Speaker 1: I am so excited to introduce today's guest. I'm love someone.
Speaker 1: My kids are so excited. My teenage girls are so excited.
Speaker 1: My adult girls are so excited to listen to this guest.
Speaker 1: He's smart, he's talented, he's handsome. He's a loving husband
Speaker 1: and father. He's a child prodigy that was taught piano
Speaker 1: by his grandmother while growing up in Springfield, Ohio. He's
Speaker 1: released six wildly successful albums, including Get Lifted Once Again, Evolver,
Speaker 1: Love in the Future, Darkness and Light, and The Legendary Christmas,
Speaker 1: which has been played quite I bet on this little
Speaker 1: nighttime radio show that you might be familiar with that
Speaker 1: I've in hosting for a few years, and as the
Speaker 1: youngest person ever and the first black man to join
Speaker 1: the exclusive Egot Club E g O T and Emmy
Speaker 1: A Grammy, an Oscar A Tony, you might say this
Speaker 1: man is something of a legend. He's here today to
Speaker 1: talk with us about what's been going on with him
Speaker 1: since his summer tour was canceled. Pandemic life has happened,
Speaker 1: and he's been shut in with a supermodel poor man.
Speaker 1: His wife, Christy Tigan, is adorable. He's got two kids,
Speaker 1: Luna and Miles, and he's working on his seventh studio album,
Speaker 1: Bigger Love. We will be right back to introduce ourselves
Speaker 1: and to get caught up with John legend right after
Speaker 1: we take a little minute to share some love from
Speaker 1: my legendary podcast sponsor those wise and wonderful folks that
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Speaker 1: doers get more done? Hi? John? How are you? I'm wonderful?
Speaker 1: How are you? I'm doing great? I'm so excited to
Speaker 1: get to talk to you. I still haven't washed my
Speaker 1: cheek from where you kissed it about six years. Oh
Speaker 1: my god. I have teenage daughters and I was telling
Speaker 1: them last night that I got to talk to you,
Speaker 1: and they were so over the moon excited, and I said, yeah,
Speaker 1: he actually he gave me a little kiss on the
Speaker 1: cheek a couple of years ago. And Briar, my sixteen
Speaker 1: year old, jumped up and said, which cheek I want
Speaker 1: to kiss it? And and so I kept I kept
Speaker 1: switching back and forth. Channe, I don't remember if it's
Speaker 1: this side or this side. I got about twenty three
Speaker 1: kisses from my teen Wow, I'm glad I got helped.
Speaker 1: I played it. I played it. So how have you been?
Speaker 1: How are you? How is life? Tell me you had
Speaker 1: a summer tour that was canceled because of COVID. What
Speaker 1: are you doing like instead of touring with bazillions of fans? Well,
Speaker 1: I'm home with my kids and my wife most of
Speaker 1: the time. Um, that's been our mo for most of
Speaker 1: the summer. But we did take a trip down to Mexico.
Speaker 1: We shot a music video down there that we released
Speaker 1: last week from my song wild Is that the one
Speaker 1: that I saw with my horse Sampson in it? Exactly
Speaker 1: the Frisian in that video. I had a horse named
Speaker 1: Sampson for over ten years. That was a black I
Speaker 1: did not know that. Well, yeah, Samson was in it.
Speaker 1: See we got you and I got the kiss on
Speaker 1: the cheek and the freeesian. You know, we're kind of
Speaker 1: got this bond going on here. Yes, we do, clearly, clearly,
Speaker 1: that is a beautiful video. Oh my goodness, gorgeous. We
Speaker 1: let out a little secret, you did? You let out
Speaker 1: a little secret. I had to wait for it. Somebody
Speaker 1: clude me in so the whole video, I'm looking, I'm looking.
Speaker 1: You were very clever with the shots, very subtle. But
Speaker 1: uh but yes we uh we have a little quarantine
Speaker 1: baby on the way. I noticed the last a couple
Speaker 1: of minutes of the song where you're dining together and
Speaker 1: she kind of, you know, shuts down on you and
Speaker 1: pushes you away. I'm like, I understand those emotional mood swings.
Speaker 1: She didn't have to act. So how old are your
Speaker 1: two little ones, Miles and Luna? Right? Miles is two
Speaker 1: and Luna's four. You guys aren't wasting any time here?
