Try, Guys, Yes,
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: I love it so much. If you want to go
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: you know, beyond the greatest Hits, download Richard marks one
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: More Try. Wow. I love that So that was from
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: the nineties. That was like the mid nineties. If you
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: want to go, oh my god, I won't standing I do.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: I really like that song so good. I think we
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: need a podcast, like a spinoff called Almost Famous Ashley
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: fan girls every week. We can do it. We could
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: co host together. He's like, okay, girl, I am like
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: one of the most incredible songwriters of my time. Not
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: going to do a podcast with you. Hey, you never know,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: you never know. You catch me on the right day
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: if I've had a tequila or two sending bottles of tequila. Now,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: that's how I got here. And five years later, we're
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: still doing this thing. Richard. I wonder from your perspective.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: You know, Ashley just said stand the test time I
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: would put the word iconic. You know, they they've lasted. Obviously,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: Ashley was born in which is why she has this
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: T shirt. Yet she can name off right now. Uh,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: deep cuts Uh? And also your hits, songs that have
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: stayed with her that she has enjoyed. What does that
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: feel like for you as an artist? Uh? And as
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: a professional that somebody that was born in still considers
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: you one of their favorite artists. And who's your voice
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: has been you know, the soundtrack to her life? Uh?
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: For me, that feels really cool. I'm sitting here, but
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: I want to hear from you. What does that feel like?
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: It's hard to describe. Then it's like it's the most humbling.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: It's just it feels. I'll tell you what the word is. Privilege.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: It's a privilege, you know, I um, It's one thing
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: for people who got turned onto me when I hit
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: who are older than me or my age or a
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: little bit younger. It's another thing for people who come
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: up to me Ashley's age or younger. And I know
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: that it was probably because of the music that their
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: parents listened to. And so when you when you get
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: old and old like I am, I'm about to be
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: fifty nine, but you get to a point where you
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: realize that you are now generational. There's like multigenerations of
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: people who like what you do. And it's hard to describe.
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: I mean I can't really and absolutelyd in in I
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: could probably write a lyric about it easier than I
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: can tell you how it feels. But it's a privilege.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: It's you know. It's also bizarre because I never said it.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: I set out I wanted to be successful. Obviously, I
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: wanted to have a great career and have hit songs.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: But I never wrote songs thinking oh this is a hit,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: or knew even knew what that even means. I just
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: wrote songs that I liked. I just wrote songs for
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: me and and for my own selfish purpose. Is the
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: biggest song, arguably the biggest song I ever wrote, right
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: here Waiting. I didn't even want to record it. I
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: tried to give it away. I tried to get to
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: Barbara streisand she was she asked me for a song
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: around that time. And I had no intention of recording
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: right here waiting because a it didn't fit the album
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: I was making. The second album was pretty rock album,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: and this, you know, this really sparse, intimate, delicate ballot
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: just didn't fit the album, I thought. And it was
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: also just too personal. It was a song I wrote
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: as a love letter, you know, and and I just
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: felt like I'm not and we're going to record this
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: at this And then enough people who in my world said,
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: are you an idiot? Like this is a this is
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: a one listen smash. So I was like, okay, well
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: I'll go in this, I'll cut it, I'll just I'll
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: sing it down a couple of times and see if
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: you know. And that was it, like everybody who just
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: lost their minds and it became a song that you know,
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: thirty something years later, like everybody knows the song like
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: kids know it in Sri Lanka. I mean I played
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: in Sri Lanka. Daisy was with me, and she was like,
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: and I play all these crazy places, but Sri Lanka
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: was the place that Daisy was looking at the audience.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: She was like, there ten year old kids out there
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: singing along to your songs, you know in broken English.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: That's just just crazy cool. So you taught uh, Chris
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: ran Done and Becca Koufrin on their day on the
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: Bachelorette how to encapsulate feelings into a song. Have you
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: ever written how did you guide them through that? And
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: have you ever written songs about girls that you've known
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: for just a few days. Oh yeah, I've also written
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: songs about situations that I necessarily I wasn't necessarily in,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: but I can imagine because if you only limit your
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: your writing to your own experiences or your own uh journey,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: it's gonna be limited. You know, it's going to be
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: a little. So I have a vivid imagination, and I've
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: written songs where I just put myself in scenarios or
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: I've I've written songs about girls I've just seen in
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: a cafe or you know, passed on the street and
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: just sort of not just oh she's hot, but like,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: oh she's really interesting looking. All right, I won't and
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: then I conjure up a whole storyline of someone I
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: don't even know. Um. I wrote a song called Angelia
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: that was a big hit for me. Back that's a
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: completely fictional song. I mean, I have been dumped, which
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: is basically what the song is. The video we turned
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: it Michael Bay actually directed the video for that. Yeah,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: he turned it into a she died storyline in the video,
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: but in the song it's just that she left me
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: and um. But beyond that sort of real generic theme,
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: all those lyrics are just imaginary circumstances. But as far
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: as the the Becca thing, she was a fan and
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: she's she was so sweet. I really liked her a lot.
