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

Episode Date: January 19, 2026

SPONSORS:Lucy- Get 20% off your first order when you buy online with code HONEYDEW at lucy.coRag & Bones-Upgrade your denim game with Rag & Bone! Get 20% off sitewide with code HONEYDEW at www.rag-bone.comMy HoneyDew this week is musician Richard Marx! Check out Richard’s new album After Hours, out now where you stream music. Richard joins me this week to Highlight the Lowlights of his journey in the music industry! We touch on what it was like to come up in music, to then watch your kids grow up and follow the same path into the family business. Richard opens up about the loss of his father, the final words he left him with, and the change it sparked in his own life. We also get into how Richard handles his life long struggle with depression, and the role that creating and performing music plays in helping him navigate it.🎟️See me live. All tickets atwww.ryansickler.com/tour🎤Check out my new standup special “Live & Alive” streaming on my YouTube now!youtu.be/PMGWVyM2NJo?si=SrhXjgzR1pe6CyYE👉 Subscribe for more standup and new episodes of The HoneyDew, The Wayback, and more!youtube.com/@rsickler✅ Subscribe to my Patreon “The HoneyDew with Y’all”! Get The HoneyDew audio and video a day early, ad-free, for just $5/month!Want more? Upgrade to the $8/month premium tier and get everything above plus The Wayback a day early, ad-free, censor-free, and exclusive bonus content you won’t find anywhere else!patreon.com/RyanSickler📧What’s your story?? Submit at [e-mail]👕Get Your Merch👕www.bonfire.com/store/ryansickler/🎧 Listen to my Podcasts 🎧The HoneyDew - podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-honeydew-with-ryan-sickler/id527446250The Wayback - podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-wayback-with-ryan-sickler/id1721601479Patreon - www.patreon.com/ryansickler📣 Follow Me📣▪ Instagram:   www.instagram.com/ryansickler/▪ TikTok:   www.tiktok.com/@ryan.sickler▪ Facebook:   www.facebook.com/RyanSicklerOfficial🕸️ryansickler.com/🍈thehoneydewpodcast.com/🦀Subscribe to The CrabFeast Podcast🦀podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-crabfeast-with-ryan-sickler-and-jay-larson/id1452403187

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Kansas City. I'm headed back your way, Valentine's weekend. That's right. Valentine's weekend. I'll be there February 13th and the 14th. Connecticut. Come see me at Comics Roadhouse March 13th and 14th. Get your tickets now at Ryan Sickler.com. The Honeydew with Ryan Sickler. Welcome back to the honeydew y'all. We're over here. doing in the NightPants Studios. I am Ryan Sickler. Ryan 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 streaming now live and alive. And if you got to have more than you got to have our Patreon, the honeydue with y'all. It's this show with y'all. It's five bucks a month. It's been that for years. It's not going to ever be anything more than that. So if you or

someone you know has a story that has to be heard, submit it to Honeydew Podcast at gmail.com, and hopefully we'll get to do a story together. All right. That's the biz. You guys know what we do here. We highlight the low lights. I 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 Mark. Welcome to the Honeydew, Richard Mark. Thank you, brother. Can't thank you enough for being here. Oh, it's a pleasure. I do want to, before I let you promote anything, I want to, give. It's the only reason I'm here is to promote. Yes, it is. I want to give love to your son. Brandon. Brandon Marks. Yep. You guys know, he met you before I did. Years 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. 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, any knew your son. He's like, I know this guy, Brandon. He's an audio guy. He's really good at what he does.

Mine, 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. I'm like, that the fucking 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 Mark says?

I'm like, the fucking love ballad master Richard Martin is. He's like, yeah, ask my dad. I'm like, Get the fuck out of here, dude. And here we are now, five years later.

Yeah, and I was just showing you. And now he's become an incredible photographer. And he shot the, what is the album cover from 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 a family business. My dad was a musician, so it makes total sense. That's what I'm, that's what a family business. I fucking love here. I could talk to you about this all day. Real quick, the name of the album. After hours. And when's it available?

