• last year
After 50 great years of being one-half of the iconic Hall & Oates, John Oates is spending more quality time reflecting on his own true gift of song. His second full-length release since 2018, Reunion , reflects on life, love, and the afterlife in a bluegrass, folksy, country-sound way that truly represents his intricate guitar-playing, beautiful voice, and of course, his amazing lyrical storytelling. He collabed with A.J. Croce (son of the legendary Jim Croce) on the title-track, "Reunion," as well as some of Nashville's greatest session players, such as guitarists Guthrie Trapp, Russ Pahl, Tom Bukovac, and bassist Steve Mackey.
Transcript
00:00Hi, this is John Oates and you're watching Life Minute TV.
00:09After 50 years of being one half of the most iconic group of all time, Hall & Oates,
00:14John Oates is spending more quality time reflecting on his own true gift of song.
00:19His second full-length release since 2018, Reunion, reflects on life, love, and the afterlife
00:26in a bluegrass, folksy, country sound of way that truly represents his intricate guitar playing,
00:33beautiful voice, and of course, his amazing lyrical storytelling.
00:37This is a Life Minute with John Oates.
00:41Tell us about the show. What are fans going to get when they see you?
00:45They're going to get the unfiltered version of Oates.
00:50Oates in his mid-70s, playing music that I really believe in and music that I feel is
00:55very authentic and honest to where I am in my life, and lots of new songs and lots of stories
01:02telling about how the songs were written, what the inspiration was behind some of the songs,
01:07and I even do some covers. I do some songs from people that I really like, like John Prime,
01:12Smokey Robinson. I try to give people a kind of an overview of who I am as a musician
01:18and the kind of musical life and history that I've had.
01:22Would you describe that history?
01:24Well, you know, I'm old enough to remember music before rock and roll,
01:28which is, I think, a unique perspective. My parents played big band music and swing
01:32and stuff like that, the music of their teenage generation, of the World War II generation.
01:37So growing up, singing from the time I was old enough to talk, basically, I heard that music,
01:43and then when rock and roll started in the early 50s, I was aware that something new had happened,
01:48and I was really all in. I just embraced this new thing that was going on.
01:54It seems rock and roll has been around for so long now, it seems like it's been there forever,
01:58but it actually wasn't. So I started playing guitar at a very super early age, five, six years
02:04old. I was taking vocal lessons. I played Chuck Berry and Little Richard and Elvis and Buddy
02:10Holly, the Everly Brothers. That was kind of where it started. And then as rock and roll evolved,
02:15so did I as a musician. I became better at what I was doing. I listened to music,
02:21listened to the folk revival when it hit in the early 60s and absorbed all this roots music,
02:27which really is the foundation for rock and roll. And I began to really understand that
02:33American popular music has this amazing history and continuum that really has built upon itself
02:39over the years. I draw upon all those influences, the early days of R&B. I'm very much a fan of
02:46the early days of regional American music. Before the great homogenization of the
02:52corporate radio stations where playlists became 10, 15 songs that rotated every hour,
02:59there were all these amazing regional radio stations in Memphis and Nashville and Chicago
03:04and Motown and Philly and all playing their songs from their music community. And I love that. And
03:11I kind of pine for the days when that was, but those days are long gone. So I really draw from
03:17these incredible regional musical styles. And to me, they're all one big happy family,
03:24happy musical family. So you said five years old. I don't think I ever knew that. That's
03:30when you started playing. Well, no, actually it's not true. I have a recording of me singing
03:34a nursery rhyme when I was four. We went to Coney Island Amusement Park and they had those
03:40record booths where you could go and put a dime in or a quarter in or whatever it was,
03:45and you could sing a song and out would pop this little record. I actually have it. And then I went
03:50back when I was a little bit older, maybe I was six or seven, and I sang All Shook Up, the Elvis
03:54song, and I have that too. So I've been recording since I've been four years old. Were your parents
03:59supportive of this growing up? Yeah, they were. They weren't musical, but my mom was a bit of a
04:04stage mother, more than a bit. I think she lived vicariously through me. She always wanted me to
