For John Legend, the year 2025 represents the junction where his creative past, present and future all meet.
While last year was the official anniversary of his 2004 debut “Get Lifted,” this year’s tour finds him hitting the road full force with a 10-piece band centered on commemorating a collection of songs that reflects that seminal part of his life where he was in hardcore hustling mode and will be on full view at the Barclays Center.
“This is the true celebration of the 20th anniversary of my first album and first tour,” Legend said. “It all started with this album. I decided I would do a tour in celebration of that album and really in celebration of all of it, thinking about the journey we’ve been through that started with this album. We’re doing songs from throughout my career as well, but we’re focusing on the entirety of “Get Lifted.” I also do some storytelling about the making of the album, what I was inspired by and some of the other artists were kind of in my orbit and inspired me.”
He added, “Most of that album was recorded when I was still trying to get a record deal. Believing that I had something special to offer, but not having it come to fruition at the moment when I thought I was ready. Having to keep working for years to finally get to the place where the gatekeepers were ready to let me through the gate.”
Suffice it to say that John Legend has arrived in the subsequent two decades.
But it’s his role as family man that Legend takes the greatest pride in having been married to Chrissy Teigen since 2013.
As a father, Legend took inspiration from his role to the point where he released 2024’s “My Favorite Dream,” his tenth studio album and first collection of children’s songs. For the 46-year-old father, this represented a significant contrast to where he was at when he released “Get Lifted.”
“I’m living quite a different life now,” Legend pointed out. “I still work hard, but I feel like I’m in a lot more control over what I do and I’m not as worried about pleasing gatekeepers, but it’s more about creating what I love and maintaining a connection with my audience that I’ve built over this 20-year career. And of course, now, I’m far from being a childless bachelor in my early twenties. Now I’m the father of four kids and I wanted to create an album dedicated to my family and it felt like the perfect time to do it. At the time, I had two kids under two years old and I wanted to make an album that would help them fall in love with music and do the same for all the other little ones out there.”
The first album Legend recorded, where, outside of a handful of covers, all original material was solely penned by him, “My Favorite Dream” notched a pair of 2025 Grammy nominations.
Written on the piano located next to Legend’s kitchen (“the main hub of activity in our home”), Legend said the songs were “…directly inspired by the things we say to our kids and inspired by the energy and love we feel in our home every day. I just sat at the piano and wrote some songs rooted in that.”
Legend gushed, “I’m truly so proud of it. It’s one of my favorite albums I’ve made, and I’m so happy with how it turned out. It’s exactly what I hoped and beyond when I was hoping that [producer] Sufjan [Stevens] would want to do this with me. When he got his hands on it and added his unique musicianship to it, he made it a dreamy album that I wanted it to be.”
With so much activity going on around touring and all his other projects, Legend has carved out time to record new material. While it is still in the creative stages, he has promised that fresh music will be released within the next 12 months.
“This year is really about the past while we’re creating the future by way of a new album that we’ll roll out next year,” he said with a laugh. “Behind the scenes, we’re creating new music that will come out in the future. But publicly, we’re celebrating my first album and it’s been a lot of fun doing it. I’m looking forward to touring the rest of this year and celebrating ‘Get Lifted.’”
John Legend will be appearing on Nov. 4 at the Barclays Center, 620 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn. For more information, visit www.barclayscenter.com or call 917-618-6100.