January 16th. Everywhere you get music. Everywhere. Everywhere. No, only at Kmart. You're exclusive to Kmart, Blue Light Special. Oh, man. 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 in you a little bit. When? So you have three boys. How old are they now? 30 brand is 35 Lucas is 33 and my baby boy's 31 jessie wow okay you have grown ass men yeah they're my drinking buddies now and how old are you 62 did you fucking look great thank you you really do look great you took care of yourself no uh yet not against it don't yet don't yet but what are you do you gonna do fucking get a new face in your 80s rich your mark maybe some people do 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. Yeah, and then 60. 60. Did you notice that? Well, I drastic, 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. Okay. 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 I do now. And no, it's like, you know, I think the greatest compliment I get. yet from people, or especially trolls online, are the people who have accused me of having a facelift.

I just go, thanks, because I haven't, but. 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 he get to work with your kids, like, when do you realize, like, he's fucking gets pretty good. And we can collab on things and stuff. When does that happen 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 in the house yeah okay so they're here and then when they were like when they were like eight 10 range i was really primarily i wasn't touring that much i was producing and writing for other artists so in sync was at the house and keith urban was at the house and keith urban was at the house

and Josh Grobin and these people who I worked with and produced. So they watched, they loved being in the room. They watched the process. So I'm 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, yeah, okay, boy band, country. And Christauchery and like so, 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 and 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. That's nice. 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. We would do something together and the place would go crazy, partly because it's cute, but mostly because they're badass. They're good. They're so good. Yeah. 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 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 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 actually made a little bit of money from the music business. 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 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. That's fucking great. I envy it. I was that way with my dad. I'm not to show up.

I'm not to come for hugs, guys. I'm coming for sleep. Can I come for sleep over, bro? Can I just come for sleep? But when you have that kind of dynamic when you're 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? Yeah, I am. You are? How many grandchildren? Just one. Just one. Okay.

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 family situation is like the least dysfunctional of anything I've seen. I mean, listen, that's not only remarkable in general, but for entertainment family. No shit. That's unheard of. Yeah.

Most people can't hold it together. Totally. Regular Joe's, you know what I mean? You've 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?

Chicago. Chicago. And mom and dad, both in the entertainment industry or just dad? Not really in the entertainment business, but the music business in that. So my dad was a really successful jazz pianist in Chicago. Okay. Really respected. The year, a 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. life, he found that he had this knack for writing catchy melodies. That like Alan Thick thing? Alan Thick, Barry Manilow or a Band-Aid. Yeah, it's right. Randy Newman, wrote jingles. That's right. And it's a really particular art form because you've got to 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. What are some that we know? I mean, if you're of a certain, if you're over 45 or so, you might remember, well, probably the most famous one to this day is ask any mermaid you happen to see. Yeah.

What's the best tuna chicken on the sea? He wrote that. That's your dad? Yeah, but none of the stupid lyrics, just the catchy melodies. Gotcha. He just writes the melodies. You name it, he did the commercial for 30 years. That's even more interesting. So he's just giving them the music.

Yeah. And then some other person's putting these lyrics to it or whatever. They would give him a slogan. Okay. For instance, if you believe in peanut butter, you got to believe in Peter Pan. So my dad wrote, if you believe in peanut butter, you got to 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 commercial. 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's cool, yeah. 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. Then when do you decide I'm going all in on this? Like, how young are you, where you know you want to be a career? Younger, younger than I can remember. I mean, there was never.

never any... No doubt. You never... Well, there was never a thought of anything else. Nothing, huh? 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, I want to have a career in the music business for as long as I possibly can't. And the way to do that is to bob and weave. 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 just, I wanted to get laid. That was a big part of wanting to be in me.

I'm sure it was. Certainly helped. Because it, I wasn't, I didn't have games. You didn't just help yourself, brother. That's touching up. You helped a lot of us out there, everybody. I did not. Yes. You're welcome.

You're welcome, Ryan. And all are you out there. I get guys coming up to me all the time thanking me. Yeah. Hey, I helped myself, but I helped you too. There's no doubt you hope so many of us. Oh shit, 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 going to? Well, the ballads were always, I wrote everything. I wrote rock songs. I know you have, don't mean, you got all up everything. Yeah, but I mean, I always loved romantic songs. I always loved love. What was your first one? First hit?

Ballad, love song. The first hit love song was, well, Endless Summer Nights was kind of a ballad-y thing. But the big power ballad was hold on to the nights. That was my first number one song. Yeah. Oh, that was first number one overall. Yeah. And still to this day, the number one prom anthem in America.