Speaker 1: Are you going to catch up with me? Yeah? We
Speaker 1: had a lot of free time, A lot of free
Speaker 1: time a lot of I think, I suspect delivery rooms
Speaker 1: are going to be very, very busy in the next
Speaker 1: nine months. That's true, I believe it. We joked about it,
Speaker 1: and then it was us Congratulations, congratulations, thank you. I
Speaker 1: know you you're just over the moon because every time
Speaker 1: I see any pictures of you with your babies, you
Speaker 1: look like the happiest daddy, the most blessed daddy and
Speaker 1: husband in the world. Yeah, I'm very happy. I feel
Speaker 1: very fortunate. And uh, I get to do what I
Speaker 1: love to do for a living, and UH have a
Speaker 1: wonderful family two quarantine with and life is good. I
Speaker 1: look forward to when we can get back out on
Speaker 1: tour and come to the country in the world and
Speaker 1: play these songs for people. But in the meantime, if
Speaker 1: I'm going to be stuck at home with anybody, I'm happy.
Speaker 1: I'm stuck at home with my wife and two babies.
Speaker 1: Your wife was very funny, by the way. I've I've
Speaker 1: enjoyed watching her on some of the things that she's
Speaker 1: on during quarantine, and she has got a sassy sense
Speaker 1: of humor. Yes, I get to be the bother joke sometimes. Well,
Speaker 1: with what I've I've seen it looks like everybody. Everybody.
Speaker 1: She's like my sister. My sister's got a very dry
Speaker 1: sense of humor, and I can't keep up. I just
Speaker 1: have to bow down to her. I can't keep up.
Speaker 1: So you've also been very, very busy with some philanthropic endeavors,
Speaker 1: like the Harlem Village Academies in New York City. Tell
Speaker 1: me about that. Oh yeah, I'm on the board there,
Speaker 1: um and we um we serve hundreds of kids in
Speaker 1: Harlem and and get them a really great education. They're
Speaker 1: all doing really well, uh, going off to college and
Speaker 1: doing really well on the on the state tests and
Speaker 1: things of that nature. So really proud of the work
Speaker 1: we're doing there. UM. A lot of my work nowadays
Speaker 1: is around the criminal justice reform. So we started Free
Speaker 1: America a few years ago to focus on that and
Speaker 1: uh ending mass incarceration. UH. And you know, we just
Speaker 1: try to find ways to improve people's lives in the community.
Speaker 1: And you know, UM use my celebrity and my resources
Speaker 1: to uh to try to make people's lives better. So
Speaker 1: I read somewhere that you said that the school system
Speaker 1: you came through had drop out rate by high school.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, my my, my hometown in Ohio and you're
Speaker 1: trying to change that. Yeah, that one of the things
Speaker 1: we're working on. Yeah, So we focus on some of
Speaker 1: our workers around education reform and then some of our
Speaker 1: workers around a criminal justice reforms. So those are some
Speaker 1: of the things were we um work with expert on
Speaker 1: every every day and try to bring about changes that
Speaker 1: will really affect people's lives. Have you heard John of
Speaker 1: a project called the IF? I f the IF project?
Speaker 1: I haven't a friend of mine here in Seattle, Kimbugooki,
Speaker 1: she's a police officer, was mentoring women in prison and
Speaker 1: she asked the question, if one thing had changed in
Speaker 1: your life that would have changed the trajectory of your life,
Speaker 1: what would that have looked like? And one of the
Speaker 1: women that was incarcerated took the challenge and collected statements
Speaker 1: from dozens of women and they gave them to Kim. Well,
Speaker 1: from that came a movie and this whole movement and
Speaker 1: it's not just in women's prisons now, where people that
Speaker 1: are formally incarcerated, first off, they mentor people, they try
Speaker 1: to get them out, They find solutions, they get lawyers,
Speaker 1: people who were not represented and are there unjustly they
Speaker 1: represent them, but they also take it a step further
Speaker 1: where they take these people who formally incarcerated and take
Speaker 1: them to youth at risk and partner them asking that question,
Speaker 1: if something could change so that you wouldn't make bad choices,
Speaker 1: what would that look like? And it always boils down
Speaker 1: to love. Yeah, well, love and resources people like we
Speaker 1: have to make sure people are safe and then tear fed,
Speaker 1: and they're taking care of when it comes to health
Speaker 1: care and all these other things. And uh, and love
Speaker 1: is important. Isn't the resources the very foundation of love? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And that's what I talk a lot about when I
Speaker 1: talk about, you know, what we need to do in
Speaker 1: the world. The foundations always love, like do you care
Speaker 1: about your name or do empathize with them? Do you
Speaker 1: do you care about their children and their children's dreams? Um?
Speaker 1: And that boils down love and and if we have
Speaker 1: that kind of love, then we'll get closer to justice,
Speaker 1: I think, because you cannot have one without the other.
