April 29, 2020 • 42 mins
John Legend stops by the first QLS Live to talk about current events and his upcoming album.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Of course, Love Supreme. It's a production of I Heart Radio.
(00:05):
Ladies and gentlemen, this is Quarantine Quest broadcasting live from
the Kibbutz up State New York. Uh, we welcome you too.
Shall we see a somewhat special version of QLs because
the current COVID nineteen reality we're living in the present,
uh not exactly idea conditions with technology. Let's say we
had slight issues with this particular recording of John Legends episode,
(00:28):
but we promised you guys that we're going to record
a proper sequel in the future, so we could deep
die with all those questions. But for now, please enjoy
our conversation with one and only John Legend on Quest
Love Supreme. Let's do it. Why but latenst Sea has
(01:07):
kicked in. Uh, my name is a mirror not when. Yeah,
I'm now realizing this road call has to end. So
(01:29):
as as as you see, ladies and gentlemen. Um, we
we did not even bother to practice to see what
late if we would have latent see issues. It doesn't work.
I've tried this music thing over the zoom call. It
does not work. That was a road call fail. Like
(01:53):
I heard. I was at my freestyle ready to drinking
brown and what you what you're drinking on? It's actually pink.
It's my rose rose time. You mean your rose like
like I'm the proprietor. We have l V. We have rose,
(02:14):
we have Chardonnay, Cabernet, savignon. You know what's it call? Yeah,
l V Legend being an exclusive l V e Wines
dot com. Brode it. I'm done. That's the show, money
on it. Just so you know. Everybody, So, how the
(02:39):
beard's going in nicely? Oh? Yeah, I'm trying to join
the roots. You truly lived in Philadelphia. Yeah, I can't
wait for a month from now to see how everyone's grooming,
like Tom Hanks and Castaway. Glad all y'all have your hairlines?
(03:01):
Look at that beautiful hairlines. Steven Steve is the new
question love of the crew. So John, thank you for
joining our our second live show of h of Course
Love Supreme here on YouTube. I'm happy to be here.
Thank you. I was, well, yeah, I want to know,
(03:23):
how how are you coping or making the most of
this uh time period? Well, my kids are probably happier
than ever because we are home and we're hanging out
with them. All the time, and uh are they holding
you hostage right now? Are you eating a ransom? New
they are napping right now. I'm so lucky because otherwise
(03:43):
they'd be all over the house, Uh lunaized, get in
my zoom calls, say hi to everybody, whistle whatever she
can do to get your attention, and uh yeah, they're
NonStop except on their sleeping. So uh, this is a
lucky This is the best kind of y'all started this
whole kind of ig programming over in your house, like
(04:05):
I feel like after you guys started singing songs live
and then we were early we had talked to Chris Martin.
My team and his team at the same time basically
had the same idea we should start doing these i
G live concerts. And then we we both are affiliated
with Global Citizens, so we started working with them to
get the message out about staying home and raising money
(04:26):
for the World Health Organization. And he started it on
on the Monday after everybody was in and I did
it the next day and it's just blossom. We you know,
Quest DJ and d Nice DJ, and we've seen so
many battles with the different producers and whatnot. You know,
I feel like, we've gotten a lot of interesting content
out of this. Nope, dope, So what what is your?
(04:50):
What are your? I guess your everyone's winning this at
the same time, but yeah, what's coming up next for you?
Because you know, we are ain't in it, but we
had music so that that was actually the fortunate thing
about the timing was that we basically have finished the
album UH for all intents and purposes, right prior to
(05:12):
everything happening. So there was just a few more like
horns and random you know, overdubs we had to do,
but I had done all my vocals, the songs were written,
so we have music ready to go. We've been releasing
a couple of songs already and then we have more
coming soon and we hope to put the album out
in June. But you know, we were supposed to tour
(05:33):
in July, in in Europe and then in uh the
US and Canada in August and September, and we don't know,
we don't know what's gonna happen. Mhm. We considered the uh,
the bad Doo method. I mean, you're in a position
which you know, you could be self contained and just
do it for delf. UH would you ever consider just
(05:59):
hosting perform is just you yourself a little at your piano. Um.
I've done similar shows like that I used to do.
We did this thing called All of Me Tours, just
basically me and a couple other players, and it was
most of the night was me just telling stories and
and singing on the piano. And so I'm definitely open
to doing other shows like that, but I'm not open
(06:21):
to putting people in in in in a room together
right now until we can do it safely. I'm not
trying to get people sick um to come to the
John Legend show, because you read the news about you know,
people getting sick on the church, people getting sick, doing
all these other things. And we need to get to
the point where it's safe for people to even gather
like that before we can invite them into our shows
(06:43):
and expect them to show up. Yeah, I was gonna say,
I don't you know, I know that a lot of
people are kind of defiantly trying to go to church.
Don't do it Sunday for Easter. They I was just
listening to the news from last night and Rachel Matta
was going through the list of how many vectors of
(07:07):
infection have been literally at church alone. She was just
talking about how they can identify these big clusters from
people going to church, and they say, I've read another article.
They were saying something about singing is more uh it viral. Yeah,
it's more viral than just being around somebody because you're
(07:31):
pushing out your saliva and all these other things, and so, uh,
it's actually less safe to be singing around people than
it is to just be around them in general. So
it's it's like, you can't be going to church in
those circumstances. Yeah, I agree with you, but yeah, it's
just it's killing me watching people's reactions because you know,
most of them just like you know, they got the
(07:52):
blood of Jesus covering me. Yeah, don't be protected. And
now the black numbers have come up. This we crazy
and a lot of our favorite cities and that's problem.
Yes it is, and and we are we are the
uh we all of us are equally susceptible to the disease.
But when you have a community that's already underserved in
so many other ways, um, we're more susceptible to getting
(08:15):
the worst of it. Two dying, to having really severe
outcomes out of it. In my mind, I imagine that
you and uh and and Christie watched the well we
we in this household. We watched the Daily Brief, and
it's just we gotta know something. You don't watch it.
I've watched zero because I know you. Like. Christie's rule
(08:39):
is she does not listen to Trump's voice. She will
not if he's on the news, even if he's on
the news of an anchor that she likes. She doesn't
want to hear his voice, and we will change the
channel of his voice comes on. What about Dr Fauci though, Uh,
I feel like I could read it later and Rachel
Rachel Maddow summarizes it for me well enough, so I'm like,
(09:01):
I'll just listen to Rachel. You know, it's to the
point where now even I mean, you know, normally I
would watch matt Al without fail because you know, but
this this will be my second week without watching. Yeah,
I can't. You know. I'm one of those people that,
like I would always not watch the news if there
(09:23):
was like a disaster or any kind of thing where
the press was all kind of even even like a shooting,
like I couldn't watch it because I don't like I
don't like everybody gathering around a tragedy, uh on the news,
Like I just something about my personality. I don't enjoy
that as news. I don't like it. I don't like
being around it. But for some reason, I've been watching
(09:45):
this because I do actually want to know what's going
on UM. And it's such a political story too, because
it's about leadership, and it's about how UM leadership organizes
people around a crisis. And uh, I think that's the
thing that interests me about it. Wow, one one day
(10:06):
I'll jump back in the frame now, just for my
mental health. No, I get it. That's how I am
about most me and these chickens on this forum. Man,
I'm happy. Can I just ask you and FTE a
question real quick since y'all are both a part of
one of my favorite shows on TV? Yeah, okay, we
just talk about Showcase real quick. Yes, let's talk about it, okay,
(10:28):
And what's going on? You know, I'm just you know,
I'm just let well, you wanna tell her what we
filmed a couple yeah? Man, So we got a Black
History Month special, which, in Negro fashion, is coming late
in June during Black Music month, gotta we shot it.
