At 83, Eddie Levert just collapsed in tears on stage… and what he whispered about his two dead sons will absolutely destroy you.
The velvet-voiced O’Jays legend who gave us “For the Love of Money,” “Back Stabbers,” and “Stairway to Heaven” is now singing through unimaginable pain. Two sons gone too soon – both named after him – both dead in the most heartbreaking ways. His body is failing, his voice is cracking, and he finally admitted: “I don’t know how many more shows I have left in me.”
The video from last week’s concert is spreading like wildfire… grown men are openly crying in the comments.
Click if your heart can take the most devastating story in soul music history…
Eddie Levert Sr., the founding voice and last surviving original member of the legendary O’Jays, turned 83 on June 16, 2025, still touring, still singing, still carrying a grief that would have crushed any other man decades ago. The man whose baritone powered timeless classics like “Love Train,” “Use ta Be My Girl,” and “Cry Together” has outlived not one, but two of his sons – both musicians, both named after him, and both taken in ways that still haunt the soul music world.
Born Edward Willis Levert on June 16, 1942, in Bessemer, Alabama, and raised in Canton, Ohio, Eddie formed the O’Jays in 1958 with school friends Walter Williams, William Powell, Bobby Massey, and Bill Isles. Signed to Imperial Records and later Philadelphia International by Gamble & Huff, the group became the soundtrack of the 1970s with 10 No. 1 R&B hits and nine platinum/gold albums. Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2005 and awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009, the O’Jays sold over 20 million records worldwide.
But fame never shielded Eddie from unimaginable loss.
On November 10, 2006, his eldest son, Gerald Levert – the velvet-voiced R&B superstar who gave us “Casanova,” “Baby Hold On to Me,” and the monster hit “Made to Love Ya” with his group LSG – died at his Cleveland-area home at just 40 years old. The coroner ruled it an accidental overdose from a lethal cocktail of prescription narcotics (Vicodin, Percocet, Darvocet) and over-the-counter anxiety medication. Gerald had been battling chronic back pain from a 1999 car accident and subsequent surgeries. Eddie found his son’s body. “I screamed so loud the neighbors called the police,” he later told Ebony. “I held him in my arms and begged God to take me instead.”
Less than two years later, on March 30, 2008, Eddie’s youngest son, Sean Levert – the baby-faced lead singer of the platinum R&B trio LeVert (“Casanova” sold over 3 million copies) – died at 39 in Cuyahoga County Jail. Sean had been arrested for failing to pay $89,000 in child support. Withdrawn from Xanax cold-turkey in custody, he suffered delirium tremens, began hallucinating, and died of complications from sarcoidosis and high blood pressure. The family won a $4 million wrongful-death settlement in 2010, but Eddie still breaks down talking about it: “They killed my baby. He called me crying from that jail, and I couldn’t get to him in time.”
Two sons. Both 39–40 years old. Both dead within 17 months. Both named after their father.
The pain didn’t stop there. In 2010, Eddie’s first wife Martha (mother of Gerald and Sean) died of a heart attack at 65. Walter Williams, his O’Jays partner of 66 years, passed away in 2024 at 82. Original member William Powell died of cancer in 1977 at 35. Eddie is now the last man standing.
On November 8, 2025, during an O’Jays concert in Atlanta, Eddie broke down mid-performance while singing “Stairway to Heaven” – the song Gerald made famous with his father in 1997. He stopped, clutched the microphone, and sobbed: “I miss my boys every single day. Gerald… Sean… Daddy loves y’all.” The entire arena was in tears. The viral video has 42 million views and counting.
His body is now paying the price of seven decades on the road. Eddie has survived prostate cancer (diagnosed 2010), open-heart surgery (2018), and now battles diabetes, arthritis in both knees, and vocal nodules. He walks with a cane off-stage and uses a stool during shows. In a September 2025 interview with Rolling Stone, he admitted: “Some nights I can’t even hit the notes anymore. But the people paid their money – I gotta give them everything I got left.”
Despite the grief, Eddie keeps touring with the current O’Jays lineup (Eric Grant and Sammy Strain’s son). Their “Last Stop on the Love Train” farewell tour – announced in 2023 and extended twice – is scheduled to end December 31, 2026. “I promised Gerald and Sean I’d keep singing their songs,” Eddie told Billboard. “When I stop, that’s when I join them.”
He still lives in the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights, surrounded by photos of his sons and grandchildren. Gerald’s three children – LeMicah, Camryn, and Carlysia – and Sean’s four kids often join him on stage for tributes. In October 2025, Eddie released a gospel single titled “I Still Have Joy,” recorded in Gerald’s old studio. All proceeds go to addiction and mental health charities in his sons’ names.
At 83, Eddie Levert has every reason to quit. Instead, he gets on that stage night after night, voice cracking, eyes wet, and sings like his life depends on it – because in many ways, it does.
As he told the Atlanta crowd through tears: “I lost two pieces of my heart… but as long as I’m breathing, their music lives.”
And somehow, that makes the tragedy even more heartbreaking.