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  • -My first guest is an EGOT winner,

  • who you can see as a coach on "The Voice,"

  • which airs Mondays at 8:00 p.m. and Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m.,

  • right here on NBC.

  • Here is John legend.

  • John, welcome back to the show.

  • I love it. It's you. It's the piano.

  • That is a gorgeous piano, by the way.

  • -I'm here, man. I'm happy to be back.

  • Thanks for having me. Good to see you.

  • -I wanted -- I've been wanting to tell you

  • how much I enjoyed your performance at

  • President Biden's inauguration.

  • You did "Feeling Good," Nina Simone.

  • -Yeah. -What was that like?

  • -Well, I think the whole nation was feeling this --

  • or a lot of the nation was feeling a big sigh of relief

  • that we were moving on as a nation

  • and would have some sanity back in The White House.

  • And all day -- We had already planned to sing "Feeling Good,"

  • and all day, I was hearing people say,

  • "It's a new day, it's a new day."

  • I was like, "I have the perfect song for this moment."

  • -"Wait till you hear what I'm doing." Yeah.

  • -And, you know, I love Nina Simone,

  • and her version of the song is so iconic.

  • And I tried my best to honor her version.

  • And it was amazing to do it right there

  • in front of the steps of the Lincoln Memorial,

  • you know, where Dr. King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech,

  • where so many important moments in American history

  • have happened.

  • And it was an incredible moment.

  • -Honestly, it was beautiful and it was just perfect,

  • and everyone was, like, feeling that.

  • It was honestly -- Top to bottom, that was just great.

  • -Thank you.

  • -Something else happened on Inauguration Day.

  • Joe Biden took over the @POTUS Twitter handle

  • and started following people.

  • Just a handful of people, people in the administration --

  • -His staff, yeah. -His staff.

  • -Just his staff.

  • -And then one other person, and that was your wife,

  • Chrissy Teigen.

  • He followed -- Chrissy was one of the people he first followed.

  • It was like -- -Yes.

  • Well, Chrissy prompted him to do it, because she said,

  • you know, the last president blocked her,

  • and wouldn't it be so cool

  • if Joe Biden actually followed her.

  • Not just not blocked her,

  • but actually followed her.

  • -He did it. -He did it.

  • And she regretted that decision,

  • because every tweet she was about to tweet,

  • she was like, "Oh, no.

  • The president is going to see this."

  • And so she started really holding back,

  • censoring the Chrissy that we know and love.

  • -Yeah, respectfully.

  • -She had to ask President Biden to unfollow her

  • so she could be herself again.

  • And then she just started cursing a lot afterwards

  • just to release all this pent-up energy

  • that she was holding back.

  • -"Look, just please unfollow me. It's not you. It's me.

  • I love you. Let's just do it."

  • And then, as soon as he unfollowed her,

  • she's like, "Whew!

  • Here we go. Now we can kick the shoes off.

  • And there you go."

  • Oh, my gosh. That makes me laugh.

  • How are the kids, by the way? You have Luna and Miles.

  • -They're good.

  • We're still preschool-podding here in our playroom.

  • -What's the music situation like?

  • What are they listening to?

  • -Luna's main choices are either Ariana Grande or Selena Gomez,

  • and Miles' main picks are

  • the "Frozen" soundtrack and daddy.

  • So Miles is, you know, still requesting my albums.

  • He really likes "I Do" from my "Bigger Love" album.

  • And he also loves the Christmas album,

  • so he'll listen to my Christmas album all year round.

  • -That Christmas album was a jam. Dude, I loved that record.

  • -Thank you.

  • -Speaking of great albums, 2020 marked

  • the 10th anniversary, believe it or not,

  • of your Grammy-winning album, "Wake Up!",

  • which you did with The Roots.

  • -Absolutely. -And I remember this --

  • -I remember coming on your show and promoting it.

  • And we had so much fun making that album.

  • It was a labor of love.

  • We loved the music.

  • We loved the artists that we were covering.

  • And it was just really powerful material,

  • and it was such a cool album to make

  • with Questlove and the whole crew.

  • -What do you remember most about

  • meeting Questlove and the guys for the first time?

  • -Well, I was -- I went to college in Philadelphia.

  • I went to UPenn.

  • And I was a kid from Ohio with a dream to be

  • a musician eventually, for a living,

  • doing what I'm doing now.

  • But at the time, you know, The Roots were

  • running the music scene in Philadelphia.

  • They were hosting "Black Lily"

  • and all these different open mics.

  • They were producing people like D'Angelo and Common

  • and Erykah Badu and Jill Scott and all these great artists.

  • And I was just this up-and-coming young guy

  • who went to college at Penn.

  • And I started making my demos and recording songs

  • with some of my friends in Philly,

  • and I wanted Questlove to hear my music.

  • So one day, I, as John Stephens,

  • not as John Legend yet --

  • I walk up to him after one of these open mics

  • that I had gone to and I just was like,

  • "Man, I would love it if you'd check out my CD."

  • And I told him that story when we were working on "Wake Up!",

  • and he had no idea.

  • He had no remembrance of that happening,

  • which, you know, honestly, I wouldn't remember it either.

  • But he didn't remember that.

  • But I did hand him my demo as John Stephens

  • probably in like 2000, 2001.

  • And then, 10 years later, we were making "Wake Up!" together,

  • and now here we are now 20 years later.

  • -When did you go with John Legend?

  • -Well, it was a nickname that some friends

  • started calling me in the studio,

  • just guys that I was collaborating with.

  • The first guy to call me that was J. Ivy.

  • He's a spoken-word artist from Chicago.

  • I met him through Kanye.

  • We were all in the studio together.

  • He just started calling me "The Legend"

  • because he thought I sounded like

  • one of our old-school soul legends.

  • And it just caught on with our little group of friends,

  • and then they were like,

  • "We should call you John Legend."

  • And it just really was in our little circle.

  • And one time, Kanye put a mix tape out,

  • and he called me John Legend on the mix tape.

  • And it just started to spread among more of the people

  • that were listening to our music.

  • And then, at some point, I had to decide,

  • "Am I going to stick with John Stephens?"

  • Which I was perfectly fine with.

  • I wasn't looking for a stage name.

  • "Or am I going to go with this more audacious name

  • and call myself a legend

  • before I even have a record deal?"

  • -That's a challenge, man. -That was a challenge.

  • And so I was like, "I know this is a bold move,

  • but I'm not going to go into this expecting to fail.

  • I'm going to go into it

  • hoping that I can try to live up to this."

  • And I've spent the rest of my career trying to do so.

  • -Look at you now, bud.

  • -Here we are now. I'm on "Jimmy Fallon"!

  • -Come on, now. Come on.

  • More with John Legend after the break, everybody.

  • Come on back. Come right back.

-My first guest is an EGOT winner,

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