We shot it in January, and um, I have I
(10:51):
still haven't seen the whole joint. Dialo is kind of
telling me, I've seen it. It looks great. Yeah, he
said it's amazing. He said he really is though, So um, yeah,
I'm looking forward to that. That's coming June and uh
Sherman showcases on Hulu and Hulu just announced like free
subscription or a free trial. Yeah check now from my no,
(11:15):
but everybody else in there, it's not working every night
like you are, and and and we were in a
scene together, Me and John did one scene together to
recommire in it. But we're in at the time for
Jesus now. Um, the show is the most well reviewed
(11:39):
thing we've ever done as a production company. I've never
seen so many great reviews for something we've done. The
New York Times, all these other lists you know what
to watch while you're on the like the shows on
all those lists too. So hopefully people will give it
a chance, because I think once you get into the world,
you really get into it. I just I don't want
to discount though You're other show that you had on
(12:00):
w n Y. Yeah, we should deal with on the ground.
Now we couldn't bring it back. Um, you know, the
station was getting bought by that conservative news organization uh
st clairy. Yeah, so they were buying the station and
they decided to go on a whole another direction. Even
(12:21):
though we were the most popular show and got the
most buzz for for the network of any show that
they had on, they decided to go in a different direction.
They're the same organization that bought all those local news stations.
Do you remember that. Yeah, the news reporters. The news
reporters are reading the same script. Uh yeah, so they're
the same organization. So we didn't have much of a
(12:42):
chance to stay around. We tried to sell it to
other networks and it's it was a bit of an
expensive show to produce, and so a lot of networks
didn't want to take it because it was kind of
like secondhand and they didn't want to spend all that
money making a secondhand show. Uh. But as a show producer,
how do you like? How do you how do you
(13:03):
figure that's different than uh music, working on music and whatnot. Well,
it's less hands on for me because you're leaving it
in the other creator's hands. So you have writers, you
have directors, you have all these other people that are involved,
and they're hopefully you hire people and you work with
(13:23):
people that are really good at what they do, and
so it's not nearly as hands on as I would
be on my own record. I feel like it's mostly
about making good personnel decisions and then picking good projects
to be part of creatively. Are you going to organizing
music as the Wild Wild West it is? Music is?
(13:47):
It's Yeah, you might get paid. You might not like
t V everybody it ain't no such thing he's doing. Like,
you don't get checks. Yeah. TV is better organized, films
better organized. Hollywood just more like corporate than the music
world is not. Theater well, the theaters have the strong
(14:11):
unions though, you know, so there's a lot of rules
around how you do things in the theater too. The
unions are very strong, and so there's a lot of
structure around that. And so I feel like, um, that's
pretty you know, it's pretty on point as well. Wow,
you know, I I have a wish to see the
(14:33):
I mean, you can weigh in on this bill or not.
I mean, at the beginning of In the Heights in
Hamilton's like, did you feel as though you know, the
system was pretty much uh stuck in its ways WHATNOTO.
I don't know what the system was or which way
it was stuck in it, but yeah, something like that,
I don't know. To me, theater has the worst business
(14:55):
plan ever. If it's a success, then you make money.
If it's anything before success, it's a total disaster. Yeah,
I see, I see. So's it's a city business plan.
It's a shitty dissis plan. Or is it's either you
invest millions of dollars and only if you're a humongous
success you make the money back. If you don't, then
(15:15):
it's a failure. It's just the business plan doesn't make
sense to me. So there's no middle ground. There's no
such thing as a moderately successful theater show. Yeah. Just
think about just think about real estate in New York
and so part of it is you have to occupy
and pay for this real estate in New York and
(15:37):
get people to show up, and then you have to
pay everybody's salaries and everything based on the union uh
you know scale, and it's just the the original baseline
nut that you have to pay for is a lot
of money. I'm scared to play starts in November, and
like this isn't like you know, where you just put
(16:01):
a little bit of money in and then your producer like,
we're really funding this joint. So it's that but a mayor,
are you fearful now? Because I mean not to put
that on you, but when are people really want to
feel comfortable and in theaters and in New York and
brought in New York. And the thing is is that
you know, we after taking a queue from Hamilton's to
(16:23):
see how radical that was. I mean, I just have
this desire to really update Broadway. Um Broadways somehow stuck
between this this post timpan Alley Jazz hands kind of
(16:43):
Broadway like that that kind of era where you know
it could really use, uh a refresh or redo and
you know, based on did you see and did you
see in Terek's uh play yet like any of the
practice I haven't. It's it's like it's it's just as
(17:07):
mind blowing to me as Hamilton's, but it's like the
complete opposite where you don't feel good about any of
the characters. It's like if Obama, if if Hamilton's represented
everything that is beautiful about the Obama era, then this
is the trade for the play for the Trump era
and post And the thing was they wrote this, you know,
(17:30):
during like the beginning of Obama's second term as a
as a kind of a satire. But it's just like
it's real now, which makes it even more on point.
So it's like idiocracy, dude, it's it's it's idiocracy to play.
That's what it is, like people mind blowing, but it's
(17:53):
black no more. It's it's based on um. One of
the very John Ridley who did Twelve Years of Slave.
I know John right. He wrote this back in two
thousand twelve, came to Tarik around two thousand thirteen, and
they developed at the last four years. It's a scathing play.
(18:14):
It's amazing, but no one's gonna feel good about themselves.
They won't be congratulating themselves for going No. But I
mean yeah, I mean, the guilty aspect of it is
gonna like it's it's a real It's a play about
kind of in the Harlem speakeasy era of of of Harlem.
Um a black man who uh meets a white girl
(18:40):
in a speakeasy who you know, they flirt and whatnot,
and she's sort of like, you know, this ain't going
any further than this basement because you know, I could
never take you home to my father, YadA, YadA, YadA.
And this guy wishes, uh, kind of wishes that there
was a way that she could fall in love them,
and he gets some sort of operation. This is based
(19:05):
on a book he gets. He goes through a process
that turns him into a white man, um, and then
she would like soul man in reverse. Yeah. This this
book was written in nineteen thirty six as a satire
Eddie Murphy's SNL. It's very much like that skip. Yeah,
(19:30):
just hits the fan even crazier. So yeah, yeah, so yeah,
let's rack up the Tonys. Let's go get this egot
Ghetto Man you Ghetto. The single is out now or
(19:51):
streaming on now correct. Yeah. So we have two singles out,
once called Conversations in the Dark. We put that out
in January, and then Actions is the one wh US
put out a couple of weeks ago. You played it
on your own life Instagram lives that to night. Do
you have a title for the upcoming record yet? Yeah,
it's called Bigger Love. And then the next single is
going to be the title track, UM called Bigger Love
(20:14):
and then UM and we got joints. Man, I'm excited
I did UM. Raphael Sadik Exact produced the whole thing.
He's done my last couple of albums, Exact producing wise
Uh for the Christmas Album and the Christmas Deluxe, and
we were just in the nice groove and we just
kept working together on this. UM. But I worked with
other producers and writers and Uh Oak produced the last
(20:38):
single actions Oak Felder. He produced another one on my
album that's really crazy called La and UM. Yeah, we've
got some good stuff on there. Do you record you
still go to the studio house? I still go to
the studio because I like to feel like I'm going
to work. Um. I like to leave the house, be
away from the kids, go to work and then come
(20:59):
home and president with the family. What studio did you
record out of? At Rafael's Blakesley up in North Hollywood.
Is Jerry still is engineer? Yeah? Jerry still mixed with
the Christmas Lights. Yeah, so Jerry mixed this UM. This
guy named Alex is the recording engineer. Yeah, rack Fael's
(21:20):
du Jerry Um like his atmosphere like Christmas. So he
always even when he is not at his studio ahead
of time. He'll send like all this this Christmas decorations
to the studio to get set up and he wants
it to look like Christmas when he's mixing. So he's
been doing that for like the last thirty years with Fels.
