Change of Seasons: A Memoir by John Oates & Chris Epting

Author:John Oates & Chris Epting
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Biography, Memoirs, Music, Non-fiction; Biographies
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2017-03-28T00:00:00+00:00

Racing. Life Accelerated.

By the mid-to-late ’70s, the novelty of smoking pot and getting high was behind me, and with a clearer mind and a bit more money, bolstered by the success of a few hits, my thoughts began to wander back to cars and racing. I fell in lust with a little Alfa Romeo Spider convertible that I saw at the New York auto show and impulsively bought one.

Black with tan top and interior, it was a lithe and lovely driving Italian sports car, but it wasn’t built to survive the rough, potholed streets of New York. Then during the recording of Beauty on a Back Street in 1977, I was cruising by Porsche of Beverly Hills on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles when my attention was drawn to an arrest-me-red 1977 Porsche 930 Turbo Carrera and I pulled into the dealership. I stepped into the showroom and gave the machine a thorough walk-around. It sat low and wide, with a whale-tail spoiler on the back large enough to double as a picnic table. Oh man oh man oh man, I wanted that car so badly. The price was $34,000 … more than double the cost of my parents’ house. I began feeling the pangs of middle-class guilt, and I hadn’t even bought it. Later that same afternoon, I casually mentioned the red Porsche to Tommy Mottola, and he didn’t hesitate—we headed down to the dealership. In the lot was an older, beautiful, black 356 model that caught Tommy’s attention, and with a let’s-make-a-deal look in his eyes, we went inside and found a salesman. I pointed out the red Turbo and he responded, “Oh, Rod Stewart has a deposit on that one.” I was crestfallen. Mottola put his arm around the guy’s shoulders and walked into one of the sales cubicles. I have no idea what he said or did, but a few minutes later we were signing papers for two Porsches. I got the red one, he got the black one. Sorry, Rod.

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