John Oates is going solo — but still calls Daryl Hall ‘one of the greatest singers of all time’

nypost.com:

got a restraining order against John Oates — his blue-eyed-soul brother in the best-selling duo in pop history — it seemed as if the pair that ruled the ’80s with their big hair and even bigger hooks had shockingly lost all of “that lovin’ feelin’” for each other.But as wild as it first seemed, this was not about physical protection — this was strictly a business move to block Oates from selling his share in the pair’s Whole Oats Enterprises to music publishing company Primary Wave.And while Oates can’t discuss the ongoing legal battle amid the breakup that had many of us vacillating between “I Can’t Go for That” and “Say It Isn’t So,” he’s still singing his longtime partner’s praises — even as he begins the next act of his career with “Reunion,” his new solo album, out Friday.“Daryl’s voice was the one that was on all the hits … And you know, listen, Daryl’s one of the greatest singers of all time,” Oates told The Post outside of the former site of the Gaslight Cafe, the Greenwich Village coffeehouse where the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame duo played their first New York show together in the late ’60s — when they were both in different groups.“And so when you’re with one of the greatest singers of all time, of course you’re not going to be the frontman.

And it’s actually OK, because I don’t think I really felt comfortable doing that anyway.”That doesn’t exactly sound like a man who has gone from harmonizing to hating.But at 76, Oates is stepping out of his comfort zone and into the solo spotlight on “Reunion,” a folky affair that feels more like a goodbye to his rock-and-soulmate of five decades — and a return to his own rootsy roots before he’s out of time.“The irony behind the title has nothing to do with what was going on.