369: Richard Marx | The HoneyDew with Ryan Sickler #369 | Full Episode

Summary

Podcast Summary

The HoneyDew with Ryan Sickler - Episode 369: Richard Marx

Release Date: January 19, 2026
Guest: Richard Marx
Main Theme: Family, the realities behind a legendary music career, relationships, loss, health, and learning to celebrate life’s moments.

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Overview

This episode of The HoneyDew dives deep with legendary musician Richard Marx, highlighting the “lowlights” of his life—loss, family challenges, personal health journeys, and depression—amidst his enormous professional success. The conversation reflects on generational creativity, the reality of fame, complicated family dynamics, grieving, and the surprising impact of traditional and alternative health approaches. Alongside the heartache, there’s plenty of laughter, humility, and wisdom, with Richard and Ryan keeping it real (and funny) throughout.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Richard’s Musical Family Legacy

• Richard’s Sons & Family Business
  • All three sons (Brandon—35, Lucas—33, Jesse—31) are involved in music, some collaborating directly with Richard (05:24, 09:55).
  • Richard’s pride: "It's a family business. My dad was a musician, so it makes total sense." (05:24)
  • Enjoys being "one of the boys" with his grown sons—brunches, boys' nights, mutual creative projects. (10:15, 11:16)
• His Own Upbringing
  • Grew up in Chicago surrounded by music; father was a jazz pianist and top jingle composer, mother a big band singer (12:43, 13:14).
  • Early exposure: Richard sang on commercials as a child, gaining professional studio experience (15:21).

2. Early and Lasting Success in Music

• Richard’s Start & Career Evolution
  • Knew from a young age he was destined for music; started writing songs at 16, produced and sang back-up on big records by age 19 (16:31, 22:10).
  • "There was never a thought of anything else." (16:40)
• Hits and Hits for Others
  • First #1 ballad: "Hold On to the Nights," still a prom staple. (18:35, 18:45, 19:05)
  • Wrote for/with major artists (NSYNC, Keith Urban, Luther Vandross, Kenny Rogers, etc.)—loved the creative process regardless of who performed (09:01, 22:25, 63:12).
  • "If you can't get laid at a Richard Marx concert, you can't get laid." (19:43)

3. Family Dynamics & Loss

• Parents’ Marriage & Influence
  • Parents’ relationship soured after his early childhood; they never formally divorced, but lived separate lives the last years of his father’s life (19:57, 21:14, 21:56).
  • Despite this, they remained “great parents” with strong individual relationships with Richard (20:11).
• Father’s Health & Passing
  • Candidly describes father’s lifelong health struggles with obesity, smoking, heart disease, and how Richard constantly “worried about him” (24:33–26:31).
  • Emotional account of his father's fatal accident in 1997, last conversations from the hospital ("I'm finished with music"—his father's last message) (29:45–38:46).
  • The blessing of “no unfinished business” with his dad: "We have no unfinished business with each other. You know how much I love you, how proud of you I am." (40:06)
• Processing Grief
  • Richard’s honest about the devastation after his dad’s death, the unique hole such a larger-than-life personality leaves, and the eventual shift from grief to gratitude (41:06–41:56).

4. Mother’s Illness & Alternative Healing

• Mom’s Cancer Journey
  • Diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer at 80, was given six months to live—but survived six more years through radical dietary changes (eliminating added sugar, juicing), focused attitude, and a controversial fermented soy drink called Haelan (47:02–50:55).
  • "...for an 80-year-old woman to have stage four lung cancer and be given six months and live six years, it's got to have something to do with that [Haelan]." (54:13)
• End of Life, Closure, and Love
  • Unlike many, her last years were rich and vibrant, not spent in hospitals; she lived fully, formed strong bonds with Richard’s wife Daisy, and expressed deep satisfaction at the end ("We did it, kid.") (53:00, 54:14, 55:19).
  • “What a great gift to give your kid as you’re on your way out.” (55:19)

5. Depression and Therapy

• Lifelong Struggle
  • Richard speaks candidly about lifelong depression, even amidst success, and the importance of therapy (55:52–58:09).
  • "Sometimes there's no reason. Sometimes you just have sadness in you." (57:04)
  • Importance of finding the right therapist—sometimes a long, awkward journey ("...the third session, [my therapist] hit on me...") (58:26–60:56)
  • The goal: “The only reason I should exist in your life is to reduce your suffering. That’s it.” (61:29)

6. Songwriting Process, Pressure, and Creativity

• Never “Giving Away” a Song Regrettably
  • Never regretted writing for others—enjoys the process of crafting songs to fit other artists (61:55–63:35).
  • "If you write stuff for Louis CK that he then does and it crushes, how happy are you gonna be? You're not gonna feel like you gave—oh, I should have kept that for myself." (63:11)
• Staying Creative
  • Still writes daily; finds inspiration in nature and just before sleep (65:18, 65:27).
  • Lyrics are the challenging part; hiking helps unlock them (67:21).

7. Joy, Longevity, and the Present

• Role Models—Rod Stewart’s Example
  • Inspired by Rod Stewart’s work ethic, gratitude, and zest for life even at 80; both believe strongly in regular health check-ups and being grateful (67:23–68:56).
  • "The conversation every single time … is always gratitude. We talk about how lucky we are…" (68:10)
• Advice to His Younger Self
  • “Enjoy everything more.” (70:09)
  • Regrets not celebrating successes in the moment; now makes it a point to do so, inspired by his wife Daisy (71:14)
  • Reflection: Unlike athletes, musicians can keep doing what they love and sharing it with audiences even decades later (71:59).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Family Legacy:
  "It's a family business. My dad was a musician, so it makes total sense." – Richard Marx (05:24)

• On Life and Aging:
  “I drastically changed at 60, but for the better... I stopped eating anything that had added sugar… I have no inflammation in my body… It’s been a real game changer for me.” – Richard Marx (06:53–07:14)

• On Creativity:
  "It's a really particular art form... Don't bore us, get to the chorus." – Richard Marx, on his father's jingle-writing success (13:21)

• On Loss and Closure:
  “We have no unfinished business with each other... so many parent-child relationships end with regret.” – Richard Marx (40:06)

• On Regret and Living in the Moment:
  “Enjoy everything more… I was so busy focused on next that I was never present.” – Richard Marx (70:09)

• On Songwriting for Others:
  "I've never regretted writing for others. If they have a hit, I'm just happy for them." (approx. 62:00–63:11)

• On End-of-Life Peace:
  “She looked at me, she goes, ‘we did it, kid.’ She goes, ‘we did it.’” – Richard Marx, on his mother’s final weeks (54:14)

• On Therapy’s Goal:
  “The only reason that I exist in your life and should exist in your life is to reduce your suffering. That’s it.” – Richard Marx’s therapist (61:29)

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Important Timestamps

| Timestamp | Segment/Highlight | |------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 05:24 | Legacy: Richard’s sons, family collaborations, dad’s influence | | 09:55 | Performing with his kids, pride when they shine on stage | | 13:21 | On his father’s success as a jingle composer, art of the “hook” | | 18:35 | First huge ballad hits, the story behind "Hold On to the Nights" | | 22:10 | First hit as a songwriter at 19—collaborations with Kenny Rogers, etc. | | 29:45–38:46| Father’s accident, last conversations, unique “goodbye” | | 40:06 | "No unfinished business" with dad, impact of their relationship | | 47:02 | Mother's terminal diagnosis and six-year, diet-based recovery | | 54:14 | Mother’s peaceful parting words, closure at end of life | | 55:52 | On lifelong depression and the journey to effective therapy | | 63:12 | On writing for others (e.g., NSYNC: “This I Promise You”) | | 65:18 | Richard’s perpetual creative flow, inspiration from nature | | 67:23 | Role model: Rod Stewart’s gratitude, approach to aging and health | | 70:09 | "Enjoy everything more"—advice to his 16-year-old self |

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Tone and Language

The episode is an honest, open-hearted, and often humorous walk through the real story behind Richard Marx’s legendary career. Both Ryan Sickler and Richard Marx speak with candor, warmth, and a willingness to find the lighter side of life’s hardships—while never shying away from deeper emotions or difficult truths. The conversation is filled with camaraderie, laughter, humility, and many lessons learned.

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Final Takeaway

This episode is a masterclass in resilience, family bonds, and the importance of savoring both the highs and lows along the journey. Whether reflecting on creative longevity, healing, loss, or what really matters in the end, Richard Marx brings insight and humor to every story. Aspiring artists, those facing loss, or anyone navigating family complexities will find relatable wisdom in this deeply human conversation.

Transcript

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[Richard Marx]

The Honeydew with Ryan Sickler.

