Latest / I Choose Me with Jennie Garth / He's Right Here Waiting for You with Richard Marx

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He's Right Here Waiting for You with Richard Marx · I Choose Me with Jennie Garth

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: You're listening to I Choose Me with Jenny Girl. Welcome
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: to I Choose Me. Richard Marks has spent four decades
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: creating the kinds of melodies that take you back. Sweet
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: and powerful reminders of a different time. You better believe
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: wherever you go, whatever you do, I have been right
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: here waiting for this moment. First of all, I'm I
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: do need to take a moment to just girl crush
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: on your wife, Daisy Fuentes.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: She's divine. Isn't she? That's the perfect word. Divine. She's
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: so smart. Extraordinary. Divine.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Smart and fun. And she's really pretty, in case you
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: didn't know.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she's very, very, very pretty. And when people talk
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: about how beautiful she is, I always say, yes, she is.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: And that's the least impressive thing about her.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: I'd have to agree with you. From the little time
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: I got to spend with her.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Dolly Parton died. I know you sang backup for her.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: I did. What do you have to say? How do
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: you remember Dolly?
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: I didn't know her well. I spent over a year
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: when I was really young, when I was kind of
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: new in the business and I was still behind the scenes.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: I didn't have a record deal, but I was working
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: with Kenny Rogers and Kenny was making a Christmas album
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: with Dolly. And Kenny got me on the album to
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: sing background vocals and stuff. And the story that I'll
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: tell you, which I thought about today. So she was
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: so lovely and so fun to be around. And so
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: we worked on that record for a month off and on.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: So I would be in the studio here and there.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: And one day I was in the studio and David
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: Foster was producing the album with Kenny Rogers, David Foster,
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: the record producer. And I was working a lot with David, too.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: And I was 19 years old. OK, so I'm singing
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  Speaker 2: background vocals on different tracks. And there was a night
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: when David was supposed to produce Dolly's vocal on the
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: song White Christmas. And he came to me early evening
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: and he said, Richard, I have this personal commitment that
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: I kind of want to go do this dinner thing
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: that I'd really like to do. But I told Dolly
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  Speaker 2: I was going to produce her vocal on White Christmas tonight.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: I talked to her and I told her, I feel
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: like you would do a great job producing her vocal.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: And she's totally fine with it. She's going to. Wow.
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: 19. Yeah. I said, I'm producing Dolly Parton's vocal. You see,
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: you're not going to get any credit or anything like that,
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: but I need you to do this for me. And
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: she's totally cool with it. And I was like, I
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: thought the experience that I'm about to have. And so
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: I went in there with her. And for those of
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: you listening who don't understand what, producing a vocal is
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: so when a singer goes into the studio to record
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: a song it's usually there's someone else on the other
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: side of the glass or in the control room who
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: is saying things like oh that was really good but
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: that last word i couldn't understand that last word can
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: we do that line again or hey i'm just not
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: feeling the emotion in that second verse or it's basically
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: like directing a scene in a film you know it's
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: like getting the best out of that artist And I
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: was still so young and relatively inexperienced, but I'd spent
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: enough time in the studio. And obviously, David thought I
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: could do it. So I spent two hours or three
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: hours with her. And we did this vocal on White Christmas.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: And what I thought about today was how easily and
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: appropriately it would have been for her to go. I'm
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: not having some kid. I don't like easily said, no, no,
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: we'll do it tomorrow. We'll do it, whatever. Instead, she
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: was like, yeah, sure. Let Richard do it. Giving me
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: that opportunity. And she was an amazing singer. I think,
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  Speaker 2: if anything, all of the dolly, the boobs and the
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: hair and the humor and all that stuff maybe camouflaged
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  Speaker 2: a little of how deeply talented she was. Great songwriter.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, she wrote Jolene and I Will Always Love
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  Speaker 2: You in the same day. Oh, my God. By herself,
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  Speaker 2: no co-writers. That's remarkable. And her singing, I know firsthand
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: from being in the studio, whether her voice and her singing,
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  Speaker 2: her intonation, her phrasing, she was just incredible. She was
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  Speaker 2: an incredible talent.
