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John Oates will play an acoustic, solo set tonight at Steve’s Guitars in Carbondale.
|
BASALT — “My mustache has superpowers,” said a grinning John Oates, sitting at a local eatery.
And yes, he was being serious. The now clean-shaven half of the music duo Hall & Oates was describing a new cartoon being developed about — what else — his famous ’stache. For decades, he said, those follicles were him. Now, though they still have pop culture appeal, they speak of his past life.
“I didn’t want to be that guy anymore,” he said, from behind his flop of black, curly hair. “I kind of grew out of him.”
Tonight, in Carbondale, Oates will share a bit of this new man, the person he’s become since moving to Aspen two decades ago. Recently, as he talked about the upcoming show, about fame and his love of music, he was calm and comfortable. He was spontaneous, but in a practiced sense. He seemed far too professional to give too much away.
It was obvious — he’s been in the public eye for a long time.
“We just wanted to be musicians,” he said of him and Daryl Hall, “and whatever way the world would allow us to do that, that’s what we wanted to do.”
Oates wasn’t about to give a full rundown of their history, and alluded to it in flashes instead. Both children of the Philadelphia area, he and his musical collaborator were singers before they could talk, he said. Each took up instruments early and was influenced by the regional rhythm-and-blues sounds of the city.
The pair met in the late ’60s when they were set to perform with different bands at a “record hop” in their home city. After gunfire broke out between two rival gangs, both ran into the same service elevator. In this, the strangest of ways, the seeds for Hall & Oates were sown.
By the 1970s, they were a formal band, and the momentum of their success was already starting. As their sound of soul, pop and folk became recognizable, they began an exhaustive schedule of writing, recording and touring. Hits such as 1976’s “She’s Gone” and “Sara Smile” gave way to later smashes like “Maneater” in 1982. By 1984, they were named the most successful rock duo in history, surpassing the Everly Brothers. The pair had a total of 19 gold and platinum awards. They were some of the first video jockeys to appear on MTV, as well. In effect, they were everywhere.
Oates made little of all this, explaining instead just how crazy those days were on a personal level. It was a “never-ending party,” he said, and not a moment could be spared for reflection. From 1970 to 1985, the band worked straight through, without stopping “ever,” he said.
Though we all love a good sob story of women, drugs and booze, don’t expect one from Oates. Sure, he said, he was married to a model, and yes, he made a few horrendous business mistakes. But it was all just “experience.” In his blunders, the person he felt he hurt the most was himself. To hear him tell it, he and Hall just had too much common sense to become insane.
“The pop star stuff, the popularity, the number-one records were all byproducts of us, of our hard working,” he said. “It was never an intention.”
“You always have yes men,” he added, continuing on about fame. “I have yes men right now, but I don’t listen to them, for the most part. I do what I think is right.”
His tone had a real honesty about it. His belief in himself, in where he was going and where he’d been, was undeniable.
A new life in Aspen
So, what about Aspen? If the pop world wasn’t that bad, why leave it behind?
As he sees it, he didn’t have a choice. He never had bottomed out, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t still reinvent himself. After two decades, the man behind the mustache just had to come out.
Describing the moment of change, he came to life. There was no doubt about its importance. You could see it in his eyes.
It was the late 1980s, and Hall & Oates were still high on success. They had been long since dubbed a “hit-making machine” by the media, which drew ire and adulation from the public. They had been a part of “Live Aid,” recorded “We are the World,” and after a short break, had been on tour for a year-and-a-half promoting their “Change of Season” album. Oates was also going through a divorce and other upheavals. With the world spinning, something had to give.
For Oates, that something was his house in Connecticut, his airplane, his car collection. He sold it all and escaped to his condo in Aspen. He shaved his signature mustache and spent a year-and-a-half alone. He rode his bike and took the bus. He hung out. He just lived.
“I basically cleaned house, and I started over. I created a whole new life template — I never looked back after that,” he said.
This new view opened up a fresh world for him musically. He left pop behind, delving instead into a softer, more soulful sound. In 2002, he released his first solo CD, “Phunk Shui.”
His rhythms today represent his current state of being. The songs flow out of him more slowly now, but that seems as it should be. It’s not that he’s lost any of the drive to make tunes. It’s simply that he’s let other things into his life as well.
“Music became part of my life instead of the only thing in my life,” he said. “I was so freed. I can’t even describe to you how I felt.”