(21:42):
His first record he did for me was My Christmas Album.
So how perfect? Oh yeah, I thought he had it
in there just for the for the best of music.
Nah when Jerry uh engineer what they do on ill
adelf Half Life, and was like, we had to wait
an hour for him to get like the Christmas decorations.
(22:03):
Now he's been doing that forever. He's been doing that forever. John.
I always want to ask you, man, who is Maxine?
Because she had you going down? Uh you know what
Maine was the prediction of Truthful. You know. I was
(22:23):
writing that song, um with the guys from Sara so
uh so you know the whole crew, uh, including on
Mars and Pads and everybody. So we're in l a
at there, um they had that house studio and um
Lose Feelas or somewhere around there. So we're late um
and we were just hanging out. We were writing the
(22:45):
song and I had just listened to, Um, guess who
I saw today, my love Nancy Wilson. So Nancy used
to sing that song and it was about it kind
of those through the whole story of you know, I
was hanging out at this lovely bar and I'm blah
blah blah, and you know I saw this beautiful couple
(23:07):
and blah blah blood and oh it was your nig
you don't And so I had listened to that not
long before that, and we were we were just singing. Uh,
we were just playing around on the instruments, and I
(23:27):
started singing, she may not be you, but she looks
just like you, and we wrote. I was like, we
should write a song kind of in that same lyrical
vein where I described this whole setup of these two
beautiful people hanging out with each other looking like this,
so on love and it was her the whole time.
I'm like, she may not be you, what she looked
awful lot like you. And then uh, we decided at
(23:50):
the end we should call her name. And we just
made up a name that sounded good and so actually
night it was and we wanted to sound quaint and
like old school. And then it turns out, And I
did not know this at the time. My grandmother's middle
(24:11):
name is Maxine Um and so she thought I had
written it Maxine because of her name, but I had
no idea that was her middle name at the time.
You don't wing it that. I love that record, that
whole was again out. That's the love that once again
is my favorite, Like it's one of my favorite things
I've done. Wake Up is one of them, to when
(24:31):
I did with the Roots and then uh once again
it is like my heart, I don't know something that's
my favorite. One that's right, Yeah, showed me is on there. Yeah, Yeah,
that's the one. That's a lot of them. John, Yeah,
Steve has a question over there me, s Um, have
(24:53):
you written any new songs since the quarantine started? Anything
at home? I have not, and I part of it.
I think it's just kind of feeling like, oh, I'm
done with my album and I can relax for a while.
I have to write something. But also I don't like
writing at home, so it's the perfect storm. I mean,
not getting anything done at home, So wait a minute,
(25:13):
when you're home, that's not your creative hub at all. No,
I almost never right at home. I like to schedule
time go in. Sometimes I'll sing stuff into my phone
at home, like, oh, I have an idea. I'm almost
singing this into my phone, and then finish it at
the studio because I like to go towards your separation
of church and state. I get it like anything, because
(25:37):
if anything, I would figure that this this time period
is probably the best time period for all songwriters and
all screenwriters and book writers. Like, but it's really not.
Though you have kids, if you don't have kids, maybe
if you don't have kids, maybe, so you just can't
get three hours of complete hell no, so the middle
(26:06):
road is just too and we got one of those homes.
We don't do ship. Do you know that I'm about
to buy a crib, won't have a separate bat cave
for myself. I got it now, Okay, I just don't
think now like in the middle of with everybody dealing
(26:27):
with just the stress of the pandemic, I don't think
that really lends itself to creativity very much, you know
what I mean? So much of at least for me,
so much of what you full from comes from outside
sources either, you know, like if you go out and
you see a couple and you think something or you
you know, you kind of go out and pull from
these different experiences when you don't really have that anymore.
(26:47):
And on top of not having that, but you're constantly
watching people that you know or or no of get
you or die. I mean, I ain't thinking about no
goddamn wrap music, you know what I mean. It's just realized.
I think some people will will be inspired by it
and write some dope ship from it. It will it
(27:09):
will fit into certain people's style of writing and their worldview,
and it'll it'll propel them to write some dope stuff.
I really believe that's possible. But it's just it ain't
inspired me at all. Don't make me feel bad now, man,
I'm like, you got no kids, I don't know five chapters?
No I got dude, having kids like I got responsibility.
(27:33):
I know it's not the same as having kids, you know,
single people. I mean, I'm just saying, but I also
know that when you have two children in the home
every day, all day, that's the different situation. And I
appreciate my privilege. Yeah, I think with you. I think
maybe why you kind of getting stuff done in that
(27:53):
way is because you've finally been now, so you know,
you when you're writing and stuff like that, it's like, I,
you know, you finally have a chance to really buckle
down and do it, all right, and which is different
than a lot of people. But I'm just not feeling
like writing songs right now. You're thinking about writing a
book and at some point in the future. I had
always thought about it, but I I have to at
(28:16):
some point. But John Legend, I'm not enough. Seriously, John,
save everything, Like, don't you know, save everything? Just put
in storage whatever, like it'll you'll need it, You'll need
it for your trust me. I gotta write one at
(28:39):
some point. There's stuff I wish I saved for, you know,
memoires that notes that I wrote old lyric sheets. Are
that sort of thing? Save everything? Yeah? Right, all right? Um?
So two questions. One is there a full inversion of
Angel with you? And Stacy? Yes? Is we put it
(29:01):
on her? It was on her record? One? Yes, we
put on Stacy's EP. Stacy bart Um, she's the dope
singer and songwriter. She's written a lot of songs for
big artists, and she was signed to my production company
for a while as an artist, and she put out
a couple of EPs, and we had her guests on
(29:22):
Love in the Future. We did a shorter version of
Angel on that's my favorite version. I like that. Yeah,
so that's on if you you can find it, but
Stacy put it on her EP and also Okay, hold
on longer, talk to me about that one. I love
that song. That was Oh that was funk le Roy's idea.
(29:44):
So he wrote a couple of those songs with us,
and uh, you know, you know his zone. It was
right in his zone. He wrote a couple of those
type of joints with us for the album. I love
that recommend and also since his you tips Birthday tomorrow
talk about don't wait till to like that was me
(30:05):
and Kanye is like sleeper favorite on the album because
Kanye was exactly producing that album. And I went over
to um Um Kamal's house and um and uh in
Jersey and we just jammed for a little while and
we came up with that song and that's our sleeper
(30:25):
favorite on on Love and the Future. It didn't get
a lot of buzz, but it's something about it just
that group. Yeah, exactly exactly. I have a question. Yes,
in the wake of Bill Wither's passing and you're great
rerecording of of his his song I Can't wear a
left handed? Can you just comment on the recording of
(30:46):
that song? And yeah, but here's one of the things
I did say. Question, I have it. I'm gonna pull
it up right now, hold on like it. Imagine an email.
He wrote it for real. I re sent it to
my manager and uh, that was with me back then,
(31:10):
and he had sent it to me. This is from
October six and here's the email from Bill Withers. I'm
gonna read it to y'all. Eve exclusive. Okay, here we go. Alex,
(31:30):
some time ago you contacted Marcia regarding John Legends recently
recorded album and offered to introduce her to Greg, one
of the guys who managed me at the time. She
probably attempted to forward the message to me or meant
to afford it to me. Quite possibly. It was doing
one of those periods where I was in Marcia, Alex
and everyone else overload and just ignored all incoming information
(31:52):
for a while. Anyway, I just found out about the
John Legend recording yesterday and a much more interesting fashion,
Having sat down to watch a documentary on Louis Armstrong.
