Speaker 1: Course Love Supreme. It's a production of iHeartRadio. Ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: this is Quarantine Quest broadcasting live from the Kabbutz Upstate
Speaker 1: New York. We welcome you to shall we say So
Speaker 1: one's special version of QLs because the current COVID nineteen
Speaker 1: reality we're living in the present not exactly idea conditions
Speaker 1: with technology. Let's say we had slight issues with this
Speaker 1: particular recording of John Legend this episode, but we promised
Speaker 1: you guys that we're going to record a proper sequel
Speaker 1: in the future, so we could deep die with all
Speaker 1: those questions. But for now, please enjoy our conversation with
Speaker 1: one and only John Legend or Quest Love Supreme.
Speaker 2: Let's do it, Hi, Supreme, Supreme, Supreme, Supreme.
Speaker 3: Supreme. Latency has kicked in.
Speaker 1: My name is a mirror, not when I'm now realizing
Speaker 1: this roll call has to end first, As as you see,
Speaker 1: ladies and gentlemen, we we did not even bothered to
Speaker 1: practice to see what if we would have latency issues.
Speaker 3: It doesn't work. I've tried this music thing over the
Speaker 3: zoom call does not work.
Speaker 1: That was a roll call fail.
Speaker 4: Like I heard, I was getting my freestyle ready to.
Speaker 1: Brown and that what you what you drinking on?
Speaker 4: It's actually pink. It's my rose.
Speaker 1: Rose, you mean your rose?
Speaker 3: Like make me like I'm the proprietor.
Speaker 4: Uh. We have l v E.
Speaker 3: We have rose, we have.
Speaker 4: Cabernet.
Speaker 1: You know what's it called?
Speaker 4: You know, l v E Legend Beingard Exclusives, l v
Speaker 4: E wines dot Com.
Speaker 5: You haven't made it. I'm done.
Speaker 1: That's the show.
Speaker 4: I make money on it.
Speaker 3: Just so you know.
Speaker 1: Everybody, So, how the beards going in nicely?
Speaker 4: Oh? Yeah, I'm trying to join the roots.
Speaker 1: You truly lived in Philadelphia. Yeah, I can't wait for
Speaker 1: a month from now to see how everyone's grooming.
Speaker 6: We all gonna look like Tom Hanks and castaways.
Speaker 5: Glad all of y'all have y'all hairlines? Look at that
Speaker 5: beautiful hairlines.
Speaker 1: Steve Man, Steve is the new quest Love of the
Speaker 1: Crew Reality. So John, thank you for joining our second
Speaker 1: live show of course Love Supreme here on YouTube.
Speaker 4: I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I was well, Yeah, I want to know,
Speaker 1: how are you coping or making the most of this
Speaker 1: time period?
Speaker 3: Well, my kids are probably happier than ever because we
Speaker 3: are home and we are hanging out with them all
Speaker 3: the time.
Speaker 1: And are they holding you hostage right now? Are you
Speaker 1: eating a ransom? Note?
Speaker 4: They are napping right now.
Speaker 3: I'm so lucky because otherwise maybe all over the house,
Speaker 3: Luna likes to get in my zoom, calls, say hi
Speaker 3: to everybody, whistle, whatever she can do to get your attention.
Speaker 3: And yeah, they're non stop except when they're sleeping. So
Speaker 3: this is a lucky rest.
Speaker 1: This is the best.
Speaker 5: Y'all started this whole kind of I G programming over
Speaker 5: in your house, like I feel like after you guys
Speaker 5: started singing songs live.
Speaker 4: And then when we were early uh, we had talked
Speaker 4: to Chris Martin.
Speaker 3: My team and his team at the same time basically
Speaker 3: had the same idea, we should start doing these IG
Speaker 3: live concerts. And then we we both are affiliated with
Speaker 3: Global Citizens, so we started working with them to get
Speaker 3: the message out about staying home and raising money for
Speaker 3: the World Health Organization. And he started it on the
Speaker 3: Monday after everybody was in and I did it the
Speaker 3: next day and it's just blossomed. We you know, Quest
Speaker 3: DJ and D nine DJ, and we've seen so many
Speaker 3: battles with the different producers and whatnot. You know, I
Speaker 3: feel like we've gotten a lot of interesting content out
Speaker 3: of this dope dope.
Speaker 1: So what is your what are your? I guess your your?
Speaker 1: I know everyone's winging this at the same time, but yeah,
Speaker 1: what's coming up next for you? Because you know we
Speaker 1: are it.
Speaker 3: But we had music, so that was actually the fortunate
Speaker 3: thing about the timing was that we basically had finished
Speaker 3: the album for all intents and purposes right prior to
Speaker 3: everything happening.
Speaker 4: So there was just a few more.
Speaker 3: Like horns and random you know, overdubs we had to do,
Speaker 3: but I had done all my vocals, the songs were written,
Speaker 3: so we have music ready to go. We've been releasing
Speaker 3: a couple songs already and then we have more coming soon.
Speaker 3: And we hoped to put the holbum out in June,
Speaker 3: but you know, we were supposed to tour in July
Speaker 3: in Europe and then in the US and Canada in
Speaker 3: August and September, and we don't know, we don't know
Speaker 3: what's gonna happen.
