The World of John Legend

John Legend stopped in San Diego on the second leg of his All of Me tour at the Cal Coast Open Air Theatre this past August. Legend’s been around music for most of his life and an active force in the music industry since about 2001 working with folks like of Lauryn Hill and Kanye West.

An R&B musician, John Legend is a brilliant singer-songwriter capable of delivering a great old school sound and feel. His music definitely contains remnants of older Soul and R&B musicians from the past. Most notably his work sounds very much influenced by Marvin Gaye, speaking of which in regards to his influences and inspiration, Legend once said,

“Part of my inspiration is just the desire to make something special, and being inspired by special music that I’ve heard before from people like Marvin Gaye, or Jeff Buckley, or Nina Simone, or the Beatles, or Stevie Wonder, people that I’ve looked up to for years. They inspire me because they let me know what greatness sounds like, and I aspire to that every time I make a record.”

On top of Legend’s powerful vintage sound he tries to deliver the best music he possibly can. While John Legend isn’t Marvin Gaye or Stevie Wonder he demonstrates those influences and sounds like a classic R&B musician with songs relevant to today’s audiences. That sound and that style also led Legend’s stage name. Originally born as John Roger Stephens, “Legend” was a nickname he earned from a friend due to the “legendary” sound he produced for his albums.

Last year, John Legend went on the Made to Love tour to support his fourth album Love in the Future which was released in the summer 2013. Currently, Legend kicked off the 46-city All of Me Tour which brought him to San Diego twice, over at the Balboa Theater in March and over to the Cal Coast Open Air Theater back in August as part of what can only be the second leg of the tour.

The next show he’s putting on is to be in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on September 23^rd and Legend is to keep on touring until November 23^rd ending the tour (unless new dates pop-up) in Johannesburg, South Africa.

As for word on a new album, there hasn’t been any official news, or rather any news at all regarding a new album coming straight John himself. Legend is still on tour and as of this writing is still set to perform in Malaysia, the UK, France and South Africa. After scouring Legend’s website, there is very little information regarding any future projects Legend is working on at all.

Most of the newest and/or upcoming music projects he has lined up are collaborations or pieces he contributed to with other artists. For example, Legend and Barbara Streisand are set to sing a duet on the song “What Kind of Fool” for her new album and Legend is to be featured on Sergio Mendes’ new album MAGIC.

And finally one other upcoming project involves Legend, Madonna and John Swetnam teaming up to work on a new dance film titled Breaking Through. So far there is no word on a release date for this new movie. Which is a shame since this new film combines the found-footage subgenre and the dance genre into one, only time will tell on the details of this new project!