John Oates has dismissed a future Hall & Oates reunion saying he has “moved on”.
It comes after Daryl Hall said he was suing Oates after claiming that he was left “blindsided” by his plan to sell a business stake last November – while the latter described the claims as “inaccurate”.
In a new interview with Rolling Stone, when asked if an official end date should be added to the career of one of the most successful pop duos of all time?, Oates said: “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.”
He continued: “A good friend of mine said something to me when this was all starting. 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.”
Although he is not open to a reunion, Oates said he would be open to repairing their friendship in the future.
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He added: “I’m always open for that. Daryl Hall is 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.”
When asked if they will ever get back together he continued: “I have no idea. But I don’t see it. I really don’t. Life is funny though. You never know what kind of curve it will throw you.”
He also commented on their current dispute calling it “a very boring business issue”.
“There’s always disputes when people are famous. People are always fascinated about the dynamics of a duo,” he said. “And to be quite honest, Daryl and I have a business partnership, and there was some things about the business that we disagreed with, which happens all the time in business. And we’re going to work it out.”
Oates’ latest comments echo an interview he did on David Yontef’s Behind the Velvet Rope podcast, at the end of last year, At the time he said their music “will stand the test of time”, but he has also “moved on”.