It looks like Daryl Hall and John Oates have resolved their legal dispute.
The breakdown in the two musicians' relationship occurred a couple of years ago over Oates’ efforts to sell his share of their joint venture Whole Oates Enterprises LLP. Hall alleged that his partner was attempting to offload his part of their business to Primary Wave IP Investment Management LLC, a music publisher that already owned a “significant interest” in the Hall & Oates catalogue. The singer said that such a sale would violate his business agreement with Oates.
However, Associated Press is now reporting that the two names – as synonymous with '80s pop as Pepsi & Shirlie and Salt-N-Pepa – have worked it all out and, according to a court filing on Monday, brought an end to their dispute through arbitration. It is unclear when the arbitration took place, nor the details of the settlement. Neither Hall or Oates have made any public comment as yet.
Fans of the duo will be relieved that the wrangling between the two has come to an end as at one stage their dispute was getting very nasty indeed. In 2023, Hall accused his friend of “ultimate partnership betrayal” over his efforts to sell his part of their joint venture. Oates said that he was “deeply hurt” that Hall was making “inflammatory, outlandish, and inaccurate statements” about him.
In November 2023 a judge paused the sale of Oates' share of Whole Oates, which handled not just royalty income, but also encompassed trademarks, personal name and likeness rights and website and social media assets, before the duo and their legal teams entered arbitration the following year.
Whether this settlement will be enough for the pair to rekindle their five-decade long musical partnership remains to be seen. In an interview with The Times in February this year, Daryl Hall said: “That ship has gone to the bottom of the ocean. I’ve had a lot of surprises in my life, disappointments, betrayals, so I’m kind of used to it.”
Stranger things have happened but fans then would be advised not to hold their breath.
