John Oates Quotes

• 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

  Happy Birthday, Song, Hair

  90 Copy quote

• A good mustache makes a man for many reasons.

  John Oates

  Men, Mustache, Reason

  79 Copy quote

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

  John Oates

  Family, Amazing Life, Family Life

  11 Copy quote

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

  John Oates

  School, Waiting, Mustache

  11 Copy quote

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

  John Oates

  Retreat, Strikes, Knows

  6 Copy quote

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

  John Oates

  People, Sometimes

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  John Oates

  Song, Inspiration, Writing

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  Moving, Native American, Soul

  4 Copy quote

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

  John Oates

  Roots, Style, Done

  5 Copy quote

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

  John Oates

  Mustache, Eras, Certain

  32 Copy quote

• 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

  Relationship, Amazing Life, Needs

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Clothes, May, Way

  4 Copy quote

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

  John Oates

  Together, Band, Playing Together

  4 Copy quote

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

  John Oates

  Tomorrow, Touring, Changing My Life

  4 Copy quote

• I'd like to do something with the Avett Brothers.

  John Oates

  Brother

  13 Copy quote

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

  John Oates

  Swimming, Music Business, Things To Do

  19 Copy quote

• 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

  Opportunity, Skills, Gone

  4 Copy quote

• The bricks and mortar of the music business, they don't exist any longer.

  John Oates

  Bricks And Mortar, Bricks, Mortar

  4 Copy quote

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

  John Oates

  Missing You, Would Be, Touring

  4 Copy quote

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

  John Oates

  People, Together

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Brother, Wake Up, Records

  6 Copy quote

• 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

  Teenager, Years, Two

  8 Copy quote

• 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

  Moving, Somewhere Else, Appreciate

  23 Copy quote

• 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.

  John Oates

  Country, Inspiration, Cowboy

  4 Copy quote

• I like playing on stage, don't get me wrong.

  John Oates

  Stage

  4 Copy quote

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