Richard Simmons said he was still focused on his fans in a rare interview two days before his death.
The celebrity fitness guru died on Saturday, but told People the Thursday before that he was still reaching hundreds of fans through phone calls and emails on a daily basis.
“I know people miss me,” Simmons said. “And you know what? I miss them, too. But I’m able to reach them through phone calls … and through emails. And I do leave the house sometimes. But I’m in disguise.”
Simmons rose to fame in the 1980s as a motivational speaker and weight loss instructor. He was the star of his own syndicated TV exercise show and sold millions of aerobics Sweatin‘ to the Oldies videos and DVDs while running a Los Angeles fitness studio. He wrote several books, including Richard Simmons’ Never-Say-Diet Book from 1980. Later in his career, he appeared as himself on various TV shows, including Arrested Development, Amazing Stories, CHiPs, The Larry Sanders Show and General Hospital before mostly disappearing from public life around 2016.
“When I decided to retire, it was because my body told me I needed to retire,” Simmons said in the interview. “I have spent time just reflecting on my life. All of the books I wrote, the videos. I never was like, ‘Oh look what I’ve done.’ My thing was, ‘Oh, look how many people I helped.’”
Simmons said his focus has always remained on helping people. “Today most probably, we’ll answer over 100 emails,” he said on Thursday. “And they’ll say, ‘I’m your No. 1 fan.’ And I just write back, and I say, you know, ‘Don’t say that because I’m a human being just like you. And I know that you do good things, too.’”
Simmons’ brother, Lenny, told Entertainment Tonight that news of the fitness star’s death “was really a shock.”
“He wasn’t feeling really well that day, because he said he thought he’d had some food poisoning, but he was getting better and going to bed a little early,” he shared. “So we really didn’t think anything about it. We all have our bad days sometimes, you know, not feeling the best and when [Richard’s housekeeper, Teresa] called me, I was in shock. I called my wife, Kathy, and I said, ‘You need to come here. You need to hear what [Teresa’s] saying.’ And it really … my soul just [felt] sucked [out of my body].”
In the interview on Thursday, Simmons also said he’d written 14 songs for a new Broadway show, working with Madonna and Elton John collaborator Patrick Leonard.
“I write the lyrics, and he writes the music,” Simmons said. “The whole show is about my life — from selling pralines in New Orleans at a candy store when I was a kid, to when I decided to retire. Every week, I write an audio.”
Leonard couldn’t be reached for comment, but Simmons also shared the lyrics for the audio he had written most recently: “How do you deal with loss? It takes a toll on your heart. Some shed many tears, others stare at the sky. It’s so hard to say goodbye. Here is what I know when it’s time for us to go, beautiful angels will greet us with a smile and a hello.”