John Legend needed to “negotiate” with a porn producer to safe his stage title.
John Legend needed to negotiate a deal for his stage title
The All of Me hitmaker had been performing beneath his actual title, John Roger Stephens, when he landed the nickname throughout a studio session with then-friend Kanye West and spoken-word artist J. Ivy, however his lawyer instructed him he wanted to trademark the moniker if he needed to make use of it professionally.
Nonetheless, earlier than he might do this, it was found there was another person with an identical title, however he and John managed to make a deal with none cash altering arms.
Talking on Phrase+Music, he mentioned: “Lo and behold, there is a porn producer – I child you not – a porn producer who dabbled in rockabilly music, and he glided by the title Johnny Legend.
“The truth that he made music, rockabilly music, and his title was Johnny Legend, meant that there was a doable trademark infringement case.
“We needed to discover Johnny Legend, negotiate with him, reduce a mutually unique deal stating that he was Johnny Legend, and I used to be John Legend.
“He would not sue me. I would not sue him. He would not attempt to get into the soul music enterprise pretending to be John Legend.
“And I am comfortable to clarify that I stored my aspect of the settlement. I did not produce any porn, did not make any rockabilly music pretending to be Johnny Legend.”
The 46-year-old singer recalled how J. Ivy was blown away by his vocals once they have been within the studio engaged on Kanye’s debut album, The Faculty Dropout.
He mentioned: “Now J. heard me singing, taking part in and doing all I used to be doing on these Faculty Dropout tracks, and he was impressed.
“He mentioned, ‘Man, we’re gonna must name you the legend.’ “
And as an “previous soul” with a “throwback voice, this throwback fashion,” John favored the nickname and it did not take lengthy earlier than different individuals began to name him John Legend too.
He continued: “So I needed to determine whether or not or not I used to be going to imagine this stage title.
“Now a part of me is saying, ‘The way you going to name your self Legend? You do not also have a file deal but.’ “
The Odd Individuals hitmaker determined to make the change anyway.
He recalled pondering: “It’ll make individuals listen, after which I simply acquired to go reside as much as it.”
John added: “And you already know what? It actually did really feel like a brand new start.”