The phone rang fifteen minutes into it, and the voice
on the other end says, in this stilted tone, did
I awaken you, sir? Just as I was about to
(32:12):
hang up on whoever this clown was, the voice said
Bill Withers, this is William Felton Russell, which of course
was followed by the unmistakable cackle of Bill Russell laughing
on the other end of the line. He then proceeded
to read me the titles of the songs on the
John Legend album that he was listening to and informed
(32:34):
me that I can't let right left hand. It was
included in the list of songs that were recorded with
the Roots band for the album. We then proceeded to
share stories of the people that it had impacted our lives,
such as Jackie Robinson, Joe Louis, Jesse Owens, et cetera.
We continued on to have the obligatory conversation about Obama
and whatever else two seventy plus year olds of our
(32:56):
might run their mouths about and catch up conversations, and
hour and a half later, having pursed ourselves of all
current topics worthy of chit chat for the moment, we
ended our conversation. I hit play to resume watching the
Louis Armstrong tape as I digested the conversation that I
had just had with my old friend and lifelong he wrote.
When the Louis Armstrong story finished, I went to my
(33:18):
computer and watched the session with John and the Roots
on YouTube. While digesting the pleasure of witnessing the heartfelt
and caring interpretation of this song by John and the
Band that Ray Jackson and I had written probably before
he and most of the band were born, it occurred
to me that it had indeed been a day spent
in the company of legends, conversation about legends with the legend,
(33:42):
while watching the story of a legend capped off by
the flattery of John Legend taking the time to revisit
and revive an old song written with a dear friend
would actually gotten me into the music business and who
left us much too soon. Ray Jackson passed away some
years ago. I'm sure that Ray Jackson would have joined
me in thanking John and the Roots for their attention
(34:03):
to this song and then congratulating them on a job
well done, since they put me in such a good mood.
I will find it in my heart to not hold
a grudge against quest love for making me sound so
ancient in his otherwise flattering, introductory and explanatory comments on
the video smiles. I was further sued by the fact
that Bill Russell is really old. Congratulations to John appropriately
(34:27):
named legend for all the work he does in education
and for projecting a good, wholesome image for us all
to appreciate. I would appreciate it if you, whoever you is,
would share this letter with John and the Roots. I
would further advise you to avoid contact with me in
the future if you don't rendered grumpy by the rare, rainy, cloudy,
yucky weather here in l A today, but boyd revived
(34:50):
and sustained by my day with the Legends yesterday, Bill Withers, Wow,
that's the letter this dude can tell a worried man.
He's the musical uncle we never had. His emails were
legendary because every time he wrote one he had all
(35:11):
those extra little colors and flavors in there that you
normally I'm just like yes, because I'm always like approving something.
Ye like okay, great, nice thanks. He write such such
great emails. Wow, man, Yeah, when when he when he
came to the show, Yeah, to see his performance. He
(35:33):
was just it was everything I've ever wanted. And that
was the point in which like, I was really kind
of not you know, I was a little gunshy with
meeting idols by that point because so many had let
me down before. Yeah. Um, but he he lived up
to everything. Like he was full of stories, like and
(35:57):
humor and seemed like he did not seem or act
like he was in the seventies. I thought he was
like he might be fifty nine, maybe sixty maybe. Um. Yeah,
that's one of my regrets, man. Like I was, I
was gunning for him for at least twelve years to
(36:17):
try to try to work with him. But yeah, so
he heard he heard the live version of that too.
That was the first thing he heard was the YouTube.
We had made a YouTube video. I think that was
actually in the studio. It was like one of those
promo things we shot in the studio, but it was
a live performance though. It was like it wasn't like edited,
(36:38):
it was you know, it was a straight up live performance,
but there was an audience there. Yeah, and I forgot
we did something Spike Lee as well. I told you
about that Uh, that thing in the one of those
buildings in New York something something five terminal five do
we John? You know how long we've been trying to
(36:58):
get this to happen. You know this is just a preview, right,
like you know at some point when we all come
back together and really this is not in the room.
Oh man, I love that. Yeah, That's why I'm not
asking like the questions I normally asked for, because I'm
trying to say that for the real episode. We just
in case we don't get the real episode. And I
got another music all right, so I don't know how
(37:23):
we all might not be there. Hey, your first uh
on again on once Again? Uh huh? The leak version
of it was just acoustic, and then the album version
you added drunk. What made you change? Uh? No, I
(37:44):
mean I had always thought we were gonna put a
little instrumentation on it. So sometimes I will record a
demo of it, and I don't know who leaked it.
I'm trying to remember how that came out. Also did
a version on Death Portrait and they kind of let
me Hals sing sing Hals sing on a death Caught
you John. That was the first time anybody actually heard
any of it was on the fourth again. And remember that.
(38:06):
I mean I didn't miss it my first time hearing that.
It was the lead version. Yeah, this is back when
albums would leak, you know what I mean, The album
Eleak and that version of Again, it was just it
was just you and piano. And I'm not even sure
if I knew it leaked. Honestly, I'm not even sure
why worms just you in piano. That's crazy. Yeah, I
(38:29):
gotta go back and revisit it. Said, thank you. That's
a gablet of like happiness, South Carolina, North Carolina. What
(38:50):
is that? This is? Uh? What's up? What's up? Steve?
Is again the joint you samples for doing it again? Yeah? Us,
that's again. Okay. I was thinking in my head like
you're doing it again again. Yeah. And then I had
another song on a record called another again again. Yeah
(39:10):
Boom Boom by John. I still remember your that first
album when you were sitting U Beach in your line
outfit when you were back in the Philly days. Yeah,
that's crazy yeah before the John Actually wait did you sanction?
(39:34):
Because that um the early record even before uh, your
first album is up your version of Burning Down the house. Yeah.
So that was when we did live at uh SL
B S. Yeah. Yeah, I was from like oh two.
(39:56):
I think I got my deal in oh four. So
it was, you know, a couple of years before everything
popped off. Listening to that. You had that album, you
were selling it. This is back in three. It was
a little brother and Kanye, we was on two together. Yeah.
We did the NorVa and um yes, I remember in Norfolk,
(40:20):
yeah yeah, and we were selling that joint and I
remember those shows man, and I remember I would sell
those CDs out of my you know, out of my trunk,
you know, every everywhere we would go. I would do
gigs in New York and Philly by myself for a while.
I would play it like s O B S and
UH Knitting Factory, north By, Northwest five Spy, all these
(40:43):
places UH in Philly and New York and UH and
I would just sell them and I and I was
my own web person, so I would like I didn't
program the site, but I would uh. I would. I
would handle all the CD cells, so I would be
like chipping them off to people. I would go to
the post office every couple of days and ship some
more CDs off the people that order them online. Can
(41:05):
you believe we actually to buy CDs your own distribution something? Yeah,
I feel like it's time for a sequel now, John,
where we are like, we we gotta do it. We
gotta do it. We always say we gotta do it,
but we gotta do it. Wait which sequel you're getting together?
Making music? Us and the Roots, Me and the Roots
coming back. Yeah, real protest songs man. Yeah, I like that.
(41:31):
I like the job. Bowed to do that. I want
to take right here in front of everybody. Yeah, we
really need to do it. It's true. I mean all
we do is work. So it's a long time of
collaborator that's willing and shows up. Let's work. I'm down,
you know what I'm saying. No, thank you, Thank you, John.
I appreciate you doing our our our live YouTube h
(41:57):
broadcast of course Love Supreme. I want to be playa ship.
Steve Unpaid, Bill Fontagelo and John Legend. Thank you very much.
This is of course Love Supreme. We'll see you on
the next year. Now, everybody do well, y'all see y'all
have our don of course, Love Supreme is a production
(42:20):
of My Heart Radio. For more podcasts. For my heart radio,
visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
Of course, Love Supreme. It's a production of I Heart Radio.
