For most of my life I have wondered about an unsolved mystery of the supposed young woman on the banks of a Nebraska river, and it was all because of a pop star.
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Finally, decades later I have been given the opportunity to play detective and ask the source exactly what happened.
Even if the name Richard Marx doesn't quite ring a bell, if you lived through the '80s and '90s you would recognise the pop ballads by the American singer-songwriter - often ear-worms you could spend hours humming along to.
He's even written for other artists like Keith Urban, NSYNC, Toni Braxton, Kenny Rogers so it would be tough to have lived this far and not have a Marx song entwined in some moment of time.
Perhaps the dance-floor hit Should've Known Better wafting through the car stereo as your parents drove you to school, or the soundtrack to your first junior romance Right Here Waiting.
For me, I fell in love with his hit Hazard, an eerie synth-laden story almost posing questions in a similar vein to the Twin Peaks television series surrounding who killed Laura Palmer.
As the multi-instrumentalist announces his return to Oz for a national tour in early 2023 along with a new album, we sat down to chat - me in Wollongong and he in Brussells.
Marx was last here touring with John Farnham in 2018 and hopes to catch up with his good mate to check in on him after cancer surgery. Farnham is a legend he has long admired since a young man, even spending three months together writing for the Aussie's Then Again album.
"I was such a massive fan," Marx conceded.
"My parents had a satellite dish and picked up the Australian version of MTV [probably Rage].
"I saw the video for You're the Voice and I immediately drove to a Tower Records [store] and ordered an import of the Whispering Jack album. So I became a massive fan of John's."
He said a couple of years later Farnham came to one of his shows in Melbourne and they "hit it off".
Like the Australian icon, Marx has also had his fair share of accolades and success.
He has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide and has landed a number one song on the charts (for himself and others) in each of the past four decades.
The 59-year-old could easily sit back and live off royalties for his hits, but he enjoys writing and "the rush" of playing to crowds who genuinely get excited - even over his new music.
"There might be a point where I just feel like I don't have it anymore, but that's not now," he said from his hotel room in Brussells.
The night before he'd performed a song from his new album Songwriter and the audience was "so into it" and kept cheering.
"For me to play a song they've never heard and they to react like that, that's why I keep writing songs," Marx said.
Marx seemed genuinely exited to return to Australia, not able to remember how many visits Down Under he's made, though the first one was quite significant.
It was 1977 and barely a teenager, he was in Sydney for a month when he learned of the devastating loss of the king of rock and roll.
"I grew up as an Elvis freak, I had every Elvis record, I had Elvis movie posters in my room and I was the biggest Elvis fan," he said.
"I was getting chewing gum at the gift shop in the hotel and the guy who worked in there ... said 'you're an Elvis fan right? He died this morning'. I didn't believe it."
Marx's father was unsympathetic to the news, though, commenting "yeah but it's not like you actually knew him".
To the 13-year-old kid from Chicago it cut deep, like a family member had just died.
Despite his infatuation with the most charismatic man he'd ever seen, Elvis had no hand at influencing the future ballads to flow from Marx's hands - it was instead hits by Sting, Elton John and Paul Simon.
Before I ended my chat with the singer there was that burning question I had spent years wanting to know.
Was it Marx, the sheriff or a jilted lover to blame for the mysterious disappearance of a woman in an old Nebraska town?
The hit Hazard went top ten around the world and reached number one in Australia.
So Richard, who killed Mary?
"The desperate need for the answer to a question I never even asked," he laughed.
"I have no idea, I never formed an opinion. I wrote that song purely as an unsolved mystery, I threw a bunch of different scenarios into the song as much as I could, and I never thought anybody would pay attention to it, I thought it would just be an album cut.
"It was really an exercise for me to try and write a story song. I had no idea it would blow up into this hit that it's become.
"And I don't have an answer, I'm not being demure, I truly have no idea."
RICHARD MARX TOUR DATES
- Sunday 19 February Isaac Theatre Royal, Christchurch, NZ
- Tuesday 21 February Opera House, Wellington, NZ
- Wednesday 22 February Kiri Te Kanawa, Auckland, NZ
- Friday 24 February QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane, QLD
- Sunday 26 February Twin Towns, Tweed Heads, NSW
- Wednesday 1 March NEX Arena, Newcastle, NSW
- Friday 3 March Llewellyn Theatre, Canberra, ACT
- Saturday 4 March Palais Theatre, Melbourne, VIC
- Sunday 5 March State Theatre, Sydney, NSW
- Tuesday 7 March Anita's Theatre, Wollongong, NSW
- Wednesday 8 March Panthers, Sydney, NSW
- Friday 10 March Astor, Perth, WA
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