Looking at him now, his demeanor so even keel, it’s hard to imagine the person of his past. This guy, chatting up the waiter in a friendly way, surely he isn’t the same one who posed in glam makeup on one of his first album covers. And, in a way, he’s not. Now, he’s the remarried man, the one with a young son, the one who makes music only for himself.
And it’s this new person who’s coming to Steve’s Guitars tonight. Titled “The Stories Behind the Songs,” his acoustic performance will be loose and upbeat. Though he still tours and creates with Hall, he sees being alone as a chance to experience a new sense of creativity and intimacy. Created a few years ago as a workshop for Berklee College of Music students, the show goes into detail about how he wrote so many of those hit songs. Underneath the layers of his poppiest hits, he said, you will hear that there’s a complex structure. No matter how you play or produce them, he insisted, they’re just good songs.
At the end of the interview, Oates was understandably restless, needing to be wherever he needed to be. With a little prompting, he had detoured into talking about his disappointment in the music industry, of Hall’s amazing voice, of Paris Hilton’s inexplicable fame. Folded among all these words was the the real truth about where he is at. For him, regardless of his success, what matters now is songwriting.
“For me, in the end,” he said, “the thing that makes me most satisfied is creating something from nothing.”
Perhaps, after reading this, there’s a disappointment that Oates never let go and got really candid. There’s no crying, no breaking news here. But, in a way, what does it matter? Why should he tell some ultimate truth to a young reporter? Musically, he’s already been doing it for years.
For more information on Hall & Oates and Oates’ upcoming second solo album, visit their official website at www.hallandoates.com
For a look at what Oates’ other half is up to, check out www.livefromdarylshouse.com.
Contact Stina Sieg: 384-9111
ssieg@postindependent.com
And yes, he was being serious. The now clean-shaven half of the music duo Hall & Oates was describing a new cartoon being developed about — what else — his famous ’stache. For decades, he said, those follicles were him. Now, though they still have pop culture appeal, they speak of his past life.
“I didn’t want to be that guy anymore,” he said, from behind his flop of black, curly hair. “I kind of grew out of him.”
Tonight, in Carbondale, Oates will share a bit of this new man, the person he’s become since moving to Aspen two decades ago. Recently, as he talked about the upcoming show, about fame and his love of music, he was calm and comfortable. He was spontaneous, but in a practiced sense. He seemed far too professional to give too much away.
It was obvious — he’s been in the public eye for a long time.
“We just wanted to be musicians,” he said of him and Daryl Hall, “and whatever way the world would allow us to do that, that’s what we wanted to do.”
Oates wasn’t about to give a full rundown of their history, and alluded to it in flashes instead. Both children of the Philadelphia area, he and his musical collaborator were singers before they could talk, he said. Each took up instruments early and was influenced by the regional rhythm-and-blues sounds of the city.
The pair met in the late ’60s when they were set to perform with different bands at a “record hop” in their home city. After gunfire broke out between two rival gangs, both ran into the same service elevator. In this, the strangest of ways, the seeds for Hall & Oates were sown.
By the 1970s, they were a formal band, and the momentum of their success was already starting. As their sound of soul, pop and folk became recognizable, they began an exhaustive schedule of writing, recording and touring. Hits such as 1976’s “She’s Gone” and “Sara Smile” gave way to later smashes like “Maneater” in 1982. By 1984, they were named the most successful rock duo in history, surpassing the Everly Brothers. The pair had a total of 19 gold and platinum awards. They were some of the first video jockeys to appear on MTV, as well. In effect, they were everywhere.
Oates made little of all this, explaining instead just how crazy those days were on a personal level. It was a “never-ending party,” he said, and not a moment could be spared for reflection. From 1970 to 1985, the band worked straight through, without stopping “ever,” he said.
Though we all love a good sob story of women, drugs and booze, don’t expect one from Oates. Sure, he said, he was married to a model, and yes, he made a few horrendous business mistakes. But it was all just “experience.” In his blunders, the person he felt he hurt the most was himself. To hear him tell it, he and Hall just had too much common sense to become insane.
“The pop star stuff, the popularity, the number-one records were all byproducts of us, of our hard working,” he said. “It was never an intention.”
“You always have yes men,” he added, continuing on about fame. “I have yes men right now, but I don’t listen to them, for the most part. I do what I think is right.”
