John Legend On Activism, His New Album, Playing Live And Marvin Gaye

At solely 43, John Legend has achieved an unimaginable quantity already in his profession. He was the primary Black man and youngest artist ever to attain the coveted EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony).

For Legend, all of that success was so he may make a distinction on this planet. As he recalled once we spoke over Zoom final week he gained an essay contest at 15 by saying he would change into a well-known musician use that fame to make the world a greater place.

He’s serving to try this this Memorial Day Weekend when he’ll headline the Northwell Well being “Aspect By Aspect” profit present this Saturday, Might 29, at New York’s UBS Enviornment. Legend will carry out with Jason DeRulo at a gig that raises cash for healthcare companies for veterans and their households.

I spoke with Legend about why it was particularly necessary for him to help our army throughout these tough instances, his love of taking part in life, how artists like Harry Belafonte, Stevie Marvel and Marvin Gaye impressed his mixture of music and activism and his new album.

Steve Baltin: I am a giant fan, however much more than being a giant fan of the music. Are there artists which were type of the function fashions for you in the way in which they use their voice for activism?

John Legend: It is exhausting to not get discouraged as of late. However I really feel like when now we have the chance to say one thing, now we have a platform and other people listening and being attentive to what we are saying, we would as nicely use that affect for good if now we have one thing good to say. And it is fascinating you talked about Harry Belafonte, he is a kind of those that has been an affect and a pal to me and mentor to me, Stevie Marvel has been as nicely. And I take a look at a few of these artists who on the top of their success after they have been making hits and touring the world, they by no means shrank from the chance to additionally communicate out for what they consider was proper. And I consider it is a part of what we do as artists to inform the reality and replicate what is going on on on this planet. And the artists that I’ve at all times seemed as much as, have been the artist that have been prepared to try this.

Baltin: It is fascinating you say they have been mentors as nicely. Did they enable you to early on discover that voice and work out how one can use it in a means that marries music and activism?

Legend: Nicely, they’re my pals and mentors now. However I did not know then once I was arising, I simply knew their music, I knew their work, I knew what they stood for and I seemed as much as them. I seemed as much as Marvin Gaye, I seemed as much as these artists who made lovely music and have been a few of the most soulful and prolific and prodigious musicians in soul music, but in addition by no means shied away from saying one thing after they believed it was the suitable factor to say. Once I was arising within the early ’80s, Stevie Marvel was on the market advocating for Dr. King’s birthday being acknowledged as a vacation, he wrote the “Completely happy Birthday” music that everyone knows and love. He made the music that everyone loves and sings at gatherings for one another, however it was the music that was particularly focused in the direction of shifting Congress to declare Dr. King’s birthday a vacation. And Harry Belafonte not solely created artwork that was reflective of what was happening and reflective on these boundaries, however he additionally acted it out in his life. He was massively standard and spent quite a lot of his cash funding protest, funding the motion, marching with Dr. King and others. And once I checked out these artists, I knew that that is the form of artist I needed to be, whilst a child. I even responded to an essay query once I was 15 saying that I used to be gonna make Black historical past by doing precisely that, by changing into a profitable musician and utilizing that success, to attempt to attempt to struggle for justice, make our world a greater place.

Baltin: Speak concerning the present you are doing Memorial Day weekend, and the significance of having the ability to truly exit and play reveals and play for veterans and provides again.

Legend: Nicely, I believe that is particularly poignant doing this on Memorial Day weekend, celebrating our veterans. However not simply celebrating them and telling them thanks, however truly exhibiting them that we’re grateful to them for his or her service and for his or her sacrifice, by ensuring that they’ve the sources that they want. And your complete nation and possibly quite a lot of the world are coping with psychological well being disaster and public well being disaster with the pandemic and the after results of the pandemic. And we want to ensure we handle one another and present one another that we love one another by extra than simply phrases and discuss. However by truly offering sources that folks must get wholesome and keep wholesome, and that is what we’re gonna attempt to do for our veterans throughout this celebration on Memorial Day weekend.

Baltin: How a lot are you wanting ahead to taking part in with Jason and having the ability to do it in an area the place proper now individuals are nonetheless actually excited to be out and seeing music?

Legend: We have been having a lot enjoyable in Las Vegas. We have been doing the residency there, and it is simply been so enjoyable connecting with audiences who come from throughout the nation, all around the globe, to see reside music. I like taking part in reside, I like feeling the vitality of the viewers and feeling that connection. And for a couple of yr and a half through the pandemic, we weren’t capable of do any of that. We have been touring since late summer time, so we’re nonetheless not taking it without any consideration that we’re capable of get collectively and do this stuff as a result of we have felt what it was wish to not be capable of do it for some time and to overlook that connection, to overlook that vitality that you simply really feel if you’re singing to an viewers and with an viewers. And I am excited to try this again in New York, a spot the place I lived for fairly a very long time.

