FAMILY TIES
Pickerington’s Levert making cousin Eddie of The O’jays proud
While chasing a championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Pickerington Central High graduate Caris Levert has another, more personal pursuit.
He’s determined to see his cousin, Eddie Levert, the 81-year-old lead singer of The O’jays, in the stands this season.
A road game in Philadelphia in November fell through due to the demands of the group’s “Last Stop On The Love Train” tour, scheduled to conclude in 2024.
But Levert, whose late grandfather Caris was Eddie’s first cousin, remains undeterred.
“That’s definitely a goal,” Levert said. Levert said the R&B icon has been following his basketball career since his days at the University of Michigan. But they didn’t meet until three summers ago during the NBA’S Summer League in Las Vegas, where Canton native Eddie now lives.
That occasion was set up by Levert’s aunt, Karen Levert. Caris Levert said Eddie was “super excited” to meet him and his younger brother, Darryl, who has lived with Caris during his professional career.
“He actually watches every game,’” Levert said of Eddie. “He’ll text me now after games, funny stuff like, ‘You’re making us famous out here.’ It’s super cool to have him supporting me.”
Levert said he hears from Eddie after big games, but there are no critiques involved.
“Not really,” he said. “It’s more so from a fan perspective. He’s super proud.”
One of the final stops of the “Love Train” went to MGM Northfield Park on Nov. 18, an off day for the Cavs. Levert said he was too tired to go, but his mother, in town for a visit from the Washington, D.C., area, brother and aunt Cynthia Williams attended.
“(We) got a chance to hang out with (Eddie) after that,” said Williams, director of communications for Kent State University Libraries. “We spent some time in his trailer after the event. Of course, it was late, so we wanted to let him get some rest. We had a nice time talking to his wife and his grandson and his daughter.”
Eddie’s late sons, Gerald and Sean, were also performers with musical talents Levert did not inherit. But growing up in Pickerington, Levert’s parents, Kim and Darryl, played The O’jays’ music all the time. He can still hear his mom or late father saying, “‘You know these are your cousins right here.’ ”
More of a hip-hop and modern R&B fan, Levert doesn’t have The O’jays on his playlist. But every time he hears “Back Stabbers” or “Casanova,” a 1987 single by the Leverts, led by Gerald and a tune that features Eddie, he gets nostalgic.
Levert could have felt that way during Super Bowl 58, when “The Return of the Coors Light Chill Train” commercial aired. At the end, when the locomotive crashes into a living room of fans, conductor LL Cool J says, “Oh, shoot, I forgot to play the song,” and flips the switch on “Love Train,” the theme of the original spot in 2005.
“I grew up with that song,” LL Cool J said, per variety.com. “I used to watch my mother vacuum the house to that song. It’s a really important song to me.”
Levert was aware of the Super Bowl commercial, calling it “crazy.”
“They’re a big deal for sure,” he said of The O’jays, founded in 1958.
Original members Eddie Levert and Walter Williams,
80, have been singing together since they were kids in Canton; Eric Grant joined the group in 1995. With 10 No. 1 hits, 10 gold albums, and nine platinum albums, The O’jays leaped to the forefront of the Philadelphia soul sound in 1972 with “Back Stabbers” and followed that with “Love Train.” They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.
As a kid, Levert said the impact of his connection to
The O’jays didn’t “really register.” That’s changed now.
“As I got older and people started seeing my last name and people started asking, ‘Is that your cousin?’ that’s how I figured out how famous they were,” he said. “It will be random. I’ll be at the airport and people won’t even know who I am, they’ll be like, ‘Levert, are you related to …?’ I hear it so much now.”
He’s also come to realize he’s representing a large family.
“Every now and then I’ll get random DMS on Instagram like, ‘Hey, cousin, you’re doing your thing. Keep going!’ ” he said. “That’s super cool. I always try to keep that in mind.”
Williams, who is Levert’s dad’s sister, said very few family members remain in Canton. Most live in Cleveland or Alabama, primarily Birmingham. Levert’s grandmother moved south to Fayetteville, North Carolina, the site of one of the tour’s final stops on March 30. An Aug. 31 date in Los Angeles for the inaugural Fool in Love Festival was recently added, prompting Williams to contact the California cousins.
Before the pandemic, Levert family reunions would draw between 100 and 150 people, Williams said. She explained that some opt to capitalize the “V,” especially the younger generations.
“We had one every other year without fail,” she said of the gatherings. “They would be all over the country because there’s Leverts everywhere. We’re just back getting into having them. There was one in my lifetime that Eddie hosted at his house in Shaker Heights. That was years ago. He has a couple sons and a daughter. Their family, especially Eddie Jr., has been to the last couple reunions.”
Williams was ecstatic over the February 2022 trade with the Indiana Pacers that sent Levert to the Cavs and the two-year, $32 million contract Levert signed with Cleveland in July. Levert started his career with the Brooklyn Nets in 2016.
“You have no idea,’” she said by phone. “Especially because his brother is with him wherever he is playing, so I’m like, ‘I’ve got my kids here.’ New York was an expensive place to visit. We did go see him and hung out with him when he was in Indiana, but this was beyond my wildest dreams.
“Now that he’s really meshed with all the other players and has found his place as a sixth man on the team, it’s been a wonderful environment for him. Cleveland has been so welcoming to him.”
Levert said Williams took him to his first NBA game to see the Cavs, with Williams guessing he was about 16.
“On his opening night at Cleveland this season I sent him a text and told him, ‘Years ago and you were in the stands at the Cleveland Cavaliers game, what would that kid’s dream job have been if he was asked at that moment?’ ” she said. “I said, ‘It’s a little inspiration for you.’”
His dream realized, Levert now represents Eddie and his family on the court each night. He knows his legendary cousin is likely watching. He’s gaining an appreciation for what The O’jays have given the world, that they’re part of the soundtrack of fans’ lives.
“It truly is and has been embedded in so many generations,” Williams said. “I think it’s still relevant and will remain that way.
“They’re genuinely wonderful personalities. These men are not egotistical. They’re down to earth. They just enjoy performing. They’re sad it’s coming to an end, but we have to understand we’re all human and they deserve to rest.”