John Oates

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

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

“If anyone looks back to the '70s, '80s with nostalgic rosy colored glasses and goes, 'Well, everything was awesome.' No, everything was not awesome!”

“When my song came on the radio for the first time, that was one of the heaviest things I remember.”

“Well, before we met I had heard and seen him sing so I knew he was good.”

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

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

“There isn't one album that says 'Hall & Oates.' It's always 'Daryl Hall and John Oates.' From the very beginning. People never note that. The idea of 'Hall & Oates,' this two-headed monster, this thing, is not anything we've ever wanted or liked.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

“The Katy Perry stuff, those are great songs.”

“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 couldn't begin to name names... in general I have found racers to be some of the most competitive people on the planet... and some of the nicest as well.”

“A good mustache makes a man for many reasons.”

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