John Oates is looking forward to the new year.
The Hall & Oates musician — who is entangled in a legal dispute with former music partner Daryl Hall — has “moved on” from the band.
“I don’t like to live in the past,” Oates said during a recent podcast appearance on David Yontef’s Behind the Velvet Rope. “I make the analogy of what it’s like when you go to a great museum and you’re really excited to go and see all the beautiful paintings or the exhibits or whatever it might be, and then near the end, your feet start to hurt and you say, ‘You know what? I can’t wait to get out of here.’ That’s kind of how I feel about it.”
Oates, 75, and Hall, 77, met as undergrads at Temple University in Philadelphia. They released their debut album, “Whole Oats,” in 1972, and are best known for hits such as “Maneater” and “Rich Girl.” They were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.
Despite their success, Oates described their early years as “very intense” due to their busy schedules.
“There was no time for reflection. It was a lot of business demands, a lot of heavy demands… Daryl and I were at the top of the pop world. We had number-one record after number-one record. We were traveling around the world constantly,” he explained. “Everyone thinks that that was probably the high point of my life, but to be honest with you, it actually wasn’t my favorite time.”
He added: “It’s just a matter of living in my present.”
The present, however, isn’t positive between the musicians. Last month, Hall accused Oates of ambushing him with plans to sell Oates’ half of their company, Whole Oats Enterprises, LLP, to Primary Wave, a prominent music publishing company.
On Nov. 16, Hall filed a lawsuit (with his organization, the Daryl Hall Revocable Trust, suing Oates’ trust, the John W. Oates TISA Trust and its co-trustees) in Nashville.
“This recent bad faith conduct by John Oates and the Oates Trust has created tremendous upheaval, harm and difficulty in my life,” Hall wrote in a second Nov. 29 filing, according to People. “Not to mention unnecessary expense and burden, during a time when I am in the middle of a tour … Respectfully, he must be stopped from this latest wrongdoing and his malicious conduct reined in once and for all.”
Oates later responded in his own first-person declaration.
“Far from becoming ‘adversarial and aggressive instead of professional and courteous,’ as Daryl has claimed, over the last 50 years I have always devoted my energy to ensuring that both the public and the music industry perceive the Hall & Oates music and brand in the most positive light,” he said in his filing.
Oates claimed that the pair “have not seen eye to eye,” but he has presented “opportunities to improve and protect the business and artistic integrity of the partnership.”
“In fact, Daryl has become unwilling to work with me to try to protect the marks and other intellectual property that we spent decades building,” he continued to allege.
Despite the ongoing feud, Oates is proud of what the two have accomplished. “You can’t ignore the fact that the Hall & Oates catalog of hits and the 50-year career will always trump almost anything that Daryl does on his own or I do on my own, which is okay because I’m very proud of that music,” he said on Behind the Velvet Rope.
“I’m really proud of what Daryl and I created together,” he continued. “I think we made music that will stand the test of time.”
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