04:10play all the little kiddie shows. She would take me around and dress me in like,
04:15let's put it this way. I very rarely wear red anymore. She always used to say, Johnny,
04:22you look so good in red. And I was like, oh, OK. But I say it with a lot of love. I make a joke of
04:30it. But without her, she really pushed me. And she really did. I think she took a lot of pride
04:36in the fact that I had this God-given ability, basically. And so I wrote a book, and I don't
04:44know if you saw it or not. It's called Change of Season in 17. And one of the lines in the book,
04:48which I said early on, was that I don't really care about being famous because I've always been
04:53famous. I was the oldest son in an Italian family. So I was always treated like a king. I was the
04:59only one allowed in the kitchen when my Italian grandmother would cook. She wouldn't let anyone
05:03else in except me. She always gave me the first meatball. So I was like a little king. And so for
05:09me, I was famous on different levels my whole life. Everyone always paid attention to me. So
05:15when you get that kind of support, it builds up a foundation of confidence. And so I've always been
05:24like that. That's amazing. So I've interviewed you three times, and I don't think I knew that
05:27you were Italian. I'm Italian too, 100%. I can tell. I can tell. Well, I'm only 50. My mother's
05:35side of the family is Italian. All right, so let's talk about Reunion. It's beautiful. Congratulations.
05:51What's it about for you? Well, my dad's 100, and he's getting to the end, you know what I mean?
06:00And he's been talking about things, talking about reuniting with mom, who passed away a number of
06:05years ago. And when he said that to me, it started resonating with me. And I began to think about my
06:10own life, and I began to think about the whole idea of what does reunion really mean? It means
06:16reuniting. That's what it means, if you break the word down. And so I realized that what was
06:21happening was not only with my dad and the natural progression of his life, you know,
06:27toward its ending, but I realized that what I needed to do and what I am doing is reuniting
06:32with the essential part of myself, the person who made me who I am long before Holy Notes,
06:38the essential spiritual soul. You know, a good friend of mine, when I started doing some solo
06:44shows a few years back, he said to me something that really struck home. He said, Johnny, you
06:49were a musician for 15 years before you met Daryl Hall. You were a musician then, you're going to be
06:54a musician for the rest of your life, regardless of whether you play Holy Notes songs or not.
06:58That's a 50-year experience that I've had, and I'm so proud of it and very respectful of the success
07:05and the fact that some of the songs will last forever. But that's not only who I am, and now
07:11I'm a different person. And so I want to represent myself in the most honest, respectful way for who
07:16I am at my age and with my experience. And so that's what the song's really about. There's a
07:21line in the song that I think really is the summation of the whole idea, and it's the line
07:24in the chorus that says, the lights at the party burn bright, but I'm leaving early tonight.
07:29The lights at the party burn bright, but I'm leaving early tonight.
07:39It's time to move on.
07:41It's not what I thought when I first, I thought it was a love song, but it's a family love song.
07:46Well, you know what? You can take it in a lot of ways. You can take it in a lot of ways. I think
07:50the key is that it's time to know when to go. You know, that can be a metaphor for a lot of things.
07:55For my father, it's a going home to, you know, another place. For me, it's going home to the
08:01essence of my musical spirit. And I do, I like to go home to my wife. I like to be at home. And so
08:07I like to be able to be in charge of my life so that I can arrange my schedule and things so that
08:12it works for me. So it's very multi, there's a lot going on in that song.
08:18Take us down, if you would, if we have time for that, for each one. Long Monday.
08:32Well, I'll tell you what, when I get to heaven, I'm going to tell you what Long Monday is about
08:35because John Prine wrote it and he's up there. So I'll have to ask him. But I think I know what he
08:41was writing about. He was writing about the, you know, it's a great song. I got a chance to perform
08:46during a celebration of his life at his birthday just recently when I was asked to pick a song.
08:52He's got so many amazing songs. And John Prine and I have, we go way back because he was making his
08:58first album when Daryl and I were making our first album in the same studio with the same producer
09:03in New York at Atlantic Records. So people don't realize that. A lot of people don't realize that.