[Ryan Sickler]

Welcome back to the Honeydew, y'. All. We're over here doing it in the Night Pants studios. I am Ryan Sickler. Ryan Sickler. Sickler.com and Ryan Sickler on all your social media, starting this one like I start them all by saying thank you, gratitude, thank you for watching this show. Thank you for supporting anything I do. Whatever it is, make sure you go watch the special on my YouTube stream. And now, live and alive. And if you gotta have more than you gotta have. Our Patreon the Honeydew with y'.

[Richard Marx]

All.

[Ryan Sickler]

It's this show with y'. All. It's five bucks a month. It's been that for years. It's not gonna ever be anything more than that. So if you or someone you know has a story that has to be heard, submit it tohoneydew podcast gmail.com and hopefully we get to do a story together. All right, that's the biz. You guys know what we do here? We highlight the lowlights always say that these are the stories behind the storytellers. And I am very excited to have this guest here with us. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Richard Marks. Honeydew. Richard, Mark, brother, can't thank you enough for being here.

[Richard Marx]

It's a pleasure.

[Ryan Sickler]

I do want to. Before I let you promote anything, I want to give you.

[Richard Marx]

The reason I'm here is to promote.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yes, it is. I want to give love, love to your son Brandon. Brandon Marks. Yep.

[Richard Marx]

You guys know you. He met you before I did, years.

[Ryan Sickler]

Ago when the whole shift went to Austin. I stay here because I have my daughter here. And we were in a studio where we had a sloped roof, and we kept getting echo, and we got a lot of audio files out there. And they're like, ryan, there's a little echo. Whatever. And I was like, God, they're not wrong. So our producer, Annie knew your son. He's like, no, this guy Brandon, he's an audio guy. He's really good at what he does. Mind if he just comes by. I was like, I'd love it. And then your son comes at the time, I still don't know he's your son. I just know he's. Brandon did it. I'm like, this guy knows what he's talking about. And then he's like, you know whose dad is? I'm like, who's your dad? And they're asking me because they clearly, I'm older, right? And he goes, you know, Richard Marks is. I'm like the love ballad master Richard marks of the 80s again. That's my dad. I'm like, get the out of here, dude. And here we are now, five years later.

[Richard Marx]

Yeah. And I was just showing you. He just. And now he's becoming an incredible photographer. And he shot the. What is the album cover for my new album coming out in January. And he's done some other stuff with me before and we've done stuff musically together. I have three sons, he has two brothers. And we've written songs together, the four of us, and produced together and performed live together. You know, it's. It's a family business. My dad was a musician, so it makes total sense.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's what I'm. That's what a family business. I fucking love hearing. I could talk to you about this all day. Real quick. The name of the album, after Hours and When's it available?

[Richard Marx]

January 16th.

[Ryan Sickler]

Everywhere. You get everywhere, Everywhere.

[Richard Marx]

Only at Kmart.

[Ryan Sickler]

You exclusive the Kmart Blue Lights. I guess we're going to shift gears because first now I want to talk about that working with your kids and then we'll get into a little bit when. So you have three boys. How old are they now?

[Richard Marx]

30. Brandon's 35, Lucas is 33. And my baby boy is 31, Jesse.

[Ryan Sickler]

Wow, okay. You have grown ass men.

[Richard Marx]

Yeah, they're my drinking buddies now.

[Ryan Sickler]

And how old are you?

[Richard Marx]

62.

[Ryan Sickler]

You look great.

[Richard Marx]

Thank you.

[Ryan Sickler]

You really do look.

[Richard Marx]

Thank you.

[Ryan Sickler]

You took care of yourself.

[Richard Marx]

No yet. Not against yet.

[Ryan Sickler]

Don't yet.

[Richard Marx]

But what are you going to do?

[Ryan Sickler]

Get a new face in your 80s, Richard Mark, maybe do it.

[Richard Marx]

Some people do.

[Ryan Sickler]

Listen, you're the truth. If you weather the storm. If you weather the storm, when you get over that hump, because they say, what is it like 44. We drastically changed something like 60.

[Richard Marx]

60.

[Ryan Sickler]

Did you notice that?

[Richard Marx]

Well, I drastically changed at 60, but for the better because when I was nearing. I've always been in pretty good shape and healthy. Like stopped eating red meat when I was 18. Never smoked really. Never drank Hardly at all until I turned 50. So I'm making up for lost time on that one.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay.

[Richard Marx]

But when I was nearing. When I was coming into 60, I did this radical change. I stopped eating anything that had added sugar. So I don't. The sugar, like, went to zero in my diet, and everything changed. I have no inflammation in my body. I've got all these scans and tests and stuff. So it's like, that has been a real game changer for me. And I look at pictures, even from three years ago, and I look older than. Than I do now. And no, it's like. You know, I think the greatest compliment I get from people, or especially trolls online, are the people who have accused me of having a facelift. I just go, thanks. I haven't. But.

[Ryan Sickler]

Well, I think it's. Look, I'm. I talk about my father on the show all the time. He was my biggest hero. And the fact that you get to work with your kids, like, what?

[Richard Marx]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

When do you realize, like, these kids are pretty good and we can collab on things and stuff? When was it?

[Richard Marx]

Well, that happened really early because all three of them, just from the time they were four or five, six years old, there was always music playing in the house, and I was always making music in the studio. I always had a studio of some kind at the house, too.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay, so they're here then when they were like.

[Richard Marx]

When they were like, 8, 10 range, I was really primarily. I wasn't touring that much. I was producing and writing for other artists. So NSYNC was at the house, and Keith Urban was at the house, and Josh Groban and these people who I worked with and produced. So they watched. They. They loved being in the room. They watched the process.

[Ryan Sickler]

Plus, not to interrupt, but that's interesting because they're not just hearing dad's music. They're hearing different genres as well. And yeah, okay.

[Richard Marx]

Boy band and Chris Daughtry and, like, so. And. And Chad Krueger from Nickelback and all these, you know, so a lot of rock artists. Jason Wade from Lifehouse, I worked with. I've collaborated with a lot of rock artists and a lot of, you know, pop, ballady people and country and the whole gamut. Luther Vandross, when I wrote Dance with My Father, Luther was at the house, you know, so they were exposed to a tremendous amount of music. But it was so clear when they were little kids that they had the gift. They had a good ear. They had great voices. And very early in their youth, I started every Christmas, I would make a Gift for my then wife, their mom, of a Christmas song that I would do a little recording of, and then I would produce them singing three part harmony with each other.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's nice.

[Richard Marx]

And they just learned how to do that. So cut to their 12, 14, 15. And I'm on tour somewhere. I'm doing a show, and if they were there, I would get them up with me and we would do something together, and the place would go crazy. Partly because it's cute, but mostly because they're badass, right?

[Ryan Sickler]

They're good.

[Richard Marx]

They're so good.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Richard Marx]

So it made total sense that they all pursued a music career. It's just that they pursued a music career at a time when the music industry was really kind of against you rather than for you. But they're all doing fine. You know, they're all. They're all making their way. My middle son, Lucas, is probably the one that's kind of poked through the most because he's been the most diverse. He's. He's a writer, producer for other people. He's a great singer, great artist, but he's been really versatile like I was. So he's had. He's. He's actually made a little bit of money from the music business, so. But more importantly, they're my best friends. And we, you know, Sunday, a couple days ago, we had brunch together in Sherman Oaks, and we. When I'm not touring, we have boys night. We go out to dinner. We sit and have drinks and talk about life. And I'm still dad sometimes, but I'm mostly just one of the boys with my boys, you know?

[Ryan Sickler]

That's great. I envy it.

[Richard Marx]

I was that way with my dad.

[Ryan Sickler]

Show up. I'm about to come for hugs, guys. I'm coming for sleepover. Can I come for a sleepover, bro? Can I just come for.

[Richard Marx]

But when you have that kind of dynamic when you're fought like I had with my father, he was my best friend. I was his best friend, and I have that with my boys. So, I mean, they're my. I confide in them. We're at a point now. Where are you a grandfather? I am.

[Ryan Sickler]

You are? How many grandchildren?

[Richard Marx]

Just one.

[Ryan Sickler]

Just one. Okay.

[Richard Marx]

I feel like this shift happened really because of my divorce from their mom, that they got to know me as a man instead of just their dad. And the process of that, getting to know my wife now Daisy, who they're really close to and they adore, but they still have a great relationship with my ex. And our. Our family situation is like the least dysfunctional of anything I've seen.

[Ryan Sickler]

I mean, listen, that's not only remarkable in general, but for entertainment, family, that's unheard of.

