On April 7th, 1948, John Oates was born. We all know he made dozens of hits with Hall & Oates, but here are 12 things you might not know about the now 71-year-old:
1. John was born in New York City but raised in the Philadelphia suburb of North Wales, Pennsylvania.
2. John’s mother was an Italian immigrant and his father was half-English and half-Gibraltarian with Moorish heritage.
3. John went to Temple University in Philadelphia and got his journalism degree, but never went into the field because at school, he met Daryl Hall, formed Hall & Oates, signed a record deal and began his career as a musician instead.
4. John is a performer, singer, producer and businessman but of all his roles in the music industry, he feels being a songwriter is the most important since that is where everything begins.
5. It took 30 years as a successful musician before John put out his first-ever solo album. It was called Phunk Shui and came out in 2002.
6. In 2015, John was part of the inaugural class inducted into the International Mustache Hall of Fame. The year before he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
7. Oates has homes in Colorado and Nashville.
8. John thinks if Hall & Oates ever got into a fist-fight with Simon & Garfunkel, he and Daryl would destroy the folk singers.
9. John claims to be a pretty bad actor. He once explained how that is the reason why some of Hall & Oates’ music videos were bad – he resented having to act in them.
10. In 2009, John lent his voice to the online cartoon, J-Stache, which sees Oates playing himself, opposite his mustache.
11. Oates, along with Hall, appeared in the 2015 filmPixels. They played the 80’s versions of themselves and to do that, they filmed their scenes with motion capture to help de-age them.
12. John is part of one of the most successful duos of all time, with Hall & Oates selling over 40-million albums and having six number one singles under their belts.
Happy birthday John! Hope you get all the gifts you were hoping for.
Photo: Getty