John Legend: singer-pianist stirs the soul and takes music to higher ground with CD 'Get Lifted'

Jet, March 21, 2005

Don't give up on R&B just yet. Enter John Legend. His music revisits the days of old when singers tickled the ivories while belting out gutsy, poignant music.

That's newcomer Legend, the singer-pianist whose major label debut, Get Lifted, was released on his 26th birthday and has received perfect ratings and has earned him a personal call from Oprah.

"I expect the album to do big things," Legend told JET during a visit to the Johnson Publishing Company headquarters. "I've been touring a long time to support it. I just want to be all over the world and expose everybody to the music."

So far he's gotten his wish. Used To Love U and Ordinary People were the first songs released from the album. This year he performed with music great Mavis Staples at the 47th Annual Grammy Awards during a special tribute to R&B music.

And even more people will get to see him perform live as the opening act for Grammy winning-singer/pianist Alicia Keys for the Diary Tour.

Last year Legend went on the road with Grammy-winning artists Kanye West and Usher on the Truth Tour, in addition to appearing in small clubs on his own.

"I feel like my shows are a combination of a revival to some extent-it's kind of spiritual," he explains. "People go away and feel touched and energized."

People have been touched by Legend's music long before they knew his name. His first major industry work was as the pianist on Lauryn Hill's song Everything Is Everything, taken from her 1998 multi-platinum Grammy-winning project The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

As a vocalist and/or pianist, he's been featured on: Jesus Walks (Kanye West); You Don't Know My Name (Alicia Keys); Encore (Jay-Z); Overnight Celebrity (Twista); Selfish (Slum Village); I Want You (Janet Jackson); I Try (Talib Kweli featuring Mary J. Blige); and This Way (Dilated People).

John Stephens was born to play music. The Springfield, OH, native says, "I was playing at church and taking piano lessons at 3. I was performing at church when I was 6, singing songs, leading the choir, doing solos and playing the piano. I was doing everything."

For nine years he was the choir director, pianist and head of the music department at Bethel AME Church in Scranton, PA. Last year he ended that position.

Given the name Legend by Chicago Def poet James "J" Ivey because he sounded like an old-school artist, Legend also excelled academically. He graduated from high school at 16. College was a logical choice for him.

"I was doing well, so I figured, why quit?" Legend reasons. "I figured [going to college] would give me more options if music didn't work out or if music was just something that I did on the side. I didn't know what was going to happen. As I got further into school, I realized that I wanted to really make a career out of music."

At 20, Legend graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in English. All the while, music was a constant companion. For a year he was a part of Counterparts, a nationally-acclaimed student a cappella group from the university.

When he graduated, Legend packed his bags and headed to New York where he entered corporate America with a job as a management consultant.

His goal, however, was to get a record deal. So he recorded independent CDs: John Stephens in 2000; Live At Jimmy's Uptown in 2001; and 2003's Live at Sob's and Solo Sessions Vol. 1: Live at the Knitting Factory.

Little did Legend know that his life would change once his longtime musical associate, Devon "Devo" Harris, introduced him to his cousin, a then up-and-coming producer named Kanye West.

Legend and West began collaborations and the rest is, as they say, history. Get Lifted is the first project to be released under West's new record label, G.O.O.D. (Getting Out Our Dreams) Music.

"I feel like this album is one of those albums that'll get good word of mouth," says Legend. "Just put it in people's hands and it'll sell itself. It all comes down to making good songs."