Singing on a porch to the Rock Hall: O'Jays story started in Canton

Bobby Massey remembers heading over to the Tennessee Lunch in Canton as a teenager in the 1950s.

All he had on his mind was getting something to eat at the Cherry Avenue restaurant. But some younger guys, including his brother, Jay, needed a ride home.

Unsure at first because he didn't know the boys, Massey gave them a ride anyhow.

More:'It's home.' O'Jays farewell tour rolling into Canton for special night

"And so while we were riding home, we started to sing, and I thought, 'Damn, they sound better than the groups I was singing in,' and I started singing with them," he said of the young men.

"So I went and picked them up for 30 days in a row and started rehearsing every day," Massey recounted. "We started getting better and better, and that's how we got together."

From those rides came The O'Jays, a chart-topping vocal group.

"We had great harmony," Massey said. "First of all, we could all sing. Walt (Williams) could sing. Eddie (Levert) could sing lead. William (Powell) could sing lead ... and we could sound like anybody we wanted to sound like."

Massey talked about those days affectionately. And even though he would move on from the group in the 1970s, it was a special time in his life.

Massey and anecdotes like his will forever link The O'Jays to their hometown. And it's why The O'Jays farewell tour stop on Saturday night at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium is more meaningful to the group than other concerts.

The O'Jays will be headlining a concert presented by the Hall of Fame Village. Fellow Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Gladys Knight is the opening act scheduled for 7 p.m. Members of the Canton Symphony Orchestra perform at 6 p.m.

Tickets start at $59 and are available online at www.hofvillage.com/ or by visiting the ForeverLawn Sports Complex box office at the Hall of Fame Village, 2333 17th St. NW. Box office hours are 1 to 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and noon to 7 p.m. Saturday; cash and credit cards are accepted. The local ticket office also can be reached at 330-617-8447.

'One day, you are going to be a big star.'

During a recent phone interview, Williams recalled those Canton beginnings with a sense of wonder in his voice.

"There was an older lady who lived in back of us, kind of catty-corner from Eddie to me, and her name was Miss Underwood, and she would hear us practicing and singing and stuff like that, and she told us, 'One day, you are going to be a big star,' and she basically told it to Eddie, and I happened to be there, and we were doing things together."

"I sang in many groups before I sang with Eddie," Williams noted. "I met him when I was 8 years old and he was 9 years old. We are friends forever, but we were in different groups, and when we finally got together (as teenagers), we clicked."

The group's lineup would change over the years, with Powell's death from cancer in 1977 and the departure of Massey that same decade. Sammy Strain left the group in the 1990s. Bill Isles left The O'Jays in the 1960s. Eric Nolan Grant joined the group, and is still a member.

Massey went on to produce music for other artists, including the Cleveland vocal group the Ponderosa Twins Plus One. The Massey-produced song, "Bound" was re-released in 2013 by Kanye West as "Bound 2" on the album, "Sample This! The Foundation of Modern Classics."

In 2005, The O'Jays were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Enshrined members are Massey, Strain, Levert, Williams and Powell. The group first performed as The Triumphs and then The Mascots.

Singing on a porch on Gonder Avenue SE

Frances Bendter, 83, is among those who saw the future members of The O'Jays in their earliest incarnation.

Bendter, whose maiden name is Smith, recalls hearing them sing as teens.

"They had been just a group of boys singing," she said. "If you can picture in your mind how teenagers used to get on the corner and sing and harmonize, they had been doing that for a long period of time."

"They were good," Bendter said. "They used to sing on our front porch (on Gonder Avenue SE) because I have a brother. He's a little bit older than me. He knows them also, and he likes to sing."

Bendter would later work as a receptionist at the Sounds of Cleveland Studio, where members of The O'Jays recorded music and had offices, she said.

Even when based in Cleveland, The O'Jays remembered their hometown by hiring a lot of people from Canton, she said.

"They were decent," said Bendter, a 1956 graduate of McKinley High School, where The O'Jays are alums. "And they remembered their yesterdays and brought them to their present times and carried them to their future times."

She said she's still proud to tell people The O'Jays are from Canton. "And, of course, I've got to come home for the concert," the Parma resident said of Saturday's show. "They will be singing to their home crowd."

Bendter said she'll be singing along, "and I'll probably get up there and start doing some dancing, too."

'The harmony was so strong that you could almost hear the vibration in the air.'

Growing up in the same neighborhood as future O'Jays members, Stephen Perry, 77, said he and other young men also performed in singing groups in Canton, but Levert, Williams, Powell and Massey clearly stood out.

Practice sessions were often at former member Bill Isles' mother's house. Perry and other kids would gather around.

"The harmony was so strong that you could almost hear the vibration in the air," he recalled. "So we knew they were a special and talented group."

"What stuck with me was their work ethic and striving for perfection," Perry said. "They would sing a song over and over and over, and if someone's singing wasn't right, they were off harmony or their timing wasn't right, then they would sing the song or sing that section of the song over and over again."

Perry traced that dedication to their parents, as well as to time spent at the YMCA in Northeast Canton.

"We would talk about life and values, something we learned at school and at home, but it was reinforced at the YMCA," he said.