Speaker 1: M hm, I agree. I mean, injustice is at the
Speaker 1: very core a lack of love and compassion. You cannot
Speaker 1: treat somebody poorly if you love them. You can't. You
Speaker 1: can't turn a blind eye to injustice. You can't turn
Speaker 1: a blind eye to statistics. You can't turn a blind
Speaker 1: eye to the facts and the truth if you love them,
Speaker 1: that's right. So we have to all figure out how
Speaker 1: to practice love in our lives. And you do that
Speaker 1: a lot in your music. The great unifier, the soul, soother,
Speaker 1: that voice, those those those songs you write and compose
Speaker 1: and players so inspiring to my listeners, to me, to
Speaker 1: anybody who has ever known love. When they listen to
Speaker 1: your music, John, it just resonates to the very core
Speaker 1: of love. Thank you, And uh, you know, I write
Speaker 1: from the things that inspired me, and of course my
Speaker 1: love for my my wife and my family, and and
Speaker 1: my love of music. And uh, this new album, Bigger Love,
Speaker 1: was just inspired by all of them. So if my
Speaker 1: listeners haven't already purchased it, it came out a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago. What would you like to tell everybody
Speaker 1: about Bigger Love? Um, it's a celebration of love, like
Speaker 1: you said, and it's a soulful, sexy, and uh really
Speaker 1: fun album. I feel like it's perfect for this summer. Um.
Speaker 1: I made it during a different time, before we knew
Speaker 1: what the world was going to go through this year. Uh.
Speaker 1: I wrote most of the songs and twenty nine and
Speaker 1: early so uh it didn't anticipate all the turmoil that
Speaker 1: this year would bring. But in some ways it's kind
Speaker 1: of like that perfect antidote to what's going on in
Speaker 1: the world right now. If you need something uplifting and
Speaker 1: joyful and soulful and full of love, I feel like
Speaker 1: this is the perfect album for you. Yeah, and if
Speaker 1: you need to be in the delivery room in a
Speaker 1: couple of more exactly because it is sexy. It is sexy.
Speaker 1: It is so sexy, your son, your music, the album,
Speaker 1: the video baby, Yes it is. I think it's my
Speaker 1: sexiest album to date. I would say, I would say
Speaker 1: it is your sexiest album to date. And that video,
Speaker 1: dang is beautiful, beautiful. So I we got to tell
Speaker 1: people to go look at watch the video wild You're
Speaker 1: gonna discover two or three things. Number one, there's a
Speaker 1: Freezian in the movie. Number two it is very very sexy.
Speaker 1: And number three there's a little surprise at the end.
Speaker 1: That's right. And um it was directed by the same
Speaker 1: guys who directed are all of the video. Guy named
Speaker 1: Nobil Elderkin and he happens to be the same guy
Speaker 1: who introduced us way back in the day in two
Speaker 1: thousand and six when we first met. All right, tell
Speaker 1: me your love story. So, uh, we literally were shooting
Speaker 1: a video and uh, she was cast as my female
Speaker 1: lead and he was as she was introduced to me
Speaker 1: by Nobile Elder Kim as a photographer director that we're
Speaker 1: both friends with. And wait, wait, what's what song was it? What?
Speaker 1: What song were you? Should? He a single? That's the
Speaker 1: funny thing. It was a video he wanted to make
Speaker 1: on back just to kind of uh be his calling
Speaker 1: card as a new video director. He wanted to create something, uh,
Speaker 1: and he really liked the song and he he wanted
Speaker 1: to pay for video himself. He just wanted to show
Speaker 1: show people that he could do it. And uh he um,
Speaker 1: there was a song called Stereo from my second album,
Speaker 1: Once Again, and so he cast Christie as the female
Speaker 1: lead and he said, I think you're gonna like her,
Speaker 1: and uh we ended up hitting it off and started
Speaker 1: dating not long after that. Fourteen years later, here we are.
Speaker 1: Were there sparks that first day? Yeah, that were definitely
Speaker 1: sparked the first day. So you guys are like the
Speaker 1: quintessential love at first sight, well at least attraction lust
Speaker 1: at first sight. I don't know that I knew that
Speaker 1: I was in love with her yet, but I fell
Speaker 1: in love not too long after that. You knew you
Speaker 1: were in strong like and you wanted to talk to
Speaker 1: her that night. Huh yeah, exactly How soon after the
Speaker 1: introduction did the texting start? Oh, like the next day?
Speaker 1: You wait until the next day, honestly, Or did you
Speaker 1: text her that night? We hung out that night, but
Speaker 1: then we started texting afterwards. Ah ha, you didn't even
Speaker 1: wait to hang out. You hung out that night, and
Speaker 1: then the texting the next day, and then like, has
Speaker 1: there been a single day since the introduction that you
Speaker 1: haven't talked to her, seeing her, kissed her, text her,
Speaker 1: or with her. Well maybe at the very beginning, but
Speaker 1: since then it's been a quite a quite a love affair.
