John Oates Quotes

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John Oates

Profession : Musician

Birth : April 7, 1948

I have a great family, I live an amazing life.

John Oates

It's the music that brings us together.

John Oates

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

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

John Oates

The first record I bought myself could have been 'Oh Lonesome Me' by Don Gibson or 'Wake Up Little Susie' by the Everly Brothers.

John Oates

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

John Oates

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

I couldn't wait to grow a mustache. I stopped shaving my upper lip the day I graduated from high school.

John Oates

The mustache represented the old John; I didn't want to be that guy anymore, so I shaved it off. It was ritualistic in a way.

John Oates

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

John Oates

Having a mustache and never smiling became a permanent component of my persona through the quaintly self-important decade of the seventies.

John Oates

I have a lot of friends who are involved in everything from Americana to blues to R&B to pop to country.

John Oates

Jam Cruise is actually a comfortable place for me. My jamming skills and my improvisational skills have improved immensely as I've gone more solo, because I've had this opportunity.

John Oates

Personally, I've never really wanted to be a rock star. That wasn't my motivation in life. It kind of happened.

John Oates

My guitar playing is a synthesis of traditional American acoustic style and Urban Pop and R&B.

John Oates

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

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

I just like playing with the band and doing what I do.

John Oates

My mustache has become this weird iconic representation of a certain era.

John Oates

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

John Oates