(00:05):
Ladies and gentlemen, this is Quarantine Quest broadcasting live from
the Kibbutz up State New York. Uh, we welcome you too.
Shall we see a somewhat special version of QLs because
the current COVID nineteen reality we're living in the present,
uh not exactly idea conditions with technology. Let's say we
had slight issues with this particular recording of John Legends episode,
(00:28):
but we promised you guys that we're going to record
a proper sequel in the future, so we could deep
die with all those questions. But for now, please enjoy
our conversation with one and only John Legend on Quest
Love Supreme. Let's do it. Why but latenst Sea has
(01:07):
kicked in. Uh, my name is a mirror not when. Yeah,
I'm now realizing this road call has to end. So
(01:29):
as as as you see, ladies and gentlemen. Um, we
we did not even bother to practice to see what
late if we would have latent see issues. It doesn't work.
I've tried this music thing over the zoom call. It
does not work. That was a road call fail. Like
(01:53):
I heard. I was at my freestyle ready to drinking
brown and what you what you're drinking on? It's actually pink.
It's my rose rose time. You mean your rose like
like I'm the proprietor. We have l V. We have rose,
(02:14):
we have Chardonnay, Cabernet, savignon. You know what's it call? Yeah,
l V Legend being an exclusive l V e Wines
dot com. Brode it. I'm done. That's the show, money
on it. Just so you know. Everybody, So, how the
(02:39):
beard's going in nicely? Oh? Yeah, I'm trying to join
the roots. You truly lived in Philadelphia. Yeah, I can't
wait for a month from now to see how everyone's grooming,
like Tom Hanks and Castaway. Glad all y'all have your hairlines?
(03:01):
Look at that beautiful hairlines. Steven Steve is the new
question love of the crew. So John, thank you for
joining our our second live show of h of Course
Love Supreme here on YouTube. I'm happy to be here.
Thank you. I was, well, yeah, I want to know,
(03:23):
how how are you coping or making the most of
this uh time period? Well, my kids are probably happier
than ever because we are home and we're hanging out
with them. All the time, and uh are they holding
you hostage right now? Are you eating a ransom? New
they are napping right now. I'm so lucky because otherwise
(03:43):
they'd be all over the house, Uh lunaized, get in
my zoom calls, say hi to everybody, whistle whatever she
can do to get your attention, and uh yeah, they're
NonStop except on their sleeping. So uh, this is a
lucky This is the best kind of y'all started this
whole kind of ig programming over in your house, like
(04:05):
I feel like after you guys started singing songs live
and then we were early we had talked to Chris Martin.
My team and his team at the same time basically
had the same idea we should start doing these i
G live concerts. And then we we both are affiliated
with Global Citizens, so we started working with them to
get the message out about staying home and raising money
(04:26):
for the World Health Organization. And he started it on
on the Monday after everybody was in and I did
it the next day and it's just blossom. We you know,
Quest DJ and d Nice DJ, and we've seen so
many battles with the different producers and whatnot. You know,
I feel like, we've gotten a lot of interesting content
out of this. Nope, dope, So what what is your?
(04:50):
What are your? I guess your everyone's winning this at
the same time, but yeah, what's coming up next for you?
Because you know, we are ain't in it, but we
had music so that that was actually the fortunate thing
about the timing was that we basically have finished the
album UH for all intents and purposes, right prior to
(05:12):
everything happening. So there was just a few more like
horns and random you know, overdubs we had to do,
but I had done all my vocals, the songs were written,
so we have music ready to go. We've been releasing
a couple of songs already and then we have more
coming soon and we hope to put the album out
in June. But you know, we were supposed to tour
(05:33):
in July, in in Europe and then in uh the
US and Canada in August and September, and we don't know,
we don't know what's gonna happen. Mhm. We considered the uh,
the bad Doo method. I mean, you're in a position
which you know, you could be self contained and just
do it for delf. UH would you ever consider just
(05:59):
hosting perform is just you yourself a little at your piano. Um.
I've done similar shows like that I used to do.
We did this thing called All of Me Tours, just
basically me and a couple other players, and it was
most of the night was me just telling stories and
and singing on the piano. And so I'm definitely open
to doing other shows like that, but I'm not open
(06:21):
to putting people in in in in a room together
right now until we can do it safely. I'm not
trying to get people sick um to come to the
John Legend show, because you read the news about you know,
people getting sick on the church, people getting sick, doing
all these other things. And we need to get to
the point where it's safe for people to even gather
like that before we can invite them into our shows
(06:43):
and expect them to show up. Yeah, I was gonna say,
I don't you know, I know that a lot of
people are kind of defiantly trying to go to church.
Don't do it Sunday for Easter. They I was just
listening to the news from last night and Rachel Matta
was going through the list of how many vectors of
(07:07):
infection have been literally at church alone. She was just
talking about how they can identify these big clusters from
people going to church, and they say, I've read another article.
They were saying something about singing is more uh it viral. Yeah,
it's more viral than just being around somebody because you're
(07:31):
pushing out your saliva and all these other things, and so, uh,
it's actually less safe to be singing around people than
it is to just be around them in general. So
it's it's like, you can't be going to church in
those circumstances. Yeah, I agree with you, but yeah, it's
just it's killing me watching people's reactions because you know,
most of them just like you know, they got the
(07:52):
blood of Jesus covering me. Yeah, don't be protected. And
now the black numbers have come up. This we crazy
and a lot of our favorite cities and that's problem.
Yes it is, and and we are we are the
uh we all of us are equally susceptible to the disease.
But when you have a community that's already underserved in
so many other ways, um, we're more susceptible to getting
(08:15):
the worst of it. Two dying, to having really severe
outcomes out of it. In my mind, I imagine that
you and uh and and Christie watched the well we
we in this household. We watched the Daily Brief, and
it's just we gotta know something. You don't watch it.
I've watched zero because I know you. Like. Christie's rule
(08:39):
is she does not listen to Trump's voice. She will
not if he's on the news, even if he's on
the news of an anchor that she likes. She doesn't
want to hear his voice, and we will change the
channel of his voice comes on. What about Dr Fauci though, Uh,
I feel like I could read it later and Rachel
Rachel Maddow summarizes it for me well enough, so I'm like,
(09:01):
I'll just listen to Rachel. You know, it's to the
point where now even I mean, you know, normally I
would watch matt Al without fail because you know, but
this this will be my second week without watching. Yeah,
I can't. You know. I'm one of those people that,
like I would always not watch the news if there
(09:23):
was like a disaster or any kind of thing where
the press was all kind of even even like a shooting,
like I couldn't watch it because I don't like I
don't like everybody gathering around a tragedy, uh on the news,
Like I just something about my personality. I don't enjoy
that as news. I don't like it. I don't like
being around it. But for some reason, I've been watching
(09:45):
this because I do actually want to know what's going
on UM. And it's such a political story too, because
it's about leadership, and it's about how UM leadership organizes
people around a crisis. And uh, I think that's the
thing that interests me about it. Wow, one one day
(10:06):
I'll jump back in the frame now, just for my
mental health. No, I get it. That's how I am
about most me and these chickens on this forum. Man,
I'm happy. Can I just ask you and FTE a
question real quick since y'all are both a part of
one of my favorite shows on TV? Yeah, okay, we
just talk about Showcase real quick. Yes, let's talk about it, okay,
(10:28):
And what's going on? You know, I'm just you know,
I'm just let well, you wanna tell her what we
filmed a couple yeah? Man, So we got a Black
History Month special, which, in Negro fashion, is coming late
in June during Black Music month, gotta we shot it.
