Hall & Oates are officially no more.
After shocking fans last November by announcing that Daryl Hall was suing his longstanding partner John Oates, the most successful musical duo in rock history have officially called it quits.
In a new interview with Rolling Stone to promote his new solo album, Reunion, John Oates confirms he is no longer with Daryl Hall.
"As far as I’m concerned, I’ve moved on," he says. "I feel like I have a new lease on my creative life.”
Oates couldn't speak to the break-up in detail because of the ongoing legal battle, in which Hall accuses him of making a “completely clandestine and bad faith move” after “surreptitiously” seeking a deal to sell his share of the duo's joint venture without his consent. However, he feels it is time for him to focus on his own music.
“A good friend of mine said something to me when this was all starting," he explains. "He said, ‘John, you were a musician before you met Daryl, and you’re still a musician. You’re an individual.’ And Daryl and I have always called ourselves Daryl Hall and John Oates, because we always wanted to be perceived as two individuals who work together. That was very important to us. If you look at the albums, you’ll see that on every album. And so this is the ultimate expression of that.”
Of course, Oates gets that fans will always want to hear him perform the duo's catalogue of hits, but he believes they should only be performed along with Hall.
“I understand why people come and want to hear the big hits. Those songs are going to live forever," he says. "But I wanted to relegate them to the classic file that they’re in. And I wanted them to be heard in the best possible light, the way they were when the spark was on fire in the ’70s and ’80. That’s when those songs really resonated. To keep playing them, for me, was no longer interesting. I just wanted to do something else.”
Oates adds that he feels the business side of things will be worked out in a matter of time, and wishes his now former partner the best as he continues to tour and play their music.
"I don’t even know what he’s doing," he says. "[But] I hope he’s doing well and I hope he’s having a time of his life, but it’s not part of my life.”
Daryl Hall is set to head out on a North American tour with Elvis Costello this summer, which includes one Canadian show at Toronto's Budweiser Stage on July 4.