Even as their nasty legal battle rages on, John Oates said he’s “thankful” for his years with Hall & Oates music partner Daryl Hall.
“I have an amazing, amazing amount of respect, and I’m really, really thankful for the success that Daryl and I have had,” Oates, 75, told ET on Thursday.
“We’ve done something over a 50-year period of time that not many people ever can say they’ve done in their lives or careers.”
“It’s been a great thing for me to do, I’m really proud of it, and I’m really happy about it,” he continued. “And I know that those songs are going to live forever.”
However, Oates went on to make it clear that the group appears to be far behind him. “I’ve moved on. I moved on in a big way,” he said, noting he’s “not a very nostalgic person.”
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He concluded: “I’ve got other things I’m doing.”
Hall & Oates fans were shocked when the pop rock duo – who had been together since 1967, and never officially dissolved — became enmeshed in a feud in November.
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. Hall filed the lawsuit (with his organization, the Daryl Hall Revocable Trust, suing Oates’ trust, the John W. Oates TISA Trust and its co-trustees) in Nashville, on Nov. 16.
“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.”
But even as Hall called him “malicious” — and said he was “deeply hurt” in his own court filing — Oates recently performed on the hit Fox game show, “The Masked Singer.”
On Wednesday, Oates was revealed as the Anteater during the latest Season 10 episode.
Following that appearance, he told Entertainment Weekly that he hasn’t ruled out performing with Hall again.
“Oh, you know what, I never say never to anything,” he told the outlet. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I just want, right now, I’m focused on where I am in life and leading the best life I can and moving forward.”
Hall, however, revealed last year that the pair would no longer be making music together.
“I don’t have any plans to work with John. I mean, whatever. Time will tell,” he explained to the Los Angeles Times at the time. While they had been recording together “before the pandemic,” he noted that “perceptions changed.”
“Life changed, everything changed,” Hall continued. “I’m more interested in pursuing my own world. And so is John.”
Hall and Oates 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.