Q&A: John Legend On Activism, His New Album, Playing Live And Marvin Gaye

At only 43, John Legend has accomplished an incredible amount already in his career. He was the first Black man and youngest artist ever to achieve the coveted EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony).

For Legend, all of that success was so he could make a difference in the world. As he recalled when we spoke over Zoom last week he won an essay contest at 15 by saying he would become a famous musician use that fame to make the world a better place.

He is helping do that this Memorial Day Weekend when he will headline the Northwell Health “Side By Side” benefit show this Saturday, May 29, at New York’s UBS Arena. Legend will perform with Jason DeRulo at a gig that raises money for healthcare services for veterans and their families.

I spoke with Legend about why it was especially important for him to support our military during these difficult times, his love of playing life, how artists like Harry Belafonte, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye inspired his mix of music and activism and his new album.

Steve Baltin: I’m a big fan, but even more than being a big fan of the music. Are there artists that have been sort of the role models for you in the way they use their voice for activism?

John Legend: It’s hard not to get discouraged these days. But I feel like when we have the opportunity to say something, we have a platform and people listening and paying attention to what we say, we might as well use that influence for good if we have something good to say. And it’s interesting you mentioned Harry Belafonte, he’s one of those people that has been an influence and a friend to me and mentor to me, Stevie Wonder has been as well. And I look at some of these artists who at the height of their success when they were making hits and touring the world, they never shrank from the opportunity to also speak out for what they believe was right. And I believe it’s part of what we do as artists to tell the truth and reflect what’s going on in the world. And the artists that I’ve always looked up to, were the artist that were willing to do that.

Baltin: It’s interesting you say they were mentors as well. Did they help you early on find that voice and figure out how to use it in a way that marries music and activism?

Legend: Well, they’re my friends and mentors now. But I didn’t know then when I was coming up, I just knew their music, I knew their work, I knew what they stood for and I looked up to them. I looked up to Marvin Gaye, I looked up to these artists who made beautiful music and were some of the most soulful and prolific and prodigious musicians in soul music, but also never shied away from saying something when they believed it was the right thing to say. When I was coming up in the early ’80s, Stevie Wonder was out there advocating for Dr. King’s birthday being recognized as a holiday, he wrote the “Happy Birthday” song that we all know and love. He made the song that everybody loves and sings at gatherings for each other, but it was the song that was specifically targeted towards moving Congress to declare Dr. King’s birthday a holiday. And Harry Belafonte not only created art that was reflective of what was going on and reflective on these barriers, but he also acted it out in his life. He was hugely popular and spent a lot of his money funding protest, funding the movement, marching with Dr. King and others. And when I looked at those artists, I knew that that’s the kind of artist I wanted to be, even as a kid. I even responded to an essay question when I was 15 saying that I was gonna make Black history by doing exactly that, by becoming a successful musician and using that success, to try to try to fight for justice, make our world a better place.

Baltin: Talk about the show you’re doing Memorial Day weekend, and the importance of being able to actually go out and play shows and play for veterans and give back.

Legend: Well, I think this is especially poignant doing this on Memorial Day weekend, celebrating our veterans. But not just celebrating them and telling them thank you, but actually showing them that we’re grateful to them for their service and for their sacrifice, by making sure that they have the resources that they need. And the entire nation and probably a lot of the world are dealing with mental health crisis and public health crisis with the pandemic and the after effects of the pandemic. And we need to make sure we take care of each other and show each other that we love each other by more than just words and talk. But by actually providing resources that people need to get healthy and stay healthy, and that’s what we’re gonna try to do for our veterans during this celebration on Memorial Day weekend.

Baltin: How much are you looking forward to playing with Jason and being able to do it in a space where right now people are still really excited to be out and seeing music?

Legend: We’ve been having so much fun in Las Vegas. We’ve been doing the residency there, and it’s just been so fun connecting with audiences who come from all around the country, all around the world, to see live music. I love playing live, I love feeling the energy of the audience and feeling that connection. And for about a year and a half during the pandemic, we weren’t able to do any of that. We’ve been touring since late summer, so we’re still not taking it for granted that we’re able to get together and do these things because we’ve felt what it was like to not be able to do it for a while and to miss that connection, to miss that energy that you feel when you’re singing to an audience and with an audience. And I’m excited to do that back in New York, a place where I lived for quite a long time.