Speaker 1: Be considered the bad due method. I mean, you're in
Speaker 1: a position which you know you could be self contained
Speaker 1: and just do it for delf. Would you ever consider
Speaker 1: just hosting perform is just you yourself alone at your piano.
Speaker 4: I've done similar shows like that.
Speaker 3: I used to do. We did this thing called the
Speaker 3: All of Me Tour, was just basically me and a
Speaker 3: couple other players, and it was most of the night
Speaker 3: was me just telling stories and singing on the piano.
Speaker 3: And so I'm definitely open to doing other shows like that,
Speaker 3: but I'm not open to putting people in a room
Speaker 3: together right now until we can do it safely. I'm
Speaker 3: not trying to get people sick to come to the
Speaker 3: John Legend Show because you read the news about you know,
Speaker 3: people getting sick going to church, people getting sick, doing
Speaker 3: all these other things, and we need to get to
Speaker 3: the point where it's safe for people to even gather
Speaker 3: like that before we can invite them into our shows
Speaker 3: and expect them to show up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was going to say, I don't you know,
Speaker 1: I know that a lot of people are kind of
Speaker 1: defiantly trying to go to church. Don't do it Sunday
Speaker 1: for Eastern They.
Speaker 3: I was just listening to the news from last night
Speaker 3: and Rachel Matta was going through the list of how
Speaker 3: many vectors of infection have been literally at church alone.
Speaker 3: She was just talking about how they can identify these
Speaker 3: big clusters from people going to church, and they say,
Speaker 3: I read another article they were saying something about singing
Speaker 3: is more it was viral.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's more viral than just being around.
Speaker 3: Somebody because you're crazy, you're pushing out your saliva and
Speaker 3: all these other things, and so it's actually less safe
Speaker 3: to be singing around people than it is to just
Speaker 3: be around them in general.
Speaker 4: So it's it's like, you can't be going to church
Speaker 4: in those circumstances.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree with you, but yeah, it's just it's
Speaker 1: killing me watching people's reactions because you know, most of
Speaker 1: them just like you know, I got the blood of
Speaker 1: Jesus covering me. Yeah, no, he'll be protected.
Speaker 5: And now the black numbers have come up this week,
Speaker 5: crazy and a lot of our favorite cities.
Speaker 3: And that's a problem, Yes it is. And we are
Speaker 3: we are the we all of us are equally susceptible
Speaker 3: to the disease. But when you have a community that's
Speaker 3: already underserved in so many other ways, we are more
Speaker 3: susceptible to getting the worst of it, to dying, to
Speaker 3: having really severe outcomes.
Speaker 4: Out of it.
Speaker 5: In my mind, I imagine that you and I and
Speaker 5: Christy watched the well, we we in this house, so
Speaker 5: we watched the Daily briefing.
Speaker 1: It's just we got to know some things.
Speaker 4: You don't watch it. I've watched zero.
Speaker 1: Angers like on the daily because I know you.
Speaker 4: Like. Christy's rule is she does not listen to Trump's voice.
Speaker 3: Okay, she will not if he's on the news, even
Speaker 3: if he's on the news of an anchor that she likes,
Speaker 3: she doesn't want to hear his voice, and we will
Speaker 3: change the channel off his voice comes on.
Speaker 5: What about doctor Fauci?
Speaker 3: Though, I feel like I could read it later, and
Speaker 3: Rachel Rachel Maddow summarizes it for me well enough, so
Speaker 3: I'm like, I'll just listen to Rachel yog.
Speaker 1: It's to the point where now even I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: normally I would watch matt Ow without fail because you know,
Speaker 1: but this this will be my second week without watching. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can't.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm one of those people that, like I
Speaker 3: would always not watch the news if there was like
Speaker 3: a disaster or any kind of thing where the press
Speaker 3: was all kind of even even like a shooting, like
Speaker 3: I couldn't watch it because I don't like I don't
Speaker 3: like everybody gathering around a tragedy on the news, Like
Speaker 3: I just something about my personality. I don't enjoy that
Speaker 3: as news. I don't like it. I don't like being
Speaker 3: around it. But for some reason, I've been watching this
Speaker 3: because I do actually want to know what's going on.
Speaker 3: And it's such a political story too, because it's about
Speaker 3: leadership and it's about how leadership organizes people around a crisis,
Speaker 3: and I think that's the thing that interests me about it.
Speaker 1: Wow, one day I'll jump back into the fray, But now,
Speaker 1: just from my mental health.
Speaker 4: No, I get it.
Speaker 1: That's how I am about most me and these chickens
Speaker 1: on this forum. Man, I'm happy.
Speaker 5: Can I just ask you and Fante a question real quick?
Speaker 5: Since y'all are both a part of one of my
Speaker 5: favorite shows on TV? Yeah, can we talk about Sherman
Speaker 5: Showcase real quick?
Speaker 4: Yes, let's talk about it, okay, and what's going on?
Speaker 5: You know, I'm just you know, I'm just let.
Speaker 3: Well, Fante, you want to tell her what we filmed
Speaker 3: a couple of Yeah, Man, so we got a Black
Speaker 3: History Month special, which, in Negro fashion.
Speaker 6: Is coming late in June.
Speaker 4: During Black Music Man, we got it we shot it.
Speaker 6: We shot it in January, and I have I still
Speaker 6: haven't seen the whole joint.
Speaker 3: Diallo was kind of telling.
