Daryl Hall obtains a restraining order against John Oates: pop's historic duo ends up in court

Daryl Hall has obtained a restraining order against his former longtime musical partner John Oates. It's the unexpected twist in a legal battle that is bringing an end to one of the longest-running partnerships in the history of popular music. The news comes from Variety, which notes that little information about the case is publicly available, as the court records have been sealed. Based on court documents, however, it appears that Hall filed a complaint against Oates on November 16, along with a motion for a temporary restraining order. The following day, the court officially issued a temporary restraining order effective November 30. The Nashville Chancery Court confirmed the existence of the case to Variety, but declined to comment further.

As recently reported by Tmz, Hall, 77, downplayed Oates's role, 75, 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're not creative brothers. We're business partners. We made records together called Hall & Oates, but we've always been very separate, and that's actually a really important thing to me." Hall then cited the duo's 1980 No. 1 hit "Kiss On My List" as an example of their apparent creative separation: "I did all those harmonies and that's all me." Indeed, Oates is not credited as a co-writer on "Kiss On My List", only as co-producer of the track alongside Hall.

Daryl Hall & John Oates met in 1967 and formed their duo three years later. In total they have released 18 studio albums, starting with their 1972 debut, "Whole Oats". The historic pop-R&B duo boasts six No. 1 singles, including "Private Eyes", "Maneater", "Rich Girl" and "Out Of Touch".

At least sixty million records sold overall, a dozen songs worthy of a college course on pop music, a countless number of chart-topping singles, and at least twelve years of a career spent consistently at the top. To paraphrase the title of one of their albums, Daryl Franklin Hohl and John William Oates were, together, truly greater than the sum of their already enormous talent, turning blue-eyed blond soul into an unmissable delight of the American popular imagination.

Although both had long since launched solo careers, Hall and Oates continued to work together over the years, including live shows: their most recent tour dates back a year ago (October 2022), while their last studio album, "Home For Christmas", was released in 2006.

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