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  Speaker 1: Such a loss.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. And only 80 years old. I mean, and now
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  Speaker 2: we're at a point where I see somebody pass away
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  Speaker 2: and I go, 80? That's young.
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  Speaker 1: Right.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. 80 is young.
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: For us now it is, yeah.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Didn't used to be, but definitely is now. Well, the
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: whole world is suffering a huge loss by losing her.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. I think it's, I realized that she lost
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: her husband a year ago and I wonder if that
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: was a catalyst too. You know, sometimes people have been together,
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: I think they were together for 50, 55, 60 years. Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So. I've heard that too, like so many times when
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: one partner passes away, the other one follows behind, not
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: too far off. But yeah, that's like a broken heart.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: But I know she was having medical issues and oh,
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  Speaker 1: it's just such a shame.
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  Speaker 2: She will be missed.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: She will be missed. So I heard you have sort
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: of a, it's a simple rule for life. You choose
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: to win or you choose to fail.
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  Speaker 2: That's accurate.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Where did that come from?
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  Speaker 2: Um, It really solidified about 13 years ago. I ended
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: a really long marriage and kind of really flipped my
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: entire life on its head and changed where I lived,
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  Speaker 2: changed with whom I lived, changed just this radical, just
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  Speaker 2: a detonator to my life as I knew it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: And in the process, and there was a lot of
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: grief involved in that and a lot of excitement and
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: a lot of joy, but a lot of grief and
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: a lot of soul searching. And am I doing the
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: right thing? And did I make a mistake? And all
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: those kinds of things, self-doubt. And so for a long time,
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: I've always been very into introspection and learning more about
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: why I tick the way I tick. And I sort
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: of stumbled. No one gave me this book, but I
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  Speaker 2: stumbled upon a book that I believe was written in
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  Speaker 2: 1906 by James Allen called As a Man Thinketh. You
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  Speaker 2: can read this book in less than an hour. You
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: can go cover to cover in an hour. And it
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: became quickly like the closest thing to a Bible I've
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: ever known. Really? Yeah. Yeah, and fortunately over time it's
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: been republished and now there's the same text essentially that
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  Speaker 2: is As a Woman Thinketh. And I have gifted so
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  Speaker 2: many people this book. I've given this book away to
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  Speaker 2: more people than anything else I've ever gifted people because
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: it just is a no-fail way of looking at your life.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: And it's really, I think, the first printed, written sort of,
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  Speaker 2: explanation that the quality of your life depends solely on
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: the quality of your thoughts. So this is way before
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: the secret. I'm not, you know, demeaning that or anything like,
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  Speaker 2: but this is not like, if I think I want
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: a bike, I'm going to get a bike. It's not
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  Speaker 2: that it's, it's like, there's a, there are some other quotes. Like,
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  Speaker 2: I think it was Henry Ford who said, whether you
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  Speaker 2: think you can, or you think you can't, you're right.
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  Speaker 2: And I realized at that time, Jenny, that when I
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: found that book, I realized that I just, my thinking
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  Speaker 2: had been all wrong. My thinking was really not serving me.
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  Speaker 2: And when I started to focus and dedicate myself to
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  Speaker 2: the way I thought, everything changed and everything improved in
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  Speaker 2: my life.
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  Speaker 1: What was it that you're thinking? How was that working
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  Speaker 1: against you before this book?
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  Speaker 2: Simply by allowing the thought of, oh, that's never going
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  Speaker 2: to happen. Oh, that thing I want to happen, but
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: that's like so far, that's never going to happen. Sometimes
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  Speaker 2: it did happen despite my subconscious attempt to derail it.
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  Speaker 2: But a lot of times I realized I was not.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: The minute I started to turn my attention towards this
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  Speaker 2: positivity and this real, like seeing it happen, seeing everything
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  Speaker 2: happen from a personal standpoint to a professional standpoint, it
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  Speaker 2: just shifted. Everything shifted. And I've been a very, very
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: lucky man my whole life. So I think that obviously
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  Speaker 2: I didn't get too much in my own way, but
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  Speaker 2: I saw a profound difference in the consistency of it
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  Speaker 2: for sure.
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  Speaker 1: That is so interesting to hear everybody. I'm going to
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: get the book. I want to know how a man thinketh.
