Richard Marx Reveals His Songs Need to Pass ‘the Daisy Test’ from Wife Daisy Fuentes: ‘She’s Brutally Honest’ (Exclusive)

Richard Marx doesn’t need to look far for a solid sounding board on his new music.

That’s because the singer-songwriter has a solid sounding board in wife Daisy Fuentes, whom he says is the ideal critic when he’s noodling with new ideas.

“She’s brutally honest, which is what you need,” Marx, 62, tells PEOPLE. “If something doesn’t really rock her world, she’ll go, ‘I mean, it’s good.’ And I’ll go, ‘Oh my God, that’s the worst. I’d rather you say it sucks.’ As I much as I hate to hear that — and luckily it’s very rare — the few times that she has, I’ve either abandoned it or I’ve thought, ‘Yeah, if it’s not passing the Daisy test, then I have to work on it some more.’”

While the “Right Here Waiting” singer and Fuentes, 59, make a great pair as husband and wife, they’re also excellent collaborators. On Marx’s new album After Hours, they teamed up on the song “Magic Hour,” with Fuentes helping to kickstart his lyric-writing process after he was stuck for weeks on a wordless melody.

The happy couple celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary on Dec. 23, and Marx says they spent the special day in Palm Beach, Fla., not far from their home in Miami.

“We weren’t going to make that big a deal of it, but we love Palm Beach,” he says of the milestone. “It’s just a magical place for us. But yeah, we didn’t really do that much. It’s two days before Christmas, so we have a short window to get our other celebrations in.”

Though they have a whole decade of marriage behind them, Marx says he can still count on one hand the number of times that he and the TV personality have spent more than two weeks apart.

“When she’s working, I want to go be with her, and she’s with me on tour all the time,” he says. “We just love being together. We really love hanging out together. Our joke with each other is, ‘I’m still not sick of you yet.’”

Fuentes marked their anniversary on Instagram with a sweet video that she captioned, “10 years ago today I married a Rock Star. Best decision I’ve ever made. Happy Anniversary @therichardmarx ❤️.”

Marx, meanwhile, shared a post of his own, which he captioned, “It’s amazing how fast a decade can go by when you spend each day of it with your favorite human. Your partner in everything. Your “person.” @daisyfuentes you make me happier than I ever imagined I could be. Happy 10th anniversary my beautiful love. More, please. Much, much more. ❤️🍸🌼.”

The Grammy winner is fresh off the release of After Hours, written and recorded as a love letter to the Great American Songbook hits he grew up with. The album features stars like Rod Stewart and Kenny G, and mixes covers of classics like “Summer Wind” with original songs.

“That was really one of the top three motivations, was to just make a record that people could put on when they’re cooking or when they’re having a drink or they’re just chilling out on a Sunday afternoon,” he says. “I put on the Rod Stewart Great American Songbook albums, I put on Michael Bublé, I put on old [Frank] Sinatra and Dean Martin, and it makes me feel great, but I never connected those dots that I would ever do something like that.”