American music icon Richard Marx: ‘I just enjoy the act of making music and making people happy’

It’s not an exaggeration to say that American music icon Richard Marx has a stellar resume. In a career spanning over 30 years, Marx has sold over 30 million albums worldwide, won numerous industry accolades – including the Grammy Award for song of the year in 2004 for Dance With My Father, which he co-wrote with Luther Vandross – and penned multiple classics for himself and other artistes including Hazard, This I Promise You and of course, Right Here Waiting.
Yet, despite ticking off “almost all the boxes” as he puts it, the singer-songwriter has been busier than ever. Till today, Marx is constantly on the road performing at an assortment of venues – be it arenas in Australia or at Singapore’s very own Our Tampines Hub.
Marx performed on Saturday (Sep 14) at a charity concert for social service agency Dementia Singapore. CNA Lifestyle caught up with him before his performance to find out what drives him to remain active.
I just remember starting to come to the whole region of Southeast Asia in the 80s – earlier than a lot of my peers. I always wanted to tour everywhere my music was known.
I found that Singapore just tended to be my favourite stop every tour. The fans were just amazing. The city is beautiful. I always had a great time here, so I always look forward to coming back.
I don’t know how to do anything else. I’m not proud to say this but I don’t really have hobbies; there are activities I like to do but my life has always been music – creating music and now, performing.
Performing takes up much more of my time than creating music. I still write, I still record but it’s much less than the old days.
This is my life. I love my home life as well, but I feel like I’m always sort of in motion. I’m comfortable travelling. Sometimes, it gets a little tiring but it’s been a surprise to me that, in the last 10 years especially, I’ve just found that I enjoy performing and touring more than I ever have before.
So I’m just really grateful that people still come to my shows and that I can be as busy as I am.
Not anything specific. My days of goals or achievements – I’ve kind of ticked off almost all the boxes. I just enjoy the act of making music, and making people happy. It’s not like ‘I really wanna win another Grammy’ or ‘I really want another number one song’ or ‘I really wanna work with [this artiste]’.
I don’t really have those anymore. I think, if anything, I’ve gone from being a person who’s very goal-oriented to just sitting back, letting things come to me and not trying too hard. 
Now, I’m busier than ever just by sitting around and waiting for the phone to ring.
I do, unfortunately. It seems like [the number of people with] Alzheimer’s disease and dementia has increased decade by decade. We need to figure out what is causing the increase. I think the only way to figure it out is to raise enough money to do the research so that people can prevent it.
The person I know who has it not very old, in her 70s. A really bright, lovely woman who now doesn’t know where she is or who she is. It’s heartbreaking.
SO IN A FEW DAYS TIME, YOU’LL BE CELEBRATING YOUR 61ST BIRTHDAY…
Why do you gotta bum me out, man?
Thank you. The most important one – and it took me a while to learn this – is that whatever you think about the most is what your reality will be. If you think negatively, you’re gonna have a negative life.
If I had known that when I was young, I would have had a better quality of thoughts – not that I haven’t had a great life and a lot of success. But I also didn’t realise that until I was in my late forties.
It’s the greatest lesson and I still catch myself sometimes. If I’m not feeling great about my mental state or if I’m feeling a little depressed, I realise it’s just because I’ve gotten caught up in negative thinking.
I’m pretty good about reversing that.