The Diamond Project<\/a>, a 10-piece band that has been keeping the music of Neil Diamond alive in venues around Northeast Ohio for 15 years, ably assisted by Cheryl, the band\u2019s manager and the singer\u2019s wife. <\/p>\nThe couple watched the original documentary about The Sardinas shortly after its release in 2008 and were affected by the couple\u2019s dedication and story seeing a few parallels in their own story.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was one of those you\u2019ll laugh, you\u2019ll cry kind of things,\u201d Gary said of the documentary. <\/p>\n
\u201cYes, we laughed and cried. Absolutely,\u201d Cheryl said, recalling the trials and tribulations the Sardinas experienced in the film.<\/p>\n
\u201cReally interesting and how dedicated this guy was and just the whole love affair and how they met and the tragedies and how they overcame the tragedies, it was very interesting and very emotional,\u201d Gary said.<\/p>\n
Gomez\u2019s journey to The Diamond Project began in earnest when after a lifetime of being a \u201cshower singer\u201d and someone who sang in the car but, \u201cnever in front of anybody, I would have never thought to do that,\u201d because he was too shy to live his \u201crock and roll dream.\u201d <\/p>\n
But the few folks who did hear him sing, including Cheryl, would tell him he sounded just like Diamond. <\/p>\n
Then one day, \u201cI was tooling around in an office 18 years ago, and I saw an ad for a Neil Diamond tribute singer. And I don\u2019t know what got into me, but I said, \u2018Hey, if you\u2019re gonna do it, now\u2019s the time,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
After realizing he knew many Diamond songs, but \u201chad no clue what the lyrics were,\u201d Gomez honed in and practiced \u201cSweet Caroline\u201d ad nauseam, repeatedly asking his wife \u201c100 times over, does this sound OK?\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Neil](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/6T65WKW3OFAOLJWDM4GKAYAEJ4.jpg\")
Neil Diamond performs at the Clive Davis and The Recording Academy Pre-Grammy Gala at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Saturday, Feb. 11, 2017, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Chris Pizzello\/Invision\/AP)Chris Pizzello\/Invision\/AP<\/p>\n
Finally, Gomez auditioned for the quintet, dubbed Diamond Mine, and he got the gig. Gomez fronted that band for three years, but when it fell apart due to the usual responsibilities of life, he decided to go bigger. <\/p>\n
He put together The Diamond Project from a pool of musicians he\u2019d met over the years, and he knew he wanted his project to go big and have \u201cmore of a Neil Diamond concert feel.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you see Neil in concert, it\u2019s like he\u2019s got 100 people on stage, several percussionists, tons of singers, a big horn section,\u201d Gomez said. \u201cSo, I wanted to at least get the horn section in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The band now includes five members with music degrees, along with a VP of marketing and media, an attorney, and a retired CEO. <\/p>\n
The professional backgrounds and regular \u201cadult world\u201d responsibilities of the band members necessitate a limit on performances: 20-25 shows per year, to accommodate work schedules and family commitments.<\/p>\n
Across the band\u2019s history, Gomez has earned recognition as best male vocalist at the Cleveland Music Awards in 2022 and has been nominated every year since. The band has also received awards, including Best of Cleveland entertainment and was named the Music Box Supper Club\u2019s number one brunch show.<\/p>\n
Cheryl admitted to previously being familiar only with Diamond\u2019s biggest hits, has since become a huge fan like her husband and now she knows every song, lyric and stage move. But her awareness has grown like Diamond\u2019s legend status. <\/p>\n
Cheryl, who works in sales, also stepped in as the band\u2019s manager, marketer, booking agent, and biggest cheerleader. She said her husband\u2019s idea to expand the size of the band quickly expanded their popularity. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt became like a Vegas-style show band, which a lot of our venues literally tell their audience, then we exploded in popularity within like two or three years,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t even know what hit us,\u201d she said, drawing one of the parallels between The Gomez\u2019s dream and the Sardinas.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo when you watch the Sardinas, the same thing happened to them. They\u2019re just tooling around little bars and then they got the big state fair and they exploded. So that actually happened to us, which was crazy. We did not expect that.\u201d Cheryl said.<\/p>\n
Gary said it\u2019s been wonderful to watch how \u201cingrained (Diamond) is in American music lore\u201d and how his songs affect people.<\/p>\n
\u201cEspecially after shows. `Oh, my God, I can\u2019t believe you pulled that song out. That was my wedding song, thank you so much!\u2019 You definitely see either excitement or tears, hopefully tears of joy. You hit certain points in people\u2019s lives and they bring back certain memories. [The] music just affects people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
During the shows, the band takes a moment to shout out any veterans in the audience which Cheryl said becomes an emotional moment at every show.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe clap them out, applaud them, we go over all the branches, and then we ask all the people in the audience to stand and sing with us the national anthem as an audience. And then he goes into \u2018America.\u2019 Talk about crying and emotion. It\u2019s a big deal,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Cheryl noted that at one show they had no less than five World War II veterans, all of whom were brought to the show by other veterans.<\/p>\n
The Gomez\u2019s are very excited to see \u201cSong Sung Blue.\u201d But they will have to wait one full day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to go Christmas Day when it opens, but we host our family, so Gary won\u2019t let us go,\u201d Cheryl said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to go the next day. I told him we\u2019re going the 26th. I want them all to leave so we can run go see the movie,\u201d she added, she and her husband laughing.<\/p>\n
Fans can next catch The Diamond Project at the Celestia Theater in Wadsworth on Saturday, Jan. 24, celebrating Diamond\u2019s 85 birthday. Tickets are available now at wadsworthsquare.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND, Ohio – On Christmas day, Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson will splash across America\u2019s movie screens with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216],"class_list":{"0":"post-365620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}