With their long-running legal dispute now settled, some might have been holding out hope that Daryl Hall and John Oates might one day perform together again, but it looks like it’s not going to happen.
Speaking to the Zach Sang Show, Oates confirmed that, while he and Hall have now “amicably agreed” to separate their business interests, he has no desire to once again share a stage with his former creative partner.
“We’re both pursuing whatever it is we want to pursue,” says Oates, diplomatically, before adding that “a lot of things changed and it was just time for us to move on.”
Without getting into specifics, Oates goes on to say that he thinks that there’s “a time stamp on creativity,” and wants to do things his way from now on.
Discussing his current stage of life, Oates says: “I feel like I really can play. I can sing. I can think. I can still travel. And there but for fortune go you or I. I don't want to rely on a whole bunch of cliches but, you know, you just pull the wrong card out of the deck and the house of cards collapses. So I wanted to make sure that I could at least see through my creative life in a way that was completely unencumbered and 100% authentic to who I am right now. That is vitally important.”
Oates goes on to say that he no longer considers Hall to be a friend, and explains how their partnership ended up breaking down.
“As time went on, as we both got older and our life experiences changed, our relationships changed, then we started to just not have the same goals anymore. And that's really what happened,” he says.
For Oates, those goals don’t include a reunion with Hall. After initially saying that he doubts if the two men could perform together again, he then corrects himself and gives an unequivocal “no”. Asked what it would take for him to change his mind, he replies: “Nothing. It's not about money. It's not about anything. I think that ship has sailed.”
By way of explanation, Oates goes on to say: “I would like people to remember Hall & Oates in its prime. I would like people to remember Daryl and myself in our prime when we were singing at our best, we were writing at our best, producing at our best. That's Hall & Oates to me. A redo of that or trying to revitalise that is impossible. And not to disparage older artists who still want a piece of the spotlight and to stay in the spotlight… there comes a time when you're just not yourself anymore. You're not on your game the way you were.”
Instead of trying to recreate former glories, then, Oates’ view is that fans should simply enjoy what he and Hall created. “I'd rather have people remember the music,” he says. “I'd hate to go out there and play the old hits and not have them sound as vibrant and as punchy and as great as those records.”
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