“The Masked Singer” reveals Anteater as rocker John Oates

Warning: This article contains spoilers The Masked SingerSeason 10, Episode 12, “The Soundtrack of My Life.”

Oh, here he comes – he’s an anteater!

On Wednesday, Group C finally had the opportunity to compete for the final spot The Masked Singer The end of Season 10, but like Group B before it, meant that two contestants had to be revealed. The finalists had to perform songs that represented an important moment in their lives, 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 could connect his costume to his hit song “Maneater.” That’s right: When the Anteater was unmasked, it was none other than John Oates, the famous Hall & Oates singer-songwriter, which no panelist guessed correctly.

Ahead, EW spoke with Oates about this fashion connection, his new single, and his thoughts on whether he and bandmate Daryl Hall — who recently filed a lawsuit against Oates — will ever perform together again.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: When you first signed on to the show and they showed you the costume, did you talk about the similarity between the pangolin and the “anteater”?

John Oates: It’s funny that you should say that, because I thought about that. That was the first thing I thought of. They were trying to make a connection between “Maneater” and Anteater, but no one seemed to understand it 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 it would be cool. And I’m like, oh my gosh, okay, sure. Why not?

So why did you finally agree to do the show?

For a number of reasons. Firstly, it’s fun and I want to do things – I’m at a point in my career where I can do anything I want, and it’s fun to do something different. It just happened to fall into a really good place as I wasn’t touring in August at the time. It worked out, and I thought it would be a great way for me to do something different where I could sing without my voice and my personality being tied to the past, which is what I’m really at at this point now in my life, I’m really making an effort to leave the past in the past and move forward. I have a lot of good things going and I want to do that. So that was kind of the impetus to say, hey, you know what? I’m going to sing. No one will know who I am, and we’ll see what happens. We’ll see what they think. I was really flattered when they started comparing her to some really great singers. People like John Cougar Mellencamp, Bryan Adams, Billy Joel, Bob Seger, they’re all great singers that I really admire. So that was fun and interesting.

I know there’s a lot going on in the lawsuit right now, but do you think Hall & Oates fans will see you two perform together again?

Oh, you know, I never say anything. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but right now I just want to focus on where I am in life and live the best life I can and move forward.

You’ve done a lot in your career – Live Aid! – But do you say? The Masked Singer Was it the hardest or strangest thing you’ve ever done?

both of them. It was difficult, I must say. I didn’t realize how difficult it would be to put on that costume and do the choreography and singing at the same time. What people don’t realize is that I couldn’t see the outfit. So I had to do all my choreography with steps that I had to count while singing, which was definitely not easy. In other words, I have to stand in the middle of the stage, the song starts, take 10 steps forward, and then stop. Then I turn right and take five steps to the right. Then I would take five steps to the left, but I was doing that while I was singing. So try to do it sometime. Wear a blindfold while you sing and count your steps while you do it, while people are screaming and there’s confetti falling from the sky and bright lights, and the temperature inside your suit is about 110 degrees. So I think I deserve the badge just for that alone.

I know you’re releasing a new single on December 15th called “Get Your Smile On” and all proceeds will go to charity. What can you tell me about that and why was this issue important to you?

I do a lot of charity work. My wife and I did something called 7908 Song Fest that was for Feeding America during the pandemic. I’ve been an ambassador for Movember, the men’s health movement, and now I’m involved in that movement Cancer in America’s teens Also as an ambassador. And I thought it would be a great time, especially during the holiday season, to release a song with a good vibe. It’s a song I actually wrote during coronavirus when I was trying to write something really positive. And it’s just a very simple song. The cool thing about it is that it’s a song that I actually recorded at home on my laptop, where I played all the instruments and sang all the vocals and didn’t go into the recording studio with it. It comes straight from my computer, straight to your ears. So I’ve never done that before. So it’s different that way. All proceeds from the downloads will go to Teen Cancer America, which is awesome. So it’s nice to be able to release a song and know that people will like it and hopefully it will do some good.

What surprised you most about being there? The Masked Singer?

How intense it was, the actual performance and the costumes and all the things that go with it. It was very intense. And towards the end, the last episode was kind of crazy because I was booked to play the Newport Folk Festival – I talked about the contrast in styles. And I played the Newport Folk Festival on Sunday late afternoon, and then I rushed to the Boston airport and got a red eye, and I flew to Los Angeles, and I woke up at six in the morning and went straight to the soundstage to sing The Masked Singer. So it was really weird going from the Newport Folk Festival to The Masked Singer. I already revealed that. I think this is the one where my conviction was revealed. And to be honest with you, I was lost, I was really tired; It took a lot out of me. And like I said, the suit, it’s a hundred degrees, so I wasn’t 100% disappointed when I was discovered.

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