The city of Canton was buzzing Saturday night when two of R & B’s biggest legends rolled into town.
Fans old and young, some as young as two years old, filled the Tom Benson Stadium to see the two Hall of Fame inductees perform. The Ojay’s, along with Gladys Knight, was in town performing together on the O’Jays Love Train tour, also known as the Farewell tour
As Ms. Knight is known to her millions of fans, the Empress of Soul started the evening off looking so elegant and classy. She sang the classic that made her famous and a 7-time Grammy winner, including “Heard it through the grapevine”, “Love overboard”, and a cover of the late Luther Vandross’s “Never too much.”
She paused briefly to interact with fans and remind them to appreciate simple things of life and cherish their blessings before closing her set with her 1973 mega-hit with the Pips Midnight Train To Georgia.
The O’Jay’s are up next, and many fellow cantonians were excited to see the guys perform their Last Stop On The train for their home town many in the audience consisted of close family and friends alike. They had packed the stadium to see the band That used to call Canton home to perform their hits possibly one last time.
The Grammy-nominated band had fans up and dancing in the Ailes as they rolled through their catalog of hits their fans have come accustomed to seeing them performing throughout their 60-plus years together, but sadly, there was one familiar face that was noticeably missing on Saturday, and that was band original Eddie Levert Sr.
The singer was out due to contracting Covid this past summer. There was an audible groan when Walter Williams Sr, who is another founding member, informed the crowd of Eddie’s absence and commented on his battle with Covid himself in the past, and wished Eddie Sr a speedy recovery.
The hits were able to commence, and the crowd was back on their feet most of the night as he, Eric Grant, and Nick Davis, who is filling in for Eddie, continued with the show and sang their most popular soulful songs in a medley of hits that included “Brandy”, “Sunshine”, “Forever mine”, and “Used to Be My Girl”
It’s not often that Canton is treated to this magnitude of talent in one evening it was truly something special this town won’t soon forget