Baltin: Taking this into the Vegas residency and the Memorial Day show, are there songs that you’ve really enjoyed playing again?

Legend: Well, it’s fun doing the Vegas residency because it really is about celebrating the entire journey. So when we started dreaming up what we would do for the residency, we started back at Ohio where I grew up, we started in the church where I grew up. And so we start in the church playing songs that were influenced by my grandmother and my Gospel music upbringing, we go through my entire career, and we play some songs that we haven’t played in quite a while. And it’s a lot of fun doing that, and usually when I’m touring, it’s usually in support of a newer album, even though we play the greatest hits as well. But the Vegas show is really all about the entire journey, the celebration of the whole journey, but we also do play some new songs that are gonna be on the next album coming out maybe this year.

Baltin: Can you give us a little preview of the new record and did you do a lot of writing during COVID?

Legend: I wrote so much, I was prolific. We didn’t really write much in 2020 because I still had just finished Bigger Love and put it out. And we were really not going into studios, we weren’t working in spaces with other people. But we started to open up a little bit more, we started to test all the time and open up to working with other people starting in early 2021. And last year, given that we weren’t touring until late August, I had a lot of time to write. I wrote so many songs, and the biggest challenge has been trying to narrow it down, but it’s been so fun creating. It’s been such a productive time for me over the past year or so. And I can’t wait for people to hear what we’ve created. We are gonna release more than we normally do. But definitely have to narrow down some.

Baltin: Is there one song off the new album you can’t wait people to hear after they know the new music in 2023?

Legend: I think we have quite a few. But I think there’s a range, there ones that are gonna be really big party songs, like a song called “All She Wanna Do,” we’ve been playing that live at the Vegas residency. And even though people have never heard it before, it’s been going over so well. And then we’ve got songs that are more kind of intimate and heartfelt, songs that I think are gonna mean a lot to people as well. Songs like “Stardust” and “Wonder Woman.” So I think it’s gonna be quite a range. But I can’t wait for people to hear it all because like you said, once you release it to the world, they get to do what they want with it, and it’s gonna be interesting to see how it lives in the world.

Baltin: What is your favorite anthem of all time?

Legend: I think “What’s Going On” might be a great anthem to include. Obviously the album is brilliant, but that individual song is also brilliant and it was such a signature song for that moment. And I think what it was able to do is think about the struggle for justice, the struggle to end the war in Vietnam, which was kind of omnipresent in people’s minds at that time. And obviously the folks that we’re honoring this weekend, a lot of those folks may have come from later generations post the draft, but during the Vietnam War, they made it very real, made politics very real to people. The fact that they could be called into service, when they haven’t volunteered to do so, and a lot of people didn’t agree with the premise of the war, and didn’t understand why we were there. But they were being required to serve, and that makes politics very real and present in your life, and I think it creates a sense of urgency that you’ve heard in the music during that time. And I think that’s why you got, songs like “What’s Going On,” and albums like, What’s Going On. That’s why you got the activism and music with people like Bob Dylan and John Lennon, and so many others. I think that element of the draft and being called into service when you didn’t volunteer to be there made a big difference.

Baltin: What you’re talking about is so reflective of what’s happening right now with Roe V. Wade, and you’ve talked about that. What would be your one sentence answer in terms of what we can do to look out for each other?

Legend: We have to love and respect each other, and honor each other’s humanity. And honoring a woman’s humanity means respecting her rights to control her body and make health decisions that impact her and her family. Honoring humanity of people of color means rejecting this white supremacist ideology and this great replacement theory ideology that we’re seeing proliferating throughout the Internet and on television on places like Fox News. Loving each other, respecting each other’s humanity would make us a better society, and if you go through all the different policy fights that people are having, if we use that as our North Star, then I think we will come to answers that were more edifying for all of us.