JOHN LEGEND - MILLION DOLLAZ WORTH OF GAME EPISODE 399

Million Dollaz Worth Of Game

John Legend joins Gillie & Wallo to discuss his highly anticipated new album, 'Muse,' exclusively produced by Pharrell Williams. The EGOT winner

Key takeaways

• John Legend adopted his stage name before signing a record deal after being called 'Legend' by spoken word artist J.I.V. during the College Dropout era.
• The new album 'Muse' drops October 23rd and features a cinematic, soulful sound blending classic influences like Nina Simone and Marvin Gaye with modern 808s and hip-hop production.

Main topics

• New album Muse and Pharrell Williams collaboration
• Philadelphia music scene and UPenn years

Notable quotes

I assumed that stage name before I even had a record deal, which is a very presumptuous thing to do.

Conclusion

Listeners gain insight into Legend's disciplined creative philosophy a

Transcript preview

Speaker 6 (0:00) Hey, Million Dollars Worth of Game listeners, you can find every episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. Right! Speaker 1 (0:11) Trust no one and accuse everyone. And who's the bad guy? The official Barstool Sports social deduction game from the brilliant mind of Nick Teraney. In what's quickly becoming the most popular new party game around, players are secretly assigned unique roles with the good guys trying to expose the bad guys and the bad guys doing everything they can to stay hidden. Each game unfolds under alternating day and night phases with roles like the cool chick, the shy guy, the gambler, El Presidente, the mentalist, the planner, the funny guy, and more. Every round is unpredictable, chaotic, and ridiculously fun. Who's the Bad Guy is great for parties, pregames, family gatherings, or groups who just love deception-based games. Game night will never be the same. Shop now on Walmart.com. Speaker 2 (0:54) Stella Blue Coffee's new can lattes are here. Crafted with 100 % Colombian coffee, each can is a good source of protein and comes in two smooth flavors, espresso cafe mocha and espresso sweet cream. And whether you're braving your morning commute or chasing your pup, Stella Blue cans are for those always on the go and for those who care. Stella Blue is more than just great coffee. It's about giving back. I named the brand after my rescue dog, Stella, who inspired our mission to help. more dogs find their forever homes. Every purchase supports animal rescue organizations, so when you drink Stella Blue, you're not just fueling your day, you're saving a dog's life. Try the new cans today, taste the difference, and make a difference. All new Stella Blue coffee can lattes now available at StellaBlueCoffee.com or subscribe on Amazon for 10 % off. Speaker 4 (1:42) See, John, let me tell you something. When we was recording this song, right? Yes, Speaker 5 (1:45) when we recorded it. I remember Speaker 4 (1:46) when I did the track first and you was in there recording it. I Speaker 5 (1:49) was Speaker 4 (1:49) like, damn, man. I Speaker 5 (1:49) remember. He Speaker 4 (1:50) really brung this song to life. Speaker 5 (1:52) Listen, ladies and Speaker 4 (1:52) gentlemen, you see who we got? The legend. See, see, see. When you a legend and legend is in your name. How can you make that up? Speaker 6 (2:00) That's like he pre-predicted that shit. He knew he was, like when he was born, Pop, Speaker 4 (2:04) John Legend, they knew he was going to be a legend. We made it up though. Like they knew, like how do it feel? Speaker 6 (2:11) But you predicted it. That's not my Speaker 4 (2:12) real name. But you predicted it. Think about Speaker 6 (2:14) it. You know Speaker 4 (2:14) why? Speaker 6 (2:15) Because now you see somebody, you know, we see Mike, we see LeBron, we see, we like, Speaker 4 (2:20) what's up, legend? Speaker 6 (2:22) You really already just said, no, I'm John Legend. I already know I'm going to be legendary when it's all said and done. Speaker 5 (2:29) And I assumed that stage name before I even had a record deal, which is a very presumptuous thing to do. I didn't know what was going to happen with my career. J.I.V., he's a spoken word artist from Chicago. He's the first person to ever call me John Legend. It caught on with our crew. We were making Kanye's album, College Dropout. We were making my album, Get Lifted. This is before I had a record deal. And J. Ivy started calling me that name. And I wasn't even sure that I was like, you know what? I don't know if I can assume this name. I don't know if I'm ready for it. But I think the better part of me said, you know what? I'm going to take this name. It's going to announce my presence. and I just got to try to go and live up to it, and that's what I've been doing. That's what I've been trying to do. Speaker 4 (3:17) Now, what's so great about it is that you got so much history in Philly. Mm-hmm. Going to college there, how was it for you? I went to UPenn right here Speaker 5 (3:25) in Philadelphia. I've spent many, many days in this city, in this area. A lot of my early songs I wrote here. A lot of my early gigs I had at places like the Five Spot and North by Northwest. Speaker 5 (3:41) And I would not be here in my career where it is at this point without Philadelphia. Man, Speaker 4 (3:49) that's major. Now, I look at you coming back out, right? You and Pharrell, you and P got together, did some extraordinary things. He challenged you in different ways to come in different directions with the music. Speaker 5 (3:57) But Speaker 4 (3:58) how do one have some of the greatest... You know, records in the history of life. So many people got married. It's just so many love stories to your music. Whereas though, you literally can perform for the rest of, till life expire. You can perform the classics. What made you and P get together and say, let's do something different, P? Speaker 5 (4:17) I love to create and I love to push myself and challenge myself. And I don't want to just rest on what I've already done. I