John Oates
John Oates
John William Oates is an American rock, R&B and soul guitarist, musician, songwriter and record producer best known as half of the rock and soul duo, Hall & Oates...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth7 April 1948
CountryUnited States of America
song inspiration writing
There's a lot of craft in songwriting. The divine inspiration is when the idea comes. It may be a riff. It may be a word. It may be a phrase. It may be a title. Sometimes, in the best of both worlds, that divine inspiration extends through the whole song. I've literally sat down and written a song from beginning to end, almost complete lyrics and everything without ever stopping...in two minutes. The chorus of 'She's Gone' was like that..
people together
We collaborate together. We work with other people. We work by ourselves.
roots style done
The thing is, we've changed our style but we've never changed the actual roots of what we've done.
men mustache reason
A good mustache makes a man for many reasons.
teenager two years
We've been together since we've been teenagers. I can go away and disappear for two years, and when we get back together, it's like nothing ever has changed.
together band playing-together
To me, when a great band is playing together, it's amazing for me.
retreat strikes knows
You have to know when to strike and when to retreat.
guitar style synthesis
My guitar playing is a synthesis of traditional American acoustic style and Urban Pop and RB.
mustache eras certain
My mustache has become this weird iconic representation of a certain era.
school waiting mustache
I couldn't wait to grow a mustache. I stopped shaving my upper lip the day I graduated from high school.
swimming things-to-do music-business
Swimming upstream in the music business is a hard thing to do.
country inspiration cowboy
I didn't come to Nashville to put on a cowboy hat and pretend to be a country singer. My attraction to Nashville as Music City is the variety and flexibility: the fact that there's so many musicians at your disposal, so many amazing studios and talented people that you can draw from. ... I try to be myself, but at the same time I'm learning a lot, and I'm pulling from not only from the well of inspiration that I'm getting from Nashville, but I'm pulling from my roots.
moving somewhere-else appreciate
You don't want to pitch a tent and live inside the Louvre. You want to check it out, appreciate it, and move somewhere else.
bricks-and-mortar bricks music-business
The bricks and mortar of the music business, they don't exist any longer.