John Legend at the piano telling stories about Kanye West, Lauryn Hill, and Alicia Keys (HD)

John Legend sits at the piano and reminisces with the audience about his early career challenges, searching for his big break, and collaborating with Lauryn Hill, Kanye West, Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas, Alicia Keys, and Slum Village. He plays the piano and sings snippets from some of these early songs, including Everything Is Everything, Never Let Me Down, Selfish, You Don't Know My Name, She Don’t Have to Know, and Ordinary People. Recorded live in concert before a sold-out crowd at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California on September 15, 2021.
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Transcript:
"I wrote that song with one of my friends in Philadelphia. Let's go back to when I was a student there at the University of Pennsylvania. Back in 1998. You know, while I was in school, I still had a dream of being right here, right where I am with you tonight. So you're my dream come true, Berkeley. I'm so grateful to be with you tonight. Really is a dream come true.
"But sometimes our dreams get deferred. Sometimes we get told no, we get disappointed. We get rejected. But those who win in these competitive businesses that we're in, when we get told no, we just keep going. We keep trying, we keep learning, we keep trying to improve ourselves. We persevere, we persist.
"I got turned down by every major record label. Every single one. Some of them multiple times, even the one I'm signed to right now. Everybody makes mistakes. But my first big break...let's go back to 1998. I was a student at Penn and I...on the weekends I would go up to Scranton, Pennsylvania. The home of Michael Scott. You know Scranton, Pennsylvania.
"I played at a church up there on the weekends, and one of my choir members...she had gone to school with Ms. Lauryn Hill. And Ms. Hill was working on the Miseducation of Lauryn Hill at the time. Her debut solo album. My friend brought me to the studio to meet her and have me play a couple songs for her and Ms. Hill was like, 'Why don't you play piano on this song we're working on right now?' So I started playing. 'Everything Is Everything,' you guys remember that one? I went back to school my senior year and my claim to fame that I was on everybody's favorite album. The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, on track 13. People started calling me Track 13, I talked about it so much.
"And I just knew my big break as a solo artist would be right around the corner. But sometimes, our dreams take detours too, you know? My detour was as a management consultant. Yes, believe it or not. I worked as a management consultant for 3 years out of college. If you don't know what that means, it's a lot of PowerPoint presentations and Excel spreadsheets. Very, very sexy work, Berkeley.
"But at night, while I had that day job, I was still making music. I would play gigs around New York City and Philadelphia and DC. I would record and write with my friends in the studio. One of my shows was at a place in Harlem called Jimmy's Uptown. And one of the people in the audience had been invited by his cousin who happened to be my roommate.
"That guy's name was Kanye West. You guys know Kanye West. He had just moved from Chicago and my roommate said 'You gotta meet my cousin, he's an up and coming producer and you guys should collaborate.' I didn't know he was also going to be a rapper too. But he was working on his demo, which eventually became The College Dropout. And I was working on my demo, which eventually became Get Lifted. We helped each other. He would give me beats for my demo, and he would have me sing on some of the records he was making for College Dropout. He brought me in with Slum Village. He brought me in with Alicia Keys too. That was me singing backgrounds on 'You Don't Know My Name.'"
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Bigger Love live tour dates (2021):
Sept. 5-6 - Highland Park, IL @ Ravinia Festival
Sept. 9-10 - Woodinville, WA @ Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery
Sept. 12 - Bend, OR @ Les Schwab Amphitheater
Sept. 15 - Berkeley, CA @ Greek Theatre
Sept. 16 - Santa Barbara, CA @ Santa Barbara Bowl
Sept. 18 - Las Vegas, NV @ The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan
Sept. 19 - San Diego, CA @ CalCoast Credit Union Open Air Theatre
Sept. 21 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Greek Theater
Sept. 22 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Greek Theater
Sept. 24 - Tucson, AZ @ AVA Amphitheater - Casino Del Sol
Sept. 25 - Phoenix, AZ @ Arizona Federal Theatre
Oct. 2 - Sandy, UT @ Sandy City Amphitheatre
Oct. 3 - Denver, CO @ Levitt Pavilion
Oct. 6 - Grand Prairie, TX @ Texas Trust CU Theatre
Oct. 7 - Tulsa, OK @ BOK Center
Oct. 9 - St. Augustine, FL @ St. Augustine Amphitheatre
Oct. 10 - Sunrise, FL @ BB&T Center
Oct. 12 - Oxon Hill, MD @ MGM National Harbor
Oct. 13 - Philadelphia, PA @ The Met
Oct. 15 - New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden
Oct. 16 - Ledyard, CT @ Premier Theater at Foxwoods Resort Casino
Oct. 17 - Boston, MA @ Orpheum Theatre
Oct. 19 - Detroit, MI @ Masonic Temple
Oct. 20 - Carmel, IN @ The Palladium at the Center for the Performing Arts

[@catherineherr5553]

Well…we just love you!… best in concert I’ve ever seen…”Ordinary People”.’’’ My absolute favorite!

[@joshc441]

The definition of class. No twerkers in the back, no hype man, just a man, his piano, and his voice.

[@MaxYZY]

This is so nice

[@kanyeye7172]

man

[@catherineherr5553]

Ordinary People….

[@catherineherr5553]

This song …is the best of everything! I love to be ordinary! No one ever thinks of me as ordinary. I just like being an ordinary person. It’s true.