Daryl Braithwaite On Harry Styles’ ‘Horses’ Obsession: ‘Stranger Things Have Not Happened’

No one expected Harry Styles to bust out the chorus of The Horses numerous times at each show during his Australian tour, especially the man behind the hit, Daryl Braithwaite, who describes the occurrence as “quite extraordinary”.

Speaking with The Music about Styles’ obsession with the classic hit (originally by Rickie Lee Jones), Braithwaite said, “stranger things have not really happened”.

The pair met “ever so briefly” at the ARIAs last year, which is likely when the One Direction member’s love affair began, being treated to a live performance of The Horses during Braithwaite’s induction into the Hall of Fame.

Fast-forward five month and Braithwaite is sent a video of Styles singing the song to a stadium full of fans.

“I only found out about it by someone at Sony sending me a little video footage of him singing it and I thought, ‘Oh, that’s interesting’, and then it continued on,” Braithwaite said.

The next thing he knows he’s on FaceTime with the UK singer.

“He was at a restaurant with Denis Handlin from Sony, Michael Gudinski and Delta Goodrem and that was really funny.

“I looked at the phone and I thought, ‘Fuck, it looks like that Harry guy.’ He seemed genuinely nice. Maybe he was put up to it, or maybe he wanted to do it, but he was very complimentary.

“It’s funny, it really is - I’m old enough to be his grandfather, but it’s charming in the way he did it, and I did see some footage where he did tell someone off who didn’t like it.”

It also surprised Braithwaite that Styles’ prominently younger audience knew the song so well.

“It’s flattering that he would pick that song and on top of that from what I’ve heard on the videos I saw of it, that people seem to know it, which is more enduring.”

“My career’s not over just yet.”