"Directors and managers, we had a lot of conversations with them (at the YMCA) on a daily basis to do something to develop your mind, something to develop your body and something to help develop your spirit," Perry said.

The O'Jays inspired Canton kids even outside of pursuing entertainment careers, Perry said.

"I think a lot of people in our old neighborhood revered The O'Jays because we saw what they had accomplished from their earliest days," he said. "They have fans all over the world who respect and admire their talent, but those who saw how they struggled in the beginning have even a higher appreciation of what they achieved."

Visiting Canton in his white Rolls-Royce with red leather interior

Jermaine Walter Williams, a younger brother of O'Jays founding member Walter Williams Sr., said Canton is integral to the famous group's story.

Jermaine, 50, is a longtime member of his own music group, The Band ForKeeps. ForKeeps also includes other family members, and it has opened for The O'Jays in the past, including at the Canton Memorial Civic Center.

ForKeeps is scheduled to perform from 5 to 6 p.m. Friday at Centennial Plaza in downtown Canton as part of the HeArts Coming Together CommUnity LOVE Train event from 4 to 9 p.m. Cherylann Hawk performs at 7 p.m.

Centennial Plaza is on Market Avenue North between Third and Fourth streets NW.

ForKeeps also will be performing on the Hall of Fame Village grounds outside the stadium during an O'Jays celebration from 2 to 8 p.m. Saturday before the concert. Live performances, a DJ, food trucks, local vendors and line dancing will be featured.

Singing and music run strong in the family, Jermaine said.

Their father was in a singing group. "The man could sing until the day he passed away," he said.

"Everybody in the family ... can basically play and sing or sing and play an instrument," Jermaine said. "Most of us chose to sing."

Jermaine looked up to Walter as a kid, dreaming of wearing one of the flashy outfits of The O'Jays when he got older. The sibling also remembers when Walter would visit Canton.

"He'd pull up in his old white Rolls-Royce with red leather interior," Jermaine recounted fondly.

Some of those visits would be low-key. "He was dealing with so much of being an O'Jay and being an entertainer that he just wanted the peace and quiet," the brother recalled.

Jermaine is excited about Saturday's homecoming.

"They are still a great show and a great act," he said. "We're not only related; we're fans, too. And when it was announced they were coming ... I went to (a Canton bar) ... to have a cocktail with a friend of mine, and a woman said, 'Oh, my God. We just got our tickets and we're in the sixth row!'"

Tradition of Canton homecoming shows

The O'Jays have performed in Canton since the peak of their fame in the '70s.

In 2005, the vocal group returned to Canton for the first of several O'Jays Celebration Weekend events that would continue until last decade. A street in northeast Canton also was renamed in their honor.

Organizers included Perry, former Canton Councilman Thomas West, now a state representative from Canton, and Curtis "Cap" Perry III, as well as Betty Smith and others. John Stone was among those involved with a Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad train ride from Canton called "The LOVE Train."

More:O’Jays fans come for benefit concert, discover Canton as a bonus

Events included a golf tournament, community picnic on the city's northeast side, a concert and fireworks. Over the course of the O'Jays celebrations, concerts were at Nimisilla Park, downtown Canton and Fawcett Stadium, the predecessor of Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.

Stephen Perry said it was also important for The O'Jays to give back with a scholarship fund through the Stark Community Foundation, which continues presently.

Stephanie Rushin Patrick and Stanley Williams oversaw the scholarship program.

"I think the scholarship to Eddie and Walt is just as important as the concert," Perry said.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame and Hall of Fame Village together will donate $5 from the sale of each ticket for Saturday's concert to the O’Jay’s Scholarship Fund, which supports college-bound Ohio students.

'Oh, my goodness, it's going to be great.'

Another O'Jays fan, Brenda Roach, 65, grew up in the Uhrichsville area listening to the group's music.

"Through my friends I had, I would say more African American friends than white friends, I was always hanging out with them, so I'm very well aware of The O'Jays, The Isley Brothers and Earth, Wind & Fire.

"The O'Jays, and just their voices, they're just something really amazing," Roach said. "I never came to Canton until I was 16 and I had my driver's license; it was like another state − it was so big, and I came to Belden Village Mall, me and my girlfriend.

"Knowing (The O'Jays) were from Canton, that was hard to wrap my head around in my small hometown," said Roach, who would later become good friends with a brother of an O'Jays member.

After watching The O'Jays perform at past homecoming shows, Roach can't wait for Saturday's concert.

"I think it's going to be an amazing show, and you kind of get sentimental in a way because music is so much a part of my life, especially Black music from the '70s," she said.

"It's going to be a great night, and it's going to be a sad night," Roach said. "I think it's going to be one heck of a concert. I'm just so besides myself that I'm going to be able to be there."

A friend, Lisa Vergis, purchased a ticket for Roach as a birthday gift.

"I was like, 'Oh, my gosh,'" she said. "I'm just excited. I just had tears in my eyes. I'm like, 'Oh, my goodness, it's going to be great. It's going to be amazing.'"

Reach Ed at 330-580-8315 and ebalint@gannett.com. On Twitter @ebalintREP.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: O'Jays come full circle with Canton homecoming show on farewell tour