09:07But we have a lot in common when it comes to our beginnings of our career. So I've just been a huge
09:13fan and I came up with my own unique arrangement of it. I really liked it. And so I said, well,
09:18I'll record it. So that's that's the story with that. I found love.
09:28Well, I found love, I wrote for my wife when we first met back in the early 90s,
09:33and I actually recorded that song in 2007 when I first was really being a part of the
09:41new Americana movement in Nashville. I had met Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas and Bela Fleck,
09:46three guys who are just, as far as I'm concerned, at the top of their game as musicians and
09:51musicianship. And I wanted to record with authentic bluegrass players and and I wanted that that
09:57experience. And I brought them into the studio and we didn't know each other very well at the time,
10:01but we've since become very good friends. They just played so beautifully on that. And
10:05it was on an album, was actually pre-released on an album called Thousand Miles of Life.
10:10I just felt I needed to say it again. So what I did was I rerecorded the vocals,
10:14I rerecorded my guitar part, but I kept Sam, Jerry and Bela on the track just the way it was
10:20back in 2007. I just thought it was a song that really was overlooked and no one really heard it.
10:25So I wanted to give people a chance to hear it again.
10:40That's a song that was inspired by my wife. My wife comes from a farming family in Illinois
10:45and her parents still have their family farm, which they've had for generations,
10:49and they are very passionate about it. And the area where they're living,
10:53south of Chicago, is being overrun by suburbs and housing developments and things. And
10:57many farmers in the area have been selling their land. They just refuse to sell. And I just thought
11:03it was so noble, you know, to really have that kind of respect for the land. And I thought about
11:08owning property, you know, if you own a house or maybe you have some property. But the thing is,
11:14you really don't, you know, you can say you own it, but you actually don't. You're just
11:17a caretaker for a while because it's going to be there when you're gone. So I thought
11:21that's an interesting idea. And that's what that song's about.
11:26All I Ask of You.
11:35That's me projecting into the future what I want people to say when I'm dead.
11:39What do you want people to say when you're dead?
11:41Just listen to the lyrics.
11:46Dancehall Girls.
11:47Them dancehall girls, they don't treat you kind.
11:53Oh, Dancehall Girls. That's a great song. I didn't write that song. I wish I would have.
11:57I was in Europe. I went to Europe right after I graduated from college in 1970,
12:01and I spent four months busking around Europe with a backpack and a guitar.
12:05I had gotten to Amsterdam. I had been all over Western Europe and every country,
12:09and I was getting tired and running out of money. And I went to a record shop in Amsterdam.
12:14In those days, you could take an album or a vinyl and you could go into a little booth,
12:19put it on, put some headphones on and actually listen to the music before you bought it.
12:24And I started listening to, I guess I was homesick. I started listening to all this
12:28really American music, bluegrass music and blues. And then I found this obscure record
12:34by a group from Canada called Fraser and DeBolt. I'd never heard of them. I put it on and I heard
12:39that song and I almost started crying. Maybe I did start crying. And I just knew I had to go.
12:44That song brought me back. And I went back to America. Actually, I played it for Daryl.
12:48And Daryl and I were just, we weren't really working together. We were just hanging out.
12:52And we both really liked that song. And I said, one day I'm going to record that. So I did.
13:06That's a song I wrote with my very good friend, the great Jim Lauderdale,
13:10an amazing Nashville singer, songwriter, an amazing person. He became one of my best
13:15friends in Nashville. I met him at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. He just made me laugh. He's
13:20a very funny guy and very interesting guy. And he and I really bonded and we wrote many songs
13:24together. And that's one of my favorites. It's a very interesting folk style of guitar playing
13:30that I do on that song. It's very unique. It's a Carter family strum, which goes back to Mabel
13:34Carter, one of the first of the other folkies back in the early, late 1920s of the Carter
13:41family. And Jim is from North Carolina. So his kind of influential idea about Carolina,
13:47and we just made it up in the middle of the night. And the coffeehouse version of Reunion.
