Mick Rock/Wolfson EntertainmentNobody would ever confuse the music of Daryl Hall and John Oates with the music of The Rolling Stones. But according to Hall, the way that he and Oates operate is similar to the way Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger and guitarist Keith Richards work together.
Daryl tells the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “We’re not so much a duo as we are two guys who run a band. We’re like Mick and Keith — we run a band. It’s not about just the two of us. It’s about the two of us in that context.”
And like Jagger and Richards, Hall says he and Oates needed each other to create something special.
While Daryl believes that he “absolutely” would have been successful without John, he explains, “What we did together, especially in the early days and in the ’80s, that was very much the two of us, our dual perception. So things would have been different if I hadn’t been with John.”
In fact, Hall says Oates is the one who taught him about music.
“I was searching for something outside of what I knew very well, which was…street-corner music, R&B, the real thing,” he explains. “And John was really into things like bluegrass and folk music, which I knew nothing about, so I was using John as a teacher to learn about things.”
Interestingly, Daryl feels that his favorite Hall & Oates era is “right now.”
“I like it exactly the way it is…I like doing it with the band and John, and I like doing things outside of it,” he says. “I’m still amazingly excited and creative. And that’s the best any artist can ask for.”
Hall & Oates’ current tour with Train continues this Thursday in Mansfield, Massachusetts. Next week, they’ll play New York’s Madison Square Garden.
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