January 10, 2023 • 34 mins
Perhaps one of the most intimate conversations I've had on my podcast series happened today with John Oates. We've covered a broad range of topics, and we learn so much about this legendary music man.
He's recently released a new single, "Pushin' A Rock," that anyone who's gone through a trying time will relate to. He's got more new music dropping in the coming year, an upcoming tour, AND is involved in a program you might like to know about. (How'd you like to take a class that John Oates is teaching?!)
Set everything aside for the next half an hour and join us on LOVE SOMEONE! ~ Delilah
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
So, how is January in this New Year three treating
you so far? My friend? Did it start with a bang?
Did you stay up all night on New Year's Eve?
Did you have a party? Did it start with a
purr or in my case a snore. I was just
getting over the stomach flu, so I was in bed early.
(00:26):
Or maybe you're having trouble getting it started at all.
Are you sticking to some resolutions, maybe following through on
some good intentions. Maybe, like me, you're just trying to
make the most of each day. I am trying to
be emotionally present in each and every day, and I'm
looking forward to some upcoming events, maybe a few things
(00:50):
that you have circled on the calendar. Maybe this is
one of those days that you're listening to this podcast.
It's certainly one of those days for me because I
get to speak to a rock icon. John Oates is
half of the best selling duo of all time, Hall
of Oates, Darryl Hall and John Oates. I met them
decades ago. But did you know he's also an accomplished
(01:14):
solo artist. Did you know he's a member of the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the American Songwriters Hall
of fame, a recipient of numerous industry awards, has multiple
Grammy nominations under his guitar strap, and as a hell
of a nice guy. Since partnering with Darryl Hall in
(01:34):
the early seventies, there twenty one albums have sold over
eighty million albums, making them the most successful duo in
rock history. They've scored ten ten number one records over
twenty top forty hits. They've toured the world over and
over many times over the last four decades. Their involvement
(01:55):
in the original Live Aid and That We Are the
World Charity recording established them as legendary artist and very charitable.
John Oates embarked on a solo career back in He
has since recorded seven solo albums with The Good Road Band.
In addition, his seventeen autobiography Change of Season became an
(02:19):
Amazon bestseller. Today, we're gonna be talking about his most
recent release. It is a single and I just listened
to it before I came into the studio. I listened
to it a couple of times over the last week,
and then I listened to it again just a minute ago.
It's called Pushing a Rock, and we're going to catch
up with John Oates and what he has planned for
(02:40):
this new year. And I want to talk specifically about
this song because when I listened to the lyrics of it,
it seems so apropos for the times we are living
in right now, pushing a rock. So that is what
we're gonna be talking about. First, I'm going to shine
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Hi John Oates, it's been a while since we spoke. Welcome.
(04:11):
I know it's been forever, but I do have to
thank you because because of you and darryl Uh, I
got a dog that was a part of my family
and then part of my godson's family for decades. I
came to see you at a show and when I
left the parking lot, somebody had dumped a dog there. Well, um,
(04:37):
so okay, so we ended up taking it, seeing if
it was Chip, putting up signs. Nobody claimed it, so
Freckles was a part of our family for many years,
which didn't A couple of things brought a lot of
of a number two. Every time I would look at Freckles,
I would think of the great time I had at
your show. Awesome, Well that's that's great. You deliver so
(04:58):
much energy on sta age. Well, well we've we've been
doing it a long time, so uh yeah, it's it's
been quite a ride. How many years, oh more than fifty,
believe it or not. That's amazing. And you look found crazy.
Are you still up in the Seattle area? I am.
I am. I'm in the basement of my home, which
(05:19):
is only seven miles outside of Seattle as the crow flies,
but the crow has to fly over water, and so
it's like it feels like it's a million miles away.
I got When I try to get my family or
anybody to come to the farm, they're like, oh, I
gotta ride the ferry or drive around. So you gotta
drive seventy five miles to come to my house. If
(05:40):
you drive around, well, it's a beautiful area, that's that's
for sure. And he is where it's home for you.
We just how we were in Colorado for the last
month and we just literally flew back last night. We're
back in Nashville now. So we divide our time between
Nashville and our house in Colorado. Not not bad areas
to divide your time. It's lane, you know. I think
we picked two good spots. Yeah. So are you a skier? Yes,
(06:05):
I've been a skier for my whole life, since I've
been a kid. But I've kind of I've dropped. I've
dropped off going down the mountain. Now now I just
do cross country skiing. I love it. I've I've I've
kind of got hooked on skate skiing, Nordic skate skiing,
and that's what I do and I just stay fit
that way and I don't get I don't hit a tree,
I don't get hit by a wild twenty year old snowboarder.
(06:26):
So yeah, so that's a good thing. Wow. I didn't
try the Nordic skate skis, but I tried cross country
skiing a few times with some very fit friends. Were like, oh, dear,
you're gonna love this. This is great, such a great workout.
And I'm like, what is great about this? I'm dying.
I am dying. It's strenuous, but once you you kind
(06:47):
of get over the hump, it's, um, it's a fantastic
I mean you can go out for thirty minutes and
you just get the most amazing workout in the world.
Your lungs, your legs, your arms, your shoulders. I mean,
it's it's great. I never got over the humps because
you have to work at it a bit. Yeah, yeah,
I was dying. I like to put on the skis
I haven't done it in a few years, and then
(07:07):
go really fast downhill's realizing at any moment I could die.
And that's why I don't go on the mountain anymore,
because of people like you, like yeah, who like to
go really fast and have no control whatsoever. So it's like, uh,
it's that adrenaline rush. Yeah, well I used to love it.
(07:29):
I've skid. I skied my whole life. So but now
now it's a My new philosophy is my life is
my My goal is to go out walking. That's a
good goal. That's a lofty goal. It's simple, but it's
very simple, and I probably will go out walking. I
will probably be walking, step on a rake that hits
my head, you know, fall over, Like I'm sure I'm
(07:52):
going to have a non glorious exit when God calls
me home. Well, I hope not. I hope. I wrote.
I wrote a book and in it I said, I'm
not afraid of being dead. I'm not afraid of death
at all. It's the getting their process that doesn't thrill me.
I understand. Uh No, we want to do a podcast
(08:14):
John Oates about you, about your amazing music, about your
new song, which I've listened to a couple of times,
the visual with it, was very artistic, but the lyrics
of it I was I was grooving on the lyrics.
I had to actually stop watching the video because my
brain can't concentrate on two things like that at once.