[Richard Marx]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Most people can't hold it together. Totally Regular Joe's. You know what I mean? You got all these other obstacles and also this ever evolving world we're in now with the digital, all that shit. You mentioned your dad. Let's go back to the beginning for you. Where are you from originally?

[Richard Marx]

Chicago.

[Ryan Sickler]

Chicago. And. And dad. Both in the entertainment industry or just.

[Richard Marx]

Dad or not really in the entertainment business, but the music business in that. So my dad was a really successful jazz pianist in Chicago.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay.

[Richard Marx]

Really respected. The year. Couple years before I was born, he started a jingle company. He found that he had. Even though he had been a jazz snob most of his life, he found that he had this knack for writing.

[Ryan Sickler]

Catchy melodies that like, Alan Thicke thing.

[Richard Marx]

Alan Thick.

[Ryan Sickler]

Wasn't it Alan Thick that wrote me a Barry Manilow or Bandit? Yeah.

[Richard Marx]

Randy Newman wrote jingles.

[Ryan Sickler]

Right.

[Richard Marx]

And it's a really particular art form because you've gotta talk about. Don't. Boris, get to the chorus kind of thing. There's no time for like verses or it's just hook. And my dad just had this amazing gift for it. And so he. His company blew up. He was the biggest jingle composer.

[Ryan Sickler]

What are some. That you. We know?

[Richard Marx]

I mean, if you're of a certain. If you're. If you're over 45 or so, you might remember. Well, the. Probably the most famous one to this day is Ask any mermaid you happen to see. Yeah. What's the best Tuna chicken. He wrote that. Your dad's. Yeah. But none. None of the stupid lyrics, just the catchy melodies.

[Ryan Sickler]

He just writes the melodies.

[Richard Marx]

You name it, he did the commercial for.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's even more interesting. So he's just giving them the music.

[Richard Marx]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

And then some other person's putting these lyrics to it or whatever.

[Richard Marx]

They would give him a slogan. For instance, if you believe in peanut butter, you gotta believe in Peter Pan. So my dad wrote, if you believe in peanut butter, you gotta believe in Peter Pan. Okay, well, that's going to stay in your. There's an earworm. And he just had hundreds and hundreds of them. So my mom was a big band singer. Met my dad because she was looking for a vocal coach in Chicago. She was from this little town in Ohio and they fell in love. And so when his jingle business blew up, she was the singer on so many of these commercials. And then by the time I was five. It was obvious, kind of like with my boys, where I could just sing. I could sing in tune. And so they started putting me on the commercials. When I was a kid, I would sometimes get to get out of school to go into the city and do a commercial with my parents. That was so cool. And I was on the radio. I was on TV and on the radio. Not my face, but my voice was. You know, my friends would be like, isn't that you singing on that? Yeah, that's me.

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[Ryan Sickler]

Then when do you decide? I'm going all in on this? Like, how. How young are you? Are you where you know you want to be a career?

[Richard Marx]

Younger. Younger than I can remember. I mean, there was never any.

[Ryan Sickler]

No doubt. You never.

[Richard Marx]

Well, there was never. Never a thought of anything else.

[Ryan Sickler]

Nothing, huh?

[Richard Marx]

No. There was a period where I went, like, at 16, up until I was 16, I just wanted to be a rock star. From 16 on, I wanted to be a songwriter because I started writing songs. And I realized that that's really what I feel like is the most amazing job. And then to become a record producer, which happened soon after that, too. So then it went from being like, I want to be a rock star to being. Being. I want to have a career in the music business for as long as I possibly can. And the way to do that is to bob and weave and. And then, you know, over time, all of those dreams came true. But there Was never a moment where I thought, maybe I'll be an architect or not just I wanted to get laid. That was a big part of wanting to be in music. Sure. It was certainly helped because it. I wasn't.

[Ryan Sickler]

I didn't have yourself, brother. Let's touch it up. You helped a lot of us out there.

[Richard Marx]

I did not help the law. You're welcome, Ryan. And all of you out there, I get. I get guys coming up to me all the time, thanking me. Yeah. Hey, I helped myself, but I helped you, too.

[Ryan Sickler]

There's no doubt. You help so many of us. Oh, it's too good. When do you. Okay, so your dad's got a knack for jingles. When do you figure out you've got a knack for ballads and love songs that are just gonna.

[Richard Marx]

Well, the ballads were always. I. I wrote everything. I wrote rock songs.

[Ryan Sickler]

I know you have. Don't mean nothing. You had all up everything.

[Richard Marx]

Yeah, but I mean, I. I always loved romantic songs. I always loved love.

[Ryan Sickler]

What was your first one? First hit ballad? Love song.

[Richard Marx]

The first hit love song was. Well, Endless Summer Nights was kind of a ballady thing, but the big power ballad was hold on to the Nights. That was my first number one song.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah, that was the. Oh, that was first number one overall.

[Richard Marx]

To this. Yeah. And still to this day, the number one prom anthem in America.

[Ryan Sickler]

Is that right? Yeah, they're still playing it.

[Richard Marx]

Good song about cheating, by the way.

[Ryan Sickler]

They don't need to know.

[Richard Marx]

I tell people, like, all these gen zers at their prom now, like, hold on to the.

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Oh, my God, I love this song.

[Richard Marx]

And I'm like, okay. Yeah. In 1988. And it became. It's funny, when I met my. My wife has one sibling, Rosanna, her sister, who I am so crazy about, and we're really close. She's the sister I always wanted. And when I got to know her, we were at dinner one night and Rosanna looked at me, she goes, I guess this is as good a time as I need to tell you. You were my prom anthem. You were my prom song. It's like, no shit.

[Ryan Sickler]

You're responsible for so many people's lost virginities. All that stuff, dude. All that.

[Richard Marx]

Weddings, divorces.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, yeah. Yep. No doubt.

[Richard Marx]

But getting laid is. I always say to my audiences, you know, if you can't get laid at a Richard Mark's concert, you can't get laid.

[Ryan Sickler]

You did it wrong, bro. You did it wrong. So you're close with your parents then, and they have a good relationship. Are you an only Child.

[Richard Marx]

I'm an only child.

[Ryan Sickler]

You are. Okay.

[Richard Marx]

My parents have a good, great relationship for the first eight years and then.

[Ryan Sickler]

Not of your life or just their.

[Richard Marx]

Marriage, which is kind of both.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, it is.

[Richard Marx]

I came along two years in.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay.

[Richard Marx]

By the time I was eight or nine, I started to see fighting and I could see that they were. They stayed together really pretty much. They never got divorced. But the last couple years of my dad's life, they were separated. So he was living in. Here in la, and my mom, I was living in Chicago at that point. And so my mom, to be near her grandchildren and me was living there. So they were living different separate lives. But I saw they didn't have a great marriage, but they were great parents. Great parents. And I had really great relationships with them individually. But I. The sort of, you know, lovely sort of Rockwell painting of the family of the three of us was a. That was a brief. That was just a couple seasons. You know what I mean?

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah, I do. Yeah. Yeah. Completely though. You had two seasons.

[Richard Marx]

When I was little, I remember my parents being loving and being in love with each other, but then I remember still being single digit, kind of just having an understanding that they did. They weren't getting along and it was very contentious, a lot of yelling and stuff.

[Ryan Sickler]

But they stayed together. So you never had to go 50, 50 or live with mom or dad. So even though it's not good, you're under one roof.

[Richard Marx]

When I left home at 18.

[Ryan Sickler]

Right.

[Richard Marx]

They were, they were actually in a pretty good place comparatively at that point. They had periods where they were better with each other. But. And then it was exciting because a couple years after that they decided to pack up and move to California to be near me, which I loved.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay.

[Richard Marx]

And so that was sort of a renaissance for them. They. For a couple years, they. They were having fun and, you know, following me around on tour and I was, I took them to Australia and.

[Ryan Sickler]

How old are you when your first.

[Richard Marx]

My first hit, I was 23.

[Ryan Sickler]

So they. Okay. And what do they. Are they just over the moon? Are they just.

[Richard Marx]

Yeah, but it was like. It was a. It was a process because I had my first hit at 19 as a songwriter.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay.

[Richard Marx]

So when I came out to la, within a year, I'm singing on Lionel Richie's hit records as a background singer. Then I'm singing on Kenny Rogers records. Then I'm writing songs for Kenny Rogers. And then I have a number one song with Kenny Rogers as a writer.

[Rocket Money User/Testimonial]

Which one?