Is that right? Yeah. They're still playing it. Yeah. A song about cheating, by the way. They don't need to know. I tell people like all these Gen Z. at their prom now like hold on to the oh my god i love this song 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 rosalna looked to 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. You're responsible for so many people's lost virginities. I hope, dude.

All that stuff, dude. All that. Weddings, divorces. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But getting laid is, I was saying to my audiences, you know, if you can't get laid at a Richard Mark's concert, you can't get later. 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? I'm an only child. You are, okay. My parents have a great relationship for the first eight years and then not. Of your life or just their marriage? Which is kind of both. Oh, it is. I came along two years in.

Okay. 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 of years of my dad's life, they were separated. So he was living here in L.A. 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?

Yeah, I do. Yeah. I completely know. You got two seasons to wrap. You know, 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 didn't, they weren't getting along. and it was very contentious and a lot of yelling and stuff. But they stayed together.

So you never had to go 50-50 or live with mom or dad. Even though it's not good, you're under one roof. When I left home at 18, they were actually in a pretty good place comparatively at that point. They had periods where they were better with each other. And then it was exciting because a couple of years after that, they decided to pack up and move to California to be near me, which I love. Okay. And so that was sort of a renaissance for them. They, for a couple of years, they, they were having fun and, you know, following me around on tour.

And I was, I took them to Australia and, um. How are you when your first, um, my first hit, I was 23. So they, okay. And what are they, are they just over the moon? Yeah, but it was like, it was a, it was a process because I had my first hit at 19 as a songwriter. Okay. 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. Which one? But we actually wrote another song for 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 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 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 like. Oh, you've always had gorgeous hair. I mean, look at your hair still.

Is it your dad? Yeah, my dad. I mean, you had the most gorgeous mullet back then. I think I still have a pretty much every hair in my head. It wasn't like a ratty mullet. Like you really took care of it and it looked nice out there. I mean, look, hey, don't ruin my. I could show you some pictures.

You'd be like, oh, I'm remembering it more fond of me than it was. But even still, in your 60s, you got a full fucking head of salad up there, bro. You look good. I do not take it for granted for a second. One of the things I'm the most grateful for. Me too. I'm 52 and I still have it. Most of my friends are bald or baldding or gone.

I'm like, still got this shit up here, bro. Yeah, man. We're lucky. Can't grow a beard like a fucking real man, but whatever. I still got this. It's all that matters. You mentioned your dad passing. What happened to your father?

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. Really big? 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,

270, 275, 280. In a good year, he'd be 250, 240, which

culminated in health issues. 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, fuck it, I'm done. So he wasn't

a So he didn't just go to one pack, he just was like, oh, wait, they said these aren't good for it. 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. That is wild. To go from a three pack a day to none. And my mom said, you know, most of them would burn up in the astray while he was writing music and he just always had one going, you know. But he had a horrible diet. the weight was a problem.

And so when he was 50, he had a mild heart attack. And so I just remember, I was, he had me, I was his second family. He had three kids to the first marriage. So he was 40 when I was born. So you're 10 years old. So I'm 10 and my dad 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 going back to some of the shit you shouldn't be doing. The weight crept back up. Was he a drinker as well? No, never.

Just smoke. But a heavy meat eater. So then, I don't know, maybe eight years later, nine years later, he has emergency triple bypass because he's like, his arteries are just clogged. So that changed things too. But so I only referenced this because I spent most of my life with him worrying about him. You knew his, I mean, I'm listening to you and hearing you know his weights and everything. You really paid attention.

Oh, yeah, yeah. I could really tell. Yeah. I also saw the struggle and I saw, it's funny, 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. I see. But he didn't, like I think a lot of people who are very overweight are so self-conscious and embarrassed.

There's a level of shame. I don't think he had that. He was really comfortable in his own skin. He was just more like, I'm disappointed. I can't just keep up habits where I stay at 240. Yeah, 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 forget about it immediately. you know um 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

a tour this is ninety ninety seven 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 orchestras. During all this, he's still. 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 L.A. 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 was like, you really want to do that? He could fly to whatever Madison and take him. 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 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. Is the lady in the car as well? Yeah, she's not, she's got minor injuries.