feel like there's so much more creativity in me. I still have so much more to write. and I get joy from creating something new. It's a beautiful experience to wake up, something not exist, and then a few hours later, you put something new into the world that didn't exist before, and I get joy every time I get to do that, and I just want to keep doing it. Speaker 4 (4:47) Like, when we see you, right, we see you, and, you know, when you look at the fathers, you look at, you think about all the stuff that people is going to tell them about their father. Like, oh, your father was great. What is something personally that you want your kids to learn directly from you? Speaker 5 (5:05) Oh, I want them to see my work ethic. I want them to see how much energy and passion I put into doing what I love to do. And I want them to find that for themselves. It doesn't need to be what I do. It doesn't need to be what Chrissy does. But I want them to find something that they care about so much that they'll put that kind of passion and effort into the work. and get fulfillment from it, get joy from it, and then achieve at the highest level that they can. Speaker 6 (5:36) Hold on, let me get something. Being the fact that you're the king of love songs, you always sing about the love. Speaker 5 (5:43) Yeah, yeah. Speaker 6 (5:44) What would that young kid at UP, right, when he was learning about love, right? Oh, yeah. What would John Legend tell that young kid back then that he didn't know about love? What would he tell him? Speaker 5 (5:59) Oh, I was very inexperienced in love back then. Well, first of all, I came to school young. So I graduated high school when I was 16 because I was homeschooled and I skipped a couple of grades when I was young. So I got there. Not only was I from Springfield, Ohio, small town, sheltered kind of life. I grew up. basically in the church and my family ran the church. So I was just a small, my, my world was very small, um, growing up. And then I was two years younger than everybody. Um, most of the kids had more money than I did. A lot of them were like trust fund kids and, you know, uh, came from families with wealth and I had none of that. So I claimed a pen. I was shy. I was broke. I was younger. Um, Black and a majority white school. So there were all these reasons why, you know, I didn't feel like I belonged. But music is what made me feel connected to people. It was like I could introduce myself to people without saying a word, just being up on stage singing. And then it was the icebreaker. It was the conversation starter, the fact that they just saw me on stage. And it helped me open up. But, man, I was so shy. a nerd and a small town kid. I had like a little country accent from Ohio. And I definitely felt out of place, Speaker 6 (7:30) but music was the thing that made me feel like I Speaker 5 (7:32) could Speaker 6 (7:32) connect with people. You grew up singing in the church? Speaker 5 (7:34) Yeah, I grew up singing. I was in a Pentecostal church. My grandpa was our pastor at the time. And then his son, my Uncle Ray, took over as the pastor. My mother was the choir director. My grandmother was a church organist. And so I just grew up in the church. I grew up around music in the church. And that's really where I became a musician. Speaker 6 (7:56) So when did you take your road? When did you say, you know, I'm just going to stop singing solely about Jesus? Start singing the devil's music. Speaker 6 (8:08) You singing, most of your songs is good feeling and uplifting. So I wouldn't say, you know, it's the devil's music. Growing Speaker 5 (8:15) up, but growing up, like they said, you can't listen to worldly music at all. Like, so I grew up in a home where if it wasn't about Jesus, you wasn't listening to it. And so I missed most of pop culture in the 80s because my religious upbringing was so strict that we weren't allowed to go to the movies. We weren't allowed to listen to secular music. Come on, John. You had to sneak off once in a while. Well, once I became a teenager, my parents got divorced. All the rules got lax. But that first 12 years or so, it was strictly Jesus in my house. But Speaker 6 (8:54) you Speaker 5 (8:54) never Speaker 6 (8:55) snuck off and was like, Joanna, I love you. You the one. But I was Speaker 5 (9:03) homeschooled, too. Most Speaker 6 (9:05) of Speaker 5 (9:05) grade Speaker 6 (9:05) school, I was home. So I wasn't in school with other kids, sneaking Speaker 5 (9:10) off, listening to what they were listening to. I wasn't with them. Speaker 6 (9:13) Yeah, I understand. So you couldn't throw it on in the room. My parents, she like, Speaker 5 (9:17) what's going on? Yeah, that was like the first 11, 12 years of my life. And then once my parents got divorced, we started going to public school. It just opened up more. But that first 10, 11, 12 years, it was very sheltered. Speaker 6 (9:32) So getting to Philadelphia. Speaker 5 (9:34) Yeah. Speaker 6 (9:34) How much did fill it? Because I know how long, how many years you spent in Philadelphia? Four years living Speaker 5 (9:40) here. But then also I would drive back and forth here even when I was living in New York because some of Speaker 1 (9:47) the Speaker 5 (9:47) people I worked with, make my first record with, were based here. So not only those four years. But I came back here a lot, too. And then my band, most of them now are based here. Like, after I leave y'all, I'm going to rehearse with my band because all of them live around here, too. There's so many great musicians here. And so when I get to Penn, I'm 16 years old. It's 1995. And as you guys probably know. The Roots started hosting Black Lily not too long after that at Wilhelmina's and then at The Five Spot. The Five Spot. Damn. And there was just so much music happening. I would go to Zanzibar Blue. I would go to Warm Speaker 6 (10:32) Daddies. I Speaker 5 (10:34) would go and see Jazz Cats and Blues Cats playing around. and then neo-soul and hip-hop