(08:35):
To listen to the lyrics. Well, good, I'm glad you
listen to the lyrics. I I put a lot of
f time and effort into the lyrics are very important
to me. I I wanted to try to say something
that was, you know, at least profound from my point
of view, and also something that was very heartfelt and
of the moment for the type of thing that I'm
kind of thinking about in my life right now. So
(08:57):
so tell us about that and and what bri you
to push in a rock Well, First of all, the
gestation of the song goes way back. It goes back
to two thousand fourteen. I was doing an album called
Good Road to Follow, and the constant the whole theme
of the album was that I was going to work
with various producers and songwriters and kind of get into
their heads and do something perhaps that would be something
(09:18):
outside the musical box that I would normally do. I
worked with Vince Gill and Ryan Tedder from One Republic
and a young pop group and Hot Shell Ray and
all and all sorts of people. And one of the
people I collaborated with was Nathan Paul Chapman, who was
the Taryllor Swift's original producer. He started with her when
she was a teenager, and he did her original demos
(09:40):
and got her her original contract and produced the first
I least leave three or four albums for Taylor. Um
but at the time I'm around to fourteen is when
Taylor decided to go in a different musical direction and
work with other people. And so I thought, well, that
must must be a kind of a pretty traumatic thing
to lose that gig, so to speak, as a producer.
And I called him up and I you know, checked
(10:01):
him out. I said, hey, man, how are you doing?
He goes, I mean creative, uncharted waters. I don't know
what I'm gonna do. And I said, well, how about
if we start by writing a song. And I went
over to his house and I had this idea about struggle,
about overcoming something. I didn't know what that was going
to be, and I used the the old Greek myth
of Sysiphus too uh to talk about the fact that
(10:22):
you know everyone in their life has struggles. No matter
where you are, who you are, your level of success
or whatever, it doesn't matter. You're still gonna have to
overcome something. And that was the overarching theme to the
to the idea we wrote the song um and you know,
I'll take full credit or responsibility for the fact that
the record really didn't come out very well. I like
(10:43):
the song, I thought the lyrics were really great, but
I didn't think I did a very good job producing
the actual song itself. So flash forward now to the
COVID time, and I'm sitting around the house looking at
old songs and figuring out what I'm gonna do, and
I I stumbled back upon the original song from two
thousand fourteen, and I said, you know what, this lyric
(11:04):
is so good and it's so important now. It's just
as is and as pertinent and and as important now
during this COVID period that even more perhaps than it
was back into fourteen. So I basically rewrote the song.
I just scrapped the music completely, use the words basically
in in its their entirety, and rewrote the song and
(11:27):
re recorded it. And then I called Nathan and I said, hey, man, surprise, surprise,
I rewrote the song we wrote and I hope you
like it, and he freaked out and he said, man,
this is amazing. He said, this is how it always
should have sounded. So it was really great to know
that he was, you know, really on board. Um, And
so now I feel really proud of the whole package,
(11:48):
not only the lyrics but the music that accompanied. So
that was like an eight year pregnancy. Yeah, I guess
you could call it that, but the gestational process that
took longer an elephant, I know. But the good part
of that eight years is that I didn't know I
was pregnant for that eight years. I didn't care about
the song until I revisited it. So yeah, if I
(12:11):
would have been you know, stewing over and marinating it
for for eight years, yes, that would have been traumatic
for sure. Well I did not know that back story,
but when I listened to it, I thought that it
was written for and about what we went through with,
you know, the COVID shutdowns. So it's like it was
(12:33):
in a way, you guys were profits, you know what
I mean. Like, well, you know, sometimes you get a
universal theme, something that transcends, uh, you know, time, and
and that's what that is. You know every here again,
struggle is a is a human condition that that that
we all deal with and we have dealt with historically
through to the beginning of time. I'm sure, uh so, yeah,
(12:55):
I mean it's here again. It's it was such a
universal theme that um, it just needs at the right
musical setting to to really bring it put it over
the top. And you have been actively working I understand
my notes say with November. Yes, we just finished a
big promotion for in during the month of November just
that recently passed. Uh yeah, Movember is a great on
(13:17):
male health, mental health and um you know physical health
organization that that it really doesn't get the the the attention.
I believe that it should. Um, and they asked me
to be part of it. You know. It has to
do with men growing mustaches and solidarity of of all that,
and of course me having you know the mustache guy.
You know over the years your your mustache is very
(13:39):
understated right now. Well, it's just over the years it's
been you know when I first met you, I first
met you back in I want to say night at
Kale s Y in Seattle. You guys came through on
a record your mustache was really big then, well yeah,
(14:00):
but it was. It was big, but it was black,
you know, because my hair was black. So you know,
now it's gray, so it has a little more subtlety. Yeah,
it's very subtle, very very nice, very handsome. Thank you so.
About November and why you decided to team up with them.
We knew it in Oregon as no shave November, and
(14:21):
it's kind of more left in a November. And it
wasn't just a mustache you had to do. The guys
had to do the whole no shade period. Yeah, it's
a whole thing. And you know, it's the organization started
in England. Um. You know, over in England they call
the one of the you know, the kind of the
slangs for mustaches is a mo you've got a mo
they call it instead of they don't use the word stash,
(14:42):
they just say mo um. And that's where November kind
of started. And I met with the people who the organizers.
They're really cool. They were really cool. They had some
great ideas about ways of communicating that uh, that men
should be more cognizant of of what's going on and
with them physically and mentally and there's a big issue
with that. And I think, you know, the thing that
(15:05):
kind of really pushed me to want to do it,
even more than the fact that it was a great organization,
was the fact that I realized that the women's health
movement is very proactive and very uh the women seem
to have been able to communicate the idea of breast
cancer and some of the other things that are important
healthy hard month for health exactly, and and done in
(15:27):
a really powerful way, in a really effective way. And
I don't think the men's health movement has ever been
really uh promoted in that way. So I thought, you know,
maybe by you know, if I if I'm involved, maybe
I could help a little bit. Men's health physically is
talked about in my family and my surroundings heart attacks
and heart disease and diabetes and that sort of thing.
(15:50):
But men's mental health taboo. Yeah, taboo topic. I don't
know if it's just my family but the whole nation,
but big time taboo topic for men and boys to
talk about their mental health and where they're at or
if they should help or if they're struggling. It's a
(16:10):
you know, it has a little bit too, maybe a
lot to do with the you know, with the macho thing,
and men just don't tend to want to open up
on certain subjects like that. You know, it can be
can be viewed, or it has, at least traditionally be
viewed as as um you know, kind of a sign
of weakness kind of thing. But it's not true. And
and I think what I did see in the course
(16:31):
of being more involved with this was that the younger
generation is much more open and much more accepting. And
you see it with entertainers, you see it with sports people.
The younger generation are definitely much more open to addressing
it and being more public about it and being more
outspoken about it. So that's I guess that's a good
sign because I think it's turned. I think I think
(16:53):
the older generation of men, especially very close mouth and
you know, not wanting to do with that sort of thing.
So do you relate more to the younger generation. Are
you more comfortable talking about struggles you might be facing
or may have faced, or are you more like like
our generation where you don't talk about it, don't bring
(17:15):
it up. Well, I think I think a little of both.
