'Columbus is one of our favorite places': Walter Williams of the O'Jays on performing here
This weekend’s Picnic With the Pops series opener is also something of a closer.
On Saturday at the John F. Wolfe Columbus Commons, the much-loved R&B group The O’Jays will perform with the Columbus Symphony. It’s the first concert of Picnic With the Pops, but likely to be among the last concerts for the legendary group whose hits include the 1972 smash “Love Train.”
The concert is part of the opening leg of a farewell tour for The O’Jays, which was formed in 1958 and still features original members Eddie Levert and Walter Williams. Eric Grant is the third current member.
“I’m just over the moon to get a chance to work with these legends, . . . and to be part of this farewell tour is just fantastic for Columbus,” said Principal Pops Conductor Stuart Chafetz, who will lead the orchestra in accompanying the group hits including “For the Love of Money,” “Put Your Hands Together” and, of course, “Love Train.”
It’s fitting, though, that The O’Jays included Columbus in their extended musical goodbye: The group has strong northeast Ohio roots, with Levert and Williams having both grown up Canton, and the group having been formed there 64 years ago.
In a recent phone interview with The Dispatch, Walter Williams discussed the reason for The O’Jays’ retirement, his memories of Columbus and what it was like to be inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The interview has been edited for space and clarity.
Q: Why are The O’Jays saying goodbye?
Williams: It’s because of failing health issues, and we’ve been doing this a long, long time, and love it. But I’m 79 in August, Eddie (Levert) will turn 80 on June 16, and we just don’t have what we used to have, and that’s stamina. The desire and the love is still there. We’re just going to try to beat Mother Nature to the punch. (Laughs.)
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Q: You’ve lived with multiple sclerosis for many years, right?
Williams: Yes, since (age) 39, and I’ll be 79 on August 25th. I still feel good, and there are still a lot of things that I can do, but I had COVID really bad and that took a lot out of me. I’m trying to get it back — physically, working out, and all of that — but it’s not happening fast. It’s a slow process.
I don’t think we’ll tour again — not an extensive tour — but I think (concert) dates will still come in and we will do dates probably for the next two (or) two-and-a-half years, something like that, until it just dwindles down and away.
Q: What are your emotions going to be as The O’Jays farewell unfolds?
Williams: I think it’s going to hurt, but I think we’ll be able to digest it properly. We won’t just suddenly stop. It’s going to wind down. Actually, I met Eddie when I was 8 years old, in the third grade, when he moved into the neighborhood. It’s been a childhood friendship that grew with us and certainly us becoming partners in the same business. I sang in different groups way back, and so did he, but it seems like this particular group had the magic.
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Q: Why do you think The O’Jays had that magic?
Williams: The talent was there. My dad was into music as well. As a matter of fact, he wouldn’t sign my first contact because of him not making it. He was in Gospel, and there was not a Gospel explosion yet, until years later. But he helped train us, and I think we just got the magic between Eddie and I and a guy named William Powell, Billy Isles and Bobby Massey. It was five O’Jays when we started, and I guess we didn’t make it in time enough for the two that dropped out (Isles and Massey), and that left William, Eddie and myself. We signed with (producer-songwriters) Gamble and Huff from them seeing us at the Apollo (Theatre) with one of their groups, The Intruders.
Q: What did it mean to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2005?
Williams: That was an incredible situation because we got denied so many times. (Laughs.) One day, we get the call and it says, “OK, you’re in.” ... It meant everything to our careers. Whereas we couldn’t get certain dates and certain bookings (before the induction), it just seems like the sky opened up.
Q: What do you enjoy about performing with a symphony, as you will in Columbus?
Williams: It certainly gives the presence of the recording sessions . . ., because horns and strings are always pretty much part of our recordings. It just fills the air. It fills your soul. It gives you all of that instrumentation and makes it come alive.
Columbus is one of our favorite places, and to do (a concert) with a full orchestra is going to be fantastic.
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Q: What will you be performing this weekend?
Williams: We’re going to reach back and do some of the things that kept us alive and well before we started getting big hit records, like “Love Train,” which is the biggest to date. We’re going to go back and do probably “Lipstick Traces,” which we haven’t done in a show in a long, long time; probably “Lonely Drifter”; and we’re going to talk a little bit about those days and how things happened and the people we knew in Columbus at the time who actually helped us, like Les Brown. He was a DJ at the time in Columbus, and he played our records and helped us with our concerts there and wherever we were. We met a lot of friends, a lot of people, in Columbus. This will be probably like going home to work.
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At a glance
The O’Jays will perform with the Columbus Symphony as part of Picnic With the Pops at 8 p.m. Saturday at the John F. Wolfe Columbus Commons, East Rich and South High streets. General lawn seating costs $36.75, or $10.50 for ages 3 to 12, free for age 2 and younger. For more information, visit www.columbussymphony.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: The O'Jays to kick off the Picnic With the Pops series with symphony