[Richard Marx]

Crazy. A song called Crazy. But we actually wrote another song the same album that was a hit called what About Me, that I wrote with Kenny and David Foster, the producer. And I was 19. So all of a sudden I'm making money. I can buy my mom a nice gift here and there, and I get a nice car, and, like, things are going just nice and slowly. I mean, I look back at it as a slow climb, but it was probably faster than I remember it. But the whole time I'm like, I want a record deal. I want to be making records. So they were really a big part of the. They were with me all the time, and we. We were really close. So I would go to dinner with them and bitch about not getting signed or getting rejected or I would go and celebrate them when things were going well. But then once my career as an artist happened, like with the first single, it was just the horse was out of the gate. I was on MTV every second. And like, it just those. Then for 10 years, it was just.

[Ryan Sickler]

Like, oh, you've always had gorgeous hair. I mean. I mean, look at your hair. I think it's because of your dad.

[Richard Marx]

Yeah, my dad.

[Ryan Sickler]

I mean, you had the most gorgeous mullet back then.

[Richard Marx]

But I think I still have a.

[Ryan Sickler]

Pretty every hair and a ratty mullet. Like, you really took care of an look nice. I mean, I mean, look, hey, don't ruin my.

[Richard Marx]

I could show you some pictures. You'd be like, oh, I'm. I'm remembering it more fondly than I.

[Ryan Sickler]

Even still in your 60s. You got a full head of salad up there, bro.

[Richard Marx]

You do not take it for granted for a second. It's one of the things I'm the most grateful for.

[Ryan Sickler]

Me. Me too. I'm 52 and I still have it. Most of my friends are bald or balding or going. You know, I'm like, still got this up here, bro.

[Richard Marx]

Yeah, man.

[Ryan Sickler]

Can't grow a beard like a real man. But whatever. I still got this.

[Richard Marx]

That's all that matters.

[Ryan Sickler]

You mentioned your dad passing. What. What happened to your father?

[Richard Marx]

So my dad had. I grew up. My dad was obese. Believe it or not looking at me. My dad fought his weight his whole life. Like, big.

[Ryan Sickler]

Really big.

[Richard Marx]

Like, at the peak, he was tall. He was like six, a little over six feet. But there were years when he was pushing 300, you know, 270, 275 to 80. In a good year, he'd be 250, 240, which culminated in health issues, so. And he smoked until my dad. This tells you a little bit about my dad's personality. My dad smoked two or three packs of cigarettes a day until the day the surgeon general's report came out in the 70s that said. And my dad went, oh it, I'm done. So he wasn't addicted to.

[Ryan Sickler]

So he didn't just go to one pack, he just was like, oh wait, they said these aren't good.

[Richard Marx]

Yeah. And he, luckily, he said, you know, luckily I didn't have an addiction obviously to nicotine because he quit and he never smoked again. Literally threw him in the trash.

[Ryan Sickler]

That was, that is wild to go from a three pack a day to none.

[Richard Marx]

And I, my mom said, you know, most of them would burn up in the ashtray while he was writing music. And he just always had one going, you know. But he had a horrible diet. He, the weight was a problem. And so when he was 50, he had a, a mild heart attack. And I, so I just remember I was, he had me, I was a second family. He had three kids to a first marriage. So he was, he was 40 when I was born.

[Ryan Sickler]

So you're 10 years old.

[Richard Marx]

So I'm 10 and my dad gets, has a heart attack and I'm in the hospital with him, you know, and I'm freaking out. But he got past that, changed his diet, changed his habits for a while. But then, you know, time goes on and you feel a little cocky again and you start back, going back to some of the shit you shouldn't be doing. The weight crept back up.

[Ryan Sickler]

Was he a drinker as well?

[Richard Marx]

No, never.

[Ryan Sickler]

Just smoke.

[Richard Marx]

But a heavy meat eater. And so then, I don't know, maybe eight years later, nine years later, he has emergency triple bypass because it's like his arteries are just clogged. So that changed things too. But, so I only reference this because I spent most of my life with him, worrying about him.

[Ryan Sickler]

You knew his, I mean, I'm listening to you and hearing, you know, his weights and everything. You really paid attention.

[Richard Marx]

Oh yeah, yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

I could really tell.

[Richard Marx]

Yeah. I also saw the struggle and I saw, it's funny, he, he was embarrassed about the failure to be consistent with his health. He was never embarrassed about his size. He was a good looking guy.

[Ryan Sickler]

I see.

[Richard Marx]

But he didn't like. I think a lot of people who are very overweight are so self conscious and embarrassed or there's a level of shame I don't think he had that. He was really comfortable in his own skin.

[Ryan Sickler]

He was just more like, I'm disappointed. I can't just keep up habits where I stay.

[Richard Marx]

He also just carried his weight in a Way that, like, he was a big guy, but he was. He had a charisma about him that you would. Forgot about it immediately, you know. So anyway, cut to. I spend years and years and years worrying about him. And. And then he had a procedure. I was on tour. I was about to go on tour and I was going to go to Japan for a Tour. This is 1997, and just a few months before this tour of mine, there was. He went in for a checkup and they found something. So he had to have this procedure where they shocked his heart back into a sinus rhythm, a normal sinus rhythm. He was having an arrhythmia. So that went really well. And for the next six weeks, eight weeks, he was. He looked better than I'd ever seen him. He felt great. He was conducting. He was still working. He was conducting orchestra during all this.

[Ryan Sickler]

He's doing.

[Richard Marx]

Yeah. When I was a kid, they bought a cabin in Wisconsin as a little getaway, six hours from Chicago. And it was the one place my dad could just check out and decompress. So he is in la, decides he's going to drive. I'm headed to Japan on tour. He's going to drive cross country to Wisconsin to the cabin, which I, you know, I was like, you really want to do that? You could fly to whatever Madison and take. He goes, no, I'm going to do this road trip. He was with this woman he was seeing. And I'm on my way to Tokyo. He's driving there outside of Vegas. We. To this day, we never really found out exactly what happened, but there was an accident. He. He got too close to a truck. Overcorrected. He was in an suv, Flipped the SUV three times. Just broke the whole left side of his body. His arms, ribs, leg. He's 73 at this point.

[Ryan Sickler]

Is the lady in the car as well?

[Richard Marx]

She's not. She's got minor injuries. They airlift him to this trauma center.

[Ryan Sickler]

Holy shit.

[Richard Marx]

When I get to Tokyo, I get the call from my ex, who's not my ex at that point. Your dad's been in an accident. I don't know what's going on. I'm trying to reach somebody at the hospital, so I freak out and I'm. It's the middle of the night in Tokyo.

[Ryan Sickler]

How. I mean, Tokyo is like.

[Richard Marx]

And I've got to show Moons away.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah, yeah.

[Richard Marx]

Especially back then. There's no FaceTime or. So I get some. I get a doctor on the phone who. Who talk. Who then puts me on the phone with a surgeon. That's going to go in because he's got to go into emergency surgery. And the guy says, yeah, he's, he's been really badly hurt, but we're going to do, you know, what we have to do. And he said, but I am concerned because apparently he just had this heart thing. So they were seeing that, that the accident had undone the good that the.

[Ryan Sickler]

I see.

[Richard Marx]

So now he's having some organ failure stuff happen. And, but at, at this moment on the phone, he goes, hold on a second. And he puts me, my dad demands to get to talk to me.

[Ryan Sickler]

He's talking.

[Richard Marx]

Yeah, he's talking. He's laying on a stretcher and he goes, richard, don't cancel the gig. Well, actually the truth is the first thing he said to me was, I know I've always got to be the center of attention.

[Ryan Sickler]

Is that what he said?

[Richard Marx]

So now my stress level goes down because he's joking.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yes, yes. Makes me feel better about everything.

[Richard Marx]

Richard, promise me, promise me. Like, yes, I'm really hurt and they've got me on all these pain killers and they're going to go, we're going to do the surgery. But it's not life or death. So don't cancel the show. I know you're going to want to get on a plane and cancel the tour. Don't do this. You know when you come back and I'm like, I'm feeling so relieved. So I hang up. They go into the surgery and I get a few hours of sleep and like, I don't know, 10 hours later the surgeon calls me and says, you need to get on a plane. It didn't go well. He's not in good shape. So now I'm like, I'm like, am I gonna make it home? And he's like, I, I, I don't know.

[Ryan Sickler]

Can I ask what didn't go well? What are they trying to do to.

[Richard Marx]

His, he start, he started to go in like they were, it wasn't even the broken bones. It was, he was just starting to go into multi system failure, what they call internal organs. The trauma of the accident, I'm sure.

[Ryan Sickler]

It just, it was really bad. And you're 73. Yeah.

[Richard Marx]

And not.

[Ryan Sickler]

And your health yet.