I think over the years, a lot of things that
I that I experienced in my personal and professional life
over the years have been you know, rather traumatic and
mentally challenging. But a lot of that I never really
wanted to talk about. UM. But now as I've gotten older,
(17:36):
and I feel like, UM, I feel like if I
can be you know, a beacon in a in a sense,
or you know someone who you know, Hey, I here's
this older guy who has been through a lot, had
a lot of experiences in life, and maybe that that
carries some weight UM. And so I'm much more open
now about talking about things that that you know, that
I had that were challenging for me. So biggest challenge
(18:10):
that you feel you've overcome that you're comfortable sharing with
our audience, biggest thing that you just slapped you in
the face. Maybe you never saw it coming, or maybe
you did and just thought you could handle it until
you know you were sysophus and said I can't. I
can't push this rock another day. I got it on
my shoulder and even with cross country skiing, I cannot
(18:32):
carry this wait another day. Well, that's one of the
reasons I do get outside and go cross country skiing
and biking and hiking to kind of clear my mind.
But that being said, um, I think you know, that's sure.
There were a number of things. You know, if you've
been through them, if you've been in the music business
for fifty years, you've experienced a lot of stuff. You know.
I don't know, what's that great Hunter Thompson quote. You know,
(18:55):
the music business is this long tunnel of you know,
de seat and blood, blah blah blah blah, and then
he goes through all these terrible things and then at
the end he says, and then there is a negative
side and then there you know, you know the one
I'm I'm telling it very well. I wish I had
it in front of me anyway. Um No, but here's
the thing. You know, overall, what I think that was
(19:16):
the most uh powerful lesson and the powerful, um you
know thing that's happened to me over the years was
putting trust in people, uh and then having that trust
not turn out quite so well and really, you know,
being being a little too. I think it's my nature.
I like to try to see the good in people.
(19:38):
I like to believe that people are inherently good. And
when you when you're a person like that, you can
be easily manipulated and taken advantage of. And it has
a lot to do with business, but it also has
a lot to do with create, with with the creative
collaborations with people who you thought, you know, hey, this
will be a great situation. Seems like a you know,
a good situation. So um, I think just in general,
(20:00):
without going into specifics, um, you know, just the idea
of of of having your your trust not be reciprocated
and and having it used kind of in a way
to manipulate situations. I think that's that's the best I
can say. And when it's somebody that you've worked with
for a long time, or like you said, somebody you're
(20:21):
collaborating with, and you're excited and then you're like, wait
a minute, you're using my my goodness and my good
heart hurts. Yeah. Well, you know what though, it's a
it's it's life lessons and you know, you you uh.
The best thing about that's those type of situations is
if you can if you can rebound from them, you know,
(20:43):
in in one piece and you can learn from them
and then move on. And you know, I'm I'm a
big I'm a big believer in karma and I'm a
big believer in UH letting things go and UH accepting
certain things and then moving on from them. And it's
important to move on. It's important to uh when you know,
when you're pushing the rock up hill, it rolls back down,
(21:04):
and just roll with it, keep on going, keep on going. Yeah, well,
I just go play. I can't handle this. I gotta
go do an art piece of art. I gotta go paint.
I gotta go walk my horse. I gotta go out
in the barn. There you going on the same way
I go. I go up in the mountains. Uh Or
I just pick up my guitar and strum away and
(21:25):
uh or I go for a drive in the country.
I love to drive. I'm an ex race driver, and
I love to drive on a country road with nothing
but the sound of the wind. And uh, you know
that's a that's a therapy for me. Uh sounds wonderful.
My my podcast producer knows a lot of people in
the record industry, and one of those people, UH said
(21:48):
to her when she was setting up this interview for
me that Darryl holland John Oates are two of the
most musically talented geniuses that you know. There's other names
that you might recognize bigger or who are big hits
right now. But he said that you are a talented genius.
(22:10):
And the way he was talking about your genius and
your ability to bring elements together. I wish that I
had recorded that. I wish that she had recorded that
so I could play it for you, because when she
was telling me, I was just grinning ear to ear.
Because I've noticed this thing about me as I get older,
things that have meant a lot to me over the years,
(22:30):
even if I don't mean anything to them, I have
an ownership of them, like my old high school or
my old junior high. I bought a little radio station
that's in my old junior high and those memories I
feel like I have an ownership of Does that make sense.
It's got nothing to do with me. I left there
forty five years ago. But the same with you and
(22:53):
your music. Because you guys were one of the first
big names that I met back in the day. I
have always felt kind of an ownership in a weird way.
And then when you've invited me to go to your
shows and do different things. When I heard that, I
don't know, it just made my heart smile. Oh good, Yeah. Well,
you know, we go back aways now, don't we. Um.
(23:16):
But I'll tell you though I do. I have to.
I have a little problem with the word genius. You know,
it gets it gets thrown around a little too loosely.
You know, there's an element of divine inspiration combined with
a lot of hard work and craftsmanship, and uh, I
think sometimes people want to want to lump those two
(23:36):
things together into and use the word genius to kind
of describe that. Um. But you know, I'll make it
real simple. Um. I think Daryl Hall is a genius.
I think I'm at I'm at the edge of genius,
at the edge. Well, I know I'm at the edge
of genius because I know what my i Q score is,
so I know exactly. I know there are people who
(23:57):
would not even be able to score on an IQ
test and yet they have genius, believe it or not.
Believe I'm on the cusp of genius. Yeah, me too.
I know what mine is and I'm I'm on the edge.
But but I'm not there. I was probably getting myself
in trouble to day I took the test anyway, I
(24:18):
guess that's all right. Yeah, Hey, you listen when I
took the test. It was in the seventies, so god knows,
I don't even know I even scored exactly. I was,
I I was. I was having a lot of fun
back then. I still have a lot of fun. I
have an adult daughter that lives, uh at my farm now,
and she's got four kids, and she always shakes her
head and goes, mom, I had no idea you had
(24:42):
this much fun when you were young, because you know
now she's yeah, don't kill anyone. I don't tell the
younger kids, but those days are over. Those days are gone.
Oh my god. When you guys used to tour, when
I would go to your shows back in the eighties,
you would you guys would play for like three hours.
It was amazing. Yeah, well, you know, youthful energy. But hey,
(25:05):
look you know Bruce Springsteen place for three and four
hours and he's way up there in age, So you
know you can still do it, and you gotta just
keep your keep your act together. We're getting caught up
with John Oates and I am loving it. We'll have
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a cup together. So what makes you when you get
up in the morning, John? What what inspires you to
(26:35):
face the day? What makes you want to jump out
of bed? You said, driving and cross country skiing the
first thing you know? This is something that I started
here again and during COVID, when I had a chance
to get off the hamster wheel of touring and just
stay at home, I started doing yoga, which I had
never done before. And I always kind of pooh pooed it,
you know, oh, the guys with the you know, the
(26:55):
women and men with the yoga mats and the whole
you know, the clothes and the whole culture. Um. But
I started doing it and I got hooked and it
was unbelievable transformation that happened after I started doing it
for a few months, and now I do it religiously
every morning. It's the first thing I do, because you
asked me what gets me up in the morning, and
I literally I get out of bed before I do
(27:18):
anything else, and I do a very short, quick series
of things that stretch me out and keep me moving, um.
