Daryl Hall Gushes About Having ‘the Best Band on Earth,’ Concert Dates With Howard Jones

If you attend one of the upcoming Daryl Hall-Howard Jones concert in November, you’ll be treated to the same high-caliber musicianship that make’s Hall’s video series, Live From Daryl’s House, a must-see for music lovers.  

“My band is the best band on Earth,” Hall tells Billboard’s Behind the Setlist podcast about guitarist and musical director Shane Theriot, keyboardist Greg Mayo, drummer Brian Dunne, bass player Klyde Jones, percussionist Porter Carroll Jr. and saxophone player Charlie DeChant. In each episode, the Live From Daryl’s House house band performs a handful of songs with a diverse group of musical guests who have recently included Jones, singer-songwriters Andy Grammer and Lisa Loeb, Robert Fripp, and Charlie Starr of the Southern rock band Blackberry Smoke. 

Most musicians would face a steep learning curve performing the songs, but Hall and his crew make it look effortless. The band is so good that, according to Hall, the members don’t rehearse together before taping. Instead, Hall spends a little time on the songs with Theriot, and each band member has the music at home. “We get together in that room, turn the cameras on, and that’s what you see,” he explains. 

Take the episode with Fripp, the former King Crimson band leader who struck up a friendship with Hall in the mid-‘70s and produced 1980 album Sacred Songs. Hall says Fripp was blown away by performing with Hall’s band. Fripp joined Live From Daryl’s House for renditions of such songs as “You Burn Me I’m a Cigarette” (co-written by Fripp and Hall), King Crimson’s “Red,” David Bowie’s “Heroes” and “Babs and Babs” from Hall’s Sacred Songs. 

“[Fripp] said, ‘I have never worked with a band that didn’t take at least three or four days to even begin to learn these songs. You guys just played them,’” says Hall. “I mean, it flipped Robert out.”

The tour is like a traveling version of Live From Daryl’s House. After Jones opens the show with the Daryl’s house band, Hall, who’s supporting his latest album, D, will perform a set with the same band. Near the end of Hall’s set, Jones will join Hall on stage to trade vocals on each other songs and perhaps throw in a cover song or two. 

Hall and Jones were hitmakers at roughly the same time in the ‘80s. By the time Jones crashed the U.S charts in the mid’-80s with songs such as “Things Can Only Get Better,” “Life in One Day” and “New Song,” Hall was basking in the success of Hall & Oates’ 1980 album Voices, which contained “Kiss on My List” and “You Make My Dreams (Come True),” and 1981’s Private Eyes, which spawned the hit title track and “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do).” 

Until recording Live From Daryl’s House last year, Hall and Jones had never met. Now they’re prepping for a short tour together. “Howard and I get along really well, and I think he’s great,” says Hall.

The eight-date tour starts in Orlando, Fla., on Nov. 7, heads north to Evans, Ga., on Nov. 16, Nashville and Knoxville in Tennessee, and culminates in Atlantic City, N.J., on Nov. 23. Before the tour kicks off, Hall will perform a free, private concert on Oct. 31 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Daryl’s House Club venue and restaurant in Pawling, N.Y.

Listen to the entire interview with Daryl Hall, go to Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, iHeart, Podbean or Everand.