A lot of what we do is we bring a sample in and I'll play on top of the sample to bring a freshness to it and I'll sing on it and we'll make it hot together.
And I love performing gospel music. It's so inspiring.
But in my mind I've always been a solo artist- I've just been working with a lot of great people like Kanye and Alicia Keys and Jay-Z.
But it's always nice to be compared to people that you really admire.
Clearly I've been working with someone so big that it cast a shadow in people's minds.
Experience is a great teacher.
For me I'm actually doing what I normally do when I do my solo thing and the other thing is actually more new to me.
I don't think Get Lifted has necessarily expanded the genre.
I feel like spirituality definitely comes through in my music, but I don't make any specific efforts to make it that way.
I have a great band, with very talented players, and we give everything we have every night.
I hear melodies and hooks all day. I've always been that way, since I was a kid.
I just try to do it to the best of my ability, and hope it will stand out for its quality.
I love the interaction with the crowd.
I love when one of my band members plays something unexpected that inspires me.
I never felt intimidated, I was just happy to contribute and make great records for them. Now its my turn to make great records for myself.
I only want to be associated with music that is high quality. That's my main criteria.
I only want to work with people whose music I respect and enjoy.
I played classical as a kid.
I sang on a couple of records he was working on and one of them was Family Business which eventually made it onto his album.
I think I'll continue to grow as an artist in the future, and perhaps my writing or recordings will improve, but, as of now, I'm very proud of Get Lifted.
I think Kanye's success played an important role in setting me up for success.
I think people relate to the music because I have a sense of empathy, and I think I have a good understanding about relationships, and I talk about them in a real, honest way.
I think there are a lot of talented people, some of whom I am similar to in style and approach.
I think there's some good and some bad music out there.
I think with subsequent albums I'll be more adventurous stylistically.
I think writers are prone to hyperbole sometimes.
I want people to feel moved after listening to my music or attending my show.
I want to move people.
I was always the front man for what I was doing from when I was 6.
I was in an a cappella group in school, so it particularly helped me keep my piano chops up.
I was the front man of the choir and then when I was 12 and I was the leadsinger of my highschool groups.
I worked with Estelle on a track called Hey Girl and it's a dope song.
I'm the artist you've heard on quite a lot of tracks, you didn't know you were hearing me, but it was me.
I've already written reggae songs, bossa nova songs, dark dance songs.
I've always felt like I was that person who was gonna blow up but it just hadn't happened yet.
I've had the honor of working with some of the greatest artists in black music, and I can't help but be a better artist as a result of it.
In the 1970s, for all the Stevie Wonders, I'm sure there were five artists that were making forgettable music.
It's always good working with someone who knows what they want and has a distinct style.
John legend is a nickname that somebody started calling me a while ago and part of it is 'cos I sound like an old man when I sing.
Most of the elements I've put in my album have been done before, perhaps in different combinations.
My brother was taking lessons and he wanted to quit so I told my mum I wanted to take lessons and I've been doing it ever since.
My first big break came with Lauryn Hill on a track called Everything is Everything, I played piano on that track way back in 1998.
My grandmother was teaching me how to play and I started playing for the choir when I was pretty young.
My voice is reminiscent of old soul singers with some elements of reggae.
Now that I'm coming out with my own record people can see I'm a solo artist.
People kinda know me as being behind the scenes now.
Right now there are some new artists that I'm excited about, like Estelle actually.
Sure, there's some crap out there. But there has always been crap.
The best training is to play by ear: trial by fire.
The people at Bethel were always like a family to me.
There are some very talented, creative people making great, innovative music, people like Kanye and Outkast, to name a couple.
To get on as a solo artist you need to do a lot of collaborations and more kinda background work.
To my pleasant surprise, we've started really well and we still continue to back that up with great sales due to word-of-mouth.
We all have some elements of uniqueness, but I'm not especially unique.
Words can have no single fixed meaning. Like wayward electrons, they can spin away from their initial orbit and enter a wider magnetic field. No one owns them or has a proprietary right to dictate how they will be used.
John appeared on Jay-Z's Black Album.
John was the music and choir director at Bethel A.M.E. Church in Scranton, Pennsylvania for nine years.
John got inspired by Boyz II Men, LL Cool J, MC Hammer and Michael Jackson.
John's second album is called 'Once Again' and was released at October 24, 2006.
John's debut album is called 'Get Lifted'.
Devon Harris, John's roommate at Penn, introduced John to Kanye West.
When John was on high school, he was prom king and president of the student council.
John has one brother named Vaughn Anthony.
Out of eight nominations at the 2006 Grammys, he won three awards.
He came second in a World's Best-Dressed Men list in the U.S. magazine Esquire.
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