And it works like a charm and I never miss
a day. So that's the first thing. Then I'll go
with a cup of coffee, and then I'll go see
what happens after that. Well, I have a six year
(27:39):
old and right now i'm taking I've got a foster
situation where I'm taking care of a little girl who's deaf,
who's four m so I don't. I don't have the
luxury of deciding when I'm going to wake up, how
I'm going to wake up. It's you know, it's a
little fat hand in my face or mom, I went
the bed, you know. But that is inspiring. I might
(28:03):
I might think of adding that to my New Year's
Healthier me routine. There you go, Well it works for me.
That's all I can say. I'm good for you plans
and hopes and dreams for this new year. You got
some ecalactic music projects coming up? I have, Yes, I
have my year already planned. Um, I have a single
coming out February three. I'm going to be releasing a
(28:26):
series of digital singles. Pushing the Rock was the first one,
and of course, you know, we had to put a
little hiatus during Christmas because everyone you know, as Christmas music.
But now I have a new single. It's called Disconnected,
and I'm really proud of it. Uh again, this is
a song that I started many years ago and never finished,
and here during COVID I finished it and I'm really
(28:47):
happy with it. It's about you know, you know, well
it's just like the title says, disconnected, it can mean
a lot of things. Um, so that comes out February three.
I'm good. Next week I'm shooting a video for that.
I've got some stick shows. I'm doing a series of
video lessons with a company called True Fire, and we're
going to do some video guitar lessons and talking about
(29:10):
the history of American popular songwriting, about collaboration, about accompaniment.
And I'm doing that in January with with with this
company called true Fire, which wait, wait, wait wait, I'm
writing this down because I've already thinking of people I
know and love that might want to look into taking
those classes. But your true Fire has a series of
(29:30):
guitar teachers, great guitar teachers, amazing, some of the best
in the world, teaching guitar lessons online. Uh. And they've
reached out to me. And the first thing I said
is he I said, you have some of the greatest
guitar players in the world. What do you want me?
And I said, we want we want you to do
something different. We don't need you to teach guitar lessons
per se, but talk about your experiences. So I came
up with three themes, and one of them is collaboration.
(29:52):
One of them is is how to be an accompanyist,
which is a very kind of esoteric part of being
a musician that at of people don't think about. You know,
everyone wants to be the big guitar solo, you know,
make the big guitar solo and uh, you know, and
and do all that sort of thing and wow everybody
with your chops. But actually there's a technique and a
(30:12):
and a subtle, a subtle discipline to being an accompanist,
which is not not really appreciated, I don't think. So
I'm gonna be talking about that with a good friend
of mine named Guthrie Trapp, who's an amazing guitar player.
And then I'm doing a little bit of a kind
of a mini seminar on the history of the American
popular song, which goes back to uh, the beginning of
(30:33):
radio and the beginning of the record player, because essentially
that's when American popular music truly began. Um. And so
I'm a bit of a music historian. I like digging
back into the old days. And so I'll be playing
talking about some things and playing some things, you know,
music from the nineties, twenties and thirties and forties and
leading up to rock and roll, um, so I'll be
(30:55):
doing that, and then I'm playing some series of acoustic
shows as well, uh here in America, and then I'm
going to Europe with Beth Heart in the summer and
doing a tour of Germany and Western Europe. Yeah, you're right,
your whole year is planned out. Yeah, I'm pretty good
up till about September. Maybe I'll come and see one
of your shows. Are you going to be on the
(31:15):
West coast at all? We're actually, you know what, we're
working on some West Coast days right now for April
to May. Awesome. Awesome, I'll let you know. We'll let
you know. I would love to see you again. John.
Thank you for taking time to spend with us. Oh. Thanks, Well,
it's always a pleasure. You're a great interviewer, and uh
I know you were too, music lover, so it makes
it worth it. Oh my gosh. And when you were
talking about the history of of radio, I just read
(31:37):
an interesting article about the first radios that were put
into cars and how that came about, and the two
guys that collaborated to make them also invented things, you know,
like rocket ships and and and other amazing stuff. But
it was fascinating to read the amount of energy and
love and money that went into create being a device
(32:00):
in our car that has created my life. You know,
most of the listening that people do to radio, even
though him on at night, is when they're driving around
in their car. And it was really interesting. I love
digging into that kind of stuff too. It just I
don't know, it makes me smile. Good. John Oates, thank
(32:21):
you have a blessed, safe, wonderful, healthy new Year, and
keep up the beautiful music and the great work. And
anybody who has not heard Pushing a Rock check it out.
The video is haunting. It's very Uh, it'll grab you.
It like sucks your eyes in. But you gotta listen
(32:41):
again with your eyes closed so you can really focus
on the lyrics because I think we need those lyrics
right now. Uh. Spoken as a true music lover, I
love it. I love your music. I love all music,
but I love your music. John. It's thanks for being
with us. I love someone today. Thanks very much. Bye.
I think we all know what John is speaking about
(33:02):
and Pushing a Rock. We've all had tough days, tough years,
challenging chapters in our lives. Some folks I know, and
love faced health issues that we're devastating. Some face divorces
or just different situations, losing loved ones, losing family. We
(33:22):
all have a rock to push up a hill, and
it's very important to hold onto hope. We're gonna make
it to the top. I admired John for partnering with
the annual men's charity Fall campaign November. You know, the
one where men grow mustaches to raise awareness and funds
for mental health issues, focusing on suicide prevention, testicular and
(33:44):
prostate cancer. John feels it's important for me to speak
out about men's issues and shine a light on things
that often go unspoken. So John, thank you for that.
Their motto is whatever you grow will save a brow.
Remember that this coming falls. Sign up and donate at
Movember dot com. Last year, John began releasing a series
(34:05):
of digital singles distributed by the Orchard. Pushing the Rock
was one. It's available now. He'll continue this year. We'll
find the wide variety of eclectic styles. He'll also be
releasing another series of songs from the upcoming feature Gringa
Out soon. Thank you John for coming by today and
sharing so much with us. I can't wait for the
(34:25):
next single, You're gonna drop one more thing to look
forward to as we slide into three. I hope you've
enjoyed today's conversations. I hope you enjoy all the conversations.
If you've missed some, go back and listen to them.
Love someone with Delilah, We've got five years of great interviews.
I know we're all busy making plans right now, but
(34:46):
in the midst of the new year, don't forget. Slow
down and love someone.
