John Oates Revealed as the Anteater on ‘The Masked Singer’

John Oates is the newest superstar eradicated on Fox’s hit present The Masked Singer.

The rocker was unmasked in the episode airing Dec. 13. Surprisingly, none of the panel accurately guessed the musician’s identification. In hindsight, the most evident trace was in Oates’ costume – the rocker was dressed as an anteater, a callback to Hall & Oates’ well-known 1982 hit “Maneater.”

In a dialog with EW, Oates defined why showing 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, including 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.”

READ MORE: 25 Greatest Duos in Rock History

Oates additionally confessed that the present proved tougher than he anticipated.

“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 together with his bandmate, Daryl Hall. The dispute reportedly stems from Oates’ efforts to promote his share of the duo’s catalog, a transfer Hall claimed to be “blindsided” by.

READ MORE: Top 10 Hall & Oates Songs From the ’70s

Following The Masked Singer, Oates was requested if he might envision ever sharing the stage with Hall once more.

“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.”