Speaker 1: You're absolutely adorable when you guys, you know, you're out
Speaker 1: in public and you're all fancy schmancy. But I've seen
Speaker 1: little clips on interviews. I watched a lot of interviews
Speaker 1: before I got to talk to you, where you're just
Speaker 1: you know, down to earth mom dad people, and uh,
Speaker 1: the thing that comes shining through is the respect that
Speaker 1: you have for each other. Yeah, we really do respect
Speaker 1: each other, and we have fun with each other, and
Speaker 1: you know we were truly are best friends. Okay. Most
Speaker 1: fun thing your kids love doing during the COVID shutdown, Well,
Speaker 1: they have this trampoline in the backyard and they are
Speaker 1: obsessed with the trampoline. Um. Chrissy has even done some
Speaker 1: other things in backyard, like set up a tent for
Speaker 1: overnight camping. We have the pools, so they swim a lot.
Speaker 1: So our backyard has been their full playground. I want
Speaker 1: to come to your backyard. I got the trampoline. I
Speaker 1: don't have the pool though, so yeah, my kids would
Speaker 1: actually live on the trampoline if they could. I mean
Speaker 1: they would just like if they didn't have to stop
Speaker 1: to take a potty break, they would live on the trampoline. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they love it. It's like the gift that is just
Speaker 1: perfect because I know where they are, there's not too
Speaker 1: many kids on the trampoline. I know they're safe exactly,
Speaker 1: swimming certain variables are right right, and then they sleep
Speaker 1: like the dead all night long. It's a beautiful thing, exactly.
Speaker 1: You got to wear them out. Well, thank you thank you,
Speaker 1: Thank you for all the good work you're doing. John,
Speaker 1: Thank you for all the beautiful music you've shared with
Speaker 1: us in again, congratulations. Have you done the ultrasound yet? Oh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: we've done quite a few. Yeah. Do I get to
Speaker 1: know boy girl twins? We know, but I'll let Christy
Speaker 1: when she's ready. Okay, did you do the party when
Speaker 1: you found out? Did you like we we We've never
Speaker 1: done a gender reveal. Now you're just like, tell us
Speaker 1: what it is. Yeah. So, of my three that I
Speaker 1: gave birth to naturally, I've got many, many, many more
Speaker 1: than that. But the three that I gave birth to naturally,
Speaker 1: I didn't even have ultrasounds. I didn't even know until
Speaker 1: the moment they were born if they were boys or girls.
Speaker 1: I like the surprise, and that's so weird today, but
Speaker 1: I didn't want to know. Yeah, I think Chrissie could
Speaker 1: have gone either way. I did. I just rather know,
Speaker 1: not because of matters that much, but I just would
Speaker 1: rather know than not know. I'm like, I just want
Speaker 1: all the information. And do you start calling it by
Speaker 1: the name that you've picked out before or do you
Speaker 1: have a pet name for the baby? Do you have
Speaker 1: it like a nickname. Well, we haven't started calling it
Speaker 1: a name yet really, but she's starting to lean into
Speaker 1: a couple of ideas, so we'll see what happens. I
Speaker 1: love the way you're deferring to her on this. You're
Speaker 1: like I have learned, Daddy's just going to go along
Speaker 1: with whatever Mama says. Right now, it is not my
Speaker 1: place to say. God, bless you, thank you John for Colin,
Speaker 1: thank you for your music, and thank you for the
Speaker 1: kiss on the cheek six years. Love you Lord, bless
Speaker 1: you and keep you and the baby safe. Thank you
Speaker 1: you too, but by Hunt, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: joining us today and sharing from your heart. John Legend,
Speaker 1: hugs to your beautiful bride, to your two babies, and
Speaker 1: prayers for uneasy labor and delivery with baby number three,
Speaker 1: Bigger Love. His album is out now, has over one
Speaker 1: hundred million streams. Already, get it wherever you get all
Speaker 1: your music, get it today. Then go out and find
Speaker 1: one heart, just one person who needs to be loved,
Speaker 1: who needs to be cared for, who needs to have
Speaker 1: their world expanded by you, One heart at a time.
Speaker 1: That's what it means, one heart at a time. I
Speaker 1: want to thank John Legend, I want to thank you
Speaker 1: for joining us, for being here on this podcast, and
Speaker 1: uh I hope that you join me on the radio.
Speaker 1: Take some time out of your busy schedule to slow
Speaker 1: down and love someone