Yahoo Autos John Oates Connects Cars and Guitars
Rocker John Oates has been a car enthusiast since he was a kid. As a teenager, he bought his first sports car, a 1967 MGB. In the early '70s, he bought a 1973 Alfa Romeo Spider. But after "Sara Smile," "She's Gone," and "Rich Girl" became top-10 smash hits for his best-selling rock duo Hall & Oates, he had the good fortune of really being able to indulge his vehicular affection. "In the late '70s, I bought my first upmarket kind of car," Oates says, "a 1977 Porsche 930 Turbo, which was one of the first ones to come to America."
Sadly, Oates no longer owns that car, which, if it were in pristine condition, would now be worth nearly $225,000, according to the vintage-vehicle valuation experts at Hagerty. Neither does he own the 1960s Jaguar E-type he once did, another car that would now crest the $200,000 mark if it were in top shape. In fact, though Oates remains an aficionado, he doesn't really consider himself a car collector anymore.
"I've gone through the collecting phase in the '80s, when I had about nine or 10 cars," Oates says. "But now, I'm kind of in the mode where if I don't drive it and enjoy it, I'm not going to keep it. So I have a very rare '59 MGA Twin-Cam Roadster, and I have a 1960 Porsche 356 Emory Special that Rod Emory built for me."
The MG is valued at around $80,000 in pristine condition. An Emory Special-a hand-built, restyled, and wildly upgraded restomodded version of Porsche's first production car-can run between $300,000 and $400,000.
Oates's automotive passion remains strong. So much so that he has helped to curate and organize an exhibit, Cars of the Rock Stars, at this year's Amelia Island Concours-the annual top-tier classic-car show held in early March (on Sunday the 10th this year) on a barrier island in northern Florida. The cars that will be on display have been associated with or owned by famous musicians. In addition to Oates's own Porsche and MG, the "class" also includes a 1928 Bentley owned by AC/DC singer Brian Johnson, a 1959 Chevrolet Stingray Racer driven by Elvis Presley in the movie Clambake, a 1965 Porsche 356C formerly owned by Janis Joplin, and a 2000 Porsche 911 GT3 R created by Warner Bros. to honor Eddie Van Halen and painted in the style of his tape-covered guitars.
Also present will be guitars belonging to Oates and Van Halen, as well as a one-off Fender Stratocaster guitar hand-painted by automotive artist David Snyder, which includes images of all of the cars in the class. This guitar will be sold at auction to support the Amelia Island Concours Foundation, a nonprofit that has raised nearly $3.5 million since 1995, mainly for health-related charities.
Oates sees a direct connection between collectible instruments and vehicles. "To me, there's a lot of synergy between vintage cars and vintage guitars," he says. "I think they both represent icons of an era, of a certain moment in time. And the value and appreciation placed on vintage cars and vintage guitars are very similar. Guitar players seek out the iconic years and iconic builds of particular manufacturers, just the same way that car owners seek out certain models and certain years that represent a real benchmark in technology or aesthetics."
Though Oates, now 70, has thinned out his hoard over the past few decades, he still has some vehicles on his list that he would like to own one day. "The Porsche 550 Spyder is an iconic car that I never owned, that would be a bucket-list-type car. And the Mercedes 300SL Gullwing would be another," he says. And while he's never owned a Ferrari and feels that he is, perhaps, too "practical" a person for something as exotic as that, he concedes that he would be willing to include a Ferrari on that list.
Oates does worry a bit about what will happen to his cars as times goes on. "I am getting older, if that's what you were insinuating. I have nightmares about it, so how's that?" he says, laughing. "It's one of the real therapies in my life for me to go out on a beautiful weekend or morning in the countryside and drive an amazing sports car on a country road. That's a thing that I really cherish. So if I get to the point where the doctor says, 'Hey, you can't drive anymore,' it's going to be a very sad day. I'm not looking forward to it. And I hope at that point I'll give the cars to my son, and he'll enjoy them."
However, when asked if his 23-year-old son has any interest in his valuable and cherished vintage vehicles, Oates responds immediately. "No," he says. "He loves his big giant truck and his SUV. He loves going off-roading in Colorado and driving in the mountains and that kind of stuff. He's kind of an outdoors guy, a man's man. Little lightweight sports cars don't fit into his personality profile."
('You Might Also Like',)
