When I graduated from college in the spring of 1970, I decided to hitchhike around Europe with my guitar and my backpack. I was gone for about four months.
— 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.
I'm always reading something.
I'd like to do something with the Avett Brothers.
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.
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.
I was born at the beginning of rock and roll. I got to experience the entire evolution of popular rock and roll music even before it started.
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.
When albums gave way to CDs, people re-discovered their collection through their CDs.
Having a mustache and never smiling became a permanent component of my persona through the quaintly self-important decade of the seventies.
My mustache has become this weird iconic representation of a certain era.
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.
I have such a wide variety of tastes in things that I like musically.
I used to love assemblies because it got me out of class.
The bricks and mortar of the music business, they don't exist any longer.
I'm really in such a fortunate position to have that foundation with Hall and Oates that lets me do whatever I want. That's the dream of a lot of creative people, and I don't take it for granted. I try to make the most of it.
When you really can't affect something, you almost don't wanna wish too hard, because it's just frustrating.
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.
I was singing when I was two years old, and my parents were very supportive, but they weren't musicians themselves.
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.
I have a lot of friends who are involved in everything from Americana to blues to R&B to pop to country.
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.
The only job I'd ever had that might be considered not playing music was teaching guitar, which I did in college for a while, but that still falls in the same category.
If anyone looks back to the '70s, '80s with nostalgic rosy colored glasses and goes, 'Well, everything was awesome.' No, everything was not awesome!
The Katy Perry stuff, those are great songs.
I think social media is so important; the young bands have certainly embraced that and used that to their advantage.
I couldn't wait to grow a mustache. I stopped shaving my upper lip the day I graduated from high school.
A good mustache makes a man for many reasons.
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.
I didn't make a solo album until the year 2000.
I've been asked to do various types of cruises.
The decline of the major labels has changed the audience. They aren't force-fed by a system any more. They can make their own decisions.
I never finish a show without singing 'She's Gone.'
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.
You've got to pay me to leave my house, spend the night in hotels and fly in airplanes. That's what I get paid for. Playing I actually do for free.
My songwriting has evolved, just as I've evolved as a person.
My guitar playing is a synthesis of traditional American acoustic style and Urban Pop and R&B.
With Hall & Oates, honestly, after years and years of playing the same material, it's easy to coast. I can coast through a show.
I think the key to making records generally is to make 'em for yourself, regardless of the climate in the business.
Once you've made a record, you don't need to make it again. It's done, and it's out there forever, a moment in time that encapsulates whatever was happening in that moment.
There's always a personal satisfaction in writing a song by yourself. You get the inspiration, and see it through, and you're done. It's focused and very personal.
Personally, I've never really wanted to be a rock star. That wasn't my motivation in life. It kind of happened.
Americana Music is about all sorts of different music. It's very free and open: a world where people just like authentic music.
If I had to drop everything and just be a songwriter, I would be OK with that because that's the real joy.
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!'
The world has accelerated to the point that, as far as the album as a form, I don't know if it's going to last that much longer.
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.
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.
Young people go to concerts.
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.
