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John Oates plays one of his guitars at his Gulch condominium in Nashville.(Photo: PHOTOS BY George Walker IV / The Tennessean)Buy Photo
About five years ago Rock and Roll Hall of Famer John Oates wanted to make a change. And Nashville — due to the May floods in 2010 — was in the midst of a forced overhaul.
Oates, half of ’80s pop duo Hall & Oates, had been coming to Music City since the tail end of the duo’s pop climax in the ’80s. The visits accelerated over the years, but he said the music community still kept him at a polite distance.
“My name got me in the door,” Oates said. “But I didn’t feel like part of it.”
As Nashville rebounded from the flood, Oates and his wife Aimee bought a condo in the Gulch. The singer started to build relationships.
On Tuesday, Jan. 20, Oates released his new documentary/concert DVD “Another Good Road,” which was recorded with Nashville players largely at a local studio and released with help from Music Row label Warner Music Nashville.
On Monday, Oates will headline a T.J. Martell fundraiser at City Winery with support from country singers and labelmates Brett Eldredge and Ashley Monroe.
Finding his place
The inroads he started with his move in 2010 brought both projects to fruition.
“If someone had told me back in the early ’70s when I was just starting out, that I would be this old living in Nashville, Tennessee, doing what I’m doing, I never would have believed it in a million years,” said Oates, 65. He’s seated on the couch in his modern sixth-floor condo beside a pillow so furry he jokes that it’s the family’s pet.
Americana Music Association executive director Jed Hilly remembers when Oates started testing the waters to see if Nashville would accept him. At the request of BMI’s Jody Williams, Hilly planned to spend 30 minutes with Oates. It turned into more than two hours because “John just got Americana.”
“When I left that first meeting, I had no idea what the connection would be, but I felt like he had a place in the community,” Hilly said. “That’s all I need. If you get it, let’s see what you can do.”
Oates continued to build relationships, playing a part in the Americana Music Association Honors and Awards and helping Hilly raise funds. Oates knew he was in the right place when Grammy Award-winning Americana and bluegrass star Sam Bush suggested they team up for a bluegrass version of the Hall & Oates hit “Maneater.”
“All of a sudden, I was with the A-Team when it comes to that kind of music,” Oates said. “I just felt comfortable.”
Oates realized Americana was broad enough to encompass elements of blues and folk, which he wanted to include in his music. To him, that made Americana, “the perfect embodiment of what American music should be.”
“Little by little, I got kind of accepted into that community and I met people like Jim Lauderdale and Buddy Miller and the circles kept getting wider and wider,” he said. “I just enjoyed myself so much and I said, ‘This is where I want to be.’ “
Oates rededicated himself to playing guitar because of the “unbelievably high level of musicianship in this town.”
“I didn’t want to let them down, and I didn’t want to let myself down,” he said.
He admitted he could coast easily in the context of Hall & Oates but couldn’t coast “into a new situation with superlative musicians.”
“It really did give me a kick in the butt,” he said. “Subtle things that matter a lot started to take on a lot more importance to me.”
Hilly said, “I think for John, coming to Nashville and getting into the studio, it was a glorious surprise to him. He saw perhaps what might be considered our rainbow of life that had previously been in the shadows of his world.”
With his creative family in place, Oates was so dedicated to his solo music that he was prepared to release it independently. But CEO and president of Warner Music Nashville John Esposito visited Oates in the recording studio. He was a long-time fan of Hall & Oates and offered to help Oates with distribution.
“I was like, ‘Wow, I know you had folky roots from up there in Pennsylvania … but I didn’t think about you playing with Jerry Douglas,’ ” recalled Esposito. “Then it made all the sense in the world. He was fantastic in the format and … he’s such an accomplished musician and obviously an amazing songwriter.”
Esposito called Oates “an icon” and said having him walk the halls at Warner Music Nashville has been a boost for his company.