Speaker 4: Me, Nope, I've seen that edits it looks great.
Speaker 7: Yeah, he said it's amazing. He said, he really is dope.
Speaker 7: So yeah, I'm looking forward to that. That's coming June
Speaker 7: and Sherman showcases on Hulu and Hulu just announced like
Speaker 7: free subscription or free trials.
Speaker 1: Yeah, check it now.
Speaker 3: From my.
Speaker 5: No, but everybody else in Mirror does not working every
Speaker 5: night like you are.
Speaker 6: And and we were in the scene together, Me and
Speaker 6: John did one scene together.
Speaker 1: With Trek and Iron, but we're the master at the time.
Speaker 4: And loaf of Jesus. Now, the show is the most
Speaker 4: well reviewed thing we've ever done as a production company.
Speaker 3: I've never seen so many great reviews for something we've done.
Speaker 3: The New York Times, all these other lists you know
Speaker 3: what to watch while you're one, like the shows on
Speaker 3: all those lists too. So hopefully people will give it
Speaker 3: a chance, because I think once you get into the world,
Speaker 3: you really get into it.
Speaker 5: I just I don't want to discount, though, your other
Speaker 5: show that you had on wg.
Speaker 1: N Yes Underground, Y, Yes, What to deal with Underground.
Speaker 4: Now we couldn't bring it back.
Speaker 3: You know, the station was getting bought by that conservative
Speaker 3: news organization, Saint Claire. Yeah, so they were buying the
Speaker 3: station and they decided to go in a whole nother direction.
Speaker 3: Even though we were the most popular show and got
Speaker 3: the most buzz for the network of any show that
Speaker 3: they had on, they decided to go in a different direction.
Speaker 3: They're the same organization that bought all those local news stations,
Speaker 3: do you remember.
Speaker 1: That to do the Yeah, the news reporters, the news.
Speaker 3: Reporters all reading the same script. Yeah, So they're the
Speaker 3: same organization. So we didn't have much of a chance
Speaker 3: to stay around. We tried to sell it to other
Speaker 3: networks and it's it was a bit of an expensive
Speaker 3: show to produce, and so a lot of networks didn't
Speaker 3: want to take it because it was kind of like
Speaker 3: secondhand and they didn't want to spend all that money
Speaker 3: making a secondhand show.
Speaker 1: But as a show producer, how do you like, how
Speaker 1: do you how do you figure that's different than music
Speaker 1: working on music and whatnot.
Speaker 3: Well, it's less hands on for me because you're leaving
Speaker 3: it in the other creator's hands. So you have writers,
Speaker 3: You have directors, you have all these other people that
Speaker 3: are involved, and they hopefully you hire people and you
Speaker 3: work with people that are really good at what they do,
Speaker 3: and so it's not nearly as hands on as I
Speaker 3: would be on my own record. I feel like it's
Speaker 3: mostly about making good personnel decisions and then picking good
Speaker 3: projects to be part of creatively.
Speaker 1: Are you going to.
Speaker 6: Organized the music? Music is a wild wild West?
Speaker 3: It is.
Speaker 4: Music is.
Speaker 7: Yeah, you might get paid, you might not like TV everybody.
Speaker 7: It ain't no such thing as doing some off like
Speaker 7: you're gonna get a check.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: TV is better organized, Films better organized. Hollywood's just more
Speaker 3: like corporate than the music world is.
Speaker 5: Now, what is theater not.
Speaker 3: Theater? Well, the theaters have the strong unions though, you know,
Speaker 3: so there's a lot of rules around how you do
Speaker 3: things in the theater too. The unions are very strong
Speaker 3: and so there's a lot of structure around that, and
Speaker 3: so I feel like that's pretty you know, it's pretty
Speaker 3: on point as well.
Speaker 1: Wow, you know, I have a wish to see the
Speaker 1: I mean, you can weigh in on this bill or not.
Speaker 1: I mean, at the beginning of in the Heights in Hamilton,
Speaker 1: like did you feel as though, you know, the system
Speaker 1: was pretty much stuck in its ways? Whatnot?
Speaker 8: Funny too, I didn't know what the fuck the system
Speaker 8: was or which way it was stuck in it, But yeah,
Speaker 8: something like that, I don't know. To me, theater has
Speaker 8: the worst business plan ever. If it's a success, then
Speaker 8: you make money. If it's anything success, it's a total disaster.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I see, I see.
Speaker 8: So it's a shitty business plan. It's a shitty business
Speaker 8: plan there is. It's either you invest millions of dollars
Speaker 8: and only if you're a humongous success do you make
Speaker 8: the money back. If you don't, then it's a failure.
Speaker 8: Just the business plan doesn't make sense to me.
Speaker 1: So there's no middle ground.
Speaker 7: There's no such thing as a moderately successful theater show.
Speaker 4: Yeah, well just think about just think about real estate
Speaker 4: in New York.
Speaker 3: And so part of it is you have to occupy
Speaker 3: and pay for this real estate in New York and
Speaker 3: get people to show up, and then you have to
Speaker 3: pay everybody's salaries and everything based on the union you know, scale,
Speaker 3: and it's just the the original baseline nut that you
Speaker 3: have to pay for is a lot of money.
Speaker 1: I'm scared to place starts in November, and like this
Speaker 1: isn't like you know where you just put a little
Speaker 1: bit of money and then your producer like, we're really
Speaker 1: funding this joint so that but a mirror.
