There’s a soul
consistency to John Legend’s musical brew, but his lyrics run from family man
to pimp, from doomed to saved.
“I’m
certain there’s someone who doesn’t approve
of what I’m doing at my church,” he says. “Some want you to go one way or the
other, all the way gospel or all the way secular and think you can’t do both. I
just love music. I just write things I can relate to, my friends can relate to,
and things I would want to listen to.”
The
nouveau-classic soulster keeps glancing in the rearview, his eye on the
first-generation soul and r&b that most of his contemporaries have passed
and forgotten. You know the stuff: Smokey, Marvin, Curtis — legends.
It’s
hard to imagine a 26-year-old legend, but friends pegged John Stephens with
that name because they thought it fit.
“I thought it was
funny at the time and didn’t think it would go anywhere,” he says. “But before
I knew it, it kind of stuck.”
By the time folks
recently started to take notice, Legend was already soul-deep in studio work.
And not just the daily grind of session work — hacking away with hopefuls and
wanna-be starlets — but collaborations with bona fide, established talent.
His major label debut
was as pianist on Lauryn Hill’s “Everything Is Everything.” He was vocalist and
pianist on Alicia Keys’s “If I Ain’t Got You”; he co-wrote and played piano on
Janet Jackson’s “I Want You”; he sang lead on The Black Eyed Peas’ “The Boogie
That B”; and he contributed piano and vocals to Jay-Z’s “Encore” and “Lucifer.”
He appeared on several tracks on Kanye West’s The College Dropout, and will show up on upcoming releases by
Britney Spears, Eve, and Common.
“I always wanted to
be a musician,” he says. “When I was four years old I was playing piano, and
when I was six I was singing in the church choir.” Legend directed the choir at
the Pentecostal church in his hometown of Springfield, Ohio, and directed
another in Scranton, Pennsylvania, while attending the University of
Pennsylvania. Even after he graduated, he still went back to Scranton once a
month to direct the choir. Hence the gospel swell and soul that rises up from
the man’s music.
“I think it’s a blend
of classic soul and more contemporary hip-hop influences,” Legend says. “And I
think a little reggae flavor and a little bit of Latin flavor. And when I say
classic soul, I include gospel as part of that.”
“I love gospel
music,” he says. “I love the energy, the spirit of it, the passion of it, the
spontaneity. The spirit of that is in what I do now. Musically you can see a
lot of the influence in gospel even though lyrically, it’s really not.”
Legend’s songs tell
stories of love, hope, and even scoundrel-redemption.
“I create a character
for each song,” he says. “When I come up with a concept for a song, I try to
dramatize with the story I can tell. Sometimes the story’s autobiographical,
sometimes it’s not.”
Which
raises the question: Which characters on his new LP, Get Lifted, are actually Legend?
“That’s up to you,
man,” he says. “I’m not gonna give away a play by play of my life.”
Get Lifted is
full of real-life characters as well: Snoop Dogg, Miri Ben-Ari, and the album’s
producer, Kanye West, all appear. And in a nod to his roots, Legend’s family sings
on the song “I Don’t Have To Change.”
“We sing wonderful
together,” he says. “We’ve always done it. I can remember getting together at
Granny’s house for Christmas. I remember how we’d gather around and sing all
day. It’s a lifestyle for us, it’s part of what we do.”
He may just be living
up to the legend.
“I’m trying to,” he
says, “everyday.”
John Legend | Saturday, July 16 | 6 p.m.
This article appears in Jul 13-19, 2005.
