John Oates Quotes

• I still don’t know how I got to the big leagues because I wasn’t that good.

  John Oates

• You have to know when to strike and when to retreat.

  John Oates

• Well, before we met I had heard and seen him sing so I knew he was good.

  John Oates

• 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 others way.

  John Oates

• 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

• We should have an easier name to pronounce.

  John Oates

• We collaborate together. We work with other people. We work by ourselves.

  John Oates

• To me, when a great band is playing together, it’s amazing for me.

  John Oates

• The thing is, we’ve changed our style but we’ve never changed the actual roots of what we’ve done.

  John Oates

• Swimming upstream in the music business is a hard thing to do.

  John Oates

• Sometimes, it’s just great to bring new people into the mix.

  John Oates

• It’s the music that brings us together.

  John Oates

• In our relationship, we don’t have that situation. I don’t require what he needs, and he doesn’t require what I need. I know what I do; I have an amazing life that nobody knows about.

  John Oates

• If something that needs to be done that we don’t feel confronting, we do it through the manager.

  John Oates

• If it wasn’t for music, I doubt whether we’d be friends.

  John Oates

• If I stopped touring tomorrow, it wouldn’t change my life.

  John Oates

• If Daryl stopped touring it would be a big part of him missing.

  John Oates

• I wish I could see over crowds and small groups of people.

  John Oates

• I was just glad to meet somebody outside of my group of small town friends who was into music. Somebody else who had aspirations to do something more than sing at a record hop.

  John Oates

• I think people were just starving for good material because they just weren’t getting it on the radio.

  John Oates

John Oates (26)

Birth:	7th April, 1948
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Guitarist, Lyricist, Record Producer, Singer

About

John William Oates was born in New York City, New York, USA. He is an American guitarist, songwriter, singer and  record producer best known as half of the rock and soul duo, Daryl Hall & John Oates. He enrolled in Temple University in Philadelphia, where he met Daryl Hall. He co-wrote many of the Top 10 songs that they recorded, including (with Daryl Hall): "Sara Smile", "She's Gone", and "Out of Touch", as well as (with Sara Allen and Daryl Hall): "You Make My Dreams", "I Can't Go for That (No Can Do)", "Maneater", and "Adult Education". He also co-wrote and sang backup on the song "Electric Blue", recorded by the Australian band Icehouse, which was a Billboard Top Ten hit. His albums list shown below: Phunk Shui, 1000 Miles of Life, and Arkansas. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2004. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014, as a member of Hall & Oates. His memoir, Change of Seasons (with Chris Epting) was published in 2017.

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