Say it isn’t so!
Daryl Hall is enmeshed in a legal battle with his longtime musical partner, John Oates, going so far as to request a restraining order.
Little information about the legal squabble is publicly available – as the court documents are sealed – but The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Tuesday that Hall filed a lawsuit against Oates.
In another report, TMZ claims the pair were “in arbitration over some dispute,” possibly “over division of royalties, or it could be over Oates singing their songs in solo acts.”
The outlet also reported that Hall requested a restraining order against Oates, which the judge granted.
Hall, 77, and Oates, 75, formed their duo, Hall & Oates, in 1970 and released a string of hits like “Rich Girl,” “She’s Gone,” “Maneater” and “Out of Touch.”
They recorded 21 albums and sold over 80 million units, making them the most successful duo in music history.
They released their last studio album, “Home for the Holidays,” in 2006.
Despite also having solo recording careers, the two never officially split up and have continued to tour together over the years.
Hall, however, has hinted about alleged issues with Oates in the past.
Last year, the musician dragged his partner on Bill Maher’s “Club Random” podcast saying, “You think John Oates is my partner? … He’s my business partner. He’s not my creative partner.”
He went on, “John and I are brothers, but we are not creative brothers. We are business partners. We made records called Hall & Oates together, but we’ve always been very separate, and that’s a really important thing for me.”
Hall then claimed that their No. 1 song “Kiss on My List” was not really a collaborative experience. Oates is not credited as a songwriter on “Kiss on My List,” but is listed as a co-producer with Hall.
“I did all those [harmonies],” Hall said at the time. “That’s all me.”
In another 2022 interview, Hall seemed to disparage Oates by saying that it’s “very annoying” to be a part of a musical duo.
“Everything you do is juxtaposed against another person. Try doing that sometime,” he told the Los Angeles Times, while trying to discuss his latest solo record. “I don’t want to use the word ’emasculating,’ because that’s male, but it takes away your individuality.”
Oates never hinted at any discord when he spoke to Pvnew in 2020.
When asked about drug use that was rampant during the music scene of the 70s, Oates explained that the two of them did not partake.
“Coke was ubiquitous,” he noted. “Daryl and I never had our issues with it because we never did it. I tried it back in the Studio 54 days and it made me feel so uncomfortable that I couldn’t do it. It just wasn’t my thing.”
He continued, “Both Daryl and I knew that we were going to be musicians for the rest of our lives and the only way for us to be musicians for the rest of our lives was to keep our s–t together.”
He also admitted that the pair had issues with money mismanagement.
At one point, Oates discovered that although he had residences in New York, Connecticut and Aspen, an airplane and a garage full of vintage cars, he was cash-poor.
“It’s embarrassing to me to realize now that I should have been more aware and knowledgable of what was going on but I was swept up in being a pop star,” he confessed. “It was too easy to party, to play my music.”
Reps for Hall and Oates did not immediately respond to Pvnew’s requests for comment.
