If you’ve followed the recent drama surrounding the once-dominant hitmaking team of Daryl Hall and John Oates, you will not be surprised to learn that the duo will not reunite anytime soon. Last year, Hall surprised the world when he filed a restraining order against Oates. The reason turned out to be a legal battle between the two. Oates wanted to sell his shares in his and Hall’s joint business, Hall objected, and a judge temporarily blocked Oates from selling his stake. In legal filings, Hall described Oates’ actions as an “ambush” and a “betrayal”: “I believe that John Oates timed the unauthorized transaction to create the most harm to me.” In a new interview, John Oates confirms what everyone already could’ve guessed: Hall and Oates are done.

Rolling Stone recently spoke to John Oates about his new solo album, which, perhaps ironically, is called Reunion. The conversation included a whole lot of material about his situation with Daryl Hall. In the interview, Oates says that he got out of the mindset of performing his classic songs with Hall during the pandemic, when they stopped being able to play shows: “I understand why people come and want to hear the big hits. Those songs are going to live forever. But I wanted to relegate them to the classic file that they’re in. And I wanted them to be heard in the best possible light, the way they were when the spark was on fire in the ’70s and ’80. That’s when those songs really resonated. To keep playing them, for me, was no longer interesting. I just wanted to do something else.” (Hall and Oates last performed together in fall 2022.)

John Oates says that his issue with Daryl Hall isn’t personal, and he says their business disagreements are “very boring”: “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.”

In his filings, Hall claims that Oates timed his business moves to sabotage Hall’s tour with Todd Rundgren. In the Rolling Stone article, Oates responds to that: “That’s what he said? I didn’t even know he was going on tour. I had nothing to do with that. If that’s how he perceived it, then that’s how he perceived it. But, really honestly, I don’t follow him on social media. In fact, I don’t even know what he’s doing. I hope he’s doing well and I hope he’s having a time of his life, but it’s not part of my life.”

As for the future of Hall and Oates, Oates has this to say:

As far as I’m concerned, I’ve moved on. I feel like I have a new lease on my creative life… 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.

In the interview, John Oates says that he hopes Daryl Hall finds artistic fulfillment, and says he’s open to repairing his friendship with the man: “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 he’s asked if they’ll ever sing together again, Oates says, “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.” Read the full Rolling Stone story here.