So, how is January in this New Year three treating
you so far? My friend? Did it start with a bang?
Did you stay up all night on New Year's Eve?
Did you have a party? Did it start with a
purr or in my case a snore. I was just
getting over the stomach flu, so I was in bed early.
(00:26):
Or maybe you're having trouble getting it started at all.
Are you sticking to some resolutions, maybe following through on
some good intentions. Maybe, like me, you're just trying to
make the most of each day. I am trying to
be emotionally present in each and every day, and I'm
looking forward to some upcoming events, maybe a few things
(00:50):
that you have circled on the calendar. Maybe this is
one of those days that you're listening to this podcast.
It's certainly one of those days for me because I
get to speak to a rock icon. John Oates is
half of the best selling duo of all time, Hall
of Oates, Darryl Hall and John Oates. I met them
decades ago. But did you know he's also an accomplished
(01:14):
solo artist. Did you know he's a member of the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the American Songwriters Hall
of fame, a recipient of numerous industry awards, has multiple
Grammy nominations under his guitar strap, and as a hell
of a nice guy. Since partnering with Darryl Hall in
(01:34):
the early seventies, there twenty one albums have sold over
eighty million albums, making them the most successful duo in
rock history. They've scored ten ten number one records over
twenty top forty hits. They've toured the world over and
over many times over the last four decades. Their involvement
(01:55):
in the original Live Aid and That We Are the
World Charity recording established them as legendary artist and very charitable.
John Oates embarked on a solo career back in He
has since recorded seven solo albums with The Good Road Band.
In addition, his seventeen autobiography Change of Season became an
(02:19):
Amazon bestseller. Today, we're gonna be talking about his most
recent release. It is a single and I just listened
to it before I came into the studio. I listened
to it a couple of times over the last week,
and then I listened to it again just a minute ago.
It's called Pushing a Rock, and we're going to catch
up with John Oates and what he has planned for
(02:40):
this new year. And I want to talk specifically about
this song because when I listened to the lyrics of it,
it seems so apropos for the times we are living
in right now, pushing a rock. So that is what
we're gonna be talking about. First, I'm going to shine
a little light and share a little love with one
of my podcast sponsors. If you're going to wear glasses,
(03:04):
there's one brand of frames. I recommend you have to
look for it, but it's worth it. The brand is
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(03:48):
them less fortunate than you. And I see their frames
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You're gonna love what you discover EO F optical dot com.
Hi John Oates, it's been a while since we spoke. Welcome.
(04:11):
I know it's been forever, but I do have to
thank you because because of you and darryl Uh, I
got a dog that was a part of my family
and then part of my godson's family for decades. I
came to see you at a show and when I
left the parking lot, somebody had dumped a dog there. Well, um,
(04:37):
so okay, so we ended up taking it, seeing if
it was Chip, putting up signs. Nobody claimed it, so
Freckles was a part of our family for many years,
which didn't A couple of things brought a lot of
of a number two. Every time I would look at Freckles,
I would think of the great time I had at
your show. Awesome, Well that's that's great. You deliver so
(04:58):
much energy on sta age. Well, well we've we've been
doing it a long time, so uh yeah, it's it's
been quite a ride. How many years, oh more than fifty,
believe it or not. That's amazing. And you look found crazy.
Are you still up in the Seattle area? I am.
I am. I'm in the basement of my home, which
(05:19):
is only seven miles outside of Seattle as the crow flies,
but the crow has to fly over water, and so
it's like it feels like it's a million miles away.
I got When I try to get my family or
anybody to come to the farm, they're like, oh, I
gotta ride the ferry or drive around. So you gotta
drive seventy five miles to come to my house. If
(05:40):
you drive around, well, it's a beautiful area, that's that's
for sure. And he is where it's home for you.
We just how we were in Colorado for the last
month and we just literally flew back last night. We're
back in Nashville now. So we divide our time between
Nashville and our house in Colorado. Not not bad areas
to divide your time. It's lane, you know. I think
we picked two good spots. Yeah. So are you a skier? Yes,
(06:05):
I've been a skier for my whole life, since I've
been a kid. But I've kind of I've dropped. I've
dropped off going down the mountain. Now now I just
do cross country skiing. I love it. I've I've I've
kind of got hooked on skate skiing, Nordic skate skiing,
and that's what I do and I just stay fit
that way and I don't get I don't hit a tree,
I don't get hit by a wild twenty year old snowboarder.
(06:26):
So yeah, so that's a good thing. Wow. I didn't
try the Nordic skate skis, but I tried cross country
skiing a few times with some very fit friends. Were like, oh, dear,
you're gonna love this. This is great, such a great workout.
And I'm like, what is great about this? I'm dying.
I am dying. It's strenuous, but once you you kind
(06:47):
of get over the hump, it's, um, it's a fantastic
I mean you can go out for thirty minutes and
you just get the most amazing workout in the world.
Your lungs, your legs, your arms, your shoulders. I mean,
it's it's great. I never got over the humps because
you have to work at it a bit. Yeah, yeah,
I was dying. I like to put on the skis
I haven't done it in a few years, and then
(07:07):
go really fast downhill's realizing at any moment I could die.
And that's why I don't go on the mountain anymore,
because of people like you, like yeah, who like to
go really fast and have no control whatsoever. So it's like, uh,
it's that adrenaline rush. Yeah, well I used to love it.
(07:29):
I've skid. I skied my whole life. So but now
now it's a My new philosophy is my life is
my My goal is to go out walking. That's a
good goal. That's a lofty goal. It's simple, but it's
very simple, and I probably will go out walking. I
will probably be walking, step on a rake that hits
my head, you know, fall over, Like I'm sure I'm
(07:52):
going to have a non glorious exit when God calls
me home. Well, I hope not. I hope. I wrote.
I wrote a book and in it I said, I'm
not afraid of being dead. I'm not afraid of death
at all. It's the getting their process that doesn't thrill me.
I understand. Uh No, we want to do a podcast
(08:14):
John Oates about you, about your amazing music, about your
new song, which I've listened to a couple of times,
the visual with it, was very artistic, but the lyrics
of it I was I was grooving on the lyrics.
I had to actually stop watching the video because my
brain can't concentrate on two things like that at once.