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  Speaker 2: As a woman thinketh.
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  Speaker 1: It I already know how a woman thinketh, but I'm
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: really curious how a man thinketh. Oh, my gosh. Richard Marks,
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  Speaker 1: I'm sitting here looking at you, and you look incredible.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you. So do you.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, what are you doing? Have you... found the
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: fountain of youth or something? What's happening?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Martinis every night.
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  Speaker 1: Oh no.
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  Speaker 2: Vodka martinis.
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  Speaker 1: Oh my God. I'm screwed then because no drink. Maybe
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: I'll pretend to have a martini. Just drink something in
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: a martini glass. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: No, you know, Daisy and I are both very conscious
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  Speaker 2: about our health and I eat a really clean diet
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  Speaker 2: and I definitely take precautions. And it's funny you were
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  Speaker 2: saying this and thank you for the compliment. I think
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  Speaker 2: you look amazing too. Thank you. But I was really
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: thinking about, I'm about to turn 63 in a week
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: and a half or something. And I was thinking about
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: my dad at 63 and how much older he looked
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: at 63. And he looked great at 63, but When
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: I think about 63-year-old men and then I look in
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  Speaker 2: the mirror and I'm.
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  Speaker 3: Like, what?
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  Speaker 1: How did this happen?
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  Speaker 3: How the fuck did this happen?
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  Speaker 2: No.
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  Speaker 1: I know it feels so surreal. It's hard to even
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: believe your numbers, how they don't match up to how
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: you feel about yourself.
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  Speaker 2: Well, that's for sure. And I have a couple of
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: people in my life who are inspiring. Rick Springfield is
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  Speaker 2: a great example. Rick Springfield and I have been friends
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  Speaker 2: for a long time, for 40 years. we've toured together
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  Speaker 2: a lot and we're really good friends. We're buddies. And
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  Speaker 2: I had breakfast with him last week and he just
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: turned 77 years old.
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  Speaker 1: Okay.
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  Speaker 2: And that's like, we're talking about a totally different level
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  Speaker 2: of WTF. And when I was, I got there like
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: two minutes before him, we met for breakfast and, and
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  Speaker 2: I sat down and I looked up and I saw
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: him walking up to the restaurant and it, you know, I,
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  Speaker 2: I've spent a lot of time with this guy and we,
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: done so many shows together and stuff so I know
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: his boundless energy and but I was watching him and
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: I was thinking he was about to turn 77 and
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: it's the way he walks the way he carries himself
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  Speaker 2: his posture um it's not just good genetics he's you
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: know always been a handsome guy he still looks amazing
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: and he's in great shape but I said to him
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  Speaker 2: it's not just that you don't remotely look your age
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  Speaker 2: it's that you don't act it and you don't carry
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  Speaker 2: yourself like an older man you know and so I
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  Speaker 2: I look at that all the time and I just,
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  Speaker 2: I'm conscious of like posture and, and also just loving
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: life and being like youthful, feeling youthful, like doing youthful things.
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  Speaker 2: And that's a big, big part of the, part of
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  Speaker 2: the mission.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, also you're touring, which is hard on
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: a body, on a person. What are like the specifics
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: of how you take care of yourself on the road?
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Cause I, when I go away from my work trips,
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: when I go on the road, um, I, it's hard.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: It's so hard to remember to exercise, like get an
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: exercise routine or, you know, find the right foods, whatever,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: wherever you may be, you know?
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Um, I'm pretty diligent. I mean, the number one
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: thing for me is sleep because if I don't sleep,
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: then this can, the voice goes, Oh, I need sleep. Um,
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: other than that, Jenny, it's, uh, you know, I'm, I'm
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: pretty disciplined in that. Even if I'm tired, I go
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: to the gym and the hotel, I get a workout
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: in because I know that that's going to feed me
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: in all kinds of other ways. I got to get outside.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: I got to be outside and get, let the sun
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: hit my skin. And, um, I'm now very fortunate that
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: I can, um, I don't carry a chef or anything
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: like that, but I have, you know, someone, always someone
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: on the road who can run and get me something
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: that's a good quality food and um and the rest
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: of it is is there's no secret it's like it's
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: the job itself that keeps me so happy and young
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: because i mean i was saying this to somebody the
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: other day what i do for a living i show
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: up to my job and tons of people scream they
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: i love you and applaud me that's my that's my
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: job that's my who else goes to work and gets
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: applauded and told I love you.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: So, you know, what a, what a high that must
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: give you.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: It's a dopamine rush. Unlike any other, for sure.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: I haven't experienced it on the level that you have
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: on the nightly, but I'm sure that fills your cup
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: in certain ways.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: But I'm sure you've attended events or you've, yeah, yeah.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: Where you are, you have like, you're, you're allowing your
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: fans to be near you and, the things that they
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: must say to you or people that come up to you,
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: you know, in a restaurant or at the store or whatever.
