I’ll be a friend

Kenny Marks, born Kenneth Michael Marks, November 6, 1950, Detroit, Michigan, has performed on 6 of the 7 continents world-wide over his music career.

The song “Say a Prayer for Me Tonight” is a true story. My band and I were touring the East Coast and we used a sound & lighting company out of Philadelphia for the tour. This was about six months before the “Make It Right” CD was released. After the very first concert on the tour, a young guy named Richard, who was running lighting for the tour, came up to me to talk. It was late, I was hot, sweaty, tired, and really thinking about the next 12 days of concerts. He said that he had never heard music like mine before…cool rock, but with a powerful message. I said thanks. He said, “Can I ask you a favor, Kenny”?. I said yes, of course. He said “Would you say a prayer for me tonight”? And I did. Something simple, like “Lord, You brought Richard and I together on this tour and You, Dear Lord have a reason for it. Bless us all, give us a powerful and significant time together, in Jesus Name, Amen”!!!

During the next 2 weeks I learned that Richard was a talented, yet complicated person. He had a lot of heartache and sadness that was palpable. You could feel it. One afternoon he asked me to climb up into the huge truck he was driving for the tour, (filled with sound & lighting gear). He played a couple of songs that he had written on the cassette player in the truck. Sad, but interesting musically. I gave him some pointers and gentle critique of his music, we laughed, and that was it. About 2 days later the tour ended and we flew back to Nashville. I was home for about 24 hours when my telephone rang. It was a youth pastor outside Philadelphia calling to tell me that Richard took his own life. How sad, it was so devastating. I hurt so deeply for him. “You never know someone’s heart. You never know how they feel”.

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