Speaker 3: Are you fearful now?
Speaker 5: Because I mean not to put that on you, but
Speaker 5: when are people going to feel comfortable and in theaters
Speaker 5: and in New York and broad in New York and Broadway.
Speaker 1: The thing is is that you know, we after taking
Speaker 1: a queue from Hamilton to see how radical that was.
Speaker 1: I mean, I just have this desire to really update Broadway.
Speaker 1: Broadways somehow stuck between this this post timpan Alley jazz
Speaker 1: hands kind of Broadway like that that kind of era
Speaker 1: where you know it could really use a refresh or redo.
Speaker 1: And you know, based on did you see and did
Speaker 1: you see in Tarik's uh like any of the practice
Speaker 1: I haven't. It's it's like it's it's just as mind
Speaker 1: blowing to me is as Hamilton, but it's like the
Speaker 1: complete opposite where you don't feel good about any of
Speaker 1: the characters. It's like if Obama, if if Hamilton represented
Speaker 1: everything that was beautiful about the Obama era, then this
Speaker 1: is the trade for the play for the Trump era
Speaker 1: and post and the thing was they wrote this, you know,
Speaker 1: during like the beginning of obama second term as a
Speaker 1: as a kind of a a satire. But it's just
Speaker 1: like it's real now, which makes it even more on point.
Speaker 1: So it is like idiocracy, dude, it's it's it's idiocracy
Speaker 1: the play. That's what it is.
Speaker 4: Like.
Speaker 1: People are mind blowing, but it's black no more, okay,
Speaker 1: it's It's based on one of the very John Ridley,
Speaker 1: who did Twelve Years of Slave.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I know, John right.
Speaker 1: He wrote this back in twenty twelve, came to Tarik
Speaker 1: around twenty thirteen, and they developed at the last four years.
Speaker 1: It's a scathing play. It's amazing, but no one's going
Speaker 1: to feel good about themselves.
Speaker 3: They won't be congratulating themselves for going no, but I
Speaker 3: mean yeah, I mean, the guilty aspect of it is
Speaker 3: going to like it's a real It's a play about
Speaker 3: kind of in the Harlem speakeasy era of Harlem, a
Speaker 3: black man who.
Speaker 1: Meets a white girl a speakeasy who you know, they
Speaker 1: flirt and whatnot, and she's sort of like, you know,
Speaker 1: this ain't going any further than this basement because you know,
Speaker 1: I could never take you home to my father, YadA, YadA, YadA.
Speaker 1: And this guy wishes kind of wishes that there was
Speaker 1: a way that she could fall in love of them,
Speaker 1: and he gets some sort of operation. This is based
Speaker 1: on a book. He gets a he goes through a
Speaker 1: process that turns him into a white man.
Speaker 6: And then reverse, which is like soul Man in reverse.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: This, this book was written in nineteen thirty six as
Speaker 1: a sat tire.
Speaker 4: And Eddie Murphy's SNL.
Speaker 1: It's very much like that skit. Yeah, he just hits
Speaker 1: the fan even crazier. So yeah, yeah, so yeah, let's
Speaker 1: rack up the Tony's Let's go all of y'all get this.
Speaker 1: Got ghet him man, you get him? You get it?
Speaker 1: The single is out now where streaming on now? Correct?
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: So we have two singles out, once called Conversations in
Speaker 3: the Dark. We put that out in January and then
Speaker 3: Actions is the one wh just put out a couple
Speaker 3: of weeks ago. You played it on your online Instagram
Speaker 3: Love the Other Night.
Speaker 1: Do you have a title for the upcoming record yet?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's called Bigger Love, and the next single is
Speaker 3: gonna be the title track called Bigger love and then.
Speaker 4: And we got joints. Man, I'm excited. I did.
Speaker 3: Raphael Sadiq exec produced the whole thing. He's done my
Speaker 3: last couple albums, exec producing wise for the Christmas Album
Speaker 3: and the Christmas Deluxe, and we were just in the
Speaker 3: nice groove and we just kept working together on this.
Speaker 3: But I worked with other producers and writers and uh
Speaker 3: Oak produced the last single actions Oakfelder. He produced another
Speaker 3: one on my album that's really crazy called Oulah and yeah,
Speaker 3: we've got some good stuff on there. Do you record
Speaker 3: at the crib? John, and you still go to the studio?
Speaker 4: I still go to the studio because I like to
Speaker 4: feel like I'm going to work.
Speaker 3: I like to leave the house, be away from the kids,
Speaker 3: go to work, and then come home and be present
Speaker 3: with the family.
Speaker 1: I did it. What studio did you record out of?
Speaker 4: At Raphael's Blakesley up in North Hollywood.
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 1: Is Jerry still his engineer?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Jerry still mixed with the Christmas lights.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so Jerry mixed this.
Speaker 3: This guy named Alex is the recording engineer, but Jerry mix.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Raphael's dude, Jerry like this atmospherical like Christmas. So
Speaker 1: he always even when he is not at his studio
Speaker 1: ahead of time, he'll send like all this this Christmas
Speaker 1: decorations to the studio to get set up and he
Speaker 1: wants it to look like Christmas when he's mixing. So
Speaker 1: he's been doing that for like the last thirty years
Speaker 1: with Rafael.
