Daryl Hall on his new solo album, and his split from John Oates

Daryl Hall’s latest solo album, D, is out now, and he tells Billboard it’s a “very personal” album.

“The album is a complete thought,” he says, “and we organized the songs to go through a journey with it.” He adds, “We didn’t write the songs with that in mind, but when we realized what we had we put it together into a story, in a progression.” 

The new solo album comes as Hall and partner John Oates have pretty much put an end to their relationship, with Hall filing a lawsuit when Oates tried to sell his half of their publishing. Both sides have since said it’s doubtful we’ll ever seen Hall & Oates together again. 

“John and I did not have a creative relationship for decades,” Hall shares. “We toured and we toured and we toured, and it was very restrictive to me, and to John.” He adds, “The real truth of it all is John just said one day he didn’t want to do it anymore. I said ‘OK,’ but the problem is (Oates) didn’t make the parting and breakup easy, and that’s where the difficulties lay and still lay, and that’s all it is.”

Now, Hall is welcoming the opportunity to truly be out on his own.

“I always say I’ve been a solo artist my whole life, I was just working with John, mostly,” he says. “I can’t speak for John ’cause I haven’t spoken to him in a long, long time, but I think that’s how he feels, too. And good on both of us.”

He adds, “I can still play all the songs that I wrote over the years, under my own name as well as under the Hall & Oates name. It frees me, really. It frees me up.”