His tone had a real honesty about it. His belief in himself, in where he was going and where he’d been, was undeniable.
A new life in Aspen
So, what about Aspen? If the pop world wasn’t that bad, why leave it behind?
As he sees it, he didn’t have a choice. He never had bottomed out, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t still reinvent himself. After two decades, the man behind the mustache just had to come out.
Describing the moment of change, he came to life. There was no doubt about its importance. You could see it in his eyes.
It was the late 1980s, and Hall & Oates were still high on success. They had been long since dubbed a “hit-making machine” by the media, which drew ire and adulation from the public. They had been a part of “Live Aid,” recorded “We are the World,” and after a short break, had been on tour for a year-and-a-half promoting their “Change of Season” album. Oates was also going through a divorce and other upheavals. With the world spinning, something had to give.
For Oates, that something was his house in Connecticut, his airplane, his car collection. He sold it all and escaped to his condo in Aspen. He shaved his signature mustache and spent a year-and-a-half alone. He rode his bike and took the bus. He hung out. He just lived.
“I basically cleaned house, and I started over. I created a whole new life template — I never looked back after that,” he said.
This new view opened up a fresh world for him musically. He left pop behind, delving instead into a softer, more soulful sound. In 2002, he released his first solo CD, “Phunk Shui.”
His rhythms today represent his current state of being. The songs flow out of him more slowly now, but that seems as it should be. It’s not that he’s lost any of the drive to make tunes. It’s simply that he’s let other things into his life as well.
“Music became part of my life instead of the only thing in my life,” he said. “I was so freed. I can’t even describe to you how I felt.”
Looking at him now, his demeanor so even keel, it’s hard to imagine the person of his past. This guy, chatting up the waiter in a friendly way, surely he isn’t the same one who posed in glam makeup on one of his first album covers. And, in a way, he’s not. Now, he’s the remarried man, the one with a young son, the one who makes music only for himself.
And it’s this new person who’s coming to Steve’s Guitars tonight. Titled “The Stories Behind the Songs,” his acoustic performance will be loose and upbeat. Though he still tours and creates with Hall, he sees being alone as a chance to experience a new sense of creativity and intimacy. Created a few years ago as a workshop for Berklee College of Music students, the show goes into detail about how he wrote so many of those hit songs. Underneath the layers of his poppiest hits, he said, you will hear that there’s a complex structure. No matter how you play or produce them, he insisted, they’re just good songs.
At the end of the interview, Oates was understandably restless, needing to be wherever he needed to be. With a little prompting, he had detoured into talking about his disappointment in the music industry, of Hall’s amazing voice, of Paris Hilton’s inexplicable fame. Folded among all these words was the the real truth about where he is at. For him, regardless of his success, what matters now is songwriting.
“For me, in the end,” he said, “the thing that makes me most satisfied is creating something from nothing.”
Perhaps, after reading this, there’s a disappointment that Oates never let go and got really candid. There’s no crying, no breaking news here. But, in a way, what does it matter? Why should he tell some ultimate truth to a young reporter? Musically, he’s already been doing it for years.
For more information on Hall & Oates and Oates’ upcoming second solo album, visit their official website at www.hallandoates.com
For a look at what Oates’ other half is up to, check out www.livefromdarylshouse.com.
Contact Stina Sieg: 384-9111
ssieg@postindependent.com
Oates in concert
WHAT: John Oates, in concert.WHEN: 8 tonight.
WHERE: Steve’s Guitars, 19 N. 4th St. in Carbondale.
WHY? Because he’s Oates!
Name: John Oates
Born: April 7, 1949, in Philadelphia.
First album with Daryl Hall: “Whole Oats,” 1972.
Most recent Hall & Oates album: “Home For Christmas,” 2007.
First number-one single: “Rich Girl,” 1976.
One of his favorite songs that made it big: “She’s Gone,” 1976.
One of his favorites that he wished had hit the big time: “Keep Pushing Love,” 1989.
A moment that makes him cringe: Though he has no regrets, the cover of “Daryl Hall & John Oates” (called the “silver album” by fans) does make him wince. It was made back in the time of glam rock, and the duo acted accordingly. With fluffy hair and rouged cheeks, there’s a definite womanish look about them. But in Oates’ words: “You do stupid things in your 20s.”
The most important thing in his life now: “Being a good person and writing good songs, taking care of my family — and skiing powder. Doing my part to restore the reputation of America.”
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