Speaker 4: His first record he did for me was My Christmas
Speaker 4: Album though how perfect?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, okay.
Speaker 4: I thought he had it in there just for the
Speaker 4: for the best of music.
Speaker 1: Nah, Jerry uh engineer what they do on illadel faf Life,
Speaker 1: And was like, we had to wait an hour for
Speaker 1: him to get like the Christmas decorations up. Now he's
Speaker 1: been doing that forever. He's been doing that forever.
Speaker 6: John, I always wanted to ask, you, man, who is Maxine?
Speaker 6: Because she had you going down through that bro.
Speaker 3: Oh you know what max was truth?
Speaker 6: Really this?
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 3: I was writing that song with the guys from Sarah Yeah.
Speaker 3: Uh so you know, the whole crew, including O Mas
Speaker 3: and Taz and everybody. So we're we're in l a
Speaker 3: at there they had that house studio in Los Felis
Speaker 3: or somewhere around there, Silver late and we were.
Speaker 4: Just hanging out and we were writing the song and
Speaker 4: I had just listened to Guess who I saw today,
Speaker 4: my love Nancy Wilson.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 3: So, Nancy used to sing that song, and it was
Speaker 3: about it kind of goes through the whole story of
Speaker 3: you know, I was hanging out at this lovely bar and.
Speaker 4: Blah blah blah, and I saw this beautiful couple and
Speaker 4: blah blah.
Speaker 3: Blah, and oh it was your Nigga.
Speaker 6: Jones.
Speaker 3: And so I had listened to that not long before that,
Speaker 3: and we were we were just singing. Uh, we were
Speaker 3: just playing around on the instruments, and I started singing,
Speaker 3: she may.
Speaker 4: Not be you, but she looks just like you, and
Speaker 4: we wrote.
Speaker 3: I was like, we should write a song kind of
Speaker 3: in that same lyrical vein where I described this whole
Speaker 3: setup of these two beautiful people hanging out with each
Speaker 3: other looking like they're so in love.
Speaker 4: And it was her the whole time I'm like, she
Speaker 4: may not be you was.
Speaker 3: She looked awful lot like you. And then uh, we
Speaker 3: decided at the end we should call her name.
Speaker 9: And we just made up a name that sounded good, Maxine,
Speaker 9: and so every Maxine the age of sixty, and.
Speaker 4: We wanted it to sound quaint and like old school
Speaker 4: and then.
Speaker 3: It turns out, and I did not notice at the
Speaker 3: time my grandmother's middle name is Maxine, and so she
Speaker 3: thought I had written it Maxine because of her name,
Speaker 3: but I had no idea that was her middle name
Speaker 3: at the time.
Speaker 1: You don't wing it. I love that song.
Speaker 6: I love that record, that who once again out here
Speaker 6: that's I love it once again.
Speaker 3: It is my favorite, Like, it's one of my favorite
Speaker 3: things I've done. Wake Up is one of them too,
Speaker 3: when I did with the Roots and then h once Again,
Speaker 3: it is like my heart, I don't know, that's my
Speaker 3: favorite one.
Speaker 4: That's yeah, it showed me's on there.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's the one.
Speaker 3: That's a lot of them.
Speaker 4: Hey, John, Yeah, Diet has a question over there.
Speaker 3: It's me, sugar.
Speaker 4: Have you written any new songs since the quarantine started?
Speaker 3: Anything at home? I have not, And part of it,
Speaker 3: I think is just kind of feeling like, oh, I'm
Speaker 3: done with my album and I can relax for a
Speaker 3: while and have to write something. But also I don't
Speaker 3: like writing at home, so it's the perfect storm of
Speaker 3: me not getting anything done at home.
Speaker 1: So wait a minute, when you're home, that's not your
Speaker 1: creative hub at all.
Speaker 4: No, I almost never write at home. I like to
Speaker 4: schedule time go in.
Speaker 3: Sometimes I'll sing stuff into my phone at home, like,
Speaker 3: oh I have an idea. I'm almost singing this into
Speaker 3: my phone and then finish it at the studio because
Speaker 3: I like to go towards.
Speaker 1: Your separation of church and state. I get it, because,
Speaker 1: if anything, I would figure that this time period is
Speaker 1: probably the best time period for all songwriters and all
Speaker 1: screenwriters and book writers like, but it's really not.
Speaker 4: Though if you have kids, if you don't have kids,
Speaker 4: maybe if you don't have.
Speaker 1: Kids, maybe so you just can't get three hours of
Speaker 1: complete doing shit.
Speaker 4: Oh hell no.
Speaker 1: So the middle road is just hell nah too. And
Speaker 1: we got one of those home ship dually know it,
Speaker 1: about to buy a crib, won't have a separate batcave
Speaker 1: for myself. I got it now, Okay, I get it.
Speaker 7: I just don't think now, like in the middle of
Speaker 7: what everybody dealing with, just the stress of the pandemic,
Speaker 7: I don't think that really lends itself.
Speaker 3: To creativity very much, you know what I mean?
Speaker 7: So much of at least for me, so much of
Speaker 7: what you pull from comes from outside sources.
Speaker 2: Either.
Speaker 7: You know, if you go out and you see a
Speaker 7: couple and you think something or you you know, you
Speaker 7: kind of go out and pull from these different experiences
Speaker 7: when you.
Speaker 6: Don't really have that anymore.
