Which are your favorite John Oates quotes?
John Oates is an American rock, R&B, and soul guitarist, singer-songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as half of the popular pop-rock duo, ‘Hall & Oates’, with fellow well-known musician ‘Daryl Hall’ as the principal lead vocalist.
Despite Oates’ main role in the duo as a guitarist, he also co-wrote many of their top 10 record hits, including ‘Sara Smile’, ‘She’s Gone’, and ‘Out of Touch’.
Along with the duo, Oates has successfully sold more than 40 million records worldwide with 10 hits charted number one in the international music chart, most of which Oates notably co-wrote.
For his amazing works in the music industry, Oates was inducted into the ‘Songwriters Hall of Fame’ and also into the ‘Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’.
We’ve put together this collection of the best John Oates quotes:
Table of Contents
50 Bold & Legendary John Oates Quotes
1. “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.” – John Oates
2. “If I had to drop everything and just be a songwriter, I would be OK with that because that’s the real joy.” – John Oates
3. “When the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame decided to open up the voting beyond their inner circle, to the actual fans, that’s when I think everything changed.” – John Oates
4. “I don’t listen to music. I very rarely listen to music. I only listen for information. I listen when a friend sends me a song or a new record.” – John Oates
5. “If something that needs to be done that we don’t feel confronting, we do it through the manager.” – John Oates
6. “I love what Alabama Shakes is doing – it’s kind of like what grunge did to rock ‘n’ roll, they’re doing to R&B.” – John Oates
7. “Swimming upstream in the music business is a hard thing to do.” – John Oates
8. “My songwriting has evolved, just as I’ve evolved as a person.” – John Oates
9. “With his passing, Dick Clark deserves to take his place at the top in the pantheon of popular culture icons.” – John Oates
10th of 50 John Oates Quotes
10. “The key, I think, from a business point of view, is to learn how to be efficient in making a record that’s not too expensive, so that you’re not going crazy spending tons of money-making a product that might not ever return that money.” – John Oates
11. “We collaborate together. We work with other people. We work by ourselves.” – John Oates
12. “I don’t care if it’s a Cole Porter song, or George Gershwin, or Lennon/McCartney, or Elton John, or you know, whoever, Bob Dylan. Great songs are great songs, and they stand the test of time, and they can be interpreted and recorded with many points of view, but yet still retain the essence of what makes them good songs.” – John Oates
13. “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.” – John Oates
14. “With Hall & Oates, honestly, after years and years of playing the same material, it’s easy to coast. I can coast through a show.” – John Oates
15. “You may be embarrassed about the way you looked and the wacky clothes you wore when you were young, but normally, at least it’s hidden in a box in the attic.” – John Oates
16. “I think people were just starving for good material because they just weren’t getting it on the radio.” – John Oates
17. “If you look over the years, the styles have changed – the clothes, the hair, the production, the approach to the songs. The icing to the cake has changed flavors. But if you really look at the cake itself, it’s really the same.” – John Oates
18. “In the days when regional music was very clearly defined and had a clear personality – Memphis, Detroit, Chicago, whatever – Philadelphia had a tradition that was very distinct and unique.” – John Oates
19. “If I stopped touring tomorrow, it wouldn’t change my life.” – John Oates
20th of 50 John Oates Quotes
20. “I think in music and a lot of creative fields, people’s egos get in the way of their ability of seeing the big picture.” – John Oates
21. “I think social media is so important; the young bands have certainly embraced that and used that to their advantage.” – John Oates
22. “I have a great family, I live an amazing life.” – John Oates
23. “My guitar playing is a synthesis of traditional American acoustic style and Urban Pop and R&B.” – John Oates
24. “I realized if I’m not really making an album, I don’t have to be concerned about things like stylistic consistency, pacing, a coherent mood. All that stuff goes out the window.” – John Oates
25. “I couldn’t begin to name names… in general I have found racers to be some of the most competitive people on the planet… and some of the nicest as well.” – John Oates
26. “Well, because we’re so different as people. And it’s that difference that probably also makes it easy to stay together, because we don’t get in each other way.” – John Oates
27. “I have such a wide variety of tastes in things that I like musically.” – John Oates
28. “It’s the music that brings us together.” – John Oates
29. “I couldn’t wait to grow a mustache. I stopped shaving my upper lip the day I graduated from high school.” – John Oates
30th of 50 John Oates Quotes
30. “I’ve been asked to do various types of cruises.” – John Oates
31. “I didn’t make a solo album until the year 2000.” – John Oates
32. “I may just keep releasing singles ’til I run out of music, which is kind of cool in a way – as long as people don’t go, Oh my God, not another one!.” – John Oates
33. “Maneater’ is about N.Y.C. in the ’80s. It’s about greed, avarice, and spoiled riches.” – John Oates
34. “I like playing on stage, don’t get me wrong.” – John Oates
35. “I just like playing with the band and doing what I do.” – John Oates
36. “Back in the early ’90s, I started going to Nashville to do a lot of co-writes. One of the first people I met there was Keith Follese. Keith and his wife Adrienne are both songwriters, and we wrote some songs together.” – John Oates
37. “You have to know when to strike and when to retreat.” – John Oates
38. “If anyone looks back to the ’70s, ’80s with nostalgic rosy-colored glasses and goes, ‘Well, everything was awesome.’ No, everything was not awesome!” – John Oates
39. “Sometimes, it’s just great to bring new people into the mix.” – John Oates
40th of 50 John Oates Quotes
40. “The bricks and mortar of the music business, they don’t exist any longer.” – John Oates
41. “There’s all sorts of soul. There’s Irish soul and Native American soul. If it touches you and moves you, it’s soul.” – John Oates
42. “A good mustache makes a man for many reasons.” – John Oates
43. “To me, when a great band is playing together, it’s amazing for me.” – John Oates
44. “I never finish a show without singing She’s Gone.” – John Oates
45. “I get to play with all these different players who don’t necessarily approach music always the same way that I might. So I learn a lot.” – John Oates
46. “I think it’s kind of difficult to write a good Christmas song because you have a narrow framework of references that you have to work within, and at the same time you want to do something that’s personally original and hopefully somewhat unique.” – John Oates
47. “When my song came on the radio for the first time, that was one of the heaviest things I remember.” – John Oates
48. “Personally, I’ve never really wanted to be a rock star. That wasn’t my motivation in life. It kind of happened.” – John Oates
49. “I do a lot of things behind the scenes. I do a lot of things that don’t hit the headlines.” – John Oates
50. “I’m an indie artist with major distribution, so one foot in the extreme major music business and one foot in the abyss of indie artists.” – John Oates
Summary
Thanks for checking out this collection of quotes from John Oates! Don’t forget to share them on social media with your friends and family.
