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Richard Marx knows he always has a friend in Rick Springfield.
The chart-topping, Grammy-winning “Right Here Waiting” creator, 61, sat down with PEOPLE ahead of his co-headlining acoustic performance with Springfield at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville to reflect on the past and look forward to the future, including the major role that his good friend and “Jessie’s Girl” singer has played in it.
“Rick and I go back,” Marx notes. “We’ve been friends since 1988, and I’m terrible at math, but I’m going to guess that’s 37 years.”
Despite meeting by chance when Springfield “showed up one night at a show I did at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles on my first tour,” as Marx recalls, he also maintained that “I was a huge fan of his before that.”
Of that first interaction, Marx, who hosts the new podcast and YouTube series Stories To Tell, fondly remembers that Springfield “and his wife, Barbara, were just lovely.” Afterward, the singer says, “He and I started hanging out together, and we wrote a really terrible song together, but we just bonded.”
Though that song didn’t end up seeing the light of day, it wasn’t the last time the two would team up on music. As for what drew them together, Marx notes that he and Springfield “have a very similar sense of humor,” evident by their co-stage presence on this round of touring, which is filled with loving and hilarious quips toward one another while still being earmarked by each maintaining a genuine appreciation for the other’s contributions to music.
Speaking of their tour, dubbed An Acoustic Evening with Rick Springfield & Richard Marx, the latter recalls that the inspiration to perform together originally came about “years ago” when Springfield “was doing these fan cruises.” Marx recalls that “one year he called me and he said, ‘We do these surveys at the end of every cruise and people write in who would they like to be the guest, and you’re overwhelmingly are the number one request, so would you want to do something like this?”
His response to the request at the time? “F— no, I’m not getting on a f—ing boat.” However, through laughter, Marx continues that “he talked me into it,” thus laying the foundation for a co-headlining synergy that still is in full display to this day.
Then, as Marx recalls, “Maybe seven, eight years ago, we did a bunch of shows where we opened the show with a song together.” That morphed into each doing “a set and then we closed the show with a song together.” Ultimately, the singer notes that it was Springfield who said, ” ‘Let’s go do a bunch more shows, but let’s just do a little show together where we just take turns.’ And it really is a really special experience for us and it’s a special experience for the audience because most artists who team up don’t do it that way.’ ”
And take turns the two stars do, weaving a musical tapestry on stage comprised of both of their greatest hits, peppered with references to their individual pasts and history together as friends.
“I won’t speak for him, but I really love his songs,” Marx says of Springfield. “I’ve always loved his music. So for me to be up there singing, ‘Don’t Talk to Strangers’ and ‘Jesse’s Girl,’ I have a ball. You can see it in my face.”
Marx and Springfield’s acoustic performances will run until Oct. 8, where they will conclude with a show in Knoxville, Tenn.
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