Speaker 7: And on top of not having that, but you're constantly
Speaker 7: watching people that you know or or know of get
Speaker 7: or die.
Speaker 4: I mean, I ain't thinking about no goddamn rap music,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: It's just realizing.
Speaker 3: I think some people will will be inspired by and
Speaker 3: write some dope ship from it. It will it will
Speaker 3: fit into certain people's style of writing and their worldview,
Speaker 3: and it'll it'll propel them to write some dope stuff.
Speaker 3: I really believe that's possible. But it's just it ain't
Speaker 3: inspired me at all.
Speaker 1: Don't making me feel bad now, man, I'm like, I
Speaker 1: don't know five chapters. No, I got dude, having kids
Speaker 1: like I got responsibility. I know it's not the same
Speaker 1: as having kids.
Speaker 5: Single people. I mean, I'm just saying, but I also
Speaker 5: know that when you have two children in the home
Speaker 5: every day, all day, that's the different situation. And I
Speaker 5: appreciate my privilege.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think when you, I think, maybe why you
Speaker 7: kind of getting stuff done in that way is because
Speaker 7: you've finally been now, so you know, you would writing
Speaker 7: and stuff like that. It's like, I, you know, you
Speaker 7: finally have a chance to really buckle down and do it,
Speaker 7: all right, and which is different than a lot of people.
Speaker 3: But I'm just not feeling like writing songs right now.
Speaker 1: You're thinking about writing a book and at some.
Speaker 3: Point in the future.
Speaker 4: I had always thought about it, but I I have
Speaker 4: to at some point.
Speaker 5: But you right one on finance, John Legend, No.
Speaker 3: I'm not enough.
Speaker 1: Seriously, John, Save everything, Like, don't you know, save everything?
Speaker 1: Just put in storage what like it'll you'll need it.
Speaker 1: You'll need it for your memoir. Trust me.
Speaker 4: I got to write one at some point.
Speaker 1: There's stuff I wish I saved for, you know, memoirs
Speaker 1: that notes that I wrote old lyrics, sheet to that
Speaker 1: sort of thing.
Speaker 7: Save everything, yo, all right. So two questions. One, is
Speaker 7: there a full version of Angel with you and Stacey?
Speaker 4: Yes there is.
Speaker 3: We put it on her It was on her record EP. Yes,
Speaker 3: we put it on Stacey's EP. Stacy Bart she's a
Speaker 3: dope singer and songwriter. She's written a lot of songs
Speaker 3: for big artists, and she was signed to my production
Speaker 3: company for a while as an artist, and she put
Speaker 3: out a couple of EPs and we had her guest
Speaker 3: on Love in the Future.
Speaker 4: We did a short version of Angel on.
Speaker 6: That's my favorite version.
Speaker 3: I like that.
Speaker 1: One.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so that's on if you you can find it.
Speaker 4: But Stacey put it on her EP.
Speaker 6: And also Okay, Segie Poison hold on Longer, talk to
Speaker 6: me about that one.
Speaker 10: I love that.
Speaker 3: For the song that was Oh that was font LeRoy's idea.
Speaker 3: So he wrote a couple of those songs with us,
Speaker 3: and uh, you know, you know his zone. It was
Speaker 3: right in his zone.
Speaker 4: He wrote a couple of those type of joints with
Speaker 4: us for the album.
Speaker 1: I love that record, man.
Speaker 6: And also since it's Q Tip's birthday tomorrow, talk about.
Speaker 4: Don't Wait till to.
Speaker 3: That was me and Kanye is like sleeper favorite on
Speaker 3: the album because Kanye was exect producing that album. And
Speaker 3: I went in over to Kamal's house in Jersey and
Speaker 3: we just jammed for a little while and we came
Speaker 3: up with that song, and that's our sleeper favorite on
Speaker 3: Love in the Future. It didn't get a lot of buzz,
Speaker 3: but it's something about it, just that group.
Speaker 6: It's a good step for song too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly exactly.
Speaker 4: I have a question.
Speaker 1: Yes, in the wake of Bill Withers passing and your
Speaker 1: great re recording of his his song I can't right
Speaker 1: left handed?
Speaker 3: Can you just comment on the recording of that song?
Speaker 4: And yeah, here's one of the things I did say, question,
Speaker 4: where's that email? I have it. I'm gonna pull it
Speaker 4: up right now, hold on.
Speaker 1: Like, did I imagine an email? Did I make that up?
Speaker 10: Yeah?
Speaker 4: He wrote it for real. I resent it to my
Speaker 4: manager and that was with me back then, and he
Speaker 4: had sent it to me.
Speaker 3: This is from October sixth, twenty ten, and here's an
Speaker 3: email from Bill Withers. I'm gonna read it to y'all.
Speaker 1: Exclusive exclusive.
Speaker 3: Okay, here we go.
Speaker 4: Alex.
Speaker 3: Some time ago, you contacted Marsha regarding John Legend's recently
Speaker 3: recorded album and offered to introduce her to Greg, one
Speaker 3: of the guys who managed me at the time. She
Speaker 3: probably attempted to forward the message to me or meant
Speaker 3: to afford it to me. Quite possibly. It was doing
Speaker 3: one of those periods where I was in Marsha, Alex
Speaker 3: and everyone else overload and just ignored all incoming information
Speaker 3: for a while. Anyway, I just found out about the
Speaker 3: John Legend recording yesterday and a much more interesting fashion.