(08:35):
To listen to the lyrics. Well, good, I'm glad you
listen to the lyrics. I I put a lot of
f time and effort into the lyrics are very important
to me. I I wanted to try to say something
that was, you know, at least profound from my point
of view, and also something that was very heartfelt and
of the moment for the type of thing that I'm
kind of thinking about in my life right now. So
(08:57):
so tell us about that and and what bri you
to push in a rock Well, First of all, the
gestation of the song goes way back. It goes back
to two thousand fourteen. I was doing an album called
Good Road to Follow, and the constant the whole theme
of the album was that I was going to work
with various producers and songwriters and kind of get into
their heads and do something perhaps that would be something
(09:18):
outside the musical box that I would normally do. I
worked with Vince Gill and Ryan Tedder from One Republic
and a young pop group and Hot Shell Ray and
all and all sorts of people. And one of the
people I collaborated with was Nathan Paul Chapman, who was
the Taryllor Swift's original producer. He started with her when
she was a teenager, and he did her original demos
(09:40):
and got her her original contract and produced the first
I least leave three or four albums for Taylor. Um
but at the time I'm around to fourteen is when
Taylor decided to go in a different musical direction and
work with other people. And so I thought, well, that
must must be a kind of a pretty traumatic thing
to lose that gig, so to speak, as a producer.
And I called him up and I you know, checked
(10:01):
him out. I said, hey, man, how are you doing?
He goes, I mean creative, uncharted waters. I don't know
what I'm gonna do. And I said, well, how about
if we start by writing a song. And I went
over to his house and I had this idea about struggle,
about overcoming something. I didn't know what that was going
to be, and I used the the old Greek myth
of Sysiphus too uh to talk about the fact that
(10:22):
you know everyone in their life has struggles. No matter
where you are, who you are, your level of success
or whatever, it doesn't matter. You're still gonna have to
overcome something. And that was the overarching theme to the
to the idea we wrote the song um and you know,
I'll take full credit or responsibility for the fact that
the record really didn't come out very well. I like
(10:43):
the song, I thought the lyrics were really great, but
I didn't think I did a very good job producing
the actual song itself. So flash forward now to the
COVID time, and I'm sitting around the house looking at
old songs and figuring out what I'm gonna do, and
I I stumbled back upon the original song from two
thousand fourteen, and I said, you know what, this lyric
(11:04):
is so good and it's so important now. It's just
as is and as pertinent and and as important now
during this COVID period that even more perhaps than it
was back into fourteen. So I basically rewrote the song.
I just scrapped the music completely, use the words basically
in in its their entirety, and rewrote the song and
(11:27):
re recorded it. And then I called Nathan and I said, hey, man, surprise, surprise,
I rewrote the song we wrote and I hope you
like it, and he freaked out and he said, man,
this is amazing. He said, this is how it always
should have sounded. So it was really great to know
that he was, you know, really on board. Um, And
so now I feel really proud of the whole package,
(11:48):
not only the lyrics but the music that accompanied. So
that was like an eight year pregnancy. Yeah, I guess
you could call it that, but the gestational process that
took longer an elephant, I know. But the good part
of that eight years is that I didn't know I
was pregnant for that eight years. I didn't care about
the song until I revisited it. So yeah, if I
(12:11):
would have been you know, stewing over and marinating it
for for eight years, yes, that would have been traumatic
for sure. Well I did not know that back story,
but when I listened to it, I thought that it
was written for and about what we went through with,
you know, the COVID shutdowns. So it's like it was
(12:33):
in a way, you guys were profits, you know what
I mean. Like, well, you know, sometimes you get a
universal theme, something that transcends, uh, you know, time, and
and that's what that is. You know every here again,
struggle is a is a human condition that that that
we all deal with and we have dealt with historically
through to the beginning of time. I'm sure, uh so, yeah,
(12:55):
I mean it's here again. It's it was such a
universal theme that um, it just needs at the right
musical setting to to really bring it put it over
the top. And you have been actively working I understand
my notes say with November. Yes, we just finished a
big promotion for in during the month of November just
that recently passed. Uh yeah, Movember is a great on
(13:17):
male health, mental health and um you know physical health
organization that that it really doesn't get the the the attention.
I believe that it should. Um, and they asked me
to be part of it. You know. It has to
do with men growing mustaches and solidarity of of all that,
and of course me having you know the mustache guy.
You know over the years your your mustache is very
(13:39):
understated right now. Well, it's just over the years it's
been you know when I first met you, I first
met you back in I want to say night at
Kale s Y in Seattle. You guys came through on
a record your mustache was really big then, well yeah,
(14:00):
but it was. It was big, but it was black,
you know, because my hair was black. So you know,
now it's gray, so it has a little more subtlety. Yeah,
it's very subtle, very very nice, very handsome. Thank you so.
About November and why you decided to team up with them.
We knew it in Oregon as no shave November, and
(14:21):
it's kind of more left in a November. And it
wasn't just a mustache you had to do. The guys
had to do the whole no shade period. Yeah, it's
a whole thing. And you know, it's the organization started
in England. Um. You know, over in England they call
the one of the you know, the kind of the
slangs for mustaches is a mo you've got a mo
they call it instead of they don't use the word stash,
(14:42):
they just say mo um. And that's where November kind
of started. And I met with the people who the organizers.
They're really cool. They were really cool. They had some
great ideas about ways of communicating that uh, that men
should be more cognizant of of what's going on and
with them physically and mentally and there's a big issue
with that. And I think, you know, the thing that
(15:05):
kind of really pushed me to want to do it,
even more than the fact that it was a great organization,
was the fact that I realized that the women's health
movement is very proactive and very uh the women seem
to have been able to communicate the idea of breast
cancer and some of the other things that are important
healthy hard month for health exactly, and and done in
(15:27):
a really powerful way, in a really effective way. And
I don't think the men's health movement has ever been
really uh promoted in that way. So I thought, you know,
maybe by you know, if I if I'm involved, maybe
I could help a little bit. Men's health physically is
talked about in my family and my surroundings heart attacks
and heart disease and diabetes and that sort of thing.
(15:50):
But men's mental health taboo. Yeah, taboo topic. I don't
know if it's just my family but the whole nation,
but big time taboo topic for men and boys to
talk about their mental health and where they're at or
if they should help or if they're struggling. It's a
(16:10):
you know, it has a little bit too, maybe a
lot to do with the you know, with the macho thing,
and men just don't tend to want to open up
on certain subjects like that. You know, it can be
can be viewed, or it has, at least traditionally be
viewed as as um you know, kind of a sign
of weakness kind of thing. But it's not true. And
and I think what I did see in the course
(16:31):
of being more involved with this was that the younger
generation is much more open and much more accepting. And
you see it with entertainers, you see it with sports people.
The younger generation are definitely much more open to addressing
it and being more public about it and being more
outspoken about it. So that's I guess that's a good
sign because I think it's turned. I think I think
(16:53):
the older generation of men, especially very close mouth and
you know, not wanting to do with that sort of thing.
So do you relate more to the younger generation. Are
you more comfortable talking about struggles you might be facing
or may have faced, or are you more like like
our generation where you don't talk about it, don't bring
(17:15):
it up. Well, I think I think a little of both.
