John Oates is the latest celebrity eliminated on Fox’s hit show The Masked Singer.
The rocker was unmasked in the episode airing Dec. 13. Surprisingly, none of the panel correctly guessed the musician’s identity. In hindsight, the most obvious hint was in Oates’ costume – the rocker was dressed as an anteater, a callback to Hall & Oates’ famous 1982 hit “Maneater.”
In a conversation with EW, Oates explained why appearing on The Masked Singer appealed to him.
“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,” the singer admitted, adding that The Masked Singer’s taping coincided with a break in his touring schedule. “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.”
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Oates also confessed that the show proved more challenging than he expected.
“I didn’t realize how hard it was going to be to wear that costume, do choreography and sing at the same time,” he remarked. “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.”
Hall & Oates’ Ongoing Lawsuit
Oates is embroiled in ongoing litigation with his bandmate, Daryl Hall. The dispute reportedly stems from Oates’ efforts to sell his share of the duo’s catalog, a move Hall claimed to be “blindsided” by.
READ MORE: Top 10 Hall & Oates Songs From the ’70s
Following The Masked Singer, Oates was asked if he could envision ever sharing the stage with Hall again.
“You know what, I never say never to anything,” the singer replied. “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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