John Legend Is Still Lifted

John Legend remembers his first performance in Denver, although he can’t recall the venue. He just knows it was a tiny spot, and about fifteen people were there. “In some ways it was frustrating,” he says, “but in other ways it was just a sign of how much room I still needed to grow. And every time I’ve come back, we’ve continued to build on that fan base. And Denver has been such a welcoming place for me to play.”

That first gig was before Legend released Get Lifted, the multi-platinum debut that earned him three Grammy awards. It’s been twenty years since that release, which catapulted the soulful singer to A-list fame, and he’s celebrating with a tour that will see him performing the album in its entirety with a live band. The tour will stop at the Paramount Theatre on Wednesday, November 19.

“As we’re celebrating Get Lifted, it just reminds me of the struggle, you know, of those shows that didn’t have a lot of people there, the times when I was rejected by record labels, all of that,” Legend tells Westword. “And it makes me really grateful for how much we’ve grown from that.

“It’s pretty exciting to celebrate it,” he continues. “All the shows we’ve done so far have been so fun, and it’s nostalgic, it’s celebratory, and we’ve been having such a good time.”

At sixteen, Legend enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania, where he served as president and music director of the university’s a cappella group. He started getting his first music projects, too, including providing piano for Lauryn Hill on her song “Everything Is Everything.” But after graduating magna cum laude with an English degree, Legend continued pursuing his own musical ambitions. He had written many songs for that first album long before he was discovered by Devo Springsteen and Kanye West, who signed Legend to his label, GOOD Music, and released Get Lifted.

“I started writing that album before I had a record deal, so almost every song on Get Lifted was written while I was still an independent, unsigned artist,” Legend recalls. “I was still working a day job most of that time as a management consultant during the day, so I would just find time to write and perform whenever I could. I would write on the subway on the way to work. I would write in the car on the way down to Philadelphia, where I would collaborate with one of the guys that produced some of the songs on the album. So I felt like I was hustling, you know? I was trying to do everything at once, working my day job, writing music, trying to get the sign, playing gigs locally, selling demo CDs out of my car. So much of my story began just trying to make it in this business. And I was writing a lot of the songs for Get Lifted while I was doing that.”

The album was an instant hit, bringing soul music into the mainstream. But Legend may have prophesied his career before it ever took off. When he was a twelve-year-old high schooler, he won a Black History Month essay competition sponsored by McDonald’s that asked, “How do you intend to make Black History?”

Legend chuckles at the memory. “I wrote in my essay that I plan to become a successful recording artist and to use that success to give back to my community, to speak up for my community, speak up for justice and equality,” he says from his home in Los Angeles, “so it’s been amazing kind of living that dream, living that aspiration, and seeing a lot of it come true.”

His childhood was steeped in gospel music. “Gospel and R&B and soul have so much in common, and so many of our great R&B and soul artists have come from the Black church and grew up on gospel music, and that was my path to falling in love with music as well,” he says. “I grew up in a church that was basically run by my family. My grandfather was a pastor and my grandmother was a church organist, and my mother directed the choir. So I just grew up being around a lot of music at church, and a lot of the people who made the music were in my family. So I was very attracted to music from a very young age, and started taking piano lessons when I was young. And my grandmother taught me a lot about gospel music and the way that she played. So that’s where I started as a musician. And like I said, I think gospel and soul are kind of a direct pipeline for so many artists, starting in the Black church and then going on to make soul music as adults, because the music is so connected. The culture and the tradition and all of it are so connected.”

Staying true to creativity and your roots is the key to longevity, Legend has learned. He’s watched how much the music industry has evolved in the age of social media and now artificial intelligence, and he has some advice for burgeoning artists who are trying to forge their way in the business.

Social media can be a particular boon for musicians, according to Legend. “It’s interesting, because in some ways the record deal isn’t the end-all be-all. It’s not the deciding factor for artists as much as it used to be, because we have such a direct way of connecting with our fans that you don’t necessarily need an intermediary,” he says. “You don’t need a gatekeeper to allow you to connect with your fans; you can have that direct relationship with them. … That being said, I am still signed to a major label. It’s just under different terms than I would have signed back in the day, and they still have expertise and they still have relationships that can be really helpful.”

At the same time, he warns, social media led people to believe they need just one viral hit to create a career. It takes far more than that, Legend says, and it all comes down to the authenticity of the art.

“I think for the individual artists, the key at the end of the day is still to focus on the music, focus on the art, focus on your creativity, focus on being as great as you can at what you do, whether it’s songwriting or performing or a combination of the two,” he explains. “Like, really develop your chops as an artist. Get really good at it, because having one of those hits take off on social media isn’t a career. You know, a career only happens for artists who are able to perform live and are able to put a whole show together, put a whole album together, so that they can sustain a career, really foster that relationship with their fans and continue to create compelling material that will give them longevity. Because one hit won’t do that, right?”

Apropos AI, Legend has no worries. “People talk about the things that can be done with computers and robots now, but there’s a relationship that we have with our fans that you can’t really replicate with AI,” he notes. “And you see it with all the most successful artists now, that fans are committed to them and their storytelling and their songwriting.

“That’s something that you can’t replicate with AI,” he concludes. “That human connection that people feel to an artist and to each other when they come to an artist’s show. And so I believe that there will always be a place for real artistry in our business and the art form we’ve created.”

John Legend, 8 p.m. Wednesday, November 19, Paramount Theatre, 1621 Glenarm Place. Tickets are available at paramountdenver.com.