• 14:47
  Speaker 2: And the things that people come up and say to
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: you and the impact that apparently we make on people
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: is something I'm just so humbled by it. And it's,
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: I'm grateful for it. And, but, but circling back, I
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: think that taking care of yourself and taking care of
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: what you need is crucial. At least, in my profession
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: for sure.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: Absolutely.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: I mean, I've never been a partier. Wow.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: How'd you escape that?
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: I always feared I would like it too much. Like
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: I've never done drug. I've never done, I mean, I've
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: gotten high a couple, you know, sometimes, but just like
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: pot is totally different thing. And I didn't even smoke.
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: I didn't even have pot until I was 50 years old.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: Oh my God.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: I was a pot.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: That is impressive.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: I was a complete drug virgin until I was 50
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: years old. And a lot of it though, was because
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: in the eighties and the heyday, you know, cocaine was
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: everywhere and I was watching what it was doing to people.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: But there was also a part of me that was like,
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I don't want to try that because
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: I might like it. So I'd rather just not try it.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: And I know yourself too well.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And so I, I avoided all that stuff and
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: I really wasn't much of a drinker, but then in my,
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: you know, when I turned 50, I, Kind of loosened
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: up a little bit and thought, well, I want to
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: try a few things to see if I do like
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: it or not. And it turns out I really love
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: martinis and tequila and a gummy now and then.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Oh, my God, I love you. I heard you would
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: rather hang out with the likes of Rod Stewart. Or
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: guys that are older than you in their 70s and 80s,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: then you would rather hang out with like youngsters or
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: people even your own age. It's out there.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Okay.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: I mean, I feel you. My husband is the same way.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: And it's just so interesting because, you know, his take
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: on it is you learn so much from the people
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: that you surround yourself with.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: A hundred percent. And it's not that I don't or
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: can't learn from people younger than me. And interestingly, my
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: closest friend, my best friend is actually seven years younger
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: than me. OK. But I have over I think it's
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: just a lifelong pattern. You know, when I when I
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: came to L.A., I was 18 years old. I started
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: working with Lionel Richie and I started working with Kenny
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: Rogers and I started working with these guys who I
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: really admired. And they were all 10, 15 years older
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: than me. And I was for the first 10 years,
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: I was always the kid. I was always this young
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: kid in a room full of older guys.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: The young kid, but with the great hair. Yeah. Oh, man.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: This is true.
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: Sorry.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: Luckily. And it was just sort of this, I don't
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: want to call it a pattern. It was just the circumstances,
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: you know, the people I was hanging out with. And
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: it wasn't just those famous people, but like other musicians
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: and songwriters who I admired, whose names you wouldn't know necessarily.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: They already had a body of work, so they were
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: older than me. And I had already been influenced by
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: them and learned from what they'd done. And now I'm
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: personally learning from them. And I just found that over time,
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: maybe like your husband, I just naturally gravitate to older people.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: And I have people in my life who are, you know,
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: Daisy teases me about it all the time. Like if
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: we run in, if we're introduced to someone in the industry,
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: for example, who I've never met, but who's in their eighties,
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: she'll go, oh my God, another one.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: Because you really believe in mentorship. Like how important that
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: is to pass down your knowledge to other people like
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: you do. That's how you gained your knowledge so much from,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: from what do you think is the best lesson you
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: ever learned from someone? Was it someone older? Was it
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: someone younger?