They airlift him to this trauma center. Holy shit. When I get to Tokyo, I get the call from my ex, who's not my ex at that point. You 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. It's middle of the night in Tokyo.

Somehow, I mean, Tokyo is like two moons away. Yeah. Yeah. Especially back then. There's no FaceTime. So I get some, I get a doctor on the phone 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 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 the accident had undone the good that the... I see. So now he's having some organ failure stuff happen. But 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. He's talking? 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. So now, now my stress level goes down because he's joking. Yes, yes. Makes you feel better about everything. He goes, 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 going to make it home? And he's like, I don't know. Can I ask what didn't go well? What are they trying to do to him? 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 them, internal organs. The trauma of the accident. I'm sure, just everything.

It was really bad. Yeah, yeah, and your 73, you said, yeah. And not in good health, yeah. So I get on a plane. I don't know, you know, I'm thinking the whole way, like, I'm sorry. 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 be. You don't find out to you get there. You don't find out to you find out. It's right. 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. Is he awake at all, talking to at all?

He's awake. Well, he's intubated. So he can't really talk. And the only person that can understand. understand them as 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 two in the morning they would call me and they go, Richard, he's really distressed and we can't understand. So I would go. And I would say, he wants orange

juice. Can you just give him some fucking 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 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 to nonsense and um but they finally stabilized him enough that they said we can get him to

Chicago where we was living so that I could and then we could start planning his rehab and he could stay at my house and can I ask you is just a comedian who you know misses a show only a couple of my life it's a fucking comedy club and it's only a couple hundred people and they're always very cool about yeah what the fuck happens to a Tokyo tour. Oh, a Japanese tour. I mean, how many dates are you missing now? It was like six dates. It was a lot of money. But I don't even care about that. I'm just mean, like, no, it was a big deal. Yeah, right? It was a big deal. But the promoters, I have to say the promoters. And were your fans over there cool? Yeah. I mean, and 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. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was just like having publicists put out pieces in the, well, put out things in the newspapers. So the people. People can understand. I don't remember much of a fallout. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. There was an ad placed into the newspaper. That's what I'm wondering in what this time is like when you personally can't get on anymore. Hey, everyone, sorry.

Yeah, and I had a had and have a really great following in Asia and Japan. Okay, sorry. So you're going to get that to Chicago. So, um, I air, I had him airlifted. I got one of those ICU jets. And I was so, I felt at least. They do that? Like privately you can do that?

Yeah. You can. I mean, if you, if you're, if you're, lucky enough you can. Yeah. The only other way to do it would have been too risky for him. How long does it take the gift from Madison? Is he go with like 40 minutes in one of those? No, he was in Vegas. Oh, that's right, Vegas. So it was like a three hour. Okay. Three or two or what he's on. So he gets to the hospital in Chicago. Sorry, I'm going to people are yelling me for keeping her up. So when he's on a plane like that, this is a medical plane. So they're

also keeping them comfortable and with a technician. Someone's monitoring. They let my mom fly with him. Okay, great. This is a fucking air ambulance. It's a it's an air ambulance. Yeah, that's a bad ass. I don't even know you had that option. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. 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. 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 um 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 um it's kind of 10 o'clockish 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 we're I think they're getting you up at eight I'll be here before and he looks at me and he says he can't speak but he's like he mouths I'm finished with music and at first I thought he's being loopy again and I was like what he what he goes yeah I'm I'm finished with music and I said no you're not this is look I said look I'm not to light you 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 in i think in a couple weeks you'll be able to come stay at my house and i'll have a whole set up 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 i was going to say oh you get me an 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 He was done. He was done. He was done. He was, he saw what was ahead and was like, I'm out. Fuck that. I might be the same way in those circumstances. I don't know. My younger brother tells me all a time, like, I'm not doing the chemo and all that shit. Yeah. Like if they give me, if it's not curable and I get a timeline, I'm just, I'm not wasted. My best friend right now, my lifelong best friend is dealing with something pretty heavy. And he said to me, I just want you to know that there's going to come a point where I'm going to 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 a- But what a beautiful way to say goodbye. I'm done with music. Well, the more beautiful thing, Ryan, was years and years, like in the best of his health and in the best of our time together, he would come out of 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 got to introduce him as Big Dick. 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 gonna be Richard because I'll be little Dick. Yeah, you're a little big, bro. No way.

