The first time John Legend Legend talked this much in Tampa, there was a lectern near his Yamaha grand piano. That was seven years ago at the convention center, for a room of about 700 gathered to hear the then Grammy-and-Academy-Award-winner share a little about his academic life with students and mentors in the Black Brown and College Bound summit.
A lot has changed for the Ohio-born songwriter since then. He’s an EGOT now. The 45-year-old and his wife Chrissy Teigen added three kids to their family (and shared the heartbreak of losing one in 2020). He’s released two new albums (three if you count the holiday outing) and has another on the way. He also started doing intimate solo-piano shows where he sheds light on, well, how the legend, came to be.
On Aug. 25 in Tampa, Legend was back at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, in front of yet another sold-out crowd of about 1,500 fans at the Hard Rock Event Center. While he switched up the suit game—going with the tailored, garnett ‘fit to open the 19-song set, then switching to a gray suit and sneakers for the second half—Legend mostly stuck to the same show he did last fall. The result was just as enthralling.
[content-2] Clocking in at nearly two-and-a-half-hours, the “Evening With” show included a 15-minute intermission, and Legend—born John R. Stephens—not playing piano for almost 45 minutes. Unlike his last Tampa show, the audience resisted the urge to talk over parts of the show, instead leaning in to hear the songwriter talk about being a Latchkey kid, losing his mom to addiction for a decade, and moonlighting as a management consultant with Boston Consulting Group after graduating from college.
While the performances themselves were spellbinding—with the depth and power of Legend’s baritone on full display as he took the Sunday crowd to church with an emotional run through Thomas A. Dorsey’s “Take My Hand, Precious Lord”—the stories were just as gripping.
“I’m definitely going to hell for the songs I’ve already done tonight,” Legend joked early in the set as he described his family’s role in the Pentecostal church where grandpa was a pastor and grandma played organist.
Driving a friend to Lauryn Hill’s Newark, New Jersey studio led to Legend playing the piano on track 13 of of Hill’s landmark solo debut, a performance that earned him a spot in the liner notes and a $500 check from Columbia (his recent label home which paid him a lot more for eight of his own albums). Another trip to Newark marked the beginning of a long relationship with Kanye West, a longtime collaborator who was, at the time, also a young artist trying to break through.
“He really elevated my sound, made it feel more urgent, more ready for primetime. He brought his hip-hop production together with my musicality, and my roots in gospel and soul, and we made something together that was fresh and beautiful,” Legend explained about West’s work on Get Lifted, adding that his talent is felt significantly on West’s music.
“You hear my voice and musicianship on a lot of his records, too—even when you don’t know this, man. I’m that high-pitched, exotic sounding instrument on “Jesus Walks,” he said in the second set before singing the intro acapella.
Legend then worked through a medley that featured his work on records with the since-troubled rapper (“Never Let Me Down”), Jay-Z (“Encore”), Alicia Keys (“You Don’t Know My Name”), and Estelle (“American Boy”). In fact, the set was rife with covers. From the folk-soul of Legend’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” to a complete reinvention of Springsteen’s “Dancing In the Dark,” The Wailers’ “Redemption Song,” and Stevie Wonder’s “Ribbon In the Sky,” Legend showed how someone else’s art can say so much about our own lives.
“I wrote this song to help people voice their intimate thoughts on love, to balance and help them profess their commitment to each other, grapple with the complexities of their relationship,” he said about his own “Ordinary People.”
He even brought back memories of his recent DNC appearance when he talked about being asked to play Oprah’s 2005 Legends Ball where he appeared alongside Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Tina Turner, Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King and others. “I wrote a song about wonder women. We might even have to elect a wonder woman president of the United States,” he said to applause.
And like he did 10 months ago, Legend devoted a few minutes to explaining why he doesn’t leave politics and policy off the setlist, recalling a McDonald’s essay competition that asked writers to tell the corporation, “How do you plan to make Black history?”
“So I told McDonald’s. ‘Ronald, I plan to make Black history by becoming a famous recording artist, using that fame and success to help my community. I’m going to stand for something. I’m going to fight for justice and equality,” Legend said about his views when he was 15 years old, adding that he know wants to use his influence and platform to make good on that essay’s promise.
“It’s important for me to use my social capital to support people in my community, to speak out and advocate for the issues that affect us like voting rights, reproductive rights, and the criminal justice system,” Legend added. “When I sing about redemption, it’s not just theoretical.”
He admitted, before playing “Glory,” from the “Selma” soundtrack, that there are times now when, “People tell me to shut up and sing sometimes.”
“How can you shut up and sing at the same time—I don’t know,” he asked.
But shutting up is not who Legend is. Last Sunday, he talked about his childhood, the love of his life, struggling with losing his mom, and the joy that came with getting her back once she went sober. The show certainly felt like we saw all of him. In some ways, we got to see a lot of ourselves, too.
Setlist
Save Room
Green Light
Tonight (Best You Ever Had)
Take My Hand, Precious Lord (Thomas A. Dorsey)
Bridge Over Troubled Water (Simon & Garfunkel)
Ribbon in the Sky (Stevie Wonder)
Stay With You
—
God Only Knows (Beach Boys)
Dancing in the Dark (Bruce Springsteen)
[Medley] Never Let Me Down (Kanye West)>Encore (Jay-Z)>You Don’t Know My Name (Alicia Keys)>American Boy (Estelle)
Used To Love U
She Don’t Have To Know (snippet)
Ordinary People
Wonder Woman
Redemption Song (Bob Marley)
Glory
Good Morning
All Of Me
Wild