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: Well, the first thing that comes to mind actually was
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: somebody older. And I already mentioned him, Kenny Rogers. The
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: first person who ever recorded my songs was Kenny Rogers.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: And we had my number one song together when I
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: was 19. I wrote several songs for him. I worked
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: with him a lot. I was friends with him to
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: the end of his life. But when I was 19,
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: we were in the studio together recording the song of mine.
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: And at one point he was questioning part of the
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: lyrics of Now, we're in the studio. This is happening.
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: We're recording it. The song's been done for weeks. So
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: now he's starting to pick this one part apart, asking,
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: is this line really makes sense? And I immediately got
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: defensive and insecure about it.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: It.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: And so I said to him, you know, I really
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: think it's good. I think it's really good the way
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: it is. And he looked me dead in the eye
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: and he said, well, Richard, sometimes you have to give
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: up good to get great. Wow.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And it was not only a great teaching moment
• 20:13
  Speaker 2: creatively for me, but I think it applies to life.
• 20:16
  Speaker 2: You know, I mean, why settle? Don't settle. And that
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: changed everything for me. That was probably one of the
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: greatest pieces of advice I ever got.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: I'm taking that one. Don't settle for good when it
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: can be great.
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: That doesn't come without.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: Effort, though. No, but... How many things in life are
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: really worth having if they're easy to get?
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: That's true. Okay, so your new album, After Hours, I
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: think it came out in January?
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: It's out now, y'all, so scoop it up. But you
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: are covering the Rat Pack era, doing covers of some
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: of the best songs of that era. But you're also
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: writing original songs that you probably would have pitched.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: To Frank and Yep.
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: Sinatra.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: How did this album come about? How did you decide
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: you wanted to dive back into that Sinatra Rat Pack era?
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: Well, I've always been fascinated by it. I think Sinatra
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: was not only one of the greatest vocalists, but one
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: of the greatest in terms of phrasing and telling a
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: story with his voice. And I loved Dean Martin too.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: I loved how cool and Zero Fox, Dean Martin seemed
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: and Sammy Davis Jr. I remember seeing him. My grandfather
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: took me to see Sammy Davis Jr. live when I
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: was a kid and I was blown away. Tony Bennett
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: when I was young. So even though my music never
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: went in that direction, I always had great respect for it.
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: I honestly never thought about doing anything. a covers album
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: of that or any other kind of genre because I'm
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: a songwriter more than I am anything else. And so
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: I would never want to just do an album of
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: other people's songs. So it just never, I was approached
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: a couple of times about doing, you know, a standards
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: album or this kind of covers album. It just never
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: appealed to me. One night, a couple of years ago,
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: Daisy and I were having a martini and we always
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: had music playing in the house and That night, the
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: Sinatra station was on our Sonos system. And this song
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: came on that I'd heard and you've heard and everybody's
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: heard 10,000 times, Fly Me to the Moon. Fly me
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: to the moon. Let me play. It's fun. It's such
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: a fun song. It's breezy and it's.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: Snap your fingers to it and you bop your head
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: to it.
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: It's light.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: And I don't know why, but I. was sitting there
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: thinking about the fact that I had heard that song
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: 10,000 times, but I don't know that I know it.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: Do I know how to play it? Do I know
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: the chords to Fly Me to the Moon? So I
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: said to Daisy, because she knows I'm a little weird
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: about this stuff. So I go, I'm sorry. I got to,
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: I pause the music. I go to our piano and
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: I start seeing if I know it. And when I
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: learn something on the piano or guitar, I slow it
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: down to learn it. That makes sense, right?
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: So as I'm playing this and figuring out the chords,
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: all of a sudden I go, wait a minute.
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: And I'm like, fly me to the moon.
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: And I started singing it and playing it as a ballad.
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: And then I got really inspired and I wrote this
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: whole introduction, this piano intro and this interlude and came
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: up with this arrangement of Fly Me to the Moon
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: that was just like totally different than what I'd ever heard.
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: And Daisy was like, oh my God, babe, that's so beautiful.
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: It sounds so beautiful.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: I need you to sing it more. That was just
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: so magical.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: Oh, thank you.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: You stumbled on that.
