Hailing from Ohio, the legendary O’Jays are influential across the board in music. It’s amazing to think how many people nowadays are unfamiliar with their music and samples being put forth of their classic material. With a career spanning over forty-four years and a slew of hits from “Darlin’ Darlin’ Baby,” “Backstabbers,” “Love Train” to “For The Love Of Money” and “Lets Ride,” these guys are legends.
Through Sanctuary Urban Records, on September 28th, 2004 The O’Jays released their latest venture “Imagination.”
MVRemix: A lot of people nowadays and throughout your career have looked up to you as an influence and inspiration. Who did you look up to when you were starting off?
Walter Williams: When I was starting off I looked up to James Brown, Otis Redding, Jackie Wilson, The Drifters… I think what really got me going was Frankie Lymon & The Teenagers came to town at the Canton Memorial Auditorium. I think after he came and performed, it seemed like twenty-five or thirty groups sprang up all around that area. Canton, Massland, Alliance, Ohio, Warren, Ohio, Akran, Ohio, the groups just started coming from everywhere singing at the YMCA, at the Urban league. It stayed with us. One of those groups was Rudy and The Romantics. That’s what inspired me.
MVRemix: Which of your counterparts inspired your work ethic to be what it became?
Walter Williams: I really liked the group, The Drifters. They had several different lead singers and of course they had a lot of hits during those days. I like Jackie
Wilson… and James Brown. I thought he (Jackie Wilson) was a phenomenal performer of
excellence. James Brown was the opposite, he was a hard worker but with excellence as
well. I thought I got a chance to see two sides of the coin watching both of them and
actually getting an opportunity to do shows with the both of them.
MVRemix: How do you keep your content diverse while remaining on the subject of love and romance?
Walter Williams: I just think if you get a great response from the audience, and we usually do when we’re up to par, and we try to stay up to par. I just think the love that
they give. You have to give it back. Does that answer your question?
Eric Grant: And also, you have to, when you learn this craft – you have to go out there and project. You have to go out there and get it across to the people. That’s
not always easy. Because, I learned from Eddie and Walter that you have to feel people.
You can’t just go out there and think everything’s gonna go as planned or as you rehearsed it at your rehearsal studio. Sometimes you go out there and something might not work that worked in DC, it just won’t work in LA. You have to be quick enough and have a love for those people and feel those people to say “That’s not gonna work. I need to go over “here” and try this,” because I know this is what they like. Everyone can’t do that. You gotta have a plan, you’ve got to have a game plan. But sometimes you can’t run that running back up the middle. So he might have to flank out to the right, and we may have to improvise.
MVRemix: Is there anything about the industry now that you would have liked more of in your earlier years?
Walter Williams: The industry has changed quite a bit. I think the big plus of the changing industry is the technology. The way we record today isn’t as taxing as it was
fifteen or twenty years ago. You can sing one hook and get it perfect, or as close to
perfect as you can and then you can vie it in [chuckles] for the rest of the song. That’s
a plus. Of course we’re making more money today and necessarily so because things are so inflated and out of proportion that you’ve gotta make more money today. We’re experiencing larger crowds today because the venues are much larger and nicer. You might be too young to remember the “Chitlin circuit” – small clubs throughout the South and part of the North. If in fact they [still] exist, they’re not being worked as much as they were twenty years ago. Maybe someone should do that again because those are grass roots people and it’s a more interesting setting, in my opinion.
MVRemix: Tell me about “Imagination.”
Walter Williams: “Imagination” is just what the title says. Eddie explained it really good earlier today. If you wanna sit and you’ve got a problem and you want to talk it out with your woman, that song is on there for you. If you want to get up and dance with her or anyone else, that song is on there for you. Or if you’re just in a great happy mood and wanna kick it, that song is on there for you too. So use your “Imagination.”
MVRemix: To the generations that have hopped on the soul or R&B bandwagon but know nothing about The O’Jays, how would you school them on The O’Jays music?
