Remember Eddie Levert? His grown up sons passed away just 16 months apart from the same cause

R&B singer and songwriter Eddie Levert, best known as the lead vocalist of The O’Jays, has endured every parent’s worst nightmare: burying their child.

To make things worse for Eddie, he has done it twice. According to Cleveland.com, his two late sons, Gerald and Sean, were successful musicians who teamed up with friend Marc Gordon and started the trio LeVert.

After reaching a Top 5 hit with Casanova in 1987, Gerald decided to start a solo career. He was so talented that most of his songs got high positions on important charts, making him earn a lot of money.

One of the best things Gerald did regarding his music career was singing next to Keith Sweat and Johnny Gill in the R&B ‘supergroup’ LSG.

Unfortunately, in November 2006 – when he was only 40 years old – he passed away at his home in Newbury Township. After an intense investigation, it was revealed that he took an accidental overdose of prescribed medicine.

Even though Gerald’s dead was tough for Eddie, he focused his time on performing with The O’Jays and releasing a few posthumous projects of his son. That was his way to avoid dwelling on the loss.

One of the posthumous projects that Eddie put out was the Grammy Award-winning album In My Songs. He also released Something to Talk About, which was a collection of duets sang between Eddie and Gerald.

16 months later, when Eddie had just started moving on with his life, his second son, Sean died, as well. It happened in March 2008 at the Cuyahoga County Jail, when Sean was 39 years old.

Ironically, he died because he was denied his prescribed anti-anxiety medicine while in jail for failure to pay child support. The county coroner revealed that Xanax withdrawal contributed to Sean’s passing.

At the moment, Eddie is 75 years old and he lives in Las Vegas with his wife, Raquel, and his daughter, Rylan. He is actively performing with The O’Jays doing a couple of tours every now and then.