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: Um that was done you know, the magic of editing.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: Uh you know, it wasn't like we really kind of
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: sat in the room and hashed it out. It was
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: like we had good cuts and I said, Okay, why
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: don't you say this, and I'm going to suggest that
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: you do this, And so we kind of a little
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: did it a little piece by piece. But at the
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: end of the day, I did put was it was it?
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Chris was that the thing did put Chris in a
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: room to say, just right, don't worry about lyrics, don't
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: worry about rhyming. Just write what you feel about her
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: right now, of what you know of her, which is
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: not a whole lot at that point, write down what
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: you feel, write down what you think about when you
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: think of her. And then I kind of helped him
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: put that into a little lyric and I did the
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: same with her. How I mean, how cool of a
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: day would that be? Right? I mean that's why they
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: show so special. Sometimes. Yeah, sometimes you get an opportunity
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: like that where it will be a memory for a lifetime. Richard,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: you know you, I think we'd be uh would be
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: a mistake if we didn't ask did you know of
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: the show before you went on? Are you a fan
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: of the show? Do you and Daisy watch the show?
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: Or I mean you can It's fine if you say no.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: I never seen There's no one on earth who doesn't
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: know about the shows. So yeah, I was very aware
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: of it, but I've never It's not just the Bachelortte
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: or Bachelor. It's I have never really watched any reality shows,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: including music reality shows. It's just never been something on
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: my radar. I watched so little TV anyway. UM, so
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: I was aware of it, and I was also aware
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: of the opportunity of it because we had a record
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: out and I thought, you know, that's that's a lot
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: of eyeballs and and a lot of ear drums too,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: you know, appeal to um. The original pitch to me was,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: as this happened many times on those shows, to have
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: an artist come on at the end and it was
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: like a surprise song, and they asked if they could
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: license this. I think it was right here waiting and
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: can we have a performance of him? We had it
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: all set up. No, I mean that's like I could
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: do that my sleep. No big deal. Great, it's a
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: great opportunity. And then the producers I think they'd seen
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: something I did on Funny or Die or something, and
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: they came and said, we we would really like to
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: incorporate you more into another storyline. That's not you performing,
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: that's just you with Back and Chris and interacting with them.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: And we sort of just made it up as we went,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: and I was open to it. So, but I will
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: say this, it was it was a pretty painless day yeah,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: and then I think it was maybe the show aired
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: a few months later, and for a solid month, everywhere
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: I went, somebody came up to me and said they
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: saw it way beyond any When I do a TV show,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: and you know, even if I just on uh, you know,
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: Kelly and Ryan or something like that, I'll have people
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: for a day or two go, I saw you and Kelly, Ryan,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: You're sound a great and just like done. This was
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: for a month and I had people Daisy would be
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: at a restaurant and the whole table of people who
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: would be like pointing, and at first I'm thinking, oh,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: it's almost like it's again. I'm like, oh, of course
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: they recognized me, and yeah, they saw me on the Bachelorette,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: so they were like, you know, completely fan girling and
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: fan boying because of that. So it was a pretty
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: amazing experience. That's awesome. Well, don't get me started when
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: you were the guest judge on American Idol, or not
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: the judge but the mentor, because that was fantastic stuff
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: back on the heyday. All right, Well, I can go
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: on and on, but Richard, it has just been an
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: honor to talk to you. And if I ever go
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: back on the show. For some strange, strange reason. I
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: hope they they put me on a date with you.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: Ye Richard, great talk to you can said. Uh, congrats
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: on the success, the continued success. Thanks for coming on
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: Almost Famous Flashback. UM means a lot to all of us,
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: especially Ashley. So you just made her world her year.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: She'll talk about this day for a long time. So
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: thanks coming on. It was my pleasure. I'm glad you
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: guys asked me. And actually, I'm sure you're in l A. Right,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: I used to. I lived in l A for five
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: and a half years. I now live in Rhode Island.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: But whenever you come to Boston or anything like this,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: I'll be there. I'll be there. Yeah, excited to meet
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: you in person. I think it's on. Yeah, we'll work
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: it out and we'll we'll you'll come backstage and we'll
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: hug it out. Okay, we'll DM on Twitter. Yes, Okay, talk,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: Thank you see you. Well. That was your first episode
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: of Almost Famous Flashback. It is not a podcast in itself,
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: but it's kind of like the new in depth. We
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: still continue to do in depth episodes, but we'll also
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: continue to do ashback episode. So if there's a Bachelor
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: Franchise guest that you would like to revisit with, we
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: would love to do it. Give us ideas on our
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: Facebook or email us at Ben and Ashley at iHeart
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: media dot com. They're all going to have to stand
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: up to that experience, though, so we've set the standard high.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: I hope you guys enjoyed. Love you so much, signing off,
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: I've been Ashley. Follow the Benn and Ashley I Almost
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: Famous podcasts on I Heart Radio, or subscribe wherever you
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: listen to podcasts