“You don’t have many people who are members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame walking around buildings like Warner Music Nashville,” Esposito said. “Every artist from Blake Shelton to Charlie Worsham … is like, ‘Oh my God, can I talk to him?’ “
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Thursday Jan. 15, 2015, in Nashville, Tenn. (Photo: George Walker IV / The Tennessean)
‘So much went right’
Esposito and Oates teamed for Oates’ DVD “Another Good Road,” a spin-off of the singer’s 2014 critically acclaimed album “Good Road to Follow.” Oates wanted to lengthen the life of the project so he recorded the documentary/music DVD, which also debuted on Palladia TV.
He hired a stylist from Two Old Hippies to transform Berry Hill’s Addiction Sound Studios — owned by Jonathan Cain of rock band Journey fame — into a “hippie lounge environment.” Oates brought in his favorite players and said the idea was to sit in a circle and record the music while they played it live.
“We didn’t fix it,” he said. “All we did was mix it afterwards. After we did it, my engineer and co-producer David Kalmusky, he said to me, ‘You know, you put all of your eggs in one basket, one day, one camera, basically one take on every song. So much could have gone wrong, and so much went right.’
“It’s real. That’s what I love about it. It’s kind of a metaphor for where I’m at in my life.”
While in Nashville, Oates has collaborated with Country Music Hall of Famer Vince Gill and rockers Hot Chelle Rae, written songs with One Republic’s Ryan Tedder, played the Grand Ole Opry and cemented friendships across all formats.
“He’s officially the artist ambassador for all genres of music,” said Oates’ friend, country singer Jimmy Wayne. “No one is nicer than John Oates, no one.”
When he’s not working, Oates said he and his wife take advantage of living in Nashville and its rebirth. They go out and listen to music at Station Inn, visit area restaurants including Kayne Prime, Burger Republic, Watermark and Edley’s Bar-B-Que, and feel inspired by the rejuvenation of the city.
Oates credits part of that to moving to Nashville right after the flood and witnessing the town’s “accelerated development” and “youthful energy.” But, it’s more than that.
“I drank the Kool-Aid and here we are,” he said. “We’re tripping. Everything is new. After I’ve been doing this for so long it would seem that this is old hat, but it’s not. Every day there’s an opportunity to maybe write with someone that I’ve never met before or to tap into some kind of creative energy that’s new. It just keeps me going.”
Reach Cindy Watts at 615-664-2227 or ciwatts@tennessean.com.
The Hall of Whatever
Trust John Oates. You are more impressed by his induction into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame than he is. Oates was inducted as a member of pop duo Hall & Oates in 2014. The duo had been eligible for more than a decade and when they finally made it in, Oates said it felt more like an invitation to join a country club than a career milestone.
“We weren’t losing any sleep over not being inducted,” he said. “It’s a very subjective thing … Who’s deserving, who’s not deserving. I can think of a million artists, who if it was my club and I got to pick, would be in there way ahead of some other various people.”
Oates said funk band The Meters was at the top of his list along with many of great vocal groups to come out of his hometown of Philadelphia.
“I like to think in a more universal way,” he said. Comparing to the country club, he said: “If they don’t like the way you dress or your golf game or you drive the wrong car, you’re not worthy. Well, that’s stupid.”
That said, Oates is happy Hall & Oates was inducted and said the fallout has been huge.
“People, for whatever reason, they look at you differently,” he said. “They treat you different. The gigs and the offers that have come toward Daryl and I have been incredible, so all of that is incredibly positive. The night felt like a lifetime achievement award to me. It was an opportunity to be acknowledged on a grand scale. All of that is incredibly positive. Sitting through hours and hours of speeches is not my idea of a good time, but hey it is what it is.”
— Cindy Watts, ciwatts@tennessean.com
Hall & Oates hits include:
“Kiss on My List”
“You Make My Dreams”
“Private Eyes”
“I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)”
“Maneater”
“Sara Smile”
“Rich Girl”
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