Eric Grant: Here’s what I would do – first of all I’d have a big meeting up there in New York and invite all those groups and I would tell them, man, “If you’re gonna be in this business, you have to know this business. That means you have to go back and try to chorale those groups and those singers, the ones who have the talent and dug deep in their soul where they lived. That’s the one thing that I try to tell young people today; if you haven’t lived it. It’s really kind of hard to sing about it. Because you don’t really know what that pain is. When I watch Walter and Eddie sing in the studio. I wonder how they get that soul that they portray on record and it’s because they lived it. And I would have them to actually take out time and chorale your talent and know what your strengths are and what you’re weaknesses are. Whatever your weaknesses are, you need to strengthen that. Do whatever you’ve got to do.
I remember having a group on tour with us one time. There was three guys and The O’Jays are three guys and those guys never ever came to see The O’Jays sing. They were on a show with us but they never came to see us perform. I never understood that. I never understood how you could have three guys and you don’t watch the masters of this, do that. When I was coming up I watched up The O’Jays, I watched The Temps, I watched Smokey Robinson, The Dramatics… it didn’t matter. I learned something from every one. So I would tell those young groups today “Learn this! Whatever you’re trying to do, learn it!” I mean, if you Usher, you should be watching James Brown and Michael Jackson and Jackie Wilson and Joe Tecks. You should know the history of this business. Not just ’cause you get a hit record. A hit record don’t make you have longevity. The O’Jays, The Temptations, The Four Tops and The Whispers, that’s longevity. Patti Labelle, that’s longevity.
Walter Williams: And that’s because you put time in and you worked on having a hit act. You sustained yourself for much longer with a hit act than you do with a hit record. You need ‘em both, but you really need a hit act.
MVRemix: Now, you’ve been sampled a lot in Hip Hop. How do you feel about having your music sampled?
Walter Williams: I think it gives you staying power because again, you’re being put out there with other artists, other acts, and especially if they’re younger then younger people are listening to what you’ve done. If they accept it and they like it then they gravitate to you as well. So I think it’s a plus. Although, I think sampling diminishes your skills to come up with new licks and new ideas. So, there’s got to be a happy medium there somewhere.
MVRemix: What do you think about the fundamental differences between our R&B and your classic material? What do you think contributes to lack of romanticism nowadays?
Walter Williams: Now’s R&B compared to our older material…
Yeah, what I mean is R&B today is more sexual. Whereas your R&B tended to be more loving – there was more depth to it…
Eric Grant: Once again, and I said this earlier. You can’t sing about what you don’t know about. If all you doin’ is hittin’ the skins and runnin’, that’s all you know. If you haven’t been in love, if you haven’t been hurt – you can’t sing about joy and pain. You can’t sing.
Walter Williams: And I think skillfully, and very understandably, you have to convey it simply in a song where people can understand it in good lyrics. That it’s not complicated and make it plain and clear. We talk about men/women relationships a lot. We explain it, just how it happens, how it goes down, so it isn’t complicated. I think that’s the difference; the tenderness, the lovingness, the way it’s explained. Sometimes it’s sexual or with sexual overtones. That’s involved in a relationship and especially a good relationship.
Eric Grant: But it’s not blatant.
Walter Williams: No. And distasteful.
Eric Grant: You have to have some type of reservation for other people’s listening ears. Some of these artists don’t care about how a person receives it as long as they’re receiving it.
Walter Williams: There’s a thousand ways to say “I wanna lick you up and down.” There’s a better way to say it than that. There’s a much more tender and loving way to say it and a way it’ll be received and digested in a good manner. Instead of saying “That’s distasteful, I don’t want my child to hear that.”
MVRemix: Is there anything out there right now that you can see standing the test of time?
Eric Grant: As far as music?
Walter Williams: I like what Beyonce’s doing.
Eric Grant: Love what she’s doing! I put Beyonce.
Walter Williams: Hmmmm. [chuckles]
Eric Grant: It gets rough after that. It gets rough after that because when you look at the substance and you look at… Maybe Alicia Keys.
Walter Williams: Yeah, Alicia’s talented. Her stories are tasteful and you can digest them without any negative reaction. But the field gets very small after that.
MVRemix: Do you have any last words to your fans that are going to be reading this?
Walter Williams: Yeah, thank you! Yeah, thank you for being with us all this time. Its been forty-four years and that’s a long time to be with anyone. Thank you, we love you and we appreciate the love that you’ve shown us over the years.