Uh-uh. 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. Right. 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 suffering the loss of this wonderful relationship and not to regret that we didn't spend more time or talk or we didn't talk for five years. Yeah. It was that. It was also, my dad was such a big presence that the whole he left was big. You know, sometimes no disrespect to anybody, but like if you're, if you don't take up much room and 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 size of the pain is bigger. You know what I mean? I do. 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. That's literally a PCU. Yeah. Hey guys, new sponsor here, Lucy. Lucy is 100% pure nicotine. All right, always tobacco-free. Lucy breakers are nicotine pouches with an extra surprise. Each pouch holds a capsule that can be broken, open to release extra flavor and hydration. Set yourself up with a subscription and have Lucy delivered straight to your door. I still have a lot of friends trying to kick the old habits and they are big into Lucy right now. They love their pouches. there's all kind of flavors.

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and shit you're having to go fuck it are you got to raise my boys have you ever lost it during one of your fucking love songs not during the love songs what song i wrote a song about your dad losing him you did yeah i wrote a couple but i wrote one in particular called through my veins uh 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 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. And that's the one. It's men and women, but especially men who say,

man, that threw my vein song. It really got me through. Like, you, I totally understand. And so I try to, when I'm doing it 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? Is that what you got rolling through your mind? Yeah, I'm thinking about, you know, Jerry Lewis in the caddy. The nutty professor. Or the nutty professor.

Just to get through it. Yeah. But there have been a couple of times when I... Wait, have you ever done that song with your boys? No. You've performed that one together. 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. Yeah. And I, 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.

And then you and mom, did you get closer after that? Oh yeah. Yeah. We were always really close, really, equally close, just very different relationships. Yeah, my mom and I had an extraordinary relationship. And my mom, who was rocking until she turned 80 and got diagnosed with stage four lung cancer.

Was she a smoker? Yes, but quit, you know, 25, 30 years before, but the damage was done. Yeah. Also had a really horrible diet. She was given six months and she lived six years. Whoa. Partly because we didn't use Western medicine.

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, fuck it. Right. But she got six years. She got six years. What did you do if you're comfortable talking about it? Yeah, yeah. First thing we did was took her off sugar.

Went from a steady diet of sugar. every day to none. When you say that, is she like a sweet lady? Yeah, but I was like, mom, there's monk fruit and there's stevia and there's like, I'll make you stuff. But now, see, I've also heard the artificial sweeteners aren't great either. They're not, but those aren't. Those are natural.

Oh, stevia is natural. Yeah, monk fruit and stevia are natural. Okay. They're extracts. All right. Or, yeah. And I've also heard that fasting can help. Yeah.

Is that right? Yeah. So you're immediately off of. sugars. A lot of juicing, a lot of, just radically revolutionizing her diet. And she was totally on board. And, you know, some people are like, if I can't have what I want, I don't, 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 them, 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 a year or two before this happened with my mom. And they had been turned on to 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, is pretty rank. It boosts your immune system by 7 to 800%.

Like you're just on tilt, your immune system is on tilt. And how much are you taking tablespoons? Well, some people were taking tablespoons. My mom would drink a bottle a day. What? Which there's no way that that didn't. She just powered it down. Because her tumors just started shrinking.

Is that right? Where the oncologist 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. Absolutely reversed. Okay.

Yeah. And several of the tumors disappeared. Really? Yeah. At 80 years old. Right. And then at 81. So what are the doctors saying to you when they're saying?

The doctors, especially the oncologists. Miracle and all those bullshit. 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. The chemo might be helping in certain ways. So she was doing a little chemo too? She was doing the bare minimum chemo, which I believe what we were doing

was also counteracting the negative effects of the chemo. I see. So she was just winning. And that lasted about five years. And she's just drinking this solution. 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 time. She's having some of the best years of her life. She is she's fallen madly in love with my wife Um, they bond really, really closely. And Daisy becomes like a caretaker for her when she, when we're home. Um, they have this great friendship. She's so happy that I'm happy and she's really close to my kids.

And she had an 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. her anymore. And then five years in, she just got tired. She was just, and I think that the five years of even 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.

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. No. Or doped up, not knowing where she's going. The family spending hundreds of thousands of medical bills. I mean, that's a horrific last five years. Yeah. When I was touring and we were away, I had really great people with her.