I think over the years, a lot of things that
I that I experienced in my personal and professional life
over the years have been you know, rather traumatic and
mentally challenging. But a lot of that I never really
wanted to talk about. UM. But now as I've gotten older,
(17:36):
and I feel like, UM, I feel like if I
can be you know, a beacon in a in a sense,
or you know someone who you know, Hey, I here's
this older guy who has been through a lot, had
a lot of experiences in life, and maybe that that
carries some weight UM. And so I'm much more open
now about talking about things that that you know, that
I had that were challenging for me. So biggest challenge
(18:10):
that you feel you've overcome that you're comfortable sharing with
our audience, biggest thing that you just slapped you in
the face. Maybe you never saw it coming, or maybe
you did and just thought you could handle it until
you know you were sysophus and said I can't. I
can't push this rock another day. I got it on
my shoulder and even with cross country skiing, I cannot
(18:32):
carry this wait another day. Well, that's one of the
reasons I do get outside and go cross country skiing
and biking and hiking to kind of clear my mind.
But that being said, um, I think you know, that's sure.
There were a number of things. You know, if you've
been through them, if you've been in the music business
for fifty years, you've experienced a lot of stuff. You know.
I don't know, what's that great Hunter Thompson quote. You know,
(18:55):
the music business is this long tunnel of you know,
de seat and blood, blah blah blah blah, and then
he goes through all these terrible things and then at
the end he says, and then there is a negative
side and then there you know, you know the one
I'm I'm telling it very well. I wish I had
it in front of me anyway. Um No, but here's
the thing. You know, overall, what I think that was
(19:16):
the most uh powerful lesson and the powerful, um you
know thing that's happened to me over the years was
putting trust in people, uh and then having that trust
not turn out quite so well and really, you know,
being being a little too. I think it's my nature.
I like to try to see the good in people.
(19:38):
I like to believe that people are inherently good. And
when you when you're a person like that, you can
be easily manipulated and taken advantage of. And it has
a lot to do with business, but it also has
a lot to do with create, with with the creative
collaborations with people who you thought, you know, hey, this
will be a great situation. Seems like a you know,
a good situation. So um, I think just in general,
(20:00):
without going into specifics, um, you know, just the idea
of of of having your your trust not be reciprocated
and and having it used kind of in a way
to manipulate situations. I think that's that's the best I
can say. And when it's somebody that you've worked with
for a long time, or like you said, somebody you're
(20:21):
collaborating with, and you're excited and then you're like, wait
a minute, you're using my my goodness and my good
heart hurts. Yeah. Well, you know what though, it's a
it's it's life lessons and you know, you you uh.
The best thing about that's those type of situations is
if you can if you can rebound from them, you know,
(20:43):
in in one piece and you can learn from them
and then move on. And you know, I'm I'm a
big I'm a big believer in karma and I'm a
big believer in UH letting things go and UH accepting
certain things and then moving on from them. And it's
important to move on. It's important to uh when you know,
when you're pushing the rock up hill, it rolls back down,
(21:04):
and just roll with it, keep on going, keep on going. Yeah, well,
I just go play. I can't handle this. I gotta
go do an art piece of art. I gotta go paint.
I gotta go walk my horse. I gotta go out
in the barn. There you going on the same way
I go. I go up in the mountains. Uh Or
I just pick up my guitar and strum away and
(21:25):
uh or I go for a drive in the country.
I love to drive. I'm an ex race driver, and
I love to drive on a country road with nothing
but the sound of the wind. And uh, you know
that's a that's a therapy for me. Uh sounds wonderful.
My my podcast producer knows a lot of people in
the record industry, and one of those people, UH said
(21:48):
to her when she was setting up this interview for
me that Darryl holland John Oates are two of the
most musically talented geniuses that you know. There's other names
that you might recognize bigger or who are big hits
right now. But he said that you are a talented genius.
(22:10):
And the way he was talking about your genius and
your ability to bring elements together. I wish that I
had recorded that. I wish that she had recorded that
so I could play it for you, because when she
was telling me, I was just grinning ear to ear.
Because I've noticed this thing about me as I get older,
things that have meant a lot to me over the years,
(22:30):
even if I don't mean anything to them, I have
an ownership of them, like my old high school or
my old junior high. I bought a little radio station
that's in my old junior high and those memories I
feel like I have an ownership of Does that make sense.
It's got nothing to do with me. I left there
forty five years ago. But the same with you and
(22:53):
your music. Because you guys were one of the first
big names that I met back in the day. I
have always felt kind of an ownership in a weird way.
And then when you've invited me to go to your
shows and do different things. When I heard that, I
don't know, it just made my heart smile. Oh good, Yeah. Well,
you know, we go back aways now, don't we. Um.
(23:16):
But I'll tell you though I do. I have to.
I have a little problem with the word genius. You know,
it gets it gets thrown around a little too loosely.
You know, there's an element of divine inspiration combined with
a lot of hard work and craftsmanship, and uh, I
think sometimes people want to want to lump those two
(23:36):
things together into and use the word genius to kind
of describe that. Um. But you know, I'll make it
real simple. Um. I think Daryl Hall is a genius.
I think I'm at I'm at the edge of genius,
at the edge. Well, I know I'm at the edge
of genius because I know what my i Q score is,
so I know exactly. I know there are people who
(23:57):
would not even be able to score on an IQ
test and yet they have genius, believe it or not.
Believe I'm on the cusp of genius. Yeah, me too.
I know what mine is and I'm I'm on the edge.
But but I'm not there. I was probably getting myself
in trouble to day I took the test anyway, I
(24:18):
guess that's all right. Yeah, Hey, you listen when I
took the test. It was in the seventies, so god knows,
I don't even know I even scored exactly. I was,
I I was. I was having a lot of fun
back then. I still have a lot of fun. I
have an adult daughter that lives, uh at my farm now,
and she's got four kids, and she always shakes her
head and goes, mom, I had no idea you had
(24:42):
this much fun when you were young, because you know
now she's yeah, don't kill anyone. I don't tell the
younger kids, but those days are over. Those days are gone.
Oh my god. When you guys used to tour, when
I would go to your shows back in the eighties,
you would you guys would play for like three hours.
It was amazing. Yeah, well, you know, youthful energy. But hey,
(25:05):
look you know Bruce Springsteen place for three and four
hours and he's way up there in age, So you
know you can still do it, and you gotta just
keep your keep your act together. We're getting caught up
with John Oates and I am loving it. We'll have
more to talk about, but let's chat about something equally important.
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(25:28):
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to keeping ourselves as healthy as we can by sipping
a cup together. So what makes you when you get
up in the morning, John? What what inspires you to
(26:35):
face the day? What makes you want to jump out
of bed? You said, driving and cross country skiing the
first thing you know? This is something that I started
here again and during COVID, when I had a chance
to get off the hamster wheel of touring and just
stay at home, I started doing yoga, which I had
never done before. And I always kind of pooh pooed it,
you know, oh, the guys with the you know, the
(26:55):
women and men with the yoga mats and the whole
you know, the clothes and the whole culture. Um. But
I started doing it and I got hooked and it
was unbelievable transformation that happened after I started doing it
for a few months, and now I do it religiously
every morning. It's the first thing I do, because you
asked me what gets me up in the morning, and
I literally I get out of bed before I do
(27:18):
anything else, and I do a very short, quick series
of things that stretch me out and keep me moving, um.
