Walter Williams Sr. chuckles, a deep, throaty sound as rich and smoky as a blues club in old New Orleans.
But Williams isn't Southern, and he didn't make his name as a blues artist. He grew up in Canton, Ohio, once a bustling industrial city now better known as home to the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In the 1950s and '60s, however, it was also home to Williams and Eddie Levert.
FAQ
The O’Jays
WHEN — Doors at 6 p.m., concert at 7 p.m. Saturday
WHERE — The Walmart Arkansas Music Pavilion in Rogers
COST — $5-$10 as part of the Walmart Diversity and Inclusion initiative; proceeds go to charity
INFO — 443-5600
BONUS — Also performing will be The Funk Factory.
"When we were kids, Eddie used to sing everywhere he would go," Williams remembers. "An older lady in the neighborhood told him, 'You like to sing, so the sooner the better, find out all you can find out about singing, about the business of it, pray on it, and go for it! Perhaps one day you might become a big ol' star.'"
Both men did, performing in a band they didn't know had been renamed The O'Jays. Their music has been called "Philadelphia soul," but all the teenagers of the 1970s knew was they could dance to "Back Stabbers" (1972) and "Love Train" (1973).
Williams says he and Levert -- Levert is 74, and Williams will be 73 this month -- have known each other since grade school.
"He's like family -- like a brother," Williams says of Levert. "But we never have -- and we still don't -- see eye to eye, basically about everything. We do agree we own a candy store called the O'Jays."
It was a choreographer who made the band a success, Williams says. "He gave us our whole routine, set up the lightning, did everything, basically, except sing for us. When we first got him, I didn't really like him -- but I learned to love that old man because he was a teacher. He taught me what I needed to know about what I was trying to do on stage. And he told me if I did the right things on stage, I'd be able to do it as long as I wanted to do it."
So far, that's been more than half a century, and Williams still wants to do it. He says he's on the road about six months a year, and the rest of the time he's playing golf, dividing his time between Cleveland and Las Vegas, missing winter cold and summer heat. And "work," he says, "is good."
"I'm doing more overseas -- and there's a totally different audience in Japan and England and Belgium and South Africa," he says. "The show we do looks like high energy, but I'm enjoying it. ... It's not hard work anymore. And I think it's what's keeping me alive. I'm having fun."
-- Becca Martin-Brown
NAN What's Up on 08/12/2016