John Oates Remembers Music with Daryl Hall First Sounding ‘Horrible Together’

John Oates and Daryl Hall eventually made some beautiful music together — but it took time.

Oates, 77, looked back at Hall & Oates’ past in a new interview with Vulture published Aug. 29. The outlet asked Oates the first time he realized he and Hall, 78, had “something special.”

“That’s an interesting question, because when we first met, we actually tried to do something together musically and it sounded really bad,” Oates admitted. “We looked at each other and said, ‘This is never going to work. We sound horrible together.’ ”

But they gave it another crack, with both of them making adjustments. “Eventually, he came my way, I came his way, and we found this place. I don’t know how we did it. It was just through trial and error, really,” he said.

The two musicians met when they were both attending Temple University in Philadelphia. In 1972, they signed with Atlantic Records and released their first album, Whole Oats, that year.

In 1976, they found success with their single “Sara Smile,” which reached No. 4. They released their first No. 1 hit, “Rich Girl,” in 1977. 

Oates told Vulture of the night “Rich Girl” reached No. 1, “We were on tour in Kansas City, at a very famous barbecue place that was in the outskirts of the city. We had a limousine that took us. It was me, Daryl and a few of the guys in the band.” 

“We had some barbecue and then when we came out, the limo was gone,” he said. The driver had abandoned them. “This guy came by in a pickup truck with some firewood in the back and we flagged him down. A few of us got in. I was sitting in the back on top of the wood and ‘Rich Girl’ came on the radio. That’s the night it went No. 1, and that’s how I celebrated.”

The duo released 18 studio albums in total and their chart toppers include “Kiss on My List,” “Maneater” and “Private Eyes.”

Back in June, Oates told PEOPLE the one Hall & Oates song he’d most like to be remembered for. “I probably go back to ‘She’s Gone,’ the song that Daryl [Hall] and I did in the early ’70s because it has stood the test of time, and that’s the mark of a great song,” he said. The song was first released on the 1973 album Abandoned Luncheonette, but reached No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart three years later. The song is included on Rolling Stone’s best 500 songs of all time list.

He told PEOPLE in 2024 that he has “unbelievable memories” of his time in Hall & Oates, but “at the same time, after 50 years, people grow apart. And I always thought it was a miracle that it lasted that long.” He and Hall last played together in 2022. On Aug. 12, Hall dismissed his legal claims against Oates.

Oates’ new self-titled solo album, Oates, is available on all major streaming platforms now.