O’Jay Founder Embraces Generation Gap : Music: Eddie Levert does not understand the appeal of everything he hears his sons’ band perform on their joint tour, which includes Anaheim stops, but he knows success when he hears it.

One of the most potent songs on the current hit O’Jays album, “Serious,” is “Pot Can’t Call the Kettle Black,” in which the veteran R&B; trio addresses parents who criticize their children’s music and ways, taking them to task with the same vocal vigor they used to apply to back-stabbers and money-lovers.

Founding O’Jay Eddie Levert said the song’s message is one the band has taken to heart, and it’s a good thing too: The group has been spending the better part of this year touring with LeVert, the young multiplatinum-selling group that includes two of Levert’s sons, Gerald, 23, and Sean, 24. The two groups appear at Anaheim’s Celebrity Theatre tonight and Friday.

Reached on tour Sunday in Winston-Salem, N.C., the 47-year-old singer acknowledged that he finds some of the music favored by younger radio programmers to be “ludicrous” and that his sons say there are qualities to some current music that he just cannot hear.

“I’m just calling it as I see it, no more than that, and who am I to judge?” Levert said with a laugh. “We have to take ‘Pot Can’t Call the Kettle Black’ to heart. You have to accept the things you can’t change, and I continually hear these things on the radio, and people keep going to the store to buy them, so I can’t fret about it just because I didn’t hear it. Who knows everything?”

For the “Serious” album, Levert and fellow O’Jays Walter Williams and Sammy Strain brought in the “fresh, funky attitude” of Gerald and third LeVert member Marc Gordon to produce four tracks. Among those are the rap-inclusive hit, “Have You Had Your Love Today?” which put the O’Jays solidly back on the charts after a long fallow period broken only by “Lovin’ You” in 1987.

Since the group LeVert debuted with “Bloodline” in 1986, it has racked up nine Top 10 R&B; hits, five of which have gone to No. 1. That success has somewhat assuaged the elder Levert’s reservations about his sons entering show biz (his other son, Ed Jr., is a tour manager for LeVert).

“I didn’t discourage them, but I really wanted them to go to college, learn a craft, and then, if they wanted to do music and it happened for them, great, but they would already have a craft that would generate a living. But they didn’t want to hear that; they wanted to be in show business.”

Having seen firsthand the ups, downs and pitfalls of the musician’s life since he embarked on it in 1958, Levert worried about his children following in his footsteps.

“I still worry, even now,” he said, “But all you can do is basically give them the right principles and morals, and then the rest is on them.”

His advice? “Never be a follower. Never let other people lead you. Try to be a good judge of other people, and try to judge people how you would want people to look at you. And to remember that it’s not all just about you: It’s about your mom, your dad, sister, brother, cousin and everybody that knows you and cares for you. What happens to you affects them too.

“I think when you go out with that kind of consciousness about you, you give things a second thought before you dive into stuff. I’d have to give their mom a lot of credit for raising them right. She really was the spiritual leader of the family.”

Where many parents and offspring have seen quite enough of each other for a while by the time the kids are out of school, Levert said touring with his sons has been no problem.

“This is somewhat of a dream for us, to be performing together and to be doing well at it. We know we’re in business together, and the object is to do the show. Plus we give each other a lot of room. Like today, they’re in the same hotel, but I might not see them at all until we leave tomorrow.”

Levert enjoys his sons’ music, as well as the work of producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Bobby Brown and Michael Jackson. “But you’ve got to remember, I’m from the old school,” he added. “I’m used to seeing Otis Redding, James Brown and Jackie Wilson in their prime. I had some of my most memorable nights just watching those guys from the wings.

“That’s where I learned how to do a show, and that it comes down to you, the microphone and the spotlight. That’s when the crowd learns to appreciate you and know that you’re a legitimate talent.”

Two decades after those giants’ heyday, the O’Jays are still known to tear up a stage. Levert said the shows stay fresh for him because “I still like to compete. Above and beyond what everybody says, it still is a very competitive business. They all want to have the No. 1 record--and to have it be No. 1 the longest. They all want to be the one to stop the show. And we do too.”

Does that rivalry apply on the tour with LeVert? “Naturally. They know that we’ve got a reputation of being very energetic performers--though I don’t know how high the energy, or the kicks, are now that we’re older--but we still get it up enough to know that we have to at least finesse our way through.

“We have enough records and enough fans that it matches them pretty well. So we’re both trying out there, in a friendly way.”

The O’Jays and LeVert play tonight at 7:30 p.m. and Friday at 7:30 and 10 p.m. at the Celebrity Theatre, 201 E. Broadway, Anaheim. Tickets: $20. Friday’s shows are sold out. Information: (714) 999-9536.