And my sons would show up and, no, there was none of that. What's that solution called again? Halen. H-A-L-L-A-L-A-N. I think it's spelled H-A-E-L-A. I'm going to remember Van Halen, but I'll figure out the spelling, damn it. We just Google Hailing Cancer. I mean, for a long time, they couldn't say that it, but.

They probably still can't. There's too many. There's too many. Yeah, you know why? Because the FDA's been trying to get their hands on it. I'll bet. And they can't. But there's too many humans out there who have said this has made a difference.

All I know is I had three separate examples of it working, curing 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 lived six years, it's got to have something to do with that. I am right there with you all that. 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're on your way out. Yeah, man.

You had, your parents had a knack for fucking close. closing lines for guys. They were fucking awesome people. They were really soulful, smart, loving people from a time when that was not as common. Agreed. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I was just the beneficiary of it. And, you know, before people come in, I ask them things that they want to talk about.

And your chunk here was depression, too. So when does that hit you? Is that a part of dad and then you're battling it or prior to that? No, it's lifelong. Yeah. Chemical, I guess. Okay. You know, Rick Springfield and I are really great friends, and we tour together, and he's written about it. He's battled depression.

Like, he tried to commit suicide when he was 14. He did. Yeah. Did you ever? No. No. But I had the thoughts. Ah, yeah, I hear you.

At different times. And you were never a drink or anything, huh? No, I never was, I never did a drug. But I'm saying you never fueled the depression with something. else either so you're just which is lucky because by the time i found that i do like martinis and tequila at 50 yeah i was i was i was i cured not cure you never cure yourself a depression but i had have it managed where that's never going to be a right you know like a lighter fluid you know i mean no even when i was a little kid and maybe you know my shrink and i've discussed

seeing the unhappiness in 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 um i've always been a really emotional person uh And it started when I was probably 10, 11. I didn't know what it was. I wouldn't have called it depression back there, but it was the 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 the last dozen years, I manage it better than ever. And I understand it. It 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. I'll 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, did you not schedule a lunch break for yourself? You know what I mean? I had a couple. Are you going to eat with talk to me with your mouthful right now while I'm crying? 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 me. 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 going to have a woman. So I did some research and got recommendations that I ended up going to this woman in Chicago. And the third session she hit on me.

No. How old were you? 40 something. You're already Richard Marks on this one. She hit on you. Yeah. It was like fucked up. It was fucked up.

I was like, oh. How'd she do it? 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 is like, you. It was so stupid on her part. It's a really fucking. It started with like the third session or second, 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 got to 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 she's calling me like i'm going

you got to stop calling me. It's so fucking bizarre. But my point is that... You're not going to find... You're lucky if you find a right one out of the gate. At 50 or 51... It takes a while. 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 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. 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, we should go and hang out.

I'm like, you should never hang out with your fucking therapist. You got to, you got to keep. That's not who this person is. There has to be a line, you know. 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.

Because I, a lot of the times people think I gave a song away, I wrote a song for somebody else, deliberately. 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 all that would fit this person? What's your process on that? Have you ever written comedy for somebody else? 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 you?

And I'm like, yeah, and I'm comfortable not doing it again. But I never thought of them. Okay. So my point is if you, like, if Luis C.K. called you and said, look, I'm dry. Can you write, will you write me, which is never going to happen? I was going to laugh and write out. He, to me, he really is such a fucking genius, I think.

But if he said, I need help. And you went, I'm going to do this. I'm going to write material for Louis C.K. You're going to think differently than if you were right for you. Yeah, 100%. And therefore, if you, oh, sorry. No, soundtrack, perfect. No, it's just my, yeah.

It's adagio by Dominic Miller. Gorgeous, right? That's what I wake up to in the morning. That's nice. If you write stuff for Louis C.K. That he then does and it crushes, how happy are you going to be? Oh, yeah. You're not going to feel like you gave, oh, I should have kept that from my.

myself. Well, it's the same thing with me writing songs for other people. This I promised you that I wrote free and sing for example, which was, you know, huge, huge record and still gets 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. What is your biggest hit, whether it was yours or you wrote or collabed on? What's the, what's the, uh, probably right here waiting. Yeah. It's my biggest hit as an artist and writer. But dance with my father is really, really big, you know, whole line of the nights was big. Should have known better was big. Like, I've been lucky to have, you know, and in the country world, you know, long hot summer with Keith Irving was a huge. Tell me about that. Like, you get a hit. Then you got to have a fucking another one, right?

