Richard Marx is Rocking His 60s, Softly

Singer/songwriter embraces ‘the best job on the planet,’ and spending time with family and friends

Gayle Jo Carter,

AARP

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Published February 10, 2025

Close-up view of Richard Marx in a business suit

Jamieson Mundy

Grammy-winning singer/songwriter, producer and best-selling author Richard Marx, 61, is making the most of his seventh decade. “I have the best job on the planet,” says Marx, who launches a new weekly podcast, Stories to Tell, on Feb. 18. In each episode, Marx will mix cocktails and conversation with guests including Katie Couric, Paul Stanley from KISS, Rick Springfield and Kenny G. He is also in the midst of an acoustic concert tour with co-headliner Springfield, 75.

While Marx has no plans to retire anytime soon, he does have a role model in mind as he approaches that stage in his life and career. “I hope to sort of take the Tony Bennett train where, a year, year and a half before Tony died, he was still performing,” he says. “I saw him, and he was still phenomenal. As long as I can get up there and do it well.”

Marx recently spoke with AARP about the new artists he’s passionate about, what keeps him in tip-top performance shape; and how he and wife Daisy Fuentes, 58, like to spend their time together.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

I was listening to your music as I waited for you to jump on the video call.

Oh yeah? What particularly?

Playing right now is Until I Find You Again.

That’s a very obscure one. Of all the hits, that was not one of them.

Richard Marx, a master of melody, in full performance mode

Richard Marx performs at The Mountain Winery in Saratoga, California, in August 2024.

Steve Jennings/Getty Images

What music do you listen to?

Most of my friends, peers, coworkers tend to be a little bit older because I was a kid when I showed up in L.A. ... And when we get around to talking about music, I’m the only one in my friend group who is constantly referencing new music. A lot of my friends don’t listen to [the SiriusXM channel] Hits 1 or [streaming service Spotify’s] New Music Friday or any of the stuff that I listen to that keeps me involved and tuned in to what’s going on. ... I was just listening to Tate McRae and Lauv, which is this artist I love, and LANY. I hear stuff all the time [that] I’m just so blown away by it and envious of, and it’s great. It really helps keep you young.

You’ve collaborated with many artists over the years. Do any in this new crop inspire that?

I could see collaborating with any of them, but the last person they need help from is me. They’re doing just fine. When I was in my 20s or 30s ... there were older artists who I really admired, who I ended up working with. When I was in high school, my favorite singer was Kenny Loggins. I learned a lot about my own singing from listening to Kenny’s records. And then when I was 19, 20, I met him. We became friends. We did a bunch of songs together. So I definitely always embraced the idea of working with my people who came before me. But I don’t expect that or anticipate that from young artists. I think that they really want to collaborate with each other, and that makes sense to me.

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What advice would you give your 21-year-old self?

Have more fun and don’t take things personally.

As a songwriter, where does your inspiration come from?

Every once in a while I dream something — and I’ve learned a long time ago, the hard way, that you have to record it, write it down, put it down somehow. You say to yourself in your slumber, I’ll remember it. ... When it comes to the lyrics, I’ve found that I have to be outside.

What cocktails will you be mixing up on your new show?

I can pretty much make anything. I’m personally a purist, so I don’t really do cocktails. I don’t really do mixed drinks. I don’t like sugar. I have no sugar in my diet. So I’ll make what anybody wants, but I’m a straight vodka martini guy. I don’t even like vermouth in my martini. And some of the people that I have interviewed already are sober, so I’ll do a mocktail. It’s kind of fun to be creative and come up with something that’s delicious, but that’s alcohol-free. It’s mainly just a conversation starter, a prop. I love to sit and have a cocktail.

Do you put olives in your martini?

I used to. I’m a twist guy now.

So no sugar. What else are you doing to stay fit?

I’m really, really clean with my diet, really careful — [I] was vegan for about seven years. Now I’m a little vegetarian but no fish, no meat. The no-sugar thing is huge. Really been a game-changer for me. And just constant movement, constant variation of exercise. My favorite thing is to be outside and hiking the mountains. ... I look at Rod Stewart, who just turned 80 and who I’ve become friends with recently in the last couple of years — he’s constantly exercising. He doesn’t really play soccer anymore ... But he’s in the gym three or four days a week, he’s careful with what he eats, he still likes a martini as do I. ... There are a couple guys I know who are considerably older than me and they’re just kicking ass, and I watch them and I take notes.

Katie Couric, Kenny G. Is there one question you ask every guest?