Speaker 3: Having sat down to watch a documentary on Louis Armstrong.
Speaker 3: The phone rang fifteen minutes into it and the voice
Speaker 3: on the other end says, in this stilted tone, did
Speaker 3: I awaken you, sir?
Speaker 4: Just as I was about to hang up on whoever
Speaker 4: this clown.
Speaker 10: Was, the voice said Bill Withers, this is William Felton Russell,
Speaker 10: which of course was followed by the unmistakable cackle of
Speaker 10: Bill Russell laughing on the other end of the line.
Speaker 4: He then proceeded to read me the titles of.
Speaker 3: The songs on a John Legend album that he was
Speaker 3: listening to and informed me that I can't right left hand.
Speaker 3: It was included in the list of songs that were
Speaker 3: recorded with the Roots band for the album. We then
Speaker 3: proceeded to share stories of the people that it had
Speaker 3: impacted our lives, such as Jackie Robinson, Joe Lewis, Jesse Owens, etc.
Speaker 3: We continued on to have the obligatory conversation about Obama
Speaker 3: and whatever else two seventy plus year olds ilk might
Speaker 3: run their mouths about in catch up conversations. An hour
Speaker 3: and a half later, having purged ourselves of all current
Speaker 3: topics worthy of chit chat for the moment we ended
Speaker 3: our conversation, I hit play to resume watching the Louis
Speaker 3: Armstrong tape as I digested the conversation that I had
Speaker 3: just had with my old friend and lifelong he wrote.
Speaker 3: When the Louis Armstrong story finished, I went to my
Speaker 3: computer and watched the session with John and the Roots
Speaker 3: on YouTube. While digesting the pleasure of witnessing the heartfelt
Speaker 3: and caring interpretation of this song by John and the
Speaker 3: Band that Ray Jackson and I had written probably before
Speaker 3: he and most of the band were born, it occurred
Speaker 3: to me that it had indeed been a day spent
Speaker 3: in the company of legends, conversation about legends with the legend,
Speaker 3: while watching the story of a legend capped off by
Speaker 3: the flattery of John Legend taking the time to revisit
Speaker 3: and revive an old song written with a dear friend
Speaker 3: what had actually gotten me into the music business and
Speaker 3: who left us much too soon.
Speaker 4: Ray Jackson passed away some years ago.
Speaker 3: I'm sure that Ray Jackson would have joined me in
Speaker 3: thanking John and the Roots for their attention to this
Speaker 3: song and the congratulating them on a job well done.
Speaker 4: Since they put me in such a.
Speaker 3: Good mood, I will find it in my heart to
Speaker 3: not hold a grudge against Questlove for making me sound
Speaker 3: so ancient. In his otherwise flattering, introductory and explanatory comments
Speaker 3: on the video smiles.
Speaker 4: I was further sued by the fact that Bill Russell
Speaker 4: is really old.
Speaker 3: Congratulations to John appropriately named legend for all the work
Speaker 3: he does in education and for projecting a good, wholesome
Speaker 3: image for us all to appreciate. I would appreciate it
Speaker 3: if you, whoever you is, would share this letter with
Speaker 3: John and the Roots.
Speaker 4: I would further advise you to avoid contact with me
Speaker 4: in the future if.
Speaker 3: You don't rendered grumpy by the rare rainy, cloudy, yucky
Speaker 3: weather here in La today, but boyd revived and sustained
Speaker 3: by my day with the Legends yesterday. Bill Withers, Wow,
Speaker 3: that's a letter.
Speaker 1: This dude can tell A sorry man, Yo. He's the
Speaker 1: musical uncle we never had his emails.
Speaker 3: His emails were legendary because every time he wrote one,
Speaker 3: he had all those extra little colors and flavors in
Speaker 3: there that you normally I'm just like a yes, because
Speaker 3: I'm always like approving something.
Speaker 1: Like Okay, great, nice thanks.
Speaker 4: He would write such such great emails. Wow. Man.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when when he when he came to the show, Yeah,
Speaker 1: to see his performance, he was just it was everything
Speaker 1: I ever wanted. And that was the point in which like,
Speaker 1: I was really kind of not you know, I was
Speaker 1: a little gun shy with meeting idols by that point
Speaker 1: because so many had let me down before. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: he lived up to everything. Like he was full of stories,
Speaker 1: like and humor and seemed like he did not seem
Speaker 1: or act like he was in his seventies. I thought
Speaker 1: he was like, oh he might be fifty nine, maybe
Speaker 1: sixty maybe. Yeah, that's one of my regrets, man, Like
Speaker 1: I was, I was gunning for him for at least
Speaker 1: twelve years to try to try to work with him.
Speaker 3: But Yo, so he heard he heard the live version
Speaker 3: of that too. That was the first thing you heard
Speaker 3: was the YouTube. We had made a YouTube video. I
Speaker 3: think that was actually in the studio. It was like
Speaker 3: one of those promo things we shot in the studio,
Speaker 3: but it was a live performance though. It was like
Speaker 3: it wasn't like edited, it was you know, it was
Speaker 3: a straight up live performance, but there was an audience there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And Oh, I forgot. We did something with Spike
Speaker 1: Lee as well.