Baltin: Taking this into the Vegas residency and the Memorial Day present, are there songs that you’ve got actually loved taking part in once more?

Legend: Nicely, it is enjoyable doing the Vegas residency as a result of it truly is about celebrating your complete journey. So once we began dreaming up what we’d do for the residency, we began again at Ohio the place I grew up, we began within the church the place I grew up. And so we begin within the church taking part in songs that have been influenced by my grandmother and my Gospel music upbringing, we undergo my whole profession, and we play some songs that we’ve not performed in fairly some time. And it is quite a lot of enjoyable doing that, and often once I’m touring, it is often in help of a more moderen album, though we play the best hits as nicely. However the Vegas present is actually all about your complete journey, the celebration of the entire journey, however we additionally do play some new songs which might be gonna be on the subsequent album popping out perhaps this yr.

Baltin: Are you able to give us a bit preview of the brand new document and did you do quite a lot of writing throughout COVID?

Legend: I wrote a lot, I used to be prolific. We did not actually write a lot in 2020 as a result of I nonetheless had simply completed Greater Love and put it out. And we have been actually not going into studios, we weren’t working in areas with different folks. However we began to open up a bit bit extra, we began to check on a regular basis and confide in working with different folks beginning in early 2021. And final yr, on condition that we weren’t touring till late August, I had quite a lot of time to put in writing. I wrote so many songs, and the largest problem has been attempting to slim it down, however it’s been so enjoyable creating. It has been such a productive time for me over the previous yr or so. And I am unable to look ahead to folks to listen to what we have created. We’re gonna launch greater than we usually do. However positively should slim down some.

Baltin: Is there one music off the brand new album you’ll be able to’t wait folks to listen to after they know the brand new music in 2023?

Legend: I believe now we have fairly just a few. However I believe there is a vary, there ones which might be gonna be actually large occasion songs, like a music referred to as “All She Wanna Do,” we have been taking part in that reside on the Vegas residency. And though folks have by no means heard it earlier than, it has been going over so nicely. After which we have got songs which might be extra form of intimate and heartfelt, songs that I believe are gonna imply so much to folks as nicely. Songs like “Stardust” and “Marvel Lady.” So I believe it is gonna be fairly a variety. However I am unable to look ahead to folks to listen to all of it as a result of such as you stated, when you launch it to the world, they get to do what they need with it, and it is gonna be fascinating to see the way it lives on this planet.

Baltin: What’s your favourite anthem of all time?

Legend: I believe “What’s Going On” is perhaps a fantastic anthem to incorporate. Clearly the album is sensible, however that particular person music can be sensible and it was such a signature music for that second. And I believe what it was capable of do is consider the wrestle for justice, the wrestle to finish the warfare in Vietnam, which was form of omnipresent in folks’s minds at the moment. And clearly the parents that we’re honoring this weekend, quite a lot of these people might have come from later generations publish the draft, however through the Vietnam Warfare, they made it very actual, made politics very actual to folks. The truth that they could possibly be referred to as into service, after they have not volunteered to take action, and lots of people did not agree with the premise of the warfare, and did not perceive why we have been there. However they have been being required to serve, and that makes politics very actual and current in your life, and I believe it creates a way of urgency that you’ve got heard within the music throughout that point. And I believe that is why you bought, songs like “What’s Going On,” and albums like, What’s Going On. That is why you bought the activism and music with folks like Bob Dylan and John Lennon, and so many others. I believe that factor of the draft and being referred to as into service if you did not volunteer to be there made a giant distinction.

Baltin: What you are speaking about is so reflective of what is occurring proper now with Roe V. Wade, and you’ve got talked about that. What could be your one sentence reply by way of what we will do to look out for one another?

Legend: We’ve to like and respect one another, and honor one another’s humanity. And honoring a girl’s humanity means respecting her rights to regulate her physique and make well being selections that affect her and her household. Honoring humanity of individuals of shade means rejecting this white supremacist ideology and this nice alternative concept ideology that we’re seeing proliferating all through the Web and on tv on locations like Fox Information. Loving one another, respecting one another’s humanity would make us a greater society, and should you undergo all of the totally different coverage fights that individuals are having, if we use that as our North Star, then I believe we are going to come to solutions that have been extra edifying for all of us.