Richard Marx relaxed over claims he incited violence against Rand Paul but furious at being called one-hit wonder

‘If by ‘one hit’ you mean ‘after another’ then, yeah that’s fair enough’

Richard Marx performs on 3 March 2020 in Los Angeles, California (Rebecca Sapp/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)

Richard Marx had an unexpected reaction to Rand Paul’s claims that the singer allegedly incited violence against him.

The FBI and Capitol Hill police recently investigated a suspicious package sent to the Republican senator’s home in Kentucky. The local sheriff’s office has now told The Associated Press that the package appears to contain a non-toxic substance.

After news of the investigation broke on Monday, Paul told Politico in a statement: “I take these threats immensely seriously. As a repeated target of violence, it is reprehensible that Twitter allows C-list celebrities to encourage violence against me and my family. Just this weekend Richard Marx called for violence against me and now we receive this powder-filled letter.”

The statement appeared to be in reference to a tweet shared on Sunday (23 May) from Marx’s account, which read: “I’ll say it again: If I ever meet Rand Paul’s neighbour I’m going to hug him and buy him as many drinks as he can consume.”

In 2017, Paul suffered broken ribs after being tackled by a neighbour while he was doing yard work. The neighbour pleaded guilty to assaulting a member of Congress and was sentenced to eight months in prison.

Marx has described his tweet as “a wise-crack about Rand Paul’s neighbour”.

To another critic, he sarcastically wrote back: “I’m the only person on Twitter who’s ever referenced Rand Paul’s neighbour. Must have been me. This was also a day after that traitor made a public showing of refusing the vaccine.” (Paul said in an interview released on Sunday that he wouldn’t take the Covid-19 vaccine for now.)

Marx seemed more bothered by a different accusation in the same week, by someone who claimed he had become a “one-hit wonder in 1988” and had been “coasting on that for 33 years”.

Marx replied: “If by ‘one hit’ you mean ‘after another’ then, yeah that’s fair enough.”

In 1988, Marx earned a Grammy nomination for the song “Don't Mean Nothing”, released in 1987. He was also nominated for a string of Billboard Music Awards that same year.

Marx has since been nominated for three more Grammys in 1990 and 2004, winning Song of the Year in 2004 with “Dance with My Father”.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press