For years, he believed his creative bucket list was finished.
After decades of chart-topping hits, sold-out tours, and songs that defined an era, ’80s heartthrob Richard Marx assumed he had already done the most meaningful work of his career. But as he now admits, one unexpected creative decision changed everything—and left him feeling more energized than he has in years.
“I have to have a new bucket list now,” Marx said in a new Billboard interview, reflecting on a new chapter he never saw coming. “It was the most fun record I’ve ever made. I just was on pins and needles every day.”
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The veteran hitmaker is releasing new album After Hours on Friday, January 16, a project that marks a sharp and intentional turn from the music many fans first fell in love with. Rather than chasing trends or recreating past success, Marx leaned fully into curiosity—and a mindset inspired by artists who came long before him.
“I pretended it was 1948 and I was a young songwriter pitching a song to Sinatra,” he explained of the creative approach behind the album. “That’s how I wrote the first new song.”
For Marx, the idea of making a standards album had never appealed to him. As a songwriter, he always felt compelled to create something new, not simply reinterpret old material. The breakthrough came when he realized the project only made sense if he wrote original songs that could stand beside timeless classics.
“That’s a tall order,” he admitted. “Any new compositions would have to match the quality of those songs.”
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Once that creative door opened, everything else followed. Marx committed to recording the album live, in the same spirit as classic recordings by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Ella Fitzgerald—singing every take start to finish with a full band in the room.
“I thought, ‘OK, that’s what we’re going to do,’” he said. “No computer project. This had to be real.”
The result, he says, was unlike anything he had experienced before.
“It was such a joy,” Marx recalled. “So many of these musicians said, ‘We never get to do this anymore.’”
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Finding Joy Instead of Pressure
That sense of joy mirrors a broader shift Marx has spoken about in recent interviews—learning how to show up differently, not just as an artist, but as a person. After years of navigating fame, fan expectations, and the pressure to live up to past success, he’s found freedom in simply appreciating the moment.
Watching how close friend Hugh Jackman handles fans helped reshape that mindset. Marx has said it taught him the value of generosity and presence, especially in fleeting encounters that mean far more to fans than they might to the artist.
That same philosophy carried into the studio.
“I’m not a grumpy old man when it comes to technology,” he said, noting that his choice to record live wasn’t about rejecting modern tools. “I did it this way because I could—and because it felt right.”
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A Full-Circle Moment
The album also became unexpectedly personal. Marx reflected on how his late father, a respected arranger and musician, would have reacted to hearing the finished record.
“He would have been sitting in the control room,” Marx said. “He would have been giving me the big thumbs up. Both my parents would have really loved this record.”
For an artist whose early career produced massive hits like “Right Here Waiting,” “Satisfied,” and “Hold On to the Nights,” the idea that a late-career project could feel this vital came as a surprise—even to him.
Asked what his younger self would think of the album, Marx laughed.
“‘Dude, what the f--k are you doing?!’” he joked. “I was just so dumb—like every other 20-something.”
Decades later, that younger voice has been replaced by something far more satisfying: confidence without pressure, ambition without anxiety, and the realization that being “done” doesn’t have to mean being finished.
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