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: It was just lightning in a bottle. And so I
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: had a gig like two nights later in some gorgeous
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: theater somewhere. I don't remember what city. And I'm in
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: the middle of the show and we're having a great
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: time and the audience is amazing. And I just said,
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: can I play you guys something? And I go over
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: and I kind of set it up. I don't say
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: what the song is. I just set up the story.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: And I play this little intro interlude and I sing
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: Fly Me to the Moon, standing ovations.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: People lost their minds. Two nights later, next town, I
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: did it again, standing ovation. And so it became part
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: of my show. And that was really the impetus to
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: make me think, oh, well, if I can reinvent that.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: If you can, you Richard Marxed it.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: You really did.
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: Richard Marxed it. Yeah. And then I started to think, well,
• 24:52
  Speaker 2: I would also, I would sing. Summer Wind, which I've
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: always loved, and I would do Our Love is Here
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: to Stay, and I would do Just the Way You
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: Look Tonight. Those are my favorite standards. And then I thought,
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: the only way for me to do this is if
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: I could write half the album. And that challenge as
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: a songwriter was so exciting to me because it meant
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: using chords and chord progressions I'd never used in pop songs,
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: even lyrically, like writing a lyric that doesn't sound modern. particularly.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: And so the first song I wrote was the song
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: called All I Ever Needed, which I did exactly what
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: you just alluded to. I pretended I was a young,
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: struggling songwriter in New York City in 1949, trying to
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: get Sinatra to cut one of my songs. And so
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: that's what I wrote. And I loved it. It's still
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: one of my favorite things I've ever done. And then
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: it all started to come together. Then it was sort
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: of like, okay, well, whatever kind of vibe do I
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: want to write for this album? And one of them,
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: my favorite song on the album actually, is the song
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: called Magic Hour that I wrote with Daisy, that Daisy
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: wrote the lyrics with me too.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: Really?
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: It's like a Latin, it's almost like a tango. It
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: started with just this melody.
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da I thought, that's cool.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: That's a really cool hooky melody. No lyrics, just, but
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: I wrote that instantly, effortlessly. Two months later, I still
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: didn't have lyrics. It just, I had a block on
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: that song. I could not figure out what the lyrics
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: should be. And I'm sitting, laying on a beach with
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: Daisy in Australia. And I'm singing that melody and she's like,
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: dude if you i can't believe you still have written
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: lyrics to this so i said i'm so stuck on
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: this and she's not a songwriter she's you know right
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: right but she said i feel like it's a story
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: like like uh like i don't know i see like
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: this these people in a club and i was like
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: okay keep go on and she's like you know like
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: you walked in the door with someone wasn't me and
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: i went You walked in the door with someone, wasn't me.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: That was it.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: So I got goosebumps.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: She just kept talking. And then I would rhyme. I
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: would say a line back to her. So my next
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: line was, but our eyes were destined to meet. And
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: then over the next 20 minutes, 30 minutes, we had
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: most of the lyrics done together. Then we went and
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: sat in a bar and had a drink and finished
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: the lyrics. And it's my favorite song on the album.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: And it's another song that I do live. every show now.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: And it's as if it was one of my biggest hits.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: The audience just goes nuts every time.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: Oh my God. You might've found your songwriting partner. Does
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: she do that? Has she done that before? Yeah.
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: She did it a couple of times before with me
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: where I got stuck or I would say to her,
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: what does this music evoke in you? And so she had,
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: we have written lyrics together before, but this was different.
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: This was sort of like Daisy's seizing the moment and
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: really sort of taking the lead on it right um
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: and then we did uh and then i did the
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: i came home and once that song was done i
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: was ready to go with i'd written five other songs
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: and chosen my other half of the covers and i
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: and i recorded the whole album in la over three
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: afternoons with a 28 piece orchestra so we did everything
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: live i sang live with the orchestra there was no
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: auto tune there's no Fixing, it was the way Sinatra
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: and those guys used to record where you would just
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: do a song a few times and pick the best
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: performance and that was the record. And that's what this
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: album is too.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. That is such, it's just a throwback
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: to the best times.
• 29:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: An homage almost. That's really cool. It is so fun
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: to hear from Richard Marks and all of his stories
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: and wisdom. I will be back with much more of
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: Richard in part two. So enjoy the week. And don't
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: forget to choose you.