[Richard Marx]

So I get on a plane. I don't know, you know, I'm thinking the whole way like I'm so scared to land because I don't, you know, and there's no cell phones, there's no, you know, it's still 97. You're still, you can, you don't find.

[Ryan Sickler]

Out till you get there.

[Richard Marx]

You don't find out till you find out.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's right.

[Richard Marx]

So I land. I get on the phone with somebody. He's. He's okay. He's stable. I get to Vegas in this trauma center, and he's really in bad shape, but he's stable. And they stabilize him enough that he's in there and they're taking care of him and they're giving him meds, and they're. And he. But he. The first thing I notice is he looks so small in this bed, you know? So I'm with him. My mom's there. Even though they're separated, my mom's immediately there. And the three of us are in this room a lot.

[Ryan Sickler]

Is he awake at all, talking at all to you at all?

[Richard Marx]

Well, he's intubated, so he can't really talk, and the only person that can understand him is me. Even my mom can't really make out what he's saying. So sometimes in the middle of the night, so I just get a hotel right near the hospital because he's not leaving there anytime soon. And sometimes at 2 in the morning, they would call me and they'd go, richard, he's really distressed, and we can't understand. So I would go translate and I would say, he wants orange juice. Can you just give him some orange juice? So this goes. And. But there's this sort of. I'm lulled into a sense of, okay, he's in bad shape. He's going to have tremendous rehab. He's going to have to learn how to walk again, but he's going to be around. And he's finally. He's in this trauma center for like three or four weeks. Towards the end of it, he starts to suffer from what this term that I learned back then called ICU psychosis, where if you're in the ICU too long, you start to hallucinate, especially with the drugs that they're giving you. And he started to have hallucinations and think that people were hurting him, and he was trying to talk nonsense and. But they finally stabilized him enough that they said, we can get him to Chicago, where I was living, so that I could. And then we could start planning his rehab and he could stay at my house and.

[Ryan Sickler]

And can I ask you. Is just a comedian who, you know, misses a show? Only a couple in my life. It's a comedy club, and it's only a couple hundred people, and they're always very cool about it.

[Richard Marx]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

What the fuck happens to a Tokyo tour.

[Richard Marx]

Oh, a Japanese tour.

[Ryan Sickler]

I mean, how many dates are you missing?

[Richard Marx]

It was like six dates. It was a lot of money, but.

[Ryan Sickler]

I don't even care about that. I'm just mean.

[Richard Marx]

No, it was a big deal.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah, right.

[Richard Marx]

It was a big deal, but the promoters, I have to say.

[Ryan Sickler]

And were your fans over there cool? Yeah.

[Richard Marx]

I mean, this is before. Yeah, I did. I made up the shows, but, like, also, this is before I could get on Instagram and say, hey, I'm so sorry.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Richard Marx]

So it was just like having publicists.

[Ryan Sickler]

Put, like, put out the fire.

[Richard Marx]

Well, put. Put out things in the newspapers so that people can understand. I don't remember much of a fall.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay. Yeah, yeah.

[Richard Marx]

There was an ad placed in.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's what I'm wondering. And what this time is like when you personally can't get on anymore. Hey, everyone. Sorry.

[Richard Marx]

And I had a. Had. And have a really great following in Asia and Japan and.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay, sorry. So you're gonna get that to Chicago.

[Richard Marx]

So plan I. I had him airlifted. I got one of those ICU jets and I was. So I felt.

[Ryan Sickler]

They do that, like, privately.

[Richard Marx]

You can do that. You can. I mean, if you. If you're lucky enough, you can. The. The only other way to do it would have been too risky for him.

[Ryan Sickler]

How long does it take to get from Madison to Sugar was like 40 minutes. In one of those things?

[Richard Marx]

No, he was in Vegas.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, that's right, Vegas.

[Richard Marx]

So it was like a three hour.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay, three.

[Richard Marx]

So he gets to the hospital. Sorry.

[Ryan Sickler]

People are gonna yell at me for keeping her up. So when he's on a plane like that, this isn't. This is a medical plane. So they're also keeping them comfortable and.

[Richard Marx]

With a technician someone's monitoring. They let my mom fly with him.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay, great. This is a. This is a fucking air ambulance.

[Richard Marx]

It's a. It's an air ambulance. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

It's badass. I didn't even know you had that option.

[Richard Marx]

Okay. All right. He gets there. We get him settled into this nice room at the hospital, 10 minutes from my house. The first night, he's like. The doctors there are now looking at him and they're going. You know, he's really. He's got a lot of injuries, but, you know, we're going to take care of him. And then. So he sleeps all the first day, second day, he's awake and he's more alert. He's still intubated, but he's at a point where they're like, he can start doing some Rehab tomorrow, we're going to get him out of bed. And so we have this. The night before this, it's kind of 10 o' clock. Ish. And it's just me and my mom and my dad. And he's quiet, but he's. Now he's not loopy or. And we're talking about his rehab the next morning. Starting the next morning. And I said, I'll be here. I think they're getting you up at 8. I'll be here before. And he looks at me and he says he can't speak, but he slows, he mouths, I'm finished with music. And at first I thought he's being loopy again. I was like, what do you. What? Because. Yeah. He goes, yeah, I'm finished with music. And I said, no, you're not. This is. Look, I said, look, I'm not going to lie. This is going to be rough. This is going to be a rough go. But I'm here and we'll get through it. And I think in a couple weeks, you'll be able to come stay at my house and I'll have a whole setup for you there. And I said, but you'll get through this and then you'll be making music again. There's no question. And he just looked at me and he went, okay, like that. And he died the next morning. No. He was, like, letting me know.

[Ryan Sickler]

I was gonna say, oh, you get me emotional over here. He was letting me know he wasn't just done with music, he was done. But that's what he meant. He was.

[Richard Marx]

He. I think he saw what was ahead and was like, I'm out. That I might be the same way in those circumstances. I don't know.

[Ryan Sickler]

My younger brother tells me all the time, like, I'm not doing the chemo and all that.

[Richard Marx]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Like, if they give me. If it's not curable and I get a timeline, I'm just.

[Richard Marx]

I'm not wasting my best friend right now. My lifelong best friend is dealing with something pretty heavy. And he said to me, just, I just want you to know that there's gonna come a point where I'm gonna be like, I'm out and I need you to be okay with it. And I went, okay, I get it. I would be the same way. But, yeah, it was.

[Ryan Sickler]

But what a beautiful way to say goodbye. I'm done with music.

[Richard Marx]

Well, the more beautiful thing, Ryan, it's.

[Ryan Sickler]

Really nice, was.

[Richard Marx]

Years and years, like, in the best of his health and in the best of our time together, he Would come out on the road with me sometimes. One time he came out and did a tour with me and he conducted a 60 piece orchestra behind me in Chicago, Atlanta, Boston. My dad's up there. Like I. I get to introduce him as Big Dick. I was named, his name was Dick. His name was Richard, but everybody called him Dick from the time he was a kid. I was like, I'm not doing that. I'm going to be Richard because I'll be Little Dick.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah, you're Little Dick, bro. No way.

[Richard Marx]

He used to say this to me every so often. He would say, man, God forbid something happens to either of us tomorrow. But guess what? We have no unfinished business with each other. You know how much I love you, how proud of you I am. I know that you love me. We've said everything to each other. Like so many parent child relationships end with regret. And as devastated as I was, and I was fucked up for a long time, I'm, you know, I don't want you to think that it was like. That was a beautiful.

[Ryan Sickler]

Right.

[Richard Marx]

For six or eight months, I was pretty much in the fetal position. It just took me a while to have perspective and remember things like him telling me that and to be grateful for the 33 years that I did have with him instead of being really fucking pissed off that I got ripped off. So when I turned 40 and you're.

[Ryan Sickler]

Suffering the loss of this wonderful relationship and not the regret that we didn't spend more time or talk or we didn't talk for five years.

[Richard Marx]

Yeah, it was that. It was also my dad was such a big presence that the hole he left was big. You know, sometimes, no disrespect to anybody, but like, if you're. If you don't take up much room in a room. If you don't take up much space in a room. I don't even physically. I just mean your vibe. If you can come in and out of a room and not be noticed. My dad, if he walked into a room, people knew he was in the room. It was just a charisma thing, a presence. So when you have that about you, when you have that aura, when it's gone, it's more difficult because the, the size of the pain is bigger. You know what I mean?

[Ryan Sickler]

I do.

[Richard Marx]

And he was also just not. He was my dad, but he was my best friend. He was my confidant. And I just felt like the person who gets me the most is gone.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's a. It's literally a PCU.

[Richard Marx]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

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[Richard Marx]

I gotta raise my boys have you.

