Daryl Hall says he'll never play with John Oates again: 'That ship has gone to the bottom of ocean'

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Daryl Hall has dashed hopes that he’ll ever reunite with his onetime musical associate John Oates, who he broke up with nearly two years ago.

After more than a half-century of making music together, Hall, 78, sued Oates, 76, in late 2023 accusing him of the “ultimate partnership betrayal” after the latter initiated the sale of his stake in their joint publishing company.

In response, Oates slammed the impending legal battle and accused Hall of making “inflammatory, outlandish, and inaccurate statements about me.”

Now, in a new interview with The Times of London, Hall says he’ll never perform again with Oates. “That ship has gone to the bottom of the ocean,” Hall says. “I’ve had a lot of surprises in my life, disappointments, betrayals, so I’m kind of used to it.”

Hall also alluded to his unhappiness with Oates’ actions, adding: “I’ve been involved with some pretty shady characters over the years. That’s where the problems start.”

Last spring, Oates said his decision to sell his stake in their creative collaboration was “not that big a deal.”

“I said, ‘You know what? Daryl has always wanted to be his own man.’ I said, ‘I’m gonna give him the opportunity to do that. If I sell my half … you know, he can do what he wants,'” Oates told Good Morning America’s Michael Strahan.

“And it was kinda ruining my life, to be honest with you…I wasn’t happy. And I said, ‘Well, I’ll just step aside,’ people do it all the time. I mean, you look at all the artists who are selling all their catalogues … it’s pretty common … It’s not that big a deal. But Daryl didn’t like the idea that I would sell to a certain third party.”

But Hall claimed Oates’ attempt to sell his stake was a “completely clandestine and bad faith move.”

Oates defended himself in his conversation with Strahan by saying that despite their longtime affiliation they operated very much as two separate entities.

“We’ve always looked at ourselves as individuals working together,” he said. “And I felt like I had the right to do that. But, you know, he didn’t.”

Elsewhere in his conversation with The Times, Hall said he was by far the bigger contributor to the worldwide success of Hall & Oates, who together sold more than 60 million records and notched 16 Top 10 singles thanks to hits like Maneater, Out of Touch and Rich Girl.

“The songs with his lead vocal are the songs he wrote, and all the other ones, which is about 90%, are the ones I wrote,” he said.

Hall has recently started working with former Eurythmics member and producer Dave Stewart, releasing D, his sixth solo studio album — and first record in more than a decade — last year.

“(Stewart is) a whirlwind. Witty and amusing, for sure. Also manic. He never stops,” Hall told The Times.

Hall also said that his newfound partnership with Stewart is more rewarding than the one he had with Oates. “It’s more meaningful, a real collaborative relationship — and it’s based on maturity,” he said.

Since the early ’70s, Hall & Oates, who met in an elevator in 1967, landed six No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, including Kiss on My List and I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do). They also notched six platinum albums and a number of Top 10 singles like Sara Smile and She’s Gone.

“They’re well-crafted pop songs. They seem to have a connection that is not tied to a period of time. You know, they don’t sound old and nostalgic,” Oates said of the timelessness of their tunes in a 2021 interview with the Associated Press. “They seem to evoke the same response in young kids today as they did when they were new back in the ‘70s and ’80s.”

Hall told the Toronto Sun in a 2018 interview that the two enjoyed their decades-long partnership because they managed to find new ways to approach their older songs.

“I do it ’cause I like it and I have something to say and a bird’s gotta sing. And every time I do it, it’s a little bit different. It keeps it fresh. It keeps me happy. And that’s what I’m all about,” he said.

But in a conversation with Bill Maher in 2022, Hall said the two were “not creative brothers.”

“We made records called ‘Hall & Oates’ together, but we’ve always been very separate, and it’s a really important thing for me,” he said at the time. “We are not acrimonious in any way. We’re friends. We just have different directions and have had since about 1975.”

mdaniell@postmedia.com