Daryl Hall has confirmed that a reunion with his Hall & Oates bandmate John Oates will never happen.
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The pair have been embroiled in a legal battle after Hall announced he was suing Oates after claiming that he was left “blindsided” by his plan to sell a business stake in 2023 – which Oates described as “inaccurate”.
Now, in a new interview with The Times, Hall has called the incident “the ultimate partnership betrayal” and confirmed that their time as a duo has completely ended.
When asked if the ship has sailed on mending their differences, Hall responded: “That ship has gone to the bottom of the ocean.”
He continued: “I’ve had a lot of surprises in my life, disappointments, betrayals, so I’m kind of used to it.” The ‘Out Of Touch’ singer also added: “I’ve been involved with some pretty shady characters over the years. That’s where the problems start.”
Further on in the interview, Hall also admitted he feels frustrated that his songwriting for the duo has been largely overshadowed, saying: “The songs with his lead vocal are the songs he wrote, and all the other ones, which is about 90 per cent, are the ones I wrote.” He added that this was “very frustrating”.
More recently, Hall has worked with former Eurthymics member and producer Dave Stewart, and told the Times that their creative partnership is far more “meaningful” than the one he had with Oates.
“[Dave is] a whirlwind. Witty and amusing, for sure. Also manic. He never stops,” he said. Comparing their relationship to his with Oates, he added: “It’s more meaningful, a real collaborative relationship — and it’s based on maturity.”
Oates previously revealed that his friendship with Hall was not actually as tight as it may have seemed to the outside world.
Speaking to Good Morning America, the musician claimed the pair’s working relationship had been distant even before the lawsuit, limited only to playing onstage where they “trotted out the hits”.
Though there was no animosity, Oates claimed they “never really talked to each other”, adding: “Over the past 20 years, we’d show up at a show individually, walk on stage, play, and then we’d go our separate ways. It really wasn’t as tight as people might, you know, would like to imagine in their kind of a fantasy imagination of our relationship.”
Last year, Hall said the pair “did not have a creative relationship for decades”, adding: “The last song I wrote with John was in 2000, and that was with somebody else. We toured and we toured and we toured, and it was very restrictive to me, and to John,” he told the publication.
He continued: “The real truth of it all is John just said one day he didn’t want to do it anymore. I said, ‘OK’, but the problem is [Oates] didn’t make the parting and breakup easy, and that’s where the difficulties lay and still lay, and that’s all it is.”
Oates also previously said although he believes Hall & Oates’ catalogue “will stand the test of time”, he has also “moved on”.
“You can’t ignore the fact that the Hall & Oates catalogue of hits and the 50-year career will always trump almost anything that Daryl does on his own or I do on my own, which is okay because I’m very proud of that music,” he said (via Variety).
He added: “I’m really proud of what Daryl and I created together.”
The musician also shot down any plans of a reunion in an interview with Rolling Stone. After being asked if there was an official end date to their partnership, Oates replied: “You can ask Daryl the same question. But, yes. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve moved on. I feel like I have a new lease on my creative life.”
Oates added he was “open” to staying friends with Hall, calling him “an amazing individual”. “He is one of the great, great songwriters of all time, and without a doubt, one of the great singers of all time. I would never say anything negative about him.
“But we have a different strategy for our lives, and we have a different strategy for our business lives as well as our personal lives. And that’s that, so be it. We’re old guys. We deserve to be allowed to do whatever we want to do.”