We shot it in January, and um, I have I
(10:51):
still haven't seen the whole joint. Dialo is kind of
telling me, I've seen it. It looks great. Yeah, he
said it's amazing. He said he really is though, So um, yeah,
I'm looking forward to that. That's coming June and uh
Sherman showcases on Hulu and Hulu just announced like free
subscription or a free trial. Yeah check now from my no,
(11:15):
but everybody else in there, it's not working every night
like you are, and and and we were in a
scene together, Me and John did one scene together to
recommire in it. But we're in at the time for
Jesus now. Um, the show is the most well reviewed
(11:39):
thing we've ever done as a production company. I've never
seen so many great reviews for something we've done. The
New York Times, all these other lists you know what
to watch while you're on the like the shows on
all those lists too. So hopefully people will give it
a chance, because I think once you get into the world,
you really get into it. I just I don't want
to discount though You're other show that you had on
(12:00):
w n Y. Yeah, we should deal with on the ground.
Now we couldn't bring it back. Um, you know, the
station was getting bought by that conservative news organization uh
st clairy. Yeah, so they were buying the station and
they decided to go on a whole another direction. Even
(12:21):
though we were the most popular show and got the
most buzz for for the network of any show that
they had on, they decided to go in a different direction.
They're the same organization that bought all those local news stations.
Do you remember that. Yeah, the news reporters. The news
reporters are reading the same script. Uh yeah, so they're
the same organization. So we didn't have much of a
(12:42):
chance to stay around. We tried to sell it to
other networks and it's it was a bit of an
expensive show to produce, and so a lot of networks
didn't want to take it because it was kind of
like secondhand and they didn't want to spend all that
money making a secondhand show. Uh. But as a show producer,
how do you like? How do you how do you
(13:03):
figure that's different than uh music, working on music and whatnot. Well,
it's less hands on for me because you're leaving it
in the other creator's hands. So you have writers, you
have directors, you have all these other people that are involved,
and they're hopefully you hire people and you work with
(13:23):
people that are really good at what they do, and
so it's not nearly as hands on as I would
be on my own record. I feel like it's mostly
about making good personnel decisions and then picking good projects
to be part of creatively. Are you going to organizing
music as the Wild Wild West it is? Music is?
(13:47):
It's Yeah, you might get paid. You might not like
t V everybody it ain't no such thing he's doing. Like,
you don't get checks. Yeah. TV is better organized, films
better organized. Hollywood just more like corporate than the music
world is not. Theater well, the theaters have the strong
(14:11):
unions though, you know, so there's a lot of rules
around how you do things in the theater too. The
unions are very strong, and so there's a lot of
structure around that. And so I feel like, um, that's
pretty you know, it's pretty on point as well. Wow,
you know, I I have a wish to see the
(14:33):
I mean, you can weigh in on this bill or not.
I mean, at the beginning of In the Heights in
Hamilton's like, did you feel as though you know, the
system was pretty much uh stuck in its ways WHATNOTO.
I don't know what the system was or which way
it was stuck in it, but yeah, something like that,
I don't know. To me, theater has the worst business
(14:55):
plan ever. If it's a success, then you make money.
If it's anything before success, it's a total disaster. Yeah,
I see, I see. So's it's a city business plan.
It's a shitty dissis plan. Or is it's either you
invest millions of dollars and only if you're a humongous
success you make the money back. If you don't, then
(15:15):
it's a failure. It's just the business plan doesn't make
sense to me. So there's no middle ground. There's no
such thing as a moderately successful theater show. Yeah. Just
think about just think about real estate in New York
and so part of it is you have to occupy
and pay for this real estate in New York and
(15:37):
get people to show up, and then you have to
pay everybody's salaries and everything based on the union uh
you know scale, and it's just the the original baseline
nut that you have to pay for is a lot
of money. I'm scared to play starts in November, and
like this isn't like you know, where you just put
(16:01):
a little bit of money in and then your producer like,
we're really funding this joint. So it's that but a mayor,
are you fearful now? Because I mean not to put
that on you, but when are people really want to
feel comfortable and in theaters and in New York and
brought in New York. And the thing is is that
you know, we after taking a queue from Hamilton's to
(16:23):
see how radical that was. I mean, I just have
this desire to really update Broadway. Um Broadways somehow stuck
between this this post timpan Alley Jazz hands kind of
(16:43):
Broadway like that that kind of era where you know
it could really use, uh a refresh or redo and
you know, based on did you see and did you
see in Terek's uh play yet like any of the
practice I haven't. It's it's like it's it's just as
(17:07):
mind blowing to me as Hamilton's, but it's like the
complete opposite where you don't feel good about any of
the characters. It's like if Obama, if if Hamilton's represented
everything that is beautiful about the Obama era, then this
is the trade for the play for the Trump era
and post And the thing was they wrote this, you know,
(17:30):
during like the beginning of Obama's second term as a
as a kind of a satire. But it's just like
it's real now, which makes it even more on point.
So it's like idiocracy, dude, it's it's it's idiocracy to play.
That's what it is, like people mind blowing, but it's
(17:53):
black no more. It's it's based on um. One of
the very John Ridley who did Twelve Years of Slave.
I know John right. He wrote this back in two
thousand twelve, came to Tarik around two thousand thirteen, and
they developed at the last four years. It's a scathing play.
(18:14):
It's amazing, but no one's gonna feel good about themselves.
They won't be congratulating themselves for going No. But I
mean yeah, I mean, the guilty aspect of it is
gonna like it's it's a real It's a play about
kind of in the Harlem speakeasy era of of of Harlem.
Um a black man who uh meets a white girl
(18:40):
in a speakeasy who you know, they flirt and whatnot,
and she's sort of like, you know, this ain't going
any further than this basement because you know, I could
never take you home to my father, YadA, YadA, YadA.
And this guy wishes, uh, kind of wishes that there
was a way that she could fall in love them,
and he gets some sort of operation. This is based
(19:05):
on a book he gets. He goes through a process
that turns him into a white man, um, and then
she would like soul man in reverse. Yeah. This this
book was written in nineteen thirty six as a satire
Eddie Murphy's SNL. It's very much like that skip. Yeah,
(19:30):
just hits the fan even crazier. So yeah, yeah, so yeah,
let's rack up the Tonys. Let's go get this egot
Ghetto Man you Ghetto. The single is out now or
(19:51):
streaming on now correct. Yeah. So we have two singles out,
once called Conversations in the Dark. We put that out
in January, and then Actions is the one wh US
put out a couple of weeks ago. You played it
on your own life Instagram lives that to night. Do
you have a title for the upcoming record yet? Yeah,
it's called Bigger Love. And then the next single is
going to be the title track, UM called Bigger Love
(20:14):
and then UM and we got joints. Man, I'm excited
I did UM. Raphael Sadik Exact produced the whole thing.
He's done my last couple of albums, Exact producing wise
Uh for the Christmas Album and the Christmas Deluxe, and
we were just in the nice groove and we just
kept working together on this. UM. But I worked with
other producers and writers and Uh Oak produced the last
(20:38):
single actions Oak Felder. He produced another one on my
album that's really crazy called La and UM. Yeah, we've
got some good stuff on there. Do you record you
still go to the studio house? I still go to
the studio because I like to feel like I'm going
to work. Um. I like to leave the house, be
away from the kids, go to work and then come
(20:59):
home and president with the family. What studio did you
record out of? At Rafael's Blakesley up in North Hollywood.
Is Jerry still is engineer? Yeah? Jerry still mixed with
the Christmas Lights. Yeah, so Jerry mixed this UM. This
guy named Alex is the recording engineer. Yeah, rack Fael's
(21:20):
du Jerry Um like his atmosphere like Christmas. So he
always even when he is not at his studio ahead
of time. He'll send like all this this Christmas decorations
to the studio to get set up and he wants
it to look like Christmas when he's mixing. So he's
been doing that for like the last thirty years with Fels.
