Good Morning POU!
Well hanging out with friends works for some, but not for the legendary soul duo Sam & Dave. They HATED each other.
Sam & Dave were an American soul and R&B duo who performed together from 1961 until 1981. The tenor (higher) voice was Sam Moore (born 1935) and the baritone/tenor (lower) voice was Dave Prater (1937–1988).
Nicknamed “Double Dynamite”, “The Sultans of Sweat”, and “The Dynamic Duo” for their gritty, gospel-infused performances, Sam & Dave are considered one of the greatest live acts of the 1960s.
Sam & Dave were also famous for having a very tumultuous partnership during most of their 21 years together. According to Moore, they did not speak to each other offstage for almost 13 years. During the 1970s, they broke up many times, and typically would show up separately for shows, require separate dressing rooms, not look at each other onstage, and communicate through intermediaries.
They also had performances in the 1970s where only one of them would show up, leading to a replacement of Dave Prater by Sam Daniels. Moore describes personal issues with Prater, drug use, touring fatigue, and a desire to do his own act with new material as contributing to their break-up and replacement of Dave. Prater attributed their rift and break-ups to Moore’s frustrations in wanting to do his own act and diversify from repeatedly performing the Sam & Dave song catalog (which Prater has said that Moore didn’t like very much).
Sam Moore has stated the relationship with Dave Prater was always tumultuous, but that it never recovered after Prater shot and wounded his own wife in a domestic dispute in 1968.
“I remember saying to him in the room, ‘I’ll sing. I’ll even record with you. But I’ll never talk to you again. Never,'” said Moore. And I didn’t for 12-and-a-half years. Didn’t.”
Their performance on “Saturday Night Live” in 1980 would be one of their last together. Prater died in a car accident eight years later.
Moore said he still hasn’t mourned Prater.
“I feel bad that he died the way he did. I feel bad that we never got a chance to – maybe we could have done something, because of the name. And the name was still worth something,” said Moore.