The thing that I’m always trying to get to is not what do they think, but how do they think? Because I’m such a believer that how we think completely dictates the reality of our life. And the kind of life you have depends upon the quality of your thinking. So, I notice that someone is constantly saying, “Oh, I knew that was never going to happen” or “I know I’ll never do this.” I think to myself, you're correct, you won’t, because that’s the way you’re thinking. But people who, like me, are always thinking, I’m going to do this, and I can’t wait to do that, and I think I’m going to do this — it’s going to benefit you to think that way, always.

Did something inspire you to have this — let’s simplify it down to positive thinking?

For me, it was born more out of what I was doing wrong before, the way I was thinking incorrectly. And then somebody gave me a copy of this book called As a Man Thinketh by James Allen. [It’s a self-help book first published in 1903 that focuses on the power of thought to shape your life.] It’s my bible … [it came out] long before people were talking about manifestation and all that stuff. Every single page of this book is just so right on. It was so eye-opening for me and I refer to it all the time, but I pretty much live it.

I remember watching the talk shows with Merv Griffin and Mike Douglas growing up. Did any interviewers inspire you?

I remember when I did The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, I realized why he was the king, because I had done all the other talk shows at that time, the ’80s and ’90s. And when I went on with Johnny, it was like being in a master class. The way he handled it, yes, he was very quick, and if there was an opportunity for him to be funny, he would be, but never at the expense of the guest. ... Dick Cavett was [also] a really, really good interviewer. I was a big fan of his.

Richard Marx and Daisy Fuentes, a captivating duo, pose together

Richard Marx and Daisy Fuentes have been married since 2015.

Getty Images

Your schedule is very busy. Do you and Daisy ever just chill and binge some TV?

That’s a very, very rare occurrence. In fact, at the end of the fourth year we were together, we realized that we had only watched three films, maybe a couple of episodes of TV, and it’s pretty much that way now. When people say, “What do you guys do?” There’s a dirty answer, which is really fun. But the other answer is that we talk. ... And when we have a nice quiet night at home, we don’t want to be in front of a screen. We make a drink and Daisy makes dinner and we listen to beautiful music and we talk and we say things like, Hey, I read this thing today or I saw this thing today.

So of the little TV you watch, it must be good. What is it?

I’ve turned her on to two shows that I’ve loved. One of them was Dexter, which I binged again because she couldn’t stop watching it with me. And I mean the original Dexter. And then there’s this other show that I really, really love called Suits that was huge, especially during the pandemic. But I started when it first came on the air. ... And so now Daisy’s obsessed with Suits. So I’m watching it over again. .. There’s so many seasons, we’ll probably be in our 70s by the time we finish.

And you have three boys [with ex-wife Cynthia Rhodes, 68]. What do you all like to do together?

We sit and talk. My sons are 34 [Brandon], 32 [Lucas] and 31 [Jesse]. And so they’re now my best friends. When I’m off the road, my sons and I have a standing dinner, the four of us. ... And we go to the same place that makes amazing cocktails, and we sit and talk about what’s going on in our lives. We hang out together a lot, but we try to make that a really sort of sacred get-together for the four of us. I cherish those experiences.

The resonant tones of a guitar fill the air, accompanied by the soulful voice of Richard Marx

Richard Marx performs in Las Vegas as part of an acoustic tour that he's currently co-headlining with Rick Springfield.

Denise Truscello/Getty Images for Palms Casino Resort

You don’t have any grandkids, though, do you?

I do. I have a granddaughter from my oldest son. She’s 15 now, which I can’t believe. And, every once in a while, she’ll text me and ask me about [things] like, “Papa, did you ever meet Michael Jackson?” And I can regale her with stories of my youth. It’s fun.

What would retirement look like to Richard Marx? Any plans?

Oh God, no. I can’t imagine. Why would I ever? I hope to sort of take the Tony Bennett train where, a year, year and a half before Tony died, he was still performing. ... As long as I can get up there and do it well. I don’t know what that’s going to look like. I can’t imagine I’m going to, in my 80s, be up there singing Don’t Mean Nothing, Should’ve Known Better, running around the stage. ... I really think I have the best job on the planet. I love it more now than I ever have before. I’m having more fun. Part of that is not taking it too seriously. Part of it is having a wife who loves to join me on the road. But it’s also just the act of getting up and singing and making people smile, making people happy for two hours. You have to be older to appreciate that that’s what it is that we do. And then you have your own appreciation for it more than ever.

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Gayle Jo Carter is a former entertainment editor at USA WEEKEND, who during her 30-year reporting and editing career, has worked at USA TODAY, Voice of America and Feature Story News. When not interviewing high-profile people, she’s teaching reformer Pilates classes and doing her best to raise two empathetic, curious, healthy young people to adulthood.