(21:42):
His first record he did for me was My Christmas Album.
So how perfect? Oh yeah, I thought he had it
in there just for the for the best of music.
Nah when Jerry uh engineer what they do on ill
adelf Half Life, and was like, we had to wait
an hour for him to get like the Christmas decorations.
(22:03):
Now he's been doing that forever. He's been doing that forever. John.
I always want to ask you, man, who is Maxine?
Because she had you going down? Uh you know what
Maine was the prediction of Truthful. You know. I was
(22:23):
writing that song, um with the guys from Sara so
uh so you know the whole crew, uh, including on
Mars and Pads and everybody. So we're in l a
at there, um they had that house studio and um
Lose Feelas or somewhere around there. So we're late um
and we were just hanging out. We were writing the
(22:45):
song and I had just listened to, Um, guess who
I saw today, my love Nancy Wilson. So Nancy used
to sing that song and it was about it kind
of those through the whole story of you know, I
was hanging out at this lovely bar and I'm blah
blah blah, and you know I saw this beautiful couple
(23:07):
and blah blah blood and oh it was your nig
you don't And so I had listened to that not
long before that, and we were we were just singing. Uh,
we were just playing around on the instruments, and I
(23:27):
started singing, she may not be you, but she looks
just like you, and we wrote. I was like, we
should write a song kind of in that same lyrical
vein where I described this whole setup of these two
beautiful people hanging out with each other looking like this,
so on love and it was her the whole time.
I'm like, she may not be you, what she looked
awful lot like you. And then uh, we decided at
(23:50):
the end we should call her name. And we just
made up a name that sounded good and so actually
night it was and we wanted to sound quaint and
like old school. And then it turns out, And I
did not know this at the time. My grandmother's middle
(24:11):
name is Maxine Um and so she thought I had
written it Maxine because of her name, but I had
no idea that was her middle name at the time.
You don't wing it that. I love that record, that
whole was again out. That's the love that once again
is my favorite, Like it's one of my favorite things
I've done. Wake Up is one of them, to when
(24:31):
I did with the Roots and then uh once again
it is like my heart, I don't know something that's
my favorite. One that's right, Yeah, showed me is on there. Yeah, Yeah,
that's the one. That's a lot of them. John, Yeah,
Steve has a question over there me, s Um, have
(24:53):
you written any new songs since the quarantine started? Anything
at home? I have not, and I part of it.
I think it's just kind of feeling like, oh, I'm
done with my album and I can relax for a while.
I have to write something. But also I don't like
writing at home, so it's the perfect storm. I mean,
not getting anything done at home, So wait a minute,
(25:13):
when you're home, that's not your creative hub at all. No,
I almost never right at home. I like to schedule
time go in. Sometimes I'll sing stuff into my phone
at home, like, oh, I have an idea. I'm almost
singing this into my phone, and then finish it at
the studio because I like to go towards your separation
of church and state. I get it like anything, because
(25:37):
if anything, I would figure that this this time period
is probably the best time period for all songwriters and
all screenwriters and book writers. Like, but it's really not.
Though you have kids, if you don't have kids, maybe
if you don't have kids, maybe, so you just can't
get three hours of complete hell no, so the middle
(26:06):
road is just too and we got one of those homes.
We don't do ship. Do you know that I'm about
to buy a crib, won't have a separate bat cave
for myself. I got it now, Okay, I just don't
think now like in the middle of with everybody dealing
(26:27):
with just the stress of the pandemic, I don't think
that really lends itself to creativity very much, you know
what I mean? So much of at least for me,
so much of what you full from comes from outside
sources either, you know, like if you go out and
you see a couple and you think something or you
you know, you kind of go out and pull from
these different experiences when you don't really have that anymore.
(26:47):
And on top of not having that, but you're constantly
watching people that you know or or no of get
you or die. I mean, I ain't thinking about no
goddamn wrap music, you know what I mean. It's just realized.
I think some people will will be inspired by it
and write some dope ship from it. It will it
(27:09):
will fit into certain people's style of writing and their worldview,
and it'll it'll propel them to write some dope stuff.
I really believe that's possible. But it's just it ain't
inspired me at all. Don't make me feel bad now, man,
I'm like, you got no kids, I don't know five chapters?
No I got dude, having kids like I got responsibility.
(27:33):
I know it's not the same as having kids, you know,
single people. I mean, I'm just saying, but I also
know that when you have two children in the home
every day, all day, that's the different situation. And I
appreciate my privilege. Yeah, I think with you. I think
maybe why you kind of getting stuff done in that
(27:53):
way is because you've finally been now, so you know,
you when you're writing and stuff like that, it's like, I,
you know, you finally have a chance to really buckle
down and do it, all right, and which is different
than a lot of people. But I'm just not feeling
like writing songs right now. You're thinking about writing a
book and at some point in the future. I had
always thought about it, but I I have to at
(28:16):
some point. But John Legend, I'm not enough. Seriously, John,
save everything, Like, don't you know, save everything? Just put
in storage whatever, like it'll you'll need it, You'll need
it for your trust me. I gotta write one at
(28:39):
some point. There's stuff I wish I saved for, you know,
memoires that notes that I wrote old lyric sheets. Are
that sort of thing? Save everything? Yeah? Right, all right? Um?
So two questions. One is there a full inversion of
Angel with you? And Stacy? Yes? Is we put it
(29:01):
on her? It was on her record? One? Yes, we
put on Stacy's EP. Stacy bart Um, she's the dope
singer and songwriter. She's written a lot of songs for
big artists, and she was signed to my production company
for a while as an artist, and she put out
a couple of EPs, and we had her guests on
(29:22):
Love in the Future. We did a shorter version of
Angel on that's my favorite version. I like that. Yeah,
so that's on if you you can find it, but
Stacy put it on her EP and also Okay, hold
on longer, talk to me about that one. I love
that song. That was Oh that was funk le Roy's idea.
(29:44):
So he wrote a couple of those songs with us,
and uh, you know, you know his zone. It was
right in his zone. He wrote a couple of those
type of joints with us for the album. I love
that recommend and also since his you tips Birthday tomorrow
talk about don't wait till to like that was me
(30:05):
and Kanye is like sleeper favorite on the album because
Kanye was exactly producing that album. And I went over
to um Um Kamal's house and um and uh in
Jersey and we just jammed for a little while and
we came up with that song and that's our sleeper
(30:25):
favorite on on Love and the Future. It didn't get
a lot of buzz, but it's something about it just
that group. Yeah, exactly exactly. I have a question. Yes,
in the wake of Bill Wither's passing and you're great
rerecording of of his his song I Can't wear a
left handed? Can you just comment on the recording of
(30:46):
that song? And yeah, but here's one of the things
I did say. Question, I have it. I'm gonna pull
it up right now, hold on like it. Imagine an email.
He wrote it for real. I re sent it to
my manager and uh, that was with me back then,
(31:10):
and he had sent it to me. This is from
October six and here's the email from Bill Withers. I'm
gonna read it to y'all. Eve exclusive. Okay, here we go. Alex,
(31:30):
some time ago you contacted Marcia regarding John Legends recently
recorded album and offered to introduce her to Greg, one
of the guys who managed me at the time. She
probably attempted to forward the message to me or meant
to afford it to me. Quite possibly. It was doing
one of those periods where I was in Marcia, Alex
and everyone else overload and just ignored all incoming information
(31:52):
for a while. Anyway, I just found out about the
John Legend recording yesterday and a much more interesting fashion,
Having sat down to watch a documentary on Louis Armstrong.