And it works like a charm and I never miss
a day. So that's the first thing. Then I'll go
with a cup of coffee, and then I'll go see
what happens after that. Well, I have a six year
(27:39):
old and right now i'm taking I've got a foster
situation where I'm taking care of a little girl who's deaf,
who's four m so I don't. I don't have the
luxury of deciding when I'm going to wake up, how
I'm going to wake up. It's you know, it's a
little fat hand in my face or mom, I went
the bed, you know. But that is inspiring. I might
(28:03):
I might think of adding that to my New Year's
Healthier me routine. There you go, Well it works for me.
That's all I can say. I'm good for you plans
and hopes and dreams for this new year. You got
some ecalactic music projects coming up? I have, Yes, I
have my year already planned. Um, I have a single
coming out February three. I'm going to be releasing a
(28:26):
series of digital singles. Pushing the Rock was the first one,
and of course, you know, we had to put a
little hiatus during Christmas because everyone you know, as Christmas music.
But now I have a new single. It's called Disconnected,
and I'm really proud of it. Uh again, this is
a song that I started many years ago and never finished,
and here during COVID I finished it and I'm really
(28:47):
happy with it. It's about you know, you know, well
it's just like the title says, disconnected, it can mean
a lot of things. Um, so that comes out February three.
I'm good. Next week I'm shooting a video for that.
I've got some stick shows. I'm doing a series of
video lessons with a company called True Fire, and we're
going to do some video guitar lessons and talking about
(29:10):
the history of American popular songwriting, about collaboration, about accompaniment.
And I'm doing that in January with with with this
company called true Fire, which wait, wait, wait wait, I'm
writing this down because I've already thinking of people I
know and love that might want to look into taking
those classes. But your true Fire has a series of
(29:30):
guitar teachers, great guitar teachers, amazing, some of the best
in the world, teaching guitar lessons online. Uh. And they've
reached out to me. And the first thing I said
is he I said, you have some of the greatest
guitar players in the world. What do you want me?
And I said, we want we want you to do
something different. We don't need you to teach guitar lessons
per se, but talk about your experiences. So I came
up with three themes, and one of them is collaboration.
(29:52):
One of them is is how to be an accompanyist,
which is a very kind of esoteric part of being
a musician that at of people don't think about. You know,
everyone wants to be the big guitar solo, you know,
make the big guitar solo and uh, you know, and
and do all that sort of thing and wow everybody
with your chops. But actually there's a technique and a
(30:12):
and a subtle, a subtle discipline to being an accompanist,
which is not not really appreciated, I don't think. So
I'm gonna be talking about that with a good friend
of mine named Guthrie Trapp, who's an amazing guitar player.
And then I'm doing a little bit of a kind
of a mini seminar on the history of the American
popular song, which goes back to uh, the beginning of
(30:33):
radio and the beginning of the record player, because essentially
that's when American popular music truly began. Um. And so
I'm a bit of a music historian. I like digging
back into the old days. And so I'll be playing
talking about some things and playing some things, you know,
music from the nineties, twenties and thirties and forties and
leading up to rock and roll, um, so I'll be
(30:55):
doing that, and then I'm playing some series of acoustic
shows as well, uh here in America, and then I'm
going to Europe with Beth Heart in the summer and
doing a tour of Germany and Western Europe. Yeah, you're right,
your whole year is planned out. Yeah, I'm pretty good
up till about September. Maybe I'll come and see one
of your shows. Are you going to be on the
(31:15):
West coast at all? We're actually, you know what, we're
working on some West Coast days right now for April
to May. Awesome. Awesome, I'll let you know. We'll let
you know. I would love to see you again. John.
Thank you for taking time to spend with us. Oh. Thanks, Well,
it's always a pleasure. You're a great interviewer, and uh
I know you were too, music lover, so it makes
it worth it. Oh my gosh. And when you were
talking about the history of of radio, I just read
(31:37):
an interesting article about the first radios that were put
into cars and how that came about, and the two
guys that collaborated to make them also invented things, you know,
like rocket ships and and and other amazing stuff. But
it was fascinating to read the amount of energy and
love and money that went into create being a device
(32:00):
in our car that has created my life. You know,
most of the listening that people do to radio, even
though him on at night, is when they're driving around
in their car. And it was really interesting. I love
digging into that kind of stuff too. It just I
don't know, it makes me smile. Good. John Oates, thank
(32:21):
you have a blessed, safe, wonderful, healthy new Year, and
keep up the beautiful music and the great work. And
anybody who has not heard Pushing a Rock check it out.
The video is haunting. It's very Uh, it'll grab you.
It like sucks your eyes in. But you gotta listen
(32:41):
again with your eyes closed so you can really focus
on the lyrics because I think we need those lyrics
right now. Uh. Spoken as a true music lover, I
love it. I love your music. I love all music,
but I love your music. John. It's thanks for being
with us. I love someone today. Thanks very much. Bye.
I think we all know what John is speaking about
(33:02):
and Pushing a Rock. We've all had tough days, tough years,
challenging chapters in our lives. Some folks I know, and
love faced health issues that we're devastating. Some face divorces
or just different situations, losing loved ones, losing family. We
(33:22):
all have a rock to push up a hill, and
it's very important to hold onto hope. We're gonna make
it to the top. I admired John for partnering with
the annual men's charity Fall campaign November. You know, the
one where men grow mustaches to raise awareness and funds
for mental health issues, focusing on suicide prevention, testicular and
(33:44):
prostate cancer. John feels it's important for me to speak
out about men's issues and shine a light on things
that often go unspoken. So John, thank you for that.
Their motto is whatever you grow will save a brow.
Remember that this coming falls. Sign up and donate at
Movember dot com. Last year, John began releasing a series
(34:05):
of digital singles distributed by the Orchard. Pushing the Rock
was one. It's available now. He'll continue this year. We'll
find the wide variety of eclectic styles. He'll also be
releasing another series of songs from the upcoming feature Gringa
Out soon. Thank you John for coming by today and
sharing so much with us. I can't wait for the
(34:25):
next single, You're gonna drop one more thing to look
forward to as we slide into three. I hope you've
enjoyed today's conversations. I hope you enjoy all the conversations.
If you've missed some, go back and listen to them.
Love someone with Delilah, We've got five years of great interviews.
I know we're all busy making plans right now, but
(34:46):
in the midst of the new year, don't forget. Slow
down and love someone.
Host
Delilah
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