Feeling like you’re still able to perform-certainly live, but also on record-you just want to compete with the new artists that are out there. “We wanted attention from the world and the music industry. “We wanted another hit record,” he muses.

Walter takes an even more irreverent view on The O’Jays’ defiant, and celebratory musical statement. “We wanted to do an O’Jays album that’s fantastic from beginning to end. “It’s almost like having a bucket list,” Eddie explains, when asked why the group decided to return to the studio one final time to create some magic. The Last Word was produced by the Grammy nominated producers Steve Greenberg, Mike Mangini and R&B legend Betty Wright (the trio behind Joss Stone’s “Soul Sessions”), along with the songwriter and rock/pop mastermind Sam Hollander (Panic! at the Disco, Weezer, Neon Trees). The 9-track S-Curve/BMG release, due out April 19, finds the Grammy-nominated act in fine form. So it’s no surprise that on The Last Word, The O’Jays’ first studio album in 15 years and what the band has announced will be their FINAL album, emotes the same hunger and vocal craftsmanship as the 2005 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee’s greatest ‘70s and ‘80s works. But Eddie and Walter, along with group member Eric Nolan Grant, are different kinds of cats.

With 10 gold and 9 platinum albums, omnipresent singles, and a string of sold-out tours, no one would blame The O’Jays for sitting back and enjoying the fruits of their remarkable 60-year career. The hits are endless The O’Jays’ legacy, as documented by their profound influence on hip-hop (EPMD’s “Give The People,” Heavy D & The Boyz’ “Now That We Found Love,” Big Pun’s “I’m Not A Player,” Drake’s “Fake Love”) to soul (Erykah Badu’s “Otherside of the Game,” Total’s “Tell Me,” Angie Stone’s “Wish I Didn’t Miss You”) is undeniable. We all know the anthems that for more than four decades have moved seamlessly from soul and pop to funk and disco: “Love Train,” “For The Love of Money,” “Livin’ for the Weekend,” “Family Reunion,” “Stairway to Heaven,” “I Love Music,” “Cry Together…” Indeed, the gruff, powerful Eddie Levert and the proverbial silky smooth Walter Williams, Sr., both founding members of the celebrated R&B group The O’Jays, are so ingrained in the great American songbook that their body of work has become an indelible landmark in the pop culture consciousness. It starts with two iconic voices that are as unmistakable as they are soaring polar opposites.

Eddie levert o jays