Speaker 3: I told you about about that that thing in the
Speaker 3: one of those buildings in New York something five terminal
Speaker 3: five shot five.
Speaker 5: John, You know how long we've been trying to get
Speaker 5: this to happen. You know this is just a preview, right,
Speaker 5: like you know at some point when we all come
Speaker 5: back together in real life.
Speaker 1: This is not the room love that. Yeah, That's why
Speaker 1: I'm not asking like the questions I normally ask request
Speaker 1: because I'm trying to say that for the real episode.
Speaker 7: Well, just in case we don't get the real lepisode
Speaker 7: and I got another music, we'll get.
Speaker 3: It, all right, So I'm gonna be there. I don't know, Hey,
Speaker 3: we all might not be there all right.
Speaker 6: So hey, your first uh on again on once again?
Speaker 3: Uh huh.
Speaker 7: The leak version of it was just acoustic, and then
Speaker 7: the album version you added.
Speaker 3: Drums and what made you change? Oh? No, I mean
Speaker 3: I had always thought we were gonna put a little
Speaker 3: instrumentation on it. So sometimes I'll record a demo of
Speaker 3: it and I don't know who leaked it. I'm trying
Speaker 3: to remember how that came out. Also did a version
Speaker 3: on Death poetry Jam. They kind of let me half
Speaker 3: sing sing, half sing on death pet you John. That
Speaker 3: was the first time anybody actually heard any of it
Speaker 3: was on the fork And remember that.
Speaker 6: I mean I didn't miss that my first time hearing it.
Speaker 6: It was the leak version.
Speaker 7: Yeah, this is back when albums would leak, you know
Speaker 7: what I mean, the album Eleak and that version of Again.
Speaker 1: It was just it was just you and piano.
Speaker 4: And I'm not even sure if I knew it leaked. Honestly,
Speaker 4: I'm not even sure just even piano.
Speaker 1: That's crazy. Yeah, now I gotta go back and revisit.
Speaker 1: Thank you. That's a goblet of like South Carolina, North Carolina.
Speaker 4: What is that?
Speaker 1: This is What's up? What's up?
Speaker 4: Steve is again that joined you samples for doing it again?
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's again. Okay.
Speaker 5: I was singing in my head and doing it again,
Speaker 5: yes again.
Speaker 3: Yeah. And then I had another song on a record
Speaker 3: called another again again.
Speaker 4: John.
Speaker 5: I still remember that first album where you were sing
Speaker 5: the beach in your Lena outfit when you were back
Speaker 5: in the Philly days.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I still have to actually wait, did you sang
Speaker 1: because that the early record even before uh, your first
Speaker 1: album is up your version of Burning Down the House.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so that was when we did live at UH
Speaker 4: S O B S O B S.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, I was from like oh two, I think.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I got my deal in a four, So it was,
Speaker 3: you know, a couple of years before everything popped off.
Speaker 6: I remember listening to that. You had that album, you
Speaker 6: were selling it. This is back in like old three.
Speaker 6: It was a little brother and Kanye.
Speaker 3: We was on tour together. Yeah, we did the Norfolk
Speaker 3: and yeah, I remember them in Norfolk, yeah, yeah, and
Speaker 3: we were selling that joint and I remember those shows man,
Speaker 3: And I remember I would sell those CDs out of
Speaker 3: my you know, out of my trunk, you know, every
Speaker 3: everywhere we would go. I would do gigs in uh
Speaker 3: New York and Philly by myself for a while. I
Speaker 3: would play it like S O B. S and UH
Speaker 3: Knitting Factory, north By, Northwest fire Spot all these places
Speaker 3: UH in Philly and New York and.
Speaker 4: UH and I would just sell them.
Speaker 3: And and I was my own web person, so I
Speaker 3: would like I didn't program the site, but I would uh,
Speaker 3: I would.
Speaker 4: I would handle all.
Speaker 3: The CD seal so I would be like chipping them
Speaker 3: off to people I would go to the post office
Speaker 3: every couple of days and ship some more CDs off
Speaker 3: the people that order them online. Can you believe we
Speaker 3: actually buy CDs their.
Speaker 1: Own distribution something?
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I feel like it's time for a sequel now, John,
Speaker 1: where we are like, we we.
Speaker 4: Gotta do it. We gotta do it. We always say
Speaker 4: we gotta do it, but we.
Speaker 3: Gotta do it. Wait which sequel?
Speaker 5: Y'all get together making music.
Speaker 4: The roots and the roots coming back.
Speaker 1: Yeah, real protest songs man. Yeah, man, I like that.
Speaker 5: I like the y'all vow to do that on tape
Speaker 5: right here in front of everybody.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we really need to do it.
Speaker 3: It's true.
Speaker 1: I mean all we do is work. So as long
Speaker 1: a time a collaborator that's willing and shows up, let's work.
Speaker 1: I'm down, you know what I'm saying. Now, Thank you,
Speaker 1: Thank you, John. I appreciate you doing our U our
Speaker 1: live YouTube uh broadcast of course, Love Supreme. I want
Speaker 1: to be Layah Ship, Steve Unpaid, Bill Fan Diagelo and
Speaker 1: John Legend. Thank you very much. This is a quest
Speaker 1: Love Supreme. We'll see you on the next show.
Speaker 3: Now see everybody.
Speaker 4: Thanks well, y'all right, M.
Speaker 1: Question Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. For more
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