Once I got to be about twenty-five, I got interested in the music of the time. I started smokin' dope, I started drinking, I started slowing down and trying to find myself. I didn't want to work in nightclubs.

Personal life
Hines' marriages to Patricia Panella and Pamela Koslow ended in divorce. Hines made his Broadway debut with his brother in The Girl in Pink Tights in 1954. Hines made his movie debut in Mel Brooks's History of the World Part 1.