The phone rang fifteen minutes into it, and the voice
on the other end says, in this stilted tone, did
I awaken you, sir? Just as I was about to
(32:12):
hang up on whoever this clown was, the voice said
Bill Withers, this is William Felton Russell, which of course
was followed by the unmistakable cackle of Bill Russell laughing
on the other end of the line. He then proceeded
to read me the titles of the songs on the
John Legend album that he was listening to and informed
(32:34):
me that I can't let right left hand. It was
included in the list of songs that were recorded with
the Roots band for the album. We then proceeded to
share stories of the people that it had impacted our lives,
such as Jackie Robinson, Joe Louis, Jesse Owens, et cetera.
We continued on to have the obligatory conversation about Obama
and whatever else two seventy plus year olds of our
(32:56):
might run their mouths about and catch up conversations, and
hour and a half later, having pursed ourselves of all
current topics worthy of chit chat for the moment, we
ended our conversation. I hit play to resume watching the
Louis Armstrong tape as I digested the conversation that I
had just had with my old friend and lifelong he wrote.
When the Louis Armstrong story finished, I went to my
(33:18):
computer and watched the session with John and the Roots
on YouTube. While digesting the pleasure of witnessing the heartfelt
and caring interpretation of this song by John and the
Band that Ray Jackson and I had written probably before
he and most of the band were born, it occurred
to me that it had indeed been a day spent
in the company of legends, conversation about legends with the legend,
(33:42):
while watching the story of a legend capped off by
the flattery of John Legend taking the time to revisit
and revive an old song written with a dear friend
would actually gotten me into the music business and who
left us much too soon. Ray Jackson passed away some
years ago. I'm sure that Ray Jackson would have joined
me in thanking John and the Roots for their attention
(34:03):
to this song and then congratulating them on a job
well done, since they put me in such a good mood.
I will find it in my heart to not hold
a grudge against quest love for making me sound so
ancient in his otherwise flattering, introductory and explanatory comments on
the video smiles. I was further sued by the fact
that Bill Russell is really old. Congratulations to John appropriately
(34:27):
named legend for all the work he does in education
and for projecting a good, wholesome image for us all
to appreciate. I would appreciate it if you, whoever you is,
would share this letter with John and the Roots. I
would further advise you to avoid contact with me in
the future if you don't rendered grumpy by the rare, rainy, cloudy,
yucky weather here in l A today, but boyd revived
(34:50):
and sustained by my day with the Legends yesterday, Bill Withers, Wow,
that's the letter this dude can tell a worried man.
He's the musical uncle we never had. His emails were
legendary because every time he wrote one he had all
(35:11):
those extra little colors and flavors in there that you
normally I'm just like yes, because I'm always like approving something.
Ye like okay, great, nice thanks. He write such such
great emails. Wow, man, Yeah, when when he when he
came to the show, Yeah, to see his performance. He
(35:33):
was just it was everything I've ever wanted. And that
was the point in which like, I was really kind
of not you know, I was a little gunshy with
meeting idols by that point because so many had let
me down before. Yeah. Um, but he he lived up
to everything. Like he was full of stories, like and
(35:57):
humor and seemed like he did not seem or act
like he was in the seventies. I thought he was
like he might be fifty nine, maybe sixty maybe. Um. Yeah,
that's one of my regrets, man. Like I was, I
was gunning for him for at least twelve years to
(36:17):
try to try to work with him. But yeah, so
he heard he heard the live version of that too.
That was the first thing he heard was the YouTube.
We had made a YouTube video. I think that was
actually in the studio. It was like one of those
promo things we shot in the studio, but it was
a live performance though. It was like it wasn't like edited,
(36:38):
it was you know, it was a straight up live performance,
but there was an audience there. Yeah, and I forgot
we did something Spike Lee as well. I told you
about that Uh, that thing in the one of those
buildings in New York something something five terminal five do
we John? You know how long we've been trying to
(36:58):
get this to happen. You know this is just a preview, right,
like you know at some point when we all come
back together and really this is not in the room.
Oh man, I love that. Yeah, That's why I'm not
asking like the questions I normally asked for, because I'm
trying to say that for the real episode. We just
in case we don't get the real episode. And I
got another music all right, so I don't know how
(37:23):
we all might not be there. Hey, your first uh
on again on once Again? Uh huh? The leak version
of it was just acoustic, and then the album version
you added drunk. What made you change? Uh? No, I
(37:44):
mean I had always thought we were gonna put a
little instrumentation on it. So sometimes I will record a
demo of it, and I don't know who leaked it.
I'm trying to remember how that came out. Also did
a version on Death Portrait and they kind of let
me Hals sing sing Hals sing on a death Caught
you John. That was the first time anybody actually heard
any of it was on the fourth again. And remember that.
(38:06):
I mean I didn't miss it my first time hearing that.
It was the lead version. Yeah, this is back when
albums would leak, you know what I mean, The album
Eleak and that version of Again, it was just it
was just you and piano. And I'm not even sure
if I knew it leaked. Honestly, I'm not even sure
why worms just you in piano. That's crazy. Yeah, I
(38:29):
gotta go back and revisit it. Said, thank you. That's
a gablet of like happiness, South Carolina, North Carolina. What
(38:50):
is that? This is? Uh? What's up? What's up? Steve?
Is again the joint you samples for doing it again? Yeah? Us,
that's again. Okay. I was thinking in my head like
you're doing it again again. Yeah. And then I had
another song on a record called another again again. Yeah
(39:10):
Boom Boom by John. I still remember your that first
album when you were sitting U Beach in your line
outfit when you were back in the Philly days. Yeah,
that's crazy yeah before the John Actually wait did you sanction?
(39:34):
Because that um the early record even before uh, your
first album is up your version of Burning Down the house. Yeah.
So that was when we did live at uh SL
B S. Yeah. Yeah, I was from like oh two.
(39:56):
I think I got my deal in oh four. So
it was, you know, a couple of years before everything
popped off. Listening to that. You had that album, you
were selling it. This is back in three. It was
a little brother and Kanye, we was on two together. Yeah.
We did the NorVa and um yes, I remember in Norfolk,
(40:20):
yeah yeah, and we were selling that joint and I
remember those shows man, and I remember I would sell
those CDs out of my you know, out of my trunk,
you know, every everywhere we would go. I would do
gigs in New York and Philly by myself for a while.
I would play it like s O B S and
UH Knitting Factory, north By, Northwest five Spy, all these
(40:43):
places UH in Philly and New York and UH and
I would just sell them and I and I was
my own web person, so I would like I didn't
program the site, but I would uh. I would. I
would handle all the CD cells, so I would be
like chipping them off to people. I would go to
the post office every couple of days and ship some
more CDs off the people that order them online. Can
(41:05):
you believe we actually to buy CDs your own distribution something? Yeah,
I feel like it's time for a sequel now, John,
where we are like, we we gotta do it. We
gotta do it. We always say we gotta do it,
but we gotta do it. Wait which sequel you're getting together?
Making music? Us and the Roots, Me and the Roots
coming back. Yeah, real protest songs man. Yeah, I like that.
(41:31):
I like the job. Bowed to do that. I want
to take right here in front of everybody. Yeah, we
really need to do it. It's true. I mean all
we do is work. So it's a long time of
collaborator that's willing and shows up. Let's work. I'm down,
you know what I'm saying. No, thank you, Thank you, John.
I appreciate you doing our our our live YouTube h
(41:57):
broadcast of course Love Supreme. I want to be playa ship.
Steve Unpaid, Bill Fontagelo and John Legend. Thank you very much.
This is of course Love Supreme. We'll see you on
the next year. Now, everybody do well, y'all see y'all
have our don of course, Love Supreme is a production
(42:20):
of My Heart Radio. For more podcasts. For my heart radio,
visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
Hosts And Creators
Laiya St. Clair
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