John Legend: Living up to his name
"All of Me" is a love song from John Legend, dedicated to his real-life love. Our Rita Braver sits him down to chat For The Record:
If there is a love song of the moment, it is "All of Me":
'Cause all of me
Loves all of you.
Love your curves and all your edges,
All your perfect imperfections.
Give your all to me,
I'll give my all to you.
You're my end and my beginning.
Even when I lose I'm winning.
'Cause I give you all of me, And you give me all of you.
And it turns out that John Legend is singing it for the woman in the video: his wife of 17 months, model Chrissy Teigen -- the one with all those "perfect imperfections."
"Every woman would love the man that she loves to think that about her," said Braver.
"Sure, and I think every man wants that, too," said Legend. "And that's the best kind of love, is that one that even though everybody has faults, you're embracing them -- faults and all."
"It's nice to be able to hear when people feel it as much as we do," said Teigen.
And she considers Legend's own imperfections to be more like "perfections."
"John knows a lot about everything," she said, "and it's frustrating and its amazing. It sucks, because you get proven wrong all the time! But I love that about him."
And these days the whole world seems to love the 36-year old Legend. While "All of Me" received a Grammy nomination, the song he co-wrote for the movie "Selma" may be destined for even bigger things.
The song, called "Glory," won a Golden Globe Award, and it's been nominated for an Oscar.
Reflecting on past and current civil rights struggles, Legend wrote the chorus:
One day, when the glory comes,
It will be ours, it will be ours.
One day, when the war is won,
We will be sure, we will be here sure.
Oh, glory, glory.
Common wrote the verse.
The movement is a rhythm to us
Freedom is like religion to us
Justice is juxtaposition in us
Justice for all just ain't specific enough.
It all took on special meaning when they traveled to Selma last month.
"This is definitely one of the greatest moments I've had in my life, to be a part of this," said Common.
The film's cast and creators came to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the march that started on the bridge leading out of Selma.
Braver asked, "Does it feel like you're on hallowed ground being down here?"
"I feel reverence and humility when I come here," said Legend, "because I understand the amount of sacrifice that went into the marches that went down here."
John Legend was born in 1978, 13 years after that march on Selma. His name was John Stevens, but over the years his musical skills earned him the nickname "Legend."
"I grew up singing and playing in the church," he said.
His mom was a seamstress, his dad a factory worker in Springfield Ohio. Johnny (as his family called him) graduated high school at 16, and chose the University of Pennsylvania over Harvard.
"It was fortuitous for me to be there as a musician because Philadelphia was really a hot spot for a lot of great soul music that was coming out during that time," he said.
Indeed, while still in school, he did backup work for Lauryn Hill and, after graduation, for Kanye West.
But after graduation, he took a job as a management consultant.
"My first job offer was for $50,000 a year, which to me was a lot of money at the time -- it was more than my father ever made as a factory worker," said Legend. "And I said, at night I'm gonna keep working on music and figure it out and I'll try to get a record deal."
"'Cause you felt like you were that good?" asked Braver.
"Yeah, 'cause I felt like I was good enough, and I had something to offer."
Meanwhile, he worked on other people's records. He sang background -- falsetto -- on Alicia Keys' 2003 song, "You Don't Know My Name."
When he finally quit his day job, and made his first album, in 2004, his song "Ordinary People," about a troubled love affair, was a break-out hit.
I know I misbehaved and you made your mistakes,
And we both still got room left to grow,
And though love sometimes hurts, I still put you first,
And we'll make this thing work.
But I think maybe we should take it slowWe're just ordinary people,
We don't know which way to go,
Cause we're ordinary people,
Maybe we should take it slow.
He won the first of nine Grammy Awards.
"People just went crazy for your voice -- what do you think it was?" asked Braver.
"I think it was my voice, but also what I was saying as a songwriter, and the simplicity of it," said Legend. "I write honestly about love and romance and situations people are going through, that they feel like they can relate to what I'm singing about."
But his own love life took an unexpected turn in 2006, when a friend wanted to direct a video of a song.
"He said, 'You gotta meet this girl, I want her to be in your video, and she's beautiful and I think you're gonna like her,'" Legend recalled.
"Was it a fix-up?" asked Braver.
"I feel like it was a video shoot and a fix-up at the same time."
Legend and the girl, Chrissy Teigen, dated for seven years, as Legend concentrated on his career and Teigen -- a frequent Sports Illustrated swimsuit model -- on hers. They married last September, but Teigen says that was just icing on the cake.
"I would have said yes a year before," she told Braver. "I would have said yes two years after."
"She just makes me happy all the time," he said. "I'm just happy to be with her."
These days there's a lot to be happy about. He and Chrissy have become one of those Golden Couples.
And John Legend has lived up to his name: In just the past few weeks he's opened the Super Bowl, and closed the Grammys.
"Right now you do seem like you are in such a great place in your life," said Braver.
"Yeah, the thing is, I don't know if it could get any better, so I imagine it can only get worse!" he laughed. "So I'm just going to enjoy it while it lasts."
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