Yeah. And you got to have a other one. 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 bangor. How do you do that? I'm going to sound like such a dick. That's okay if it's this. I didn't, it wasn't in a cocky way. I just never worried about it. You never sat out like, okay, I've got to have another one. I never. I was all, first of all, just trust the process.

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, take a shower. I'm wired from the show, you know, right? Adrenaline, 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. Is it really? Yeah, I write something, comes to me every day. It's not an active choice. I don't, like hardly ever do I go, I need to go write a song. Okay. That's what I wanted to know. But every day, something will just sort of, it's always been the way with me. When are you, excuse me, when are you your most creative? Um, in nature. Oh yeah. So if I. On hikes, things like me too, dude. That's where I go.

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. You also make you, it makes you feel so small that you can let go of all that shit. I'm nothing. I'm sorry. What do I, no, no, I mean, what do I really? What am I? I'm an aunt on this rock in outer space. And then also, right as I'm slipping into sleep. Oh yeah. Do you ever get that? Like I'll start thinking of my set or just some ideal comes to me. I'm like, oh, that's a fucking 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 going to remember that in the morning. And I get up and I'm trying.

Rookie mistake. I'm like, no, yeah. Rookie mistake. No more. I find that music is just so effortlessly, effortless for me to write. I feel like the well is still super deep. Like you're an open channel and you can just. And it's like, like even making this new album of like writing songs I'd never dabbled in before.

I pretended that I was a songwriter in 1949 trying to get Sinatra to do my 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 clichés 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'll take, if I need to write lyrics, I do an hour hike, I come back with a lyric. It's done. Yeah, that's great. I just talk it into my. Who I'm still in, inspires you today? Anybody out there?

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 dude 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 going to do 80 shows this year and he's he will he's about to this is a man who's got everything could take off no doubt right the more money than he could ever possibly spend in eight lifestimes

times, he's just loves it. He loves it. 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. You got your health. Yes. The most important. We both go and get checked out. He's the king of scans and tests. Hell yeah. Because he wants to bring 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. Isn't he, does he have a young baby or something? Yeah, he's got two young kids. How old? Not babies.

But his youngest, Aiden is, I think. Under 10? No, like 13 maybe. And he's 80. Yeah. He's got eight kids. Eight. And he, I'm wondering what to get out there.

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. Yeah, I bet. But it's. But he loves it, huh? It's just being around him, the conversation is we never talk about the business.

Talk about life. We talk about gratitude and life and love in your life. And he's a really inspiring guy to me. And his hair. Bro, whatever. Listen, we can give Rod Stewart props on his hair, but we're going to give you that same shit. I think we're all in the club. He would be the first to say, oh, you're doing good too, mate.

For 80, though, he does have a fucking fun. It's not thin in there or anything. It looks crazy. It looks. Rockstar good. Yeah. Thank you so much for doing. this dude. This is awesome. I can't thank you enough. Last question, and we're going to get you

out of here. Advice you'd give to 16-year-old Richard Marks. Enjoy everything more. More. 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 going to go, go fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself. They're also going to think they are. 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 that I checked all those boxes off my wish list.

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.

Fuck, yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, so we do. We're in constant celebration, though. That's great. I fully support that. Yeah. 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. Sure. 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 ago. Man, I fucking crush this today. 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.

That's right. I have the, you can still dunk. 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 doing these amazing gigs. It's a great point. And I just, to be able, I tell my audiences every night. 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. It means so much to me. episodes. I'm with you, brother. Thank you. Again, promote right here. We are right there. Tell them whatever you'd like. Promote it all. After Hours, January 16th, featuring a duet with Rod Stewart, featuring Chris Bodie, 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. Richard Marks on all social media. The Richard Marks on Instagram. Okay, yeah, of course. the fuck got Richard Marks. Some fucking dick. It won't give it to you?

Come on, man. That's an asshole move. And Richard Marks on TikTok. I've got TikTok. All right, my man. Thank you so much. This is great. As always, Ryan Sickler on all your social media.

We'll talk to you all next week.