13:59Yeah, we wanted to do more of a little bit more of an acoustic stripped down
14:02version because the song itself dictates how you're going to record it and what type of
14:06instrumentation you're going to use. And I knew that the song of Reunion, the idea of it was so
14:11powerful. I wanted to have a full blown production. So after having that really big production,
14:17I wanted to now take it down to give people an alternative version that was a little bit more
14:22intimate. Oh, Anytime Live. Well, I recorded that with my old band, the Nashville Band,
14:37the Good Road Band. That was recorded in a hotel room in Kansas City during a thing called the
14:42Folk Alliance, which is a gathering of folkies, basically. We went in there and everyone was a
14:48little ripply pipply that night. And it was like we were so loose and we didn't care about anything.
14:54And we just started playing. And you may not notice this, but the intro to the song that
14:59Guthrie Trapp does, he just did it spontaneously and it's actually in the wrong key. The band
15:11kicked in in the right key. And it's just this weird, magical moment that you could never,
15:15ever plan for. So it's totally live. It's actually, like I said, in a hotel room in Kansas City.
15:22And then Arkansas, live from Station Inn.
15:33Yeah, well, I love the Station Inn. And in fact, interestingly enough, I just got asked to play
15:37there again on September 21st at the end of the Americana Music Conference. So I'm going to be
15:42playing there again. It's one of my favorite places to play in Nashville. It's awesome.
15:45I played there so many times. And that was just a night when I had the full band. And that was
15:50a seven-piece band with Sam Bush and Russ Paul and Guthrie Trapp and Josh Day and Steve Mackey
15:57and Nat Smith on cello, who's still playing with me. This incredible band I called the Good Road
16:02Band. It was one of those great nights at the Station Inn. And Arkansas is the title track to
16:06an album I released in 18 called Arkansas. And I wanted people to hear that version of that band
16:12because it was so amazing. And the band you're touring with now, how many are you? It's four
16:18piece, including myself. So it's really a trio plus me. My old friend, John Michel from Aspen,
16:23Colorado, who I've been playing with since the 90s. Nat Smith on cello, who I've been playing with
16:29for about 10 years now. And a brand new guy named Sam Wilson, who was playing with Mary Chapin
16:35Carpenter. I heard him playing at Telluride Bluegrass Festival this past summer. And I loved
16:40his playing and I reached out to him and he joined. He plays electric guitar and pedal steel.
16:44It's a kind of an acoustic, very small acoustic ensemble. You did something with Jim Croce's son
16:50recently? Yeah, Reunion. I co-wrote Reunion with him. We met at the John Prine event at Ryman when
16:56I was doing Long Monday. We were put in the same dressing room. They stuck us in the same dressing
17:00room and he and I just hit it off. And, you know, obviously he's got some pretty good songwriting
17:05DNA in his background. When I had the idea for Reunion, we were going to do a writing session.
17:10I didn't know what we were going to do. But after we hung out for a little bit, I got the sense that
17:15he would get it. And so I told him I had a lot of the chorus already written, kind of sang that,
17:21especially that line about lights at the party burn bright, but I'm leaving early tonight. I'm
17:26making ready for my reunion. I told him the whole story of my dad and blah, blah, blah.
17:29And he got it. That's the mark of a great songwriter who can take an idea and really
17:33understand, you know, and bring something of himself to it. And in fact, interestingly enough,
17:38he just recorded his version and he's going to put it out on his album, which is not going to
17:43come out until next year. And his version is completely different. It's much more of a gospel
17:47piano song, which is really cool that he did a completely different version.
17:51That's so beautiful because, you know, Jim Croce is one of those guys that makes a lot of sense
17:57that you guys are together. What inspires you lately?
18:00I'm really enjoying playing the show. I'm really playing it because it's a new group of, you know,
18:06I mean, other than John Michel, who I've been playing with for a long time, I love putting
18:09the arrangements together. I love thinking about who's playing what and how they're playing the
18:15sonic spaces that they're occupying, you know, which is dictated by not only the player themselves,
18:21but the instrument that they're playing on and how to make the most of this very intimate acoustic
18:26ensemble. I work on it every day. I think about it and then we go into the sound check and we
18:32talk about who's going to do what, how they're going to do it. So every night it just keeps
18:36getting better and better and better. And I really like that.