[Ryan Sickler]

Ever lost it during one of your fucking love songs?

[Richard Marx]

Not during the love song.

[Ryan Sickler]

What song?

[Richard Marx]

I wrote a song about your dad, losing him.

[Ryan Sickler]

You did?

[Richard Marx]

Yeah, I wrote a couple, but I wrote one in particular called Through My Veins. It was never a single or a hit or anything like that, but I used to do it live. And I had so many. I've had so many people reach out to me on social media or in a restaurant. Come up to me in a restaurant.

[Ryan Sickler]

And that's the one.

[Richard Marx]

It's men and women, but especially men who say, man, that threw my veins on. It really got me through. Like you. I totally understand. And. And so I. I try to. When I'm doing it in. In concert. I haven't done it in a while, but I used to do it pretty often. And it's a really powerful song. It ends with this big kind of rock crescendo, and it's a powerful performance piece. I could easily get lost in it and emotional every time. So I would think about Jerry Lewis movies and shit. You know what I mean?

[Ryan Sickler]

Is that what you got rolling through your mind?

[Richard Marx]

I'm thinking about, you know, Jerry Lewis in the Caddy, the Nutty professor or the Nutty professor, just to get through it.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Richard Marx]

But there have been a couple of times when I.

[Ryan Sickler]

Wait, have you ever done that song with your boys? You're performing that one together?

[Richard Marx]

No, but they've been there when I've done it. It's one of their favorite songs of mine, actually. But I will say that a couple times, I kind of made the decision in the moment to feel it.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Richard Marx]

And, you know, cried my way through it. It's a beautiful thing, and I love. Sometimes it'll just hit me. It really. You know, it's been. God, it's been 30 years. Almost 30 years, and it's still pretty fresh sometimes.

[Ryan Sickler]

And then you and mom, did you get closer after that?

[Richard Marx]

Oh, yeah. We were always really close. Really equally close. Just very different relationships. Yeah. My mom and I were. Had an extraordinary relationship. And my mom, who was rocking until she turned 80 and got diagnosed with stage four lung cancer.

[Ryan Sickler]

Was she a smoker?

[Richard Marx]

Yes, but quit, you know, 25, 30 years before. But the damage was done.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Richard Marx]

Also had a really horrible diet. She was given six months and she lived six years.

[Ryan Sickler]

Whoa.

[Richard Marx]

Partly because we didn't use Western medicine.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay, let's talk about that. Because there's a great example right here. If you and I hear six months, we're like, fuck it, Right? But she got six years.

[Richard Marx]

She got Six years. And I remember.

[Ryan Sickler]

What did you do? Well, talking.

[Richard Marx]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Richard Marx]

First thing we did was took her off sugar. Went from a steady diet of sugar every day to none.

[Ryan Sickler]

When you say that, is she like, a sweet lady?

[Richard Marx]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Richard Marx]

But I was like, mom, there's monk fruit and there's stevia, and there's like, I'll make you stuff.

[Ryan Sickler]

I've also heard the artificial sweeteners aren't great.

[Richard Marx]

They're not. Those are natural.

[Ryan Sickler]

Those are natural stevia.

[Richard Marx]

Monk, fruit and stevia are natural.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay.

[Richard Marx]

They're extracts, fruit extract, or. Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

And I've also heard that fasting can help.

[Richard Marx]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Is that right?

[Richard Marx]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

So you're immediately off of sugars.

[Richard Marx]

A lot of juicing, a lot of just radically revolutionizing her diet.

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[Richard Marx]

And she was totally on board. And some people are like, if I can't have what I want, My mom was like, I want to be around, so let's do this. And she was diligent and exercising and doing her stuff. The other thing we did, which I really couldn't talk about then, but I think I can talk about it now. Just a coincidence that I knew not one, not two, but three different people who had had various forms of cancer just in the year or two before this happened with my mom, and they had been turned onto this fermented soy drink that's called Halen. H A E L A N At the time, I don't know about now, but at the time, it was really, really hard to get and expensive, but it. Basically, what it does, it's this fermented. It tastes like the dirtiest mushroom soup you've ever. It's pretty rank. It boosts your immune system by 7 to 800%. Like, you're just on tilt. Your immune system is on tilt. So.

[Ryan Sickler]

And how much are you taking? Tablespoons or.

[Richard Marx]

Some people were taking tablespoons. My mom would drink a bottle a day.

[Ryan Sickler]

What.

[Richard Marx]

Which I. There's no way that that didn't.

[Ryan Sickler]

She just powered it down because her.

[Richard Marx]

Tumors just started shrinking where the oncologist.

[Ryan Sickler]

Was like, this is what I wanted to ask you. So you actually had. You reversed things? You didn't just slow and prolong? No, we reversed. Yeah. Okay.

[Richard Marx]

Yeah. And several of the tumors disappeared.

[Ryan Sickler]

Really?

[Richard Marx]

Yeah. At 80 years old?

[Ryan Sickler]

Right.

[Richard Marx]

And then at 81.

[Ryan Sickler]

So what are the doctors saying to you when they're seeing doctors, especially miracles and all this bullshit?

[Richard Marx]

They have no training in nutrition, so I didn't. I realized that in my conversations with them, I was like, this is going to just be meaningless to them. They're just going, we just can't believe it. We've never had a patient, especially at this age. I was like, yeah, I know, but it's not your fucking chemo. It's what we're doing. You know, the chemo might be helping in certain ways.

[Ryan Sickler]

So she was doing a little chemo, too.

[Richard Marx]

She was doing the bare minimum chemo, which I believe what we were doing was also counteracting the negative effects of the chemo.

[Ryan Sickler]

I see.

[Richard Marx]

So she was just winning. And that lasted about five years.

[Ryan Sickler]

And she's just drinking this solution.

[Richard Marx]

And then we took her to Spain with us. She's outpacing us, walking the streets. She's going out to dinner with us all the time. She's on tour with me. She's having a great renaissance, for God's sake. Having some of the best years of her life. She's fallen madly in love with my wife. They bond really, really closely, and Daisy becomes, like a caretaker for her when we're home. They have this great friendship. She's so happy that I'm happy, and she's really close to my kids, and she had a extraordinary relationship with all three of them as well. So it's just a lot of joy and love. And we're, like, really not really worried about her cancer anymore. And then five years in, she just got tired. She was just. And I think that the five years of. Even the base. The base level of chemo and just everything else started to catch up to her and she was not ready to keep fighting that hard. And so she just kind of started to check out. But again, the gift that she gave me, I started recording all my conversations with her the last month, six weeks.

[Ryan Sickler]

I mean, I'm just, I'm so stoked to hear that the last five years of your life, or excuse me, your mom's life and you spending that with her isn't in and out of hospital or doped up not knowing where she's going, the family spending hundreds of thousands of medical bills just. I mean that's a horrific.

[Richard Marx]

She had incredible care. Yeah. When, when I was touring and we were away, I had really great people with her and, and my sons would show up and. No, there was none of that.

[Ryan Sickler]

It was like that solution called again.

[Richard Marx]

Halen H A. I think it's spelled.

[Ryan Sickler]

H A E L A. I'm remember Van Halen. But I'll figure out the spelling. Damn it.

[Richard Marx]

But we just google Halen cancer. I mean for a long time they couldn't say that it.

[Ryan Sickler]

But they probably still can't.

[Richard Marx]

Too many. There's too many. Yeah. You know why? Because the FDA has been trying to get their hands on it. I'll bet they can't.

[Ryan Sickler]

But there's too many humans out there who've said this has made a difference.

[Richard Marx]

All I know is I had three separate examples of it working. Curing cure cancer, three different cancers, but these were in much younger people. And all I can say is that for an 80 year old woman to have stage four lung cancer and be given six months and live six years, it's got to have something to do with that.

[Ryan Sickler]

I'm right there with you.

[Richard Marx]

But my mom also in my conversations with her towards the end and she was completely 100% mentally with it to the end, she started to have these conversations with me. Like I have this one. It's like even though it's been four years, almost four years, I haven't brought myself to go listen, but I just, it's so indelible. One day we were sitting, I was sitting next to her. She was all. She was so ready to go. She was so tiny and. But I was holding her hand and she looked at me, she goes, we did it, kid. She goes, we did it. And I knew exactly what she meant. Like we had this. The same with my dad. Like I didn't get a lot of time with my dad, but with my mom, I'm, you know, pushing 60, still not enough Time. But like, I'll take that. She was 80. She was just about to turn 86. And she was like, we did it. We did it right? And what a great gift to give your kid as you. As you're on your way out.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah, man. You had. Your parents had a knack for closing lines for awesome people.

