'The Masked Singer' reveals Anteater as rocker John Oates
'The Masked Singer' reveals Anteater as rocker John Oates
"I never say never to anything," the rocker tells EW of patching things up with his former bandmate.
Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Masked Singer, season 10, episode 12, "Soundtrack to My Life."
Ohhh here he comes — he's an Anteater!
On Wednesday, Group C finally had their chance to compete for the final spot in The Masked Singer season 10 finale, but like Group B before it, this meant two contestants had to be unmasked. The finalists had to perform songs representing a key moment in their life, which turned out to be “Georgia on My Mind” (Donut), “I’m Going Down” (Candelabra), and “Johnny B. Goode” (Anteater).
In the end, Anteater was sent packing first, and somehow no one on the panel managed to make the connection between his costume and his hit song, "Maneater." That's right: When Anteater unmasked, he was none other than John Oates, singer-songwriter of Hall & Oates fame, which no panelist properly guessed.
Ahead, EW talks with Oates about that costume connection, his new single, and his thoughts on if he and bandmate Daryl Hall — who recently filed a lawsuit against Oates — will ever perform together again.
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MICHAEL BECKER / FOX
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: When you first signed on for the show and they showed you the costume, did you talk about the Anteater-"Maneater" similarity?
JOHN OATES: That's funny that you should say that, because I thought of that. That was the first thing I thought of. They were trying to make a connection between "Maneater" and Anteater, but no one else seemed to get that for some reason, which I found kind of surprising. To be honest with you, I didn't really like the costume when I first saw the drawing of it, but they twisted my arm and convinced me that it would be cool. And I'm like, oh, God, all right, sure. Why not?
So why'd you ultimately agree to do the show?
For a number of reasons. First of all, it's fun and I want to do things — I'm in a point in my career where I can do anything I want, and it's fun to do something different. It happened to fall into a really good slot where I wasn't touring in August at that time. So it worked, and I thought it would be a great way for me to do something different where I could sing and not have my voice and my personality connected to my past, which I'm really at this point now in my life, I'm really making an effort to kind of leave my past in the past and move forward. I've got a lot of good things that are happening and I want to do that. So it was kind of a motivation to say, hey, you know what? I'm going to sing. No one's going to know who I am, and we'll see what happens. We'll see what they think. And I was really flattered when they started comparing me to some really great vocalists. People like John Cougar Mellencamp and Bryan Adams and Billy Joel and Bob Seger, all great singers who I really, really like. So that was flattering and fun.
I know there's a lot going on with the lawsuit at the moment, but do you think Hall & Oates fans will ever see you two perform together again?
Oh, you know what, I never say never to anything. I don't know what's going to happen, but I just want, right now, I'm focused on where I am in life and leading the best life I can and moving forward.
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DOUGLAS MASON/GETTY IMAGES
You've done so much in your career — Live Aid! — but would you say Masked Singer was the hardest thing or weirdest thing you've ever done?
Both. It was hard, I have to say. I didn't realize how hard it was going to be to wear that costume, do choreography and sing at the same time. What people don't realize is that I couldn't see out of the costume. So all my choreography had to be done with steps that I had to count while I was singing, which was really definitely not easy. So in other words, I'd have to stand in the middle of the stage, the song would begin, and I'd take 10 steps forward, and then I'd stop. Then I'd turn to the right and take five steps to the right. Then I'd take five steps to the left, but I was doing that while I was singing. So try doing that sometime. Put a blindfold on sing and count your steps while you're doing it, while people are screaming and there's confetti falling out of the sky and flashing lights, and it's about 110 degrees inside your suit. So I think I deserve a badge just for that alone.
I know you're putting out a new single on Dec. 15 called "Get Your Smile On" with all the proceeds going to charity. What can you tell me about that and why that cause was important to you?
I do a lot of philanthropic work. My wife and I did a thing called 7908 Song Fest where it was for the benefit of Feeding America during the pandemic. I was an ambassador for Movember, the men's health movement, and now I'm involved with the Teen Cancer America as an ambassador as well. And I just thought it would be a great time, especially during the holiday season, to put out a song that is just a good vibe. It's a song that I actually wrote during COVID when I was trying to write something that was really positive. And it's just a super simple song. The cool thing about it is it's a song that I actually recorded at home on my laptop that I played all the instruments and sang all the vocals and never went into a recording studio with it. It comes straight from my computer, right to your ears. So I'd never done that before. So it's different that way. All the proceeds of the downloads will go to Teen Cancer America, which is great. So it's nice to be able to put out a song and know that people are going to hopefully like it and it'll do some good.
What surprised you the most about being on The Masked Singer?
How intense it was, the actual performing and the costume and all the things that go along with it. It was pretty intense. And near the end, the last episode was kind of crazy because I was booked to play the Newport Folk Festival — talk about a contrast in styles. And I played the Newport Folk Festival on Sunday in the late afternoon, then raced to the Boston airport and got on a red eye, flew to L.A., got up at six o'clock in the morning and went straight to the soundstage to do Masked Singer. So it was really weird going from the Newport Folk Festival to The Masked Singer. I actually got unmasked on that. I believe that one was the one where I got unmasked. And to be honest with you, I was wasted — I was really tired; it took a lot out of me. And like I said, the suit, it's a hundred degrees in the suit, so I wasn't 100 percent disappointed when I got discovered.
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