18:40That's so cool. How do you keep your voice in tune?
18:43Well, I shouldn't be talking to you on a show day. I know how to sing. I try to
18:48use my throat in a certain kind of way. I also adapt the vocals on these songs to
18:55how I'm feeling. Sometimes I'm feeling really strong and I'll really push hard.
18:59Other times I'm not, and I'll kind of stroke it a little bit, but I have ways of adapting
19:04the melodies and singing in different registers. So it's, look, I've been singing my whole life,
19:08so I know how to do it. You sure do.
19:12How do you take care of yourself when you're on the road?
19:14Yeah, well, that's always a challenge. I try not to get sick. You know, I'm very conscientious about,
19:20you know, washing my hands and using wet wipes and all that kind of stuff.
19:24I go into a hotel room, I wipe everything down with wet wipes. I try to be really careful. If I
19:30go to a restaurant, I bring wet wipes with me and wipe the forks and knives and the glasses.
19:34First time I interviewed you, you told me that.
19:36You said you wiped everything down and it was right before COVID. I was like, oh, look at that.
19:41That's even more so. Yeah, no, and I just try to be careful. You know,
19:44I got sick on the last tour I did in November, last November. I got COVID and had to cancel a
19:50show. So it happens. You know, it's kind of the world we live in. And when you're traveling around
19:56on planes and, you know, in public places and eating in restaurants, you know, you kind of
20:01open yourself up for that possibility. So you just have to be careful.
20:04What's your favorite comfort food?
20:07The food I can't eat. Ice cream. I can't eat ice cream anymore. I wish I could. I love ice cream.
20:12It's not good for my throat. It's not good for me in general. But I love Italian food. I think
20:19Italian food is the only food in the world where you can eat it for the rest of your life and never
20:22repeat a dish. What's something you always bring with you when you travel?
20:27My own pillow. I bring a air pillow that I blow up because I don't want to put my face in a hotel
20:33pillow because who knows what has been going on in that pillow with people and things. So, yeah,
20:41and that, you know what, since I started doing that a few years ago, and I don't get as sick now
20:46because I never put my face in a pillow that other people have breathed into.
20:51What's something that you want to do that you haven't done yet?
20:55Not much. I want to be the best that I can be. That's what I want. I want to be the best I can
20:59be while I still have the physical and mental ability to do it. I can still sing. I can still
21:04play. I can still travel. I want to enjoy that as much as I can because at some point it's going to
21:10end. It's a reality and I don't dwell on it, but it's real. So I want to just, I want to live life
21:16to the fullest while I can. You're an international treasure that just keeps getting better and
21:21better. Would you call my wife and tell her that? I think she knows. How do you keep it going and
21:28keep it fresh? Because it does. Everything you do always sounds fresh and beautiful and more heart.
21:33I'm one of the lucky ones. I know that, you know, look, everyone is going to have to work in their
21:38life some way, shape or form, right? Unless you're a trust fund kid or something like that. But,
21:43you know, my philosophy is that if your life's work is your life's passion, then you've won.
21:48You've won the game of life, you know, so to speak. And I did, you know, I've been a musician
21:53my whole life. I've never had another job. I'm very fortunate. I don't want to take that for,
21:57I never take it for granted. And I want it to be, if I have to be an example of something,
22:02I want to be an example of someone who is respectful of the blessings and the gifts
22:06that I've been given. That's a gift to us too. Thank you for your many gifts. Keep on giving
22:11to us, please. Thank you so much. You're awesome. That was a nice interview. It was really nice.
22:16Yeah. Well, come and see a show if you can. I will. I'd love to. Good luck. Stay well.
22:22To hear more of this interview, visit our podcast, Life Minute TV on iTunes and all
22:27streaming podcast platforms.

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