1. “What’s your favorite song you’ve done?”
The most unimaginative, generic and boring question of them all. It forces artists to respond with equally boring musings like, “My songs are like my children…I love them all equally….I don’t have a particular favorite.” What we want to say is, “That’s a really lame-ass question.”
2. “Are you related to the Marx Brothers?”
I’ve lost count of how many smarmy, barely literate radio DJs have asked, “Any relation to Groucho??” as they then laugh out loud at what they think is the most genius example of their own unique brand of hilarity. The last time a guy asked me that, I said, “Wow. Are you a PROFESSIONAL comedian??”
3. “Why do you suck?”
Granted….there’s an epic, downright meanness to this question. But you do have to admire its straightforward-ness.
4. “Is Richard Marx your real name?”
No, no, no. Of course not. I wanted to MAKE UP a stage name that had marginal ethnicity and whose nickname would be “Dick,” “Stretch” or “Skid.”
5. “Is your song, “Hazard,” auto-biographical?
Yep. I lived in a tiny town in Nebraska….drowned a girl that lived there and have been in hiding ever since. Except for when I wrote a song and made a record about it. Good question.