[Richard Marx]

They were really soulful, smart, loving people from a time when that was not as common.

[Ryan Sickler]

Agreed? Yeah, for sure.

[Richard Marx]

Yeah. I was just the beneficiary of it.

[Ryan Sickler]

And you know, before people come in, I ask them things that they want to talk about. In your chunk here was depression too. So what. When does that hit you? Is that. Is that a part of dad? And then you're battling it or prior to that?

[Richard Marx]

Lifelong?

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Richard Marx]

Chemical, I guess.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay.

[Richard Marx]

You know, Rick Springfield and I are really great friends and we tour together and he's written about it, he's. He's battled depression. Like he tried to kill him. He tried to commit suicide when he was 14.

[Ryan Sickler]

He did?

[Richard Marx]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Did he ever.

[Richard Marx]

No, no, but I had the thoughts.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Richard Marx]

I hear you at different times.

[Ryan Sickler]

And you were never a drinker or anything, huh?

[Richard Marx]

No, I never was. I never did a drug.

[Ryan Sickler]

But I'm saying you never fueled the depression with some. Something else either. So you're just.

[Richard Marx]

Which is lucky because by the time I found that I do like martinis and tequila at 50. Yeah, I was, I was. I had cured. Not cure you never cure yourself of depression. But I had have it managed where that's never going to be a right. You know, like lighter fluid. You know what I mean? No. Even when I was a little kid and maybe, you know, my shrink and I have discussed seeing the unhappiness of my parents marriage probably. But you know what? Sometimes there's no reason. Sometimes you just have sadness in you. And I just had sadness in me when I was a kid. I think it helped fuel the songwriting. I used to have not just crushes on girls. I was like. I was like madly in love. You know what I mean? I've always been a really emotional person. And it started when I was probably 10, 11. I didn't know what it was. I wouldn't have called it depression back then, but it was a form of it. Also being an only child and being insulated and not having a lot of friends and just having music like my world was my parents and music and listening to music and getting lost in it and then creating it. And I've battled depression slash just darkness my whole life, but I've. The last dozen years I manage it better than ever, and I understand. Just took a long time to really understand it. And I feel so grateful that I ended up finding a therapist who really helped me, because sometimes you can get really bad therapy.

[Ryan Sickler]

I talk about on the show all the time. Finding a good therapist is really like dating. Yeah. I can't tell you how many I've been like, nope. I had one. One time I sat down for our first meeting, he busted out a sandwich and started eating while I was like, d. Did you not schedule a lunch break for yourself? You know what I mean?

[Richard Marx]

Like, I had a.

[Ryan Sickler]

Are you gonna eat with. Talk to me with your mouth full right now. I'm crying.

[Richard Marx]

I'll take that. I had a couple of therapists in a row when I was younger, and I just felt like there were guys who I felt were giving me because some of what I was dealing with had to do with the relationship I was in. And I felt like they were giving me this sort of guy get out of jail free card. They were like, you know, we're men. And I was like, even though that feels good to hear, I don't think that's helping. And so I broke up with the second one. And when I decided to go back to therapy again, like a year or two later, I was like, I'm gonna have a woman. So I did some research and got recommendations. Then I ended up going to this woman in Chicago. And the third session, she hit on me. No. Were you.

[Ryan Sickler]

How old were you?

[Richard Marx]

40 something.

[Ryan Sickler]

You're already Richard Marks on this one. She hit on you? Yeah.

[Richard Marx]

I was like, fucked up. It was up. I was like, oh, how'd she do it?

[Ryan Sickler]

What'd she say? How does a therapist make the move? It started with, this is a licensed lady. You're not. No offense, you're not a Joe Blow that can roll out and say something about it. And this lady's like, it was so stupid on her. It's a really.

[Richard Marx]

It started with, like, the third session or sec. Like, early into the relationship. I came in, I sat down, and she had just gone to a conference in New York. And she said, so I gotta tell you, I'm in the cab going to this thing. And there you are in the cab on the screen. I don't know. I was promoting something. My face was on the thing, and the way she said it was all sort of, like, giddy and girly. And I was like, that doesn't seem pro. That doesn't seem therapisty to me. And then the next session, she just. It Wasn't super blatant, but it was just. I was like, I know what I'm being hit on, like. And I left the session and I didn't rebook. She's like, so when are we. And I was like, I'll text you, I'll let you know. I was like, I'm done. And then she started to hound me. This is another thing you don't do as a therapist. Yeah, she's calling me, like, I'm going. You guys start calling me. It was so fucking bizarre. But my point is that you're not going to find.

[Ryan Sickler]

You're lucky if you find the right one out of the gate at 50 or 51.

[Richard Marx]

I found my guy, my person, who's this 70 something year old guy that has done so much work on himself and he's just, he's the perfect fit for me and he's been instrumental in my mental health. Instrumental. So when you, if you can find, if you're lucky enough to find a therapist who's really good and understands how to help you. And I remember early on he said to me, the only reason that I exist in your life and should exist in your life is to reduce your suffering. That's it.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's it. I don't need a new friend, you know, it's not what I'm here for. None of that shit. I've had friends tell me their therapist, like, we should go and hang out. I'm like, you should never hang out with your friends.

[Richard Marx]

Therapist. You gotta, you gotta.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's not who this person is.

[Richard Marx]

There has to be a line, you know?

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah, like, all right, I want to ask you a couple questions. Is there ever a song you wrote that you gave away where you were like, no, never. Never.

[Richard Marx]

Because I. A lot of times people think I gave a song away, I wrote a song for somebody else deliberately.

[Ryan Sickler]

What. How's that work in your head? The way a chef sort of like sits there and thinks all these. Who do you come up with the person first? Or do you think of a song first and think, oh, that would fit this person. What's your.

[Richard Marx]

Have you ever written that? Have you ever written comedy for somebody else?

[Ryan Sickler]

No, but I've had people come up to me and say that kind of really isn't in your lane. Could I buy that joke from me? And I'm like, yeah, and I'm comfortable not doing it again.

[Richard Marx]

Okay.

[Ryan Sickler]

I never thought of them.

[Richard Marx]

Okay. So my point is, if you, like, if Lucy K. Called you and said, look, I'm dry, can you Write. Will you write me? Which is never gonna happen.

[Ryan Sickler]

I was gonna laugh and write that he.

[Richard Marx]

To me, he really is such a fucking genius, I think. But if he said, I need help, and you went, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna write material for Louis ck. You're gonna think differently than if you were writing.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah, 100%.

[Richard Marx]

And therefore, if you.

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, sorry, no soundtrack. Perfect.

[Richard Marx]

No, it's just my. Yeah, it's Adagio by Dominic Miller. Gorgeous, right? It's what I wake up to in the morning.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's nice.

[Richard Marx]

If you write stuff for Louis CK that he then does and it crushes, how happy are you gonna be?

[Ryan Sickler]

Yes.

[Richard Marx]

You're not gonna feel like you gave. Oh, I should have kept that for myself. Well, it's the same thing with me writing songs for other people. This I promise you, that I wrote for NSync, for example, which was, you know, huge. Huge record and still gives a lot of airplay. I do it live. My fans love me singing it. I don't know that I would have had a hit with it. Certainly not in 2000. They were the biggest group in the world. I was so lucky to write a song for them.

[Ryan Sickler]

What is your biggest hit? Whether it was yours or you wrote or collabed on what's the Probably Right.

[Richard Marx]

Here Waiting is my biggest hit as an artist and writer. But Dance With My Father is really, really big. Whole Nine of the Nights was big. Should have Known Better was big. Like, I've been lucky to have a. You know, and in the country world, you know, Long Hot Summer with Keith Urban was a huge.

[Ryan Sickler]

Tell me about that. Like, you get a hit, then you gotta have a. Another one, right? Yeah. And you gotta have one like. Yeah. So what is that pressure, like, where now you're not just necessarily writing because you're enjoying this song or whatever. You also got to make sure you figure out how to come up with a banger. How do you do that?

[Richard Marx]

I'm gonna say, I'm such a dick.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's okay. If it's this, I didn't.

[Richard Marx]

It wasn't in a cocky way. I just never worried about it.

[Ryan Sickler]

You never sat out like, okay, I've got three hits and I gotta have another one. This has to happen. I was always.

[Richard Marx]

First of all, just trust me. I was always writing. I see if I was on tour for 18 months, which is. Which common back then, like, barely any breaks for a year, year and a half. I'd come off stage, grab something to eat, get take a shower. I'm wired from the show, you know? Right.

[Ryan Sickler]

Adrenaline.

