You may not be able to judge a man by his album cover(s), but you can deduce much by his choice in vehicles. Richard Marx and Rick Springfield are living proof. In the driveway of a lushly landscaped home just off the Malibu coast sits a luxury British automobile, rounded, elegant; a smooth-sailing land yacht.
Next to it, a sporty, sleek, slightly dangerous 1963 Corvette Sting Ray, and parked on the street, a ‘55 Holden Ute. Marx is the Bentley guy, Springfield the ‘Vette and utilitarian Australian truck. Friends since the late ’80s, they call each other Dickie (Springfield) and Richie (Marx) and might be the best-looking vaudeville team in history, their humor flow as engaging as their carefully crafted songs and easy charisma.
The pair first performed together on a music cruise in 2009. When Springfield extended the invite for Marx to join him, the latter replied, “f— no.” That said, he went.
Apart from the fact that Marx described the ship as “a floating petri dish,” the duo had a blast. Those good vibes continued — the hit-making, swoon-worthy duo never taking themselves too seriously despite serious songwriting chops and bona fides — for intimate co-headlining solo acoustic performances. As for concrete success markers, each has well over 5 million monthly listeners on Spotify, consequential numbers across wide-ranging careers that included Broadway, film and TV (Springfield) and for Marx, 14 No.
1 singles as a performer and songwriter/producer. On an.