[Richard Marx]

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I wasn't hiring hookers, and I wasn't a partier at all, so I wrote songs. I would go back to my hotel room and grab a guitar and I'd write songs. And my brain was always in song mode. It still kind of is, which is a bizarre thing.

[Ryan Sickler]

Is it really?

[Richard Marx]

Yeah. I write something. Something comes to me every day. It's not an active choice. I don't ever, like, hardly ever do I go, I need to go write a song.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay. That's what I wanted to know.

[Richard Marx]

But every day, something will just sort of. That's always been the way with me.

[Ryan Sickler]

When are you. Excuse me? When are you.

[Richard Marx]

Your most creative in nature?

[Ryan Sickler]

Oh, yeah.

[Richard Marx]

So if I.

[Ryan Sickler]

On hikes, things like, Me too, dude.

[Richard Marx]

That's where I go.

[Ryan Sickler]

It's so clear that there's two times nature clears everything. I see it all. It's. I'm walking and I process it.

[Richard Marx]

You also makes. It makes you feel so small.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Richard Marx]

You can let go of all that.

[Ryan Sickler]

I'm nothing.

[Richard Marx]

Yeah. Sorry.

[Ryan Sickler]

What do I. No, no. I mean, what do I really. What am I? I'm an ant on this rock in outer space. And then also right as I'm slipping into sleep.

[Richard Marx]

Oh, yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Do you ever get that, like, I'll start thinking of my set or just some ideal come to me. I'm like, oh, that's fun. Good premise. So that's funny. And then back in the day, I used to take a little mini recorder and put it in, because I would swear I'm gonna remember that in the morning. And I get up and I'm trying.

[Richard Marx]

Rookie mistake.

[Ryan Sickler]

Like, nah.

[Richard Marx]

Rookie mistake. I find that music is just so effortlessly effortless for me to write. I feel like the well is still super deep.

[Ryan Sickler]

Like, you're an open channel and you can just.

[Richard Marx]

And it's like. Like, even making this new album of, like, writing songs I'd never dabbled in before that. I pretended that I was a songwriter in 1949 trying to get Sinatra to do my song. That's the song. Those are the songs I wrote. So I was writing chord changes I'd never written before and swing and, like. But it was such a fun challenge for me to channel that shit. So. Music's always easy. It's the lyrics that are harder for me because I don't want to write cliches and, like, just generic stuff. And that's when I go hiking. And I swear I heard Sting say this, too. I feel like lines and words, like, behind that Bush or behind that tree. And I just got to be out there. And I. I'll take. If I need to write lyrics, I do an hour hike. I come back with a lyric. It's done.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah.

[Richard Marx]

I just talk it into my.

[Ryan Sickler]

Who still in. In. Inspires you today? Anybody out there?

[Richard Marx]

Rod Stewart. Yeah, But Rod Stewart inspires me in that. Just to see him at 80. And we've become 80 pals in the last couple years. And I'm touring with him. We just announced I'm touring with him next year. That's fucking awesome. We've become pals. And I watch the way he lives his life, and I see the balance. He works his ass off. He did. He turned 80 in January, and he decided he was gonna do 80 shows this year. And he's about to.

[Ryan Sickler]

This is a man who's got everything to take off. No doubt. Right?

[Richard Marx]

The more money than he could ever possibly spend in eight lifetimes. He's just.

[Ryan Sickler]

He loves it.

[Richard Marx]

And you know what? When we sit together, we like to drink together. The conversation every single time. And I've hung out with him now probably 40 times. It's always gratitude. We talk about how lucky we are, how lucky we are that we get to do this for a living still, that we have families that we love, that the fans still love to come and sing our songs with us.

[Ryan Sickler]

You got your health.

[Richard Marx]

Yes. The most important, we both go and get checked out. He's the king of scans and tests.

[Ryan Sickler]

Hell, yeah.

[Richard Marx]

Because he wants to wring every drop out of it. But I also watch him off stage. The way he lives, the manner in which he lives, is really inspiring.

[Ryan Sickler]

Isn't he? Does he have a young baby or something?

[Richard Marx]

Yeah, he's got two. Young.

[Ryan Sickler]

How old?

[Richard Marx]

Not babies, but his youngest, Aiden, is, I think under 10. No, like 13, maybe.

[Ryan Sickler]

And he's 80.

[Richard Marx]

Yeah. He's got eight kids.

[Ryan Sickler]

Eight. And he. No wonder he wants to get out there.

[Richard Marx]

His oldest is 43, and actually he has one that he had when he didn't even know Grandpa Rod Stewart. Oh, yeah. He's got a bunch of grandchildren.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah, I bet.

[Richard Marx]

But it's.

[Ryan Sickler]

But he loves it, huh?

[Richard Marx]

It's just being around him, the conversations. We never talk about the business, talk about life. Talk about gratitude and life and love in your life. And he's a really inspiring guy to me. And his hair, bro.

[Ryan Sickler]

Whatever. Listen, we can give Rod store props on his hair, but we're gonna give you that same shit.

[Richard Marx]

I think we're all in the club. He would be the first to Say, oh, you're doing good too.

[Ryan Sickler]

For 80 though, he does have a 80. That's. It's not thin in there. It looks crazy. Rock star. Good. Yeah. Thank you so much for doing this, dude.

[Richard Marx]

This is a pleasure, man.

[Ryan Sickler]

I can't thank you enough. Last question and we're gonna get you out of here. Advice you'd give to 16 year old Richard Marks.

[Richard Marx]

Enjoy everything more.

[Ryan Sickler]

More.

[Richard Marx]

Especially the first 10 years of my career, I was so busy focused on next that I was never present. And I don't, I don't know, tell a 23 year old kid to be present, he's gonna go fuck yourself.

[Ryan Sickler]

Go fuck yourself. They're also gonna think they are.

[Richard Marx]

I didn't, I don't even think it was even a concept for me at that time. But I think that when I look back now, like when I see old videos and I see pictures and I think how extraordinary that was that I got to do all that shit. And then I checked all those boxes off my wish list and, and I was in my 20s and early 30s and I just was next. And I was never like, my wife Daisy, when I started dating her, she asked me, how did you celebrate all those hits, those number ones? And I was like, what are you talking about? I didn't. She was, well, we have to start celebrating now. We'll do it retroactively.

[Ryan Sickler]

Yeah. That's awesome.

[Richard Marx]

Yeah. So we do. We're, we're in constant celebration mode.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's great. I, I fully support that.

[Richard Marx]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

You know, I hear this from a lot of athletes and things too that win the super bowl or whatever. And they talk about like, you don't really feel it when you're in it. You're going through it and you're trying to get here, here, here. It's the reflection. Later when you look back and you go, wow, look at all that shit I did. And you do wish you could step out just for a moment in that time and go, man, I fucking crushed this today.

[Richard Marx]

Yeah. Unlike an athlete, though, and I'm friends with several. The one thing that we've talked about, I feel really extra lucky, which is, you know, if you have an illustrious career as an athlete, you can, as you're older, you can look back on it in a different way, but you can't still do it.

[Ryan Sickler]

That's right.

[Richard Marx]

I have.

[Ryan Sickler]

You can still dunk.

[Richard Marx]

This is something that Rod and I talk about all the time. The fact that we still get out here and people are still coming and we're, we're doing these amazing gigs, and.

[Ryan Sickler]

It'S a great point.

[Richard Marx]

And I'd like I just. And I. To be able. I tell my audiences every night. I. I didn't used to do this when I was young because I didn't have the wherewithal for years and years. Now I tell every fucking audience, thank you so much. No, genuine, like, really, thank you for being here.

[Ryan Sickler]

It means I'll start all my episodes. I'm with you, brother.

[Richard Marx]

Yeah.

[Ryan Sickler]

Thank you again. Promote right here. We are right there. Tell them whatever you'd like. Promote it all.

[Richard Marx]

After Hours, January 16, featuring a duet with Rod Stewart, featuring Chris Bode, featuring Kenny G. It's an album I'm really proud of. And I'm on tour all the time, everywhere around the world. Come see me anytime.

[Ryan Sickler]

Richard Marks on all social media.

[Richard Marx]

The Richard Marks on Instagram.

[Ryan Sickler]

Okay. Yeah, of course. Who the fuck got Richard Marks?

[Richard Marx]

Some fucking dick and won't give it to you.

[Ryan Sickler]

Come on, man. That's an asshole.

[Richard Marx]

And Richard Marks on Tick Tock. I've got Tick Tock, but.

[Ryan Sickler]

All right. My man. Thank you so much.

[Richard Marx]

A pleasure.

[Ryan Sickler]

Great as always. Ryan Sickler on all your social media. We'll talk to you all next week.

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