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I Think It's A Bit Of A Myth That Black Americans Need One Leader. We're Not A Monolith. And Now That Legal Segregation And Discrimination Has Been Pretty Much Abolished There Isn't The Sort Of Universal Mandate That A Black Leader Would Have. Black Folks Live In A Wide Variety Of Social Situations Right Now.

-John Legend

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I Think It's A

John Legend

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I Think It's A Bit Of A Myth That Black Americans Need One Leader. We're Not A Monolith. And Now That Legal Segregation And Discrimination Has Been Pretty Much Abolished There Isn't The Sort Of Universal Mandate That A Black Leader Would Have. Black Folks Live In A Wide Variety Of Social Situations Right Now.

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I Listen To All Those Kinds Of Music, From Classic Soul To Hip-hop To Brazilian Music To, You Know, Jazz To Indie To Alternative... And For Me, When I'm Making Music, It's All In My Head, And All Those Influences In My Head. So If Something Comes To Me That's A Reference From A Different Genre Then People Are Used To Hearing From Me, I'm Not Afraid To Go There With It.

The Main Focus For Me Is Not Trying To Find Duet Partners. It's About Just Making Great Songs. I Want Most Of My Album To Be In My Voice, Because It's My Point Of View.

No Matter How Big Or Successful And Famous You Become, If You Do That, That's The Most Fulfilling Thing, Is Making Music That You Love And That You're Proud Of.

The Weirdest Thing About Hillary Clinton's Email 'scandal' Is Finding Out Some Of Our Senators Still Don't Use Email.

My Family Is Very Musical, I Was Surrounded By It. And From Four Years Old I Was The One That Asked My Mother Could I Take Piano Lessons.

When We See People That Are Impoverished And People Who Are Dealt An Unfair Hand, Then If We Have The Power To Help Them, We Should Try To Do That.

I Don't Feel Like That Many Musicians Are Competitive With Each Other.

Well, Jeff Buckley For Me Is One Of The Greatest Singers I've Ever Heard. And The Reason Why Is He Has An Amazing Range, Amazing Emotional Power In His Voice. And The Music He Put Around It Also Just Had This Passion And This Soul To It And This Spirit To It That Very Few Artists Have, And He Passed At A Very Young Age.

I Guess A Lot Of Times Pressure Is Put On Something After It Becomes Big.

I Care More About The Fans In General, Just Making Sure They Enjoy What I Do. And Then Also I Kind Of Had This Kind Of Ideal Of The Kind Of Music I Want To Make And What I'm Aiming For Kind Of Creatively And Just The Quality Of The Music That I'm Trying To Make. And I Have That In My Head.

That's The Evergreen Nature Of A Great Song. They Can Be Resurrected. They Can Be Covered. They Can Find New Relevance Due To Changing Circumstances In History.

I Think Writers Are Prone To Hyperbole Sometimes.

For Me, No Matter How Much Money You Want To Make Off Of Singing, No Matter What Kind Of Fame You Want To Make, Achieve, The Most Important Thing To Me Is Making Music That You're Proud Of, Making Music That Comes From You, Comes From An Authentic Place In You.

I Spent A Lot Of Time, A Lot Of Energy Trying To Be A Better Artist And I Still [do]. I Spend A Lot Of Time Focusing On My Craft. If You're Going To Take Your Passion Into Something Beyond Just Something For Fun On The Side, You Got To Spend A Lot Of Time On It To Be Great, And Then You've Got To Make Smart Decisions About Who You Collaborate With [and] Where You Live [to] Put Yourself In The Right Situations To Meet The Right People To Catch Those Breaks.

At The End Of The Day, There's Only A Few Major Stars In The Music Business, And Then There's All These People That Are Aspiring To Be That.

The End Of The Day

The Future Started Yesterday, And We're Already Late.

Why Wouldn't I Help? What Good Reason Do I Have As A Human Being With Power And A Sense Of Empathy And Morality, Why Wouldn't I Do Something?

As A Nation - And As A World - We Need More Truth.

I Feel Like Spirituality Definitely Comes Through In My Music, But I Don't Make Any Specific Efforts To Make It That Way.

I Would Tell Myself, "love Yourself And Don't Be Afraid To Take Risks." I Was Often Afraid To Take Risks, Socially, Because I Was Young And A Little More Shy And Still Figuring Out Who I Wanted To Be. Sometimes I Look Back And Think, "i Should Have Just Been Bolder And More Confident."

It's An Artist's Duty To Reflect The Times In Which We Live.

You See All These Things That Make You Feel Desperate Or Sad, But You Realize Changes Can Be Made, And It Doesn't Take A Lot Of Money On Our Part To Make A Change In People's Lives.

I Want To Make A Better Record Than I Made The Last Time. I Want To Grow. I Want To Discover New Things About Myself Creatively.

I Don't Get To Listen To Music For Fun Very Often; A Lot Of What I'm Hearing Is For Work And Isn't Released Yet.

Listening To Music

I Never Went Through A Period Where I Didn't Want To Play Music. I've Always Loved It And It's Always Been A Huge Part Of My Life.

The Issue I Focus On The Most Is Extreme Poverty. I Think It's Kind Of Out Of Sight Out Of Mind. I Wish There Would Be More Stories About That To Connect People To What's Happening. To Personalize It, To Make It Real To People, To Inspire Them To Action.

Music Was My Life...it Was Everything To Me, Even Though I Was In School Majoring In English. I Was Still Very Focused On Music And Always Finding Ways To Perform, So That Was What Set Me Up To Want To Become A Recording Artist.

Black People Invented Jazz. But This Story [in La La Land] Wasn't Ever Claiming To Be That. It's Just A Story About Two People From One Writer's Point Of View.

I've Always Followed Politics, And I Think Politics Is Everybody's Business Because We're Electing Someone Who's Going To Be Making Important Decisions That Will Affect All Of Our Lives.

I Used To Work For A Management Consulting Company, So I Dressed Differently - Business Casual, Probably A Lot Of Things From Banana Republic. My Wardrobe Now Is Definitely More Expensive, But I Always Dress For The Occasion.

Sometimes I Start Just On The Piano With A Melody Or Musical Idea That Kind Of Leads Me To Certain Lyrics.

Mass Incarceration Is A Policy That's Kind Of Built Up Over The Last Four Decades And It's Destroyed Families And Communities, And Something We Need To Change. And It's Fallen Disproportionally On Black And Brown Communities, Especially Black Communities, And It's Kind Of A Manifestation Of Structural Racism.

As A Young Black Boy, It Made Me Proud To See Black Leaders That Did Something Amazing And Made The World Change.

I'm Not Going To Run For Office. I Don't Think That's The Right Move For Me.

Sometimes I Just Think People Are Haters. And If They're Haters, You Can Listen To What They Have To Say But You Have To Take It With A Grain Of Salt.

Now That I'm Coming Out With My Own Record People Can See I'm A Solo Artist.

I Don't Really Marinate In Anybody's Album Because I Don't Really Want To Sound Like Anybody Else When I Put My Album Out. So I'd Rather Not Even Be Tempted To Listen To A Bunch Of Other Stuff With Any Degree Of Emersion In It, Cause I Just Don't Want To Sound Like Anything Else, So I Kinda Focus On My Own Music.

The Best Training Is To Play By Ear: Trial By Fire.

Experience Is A Great Teacher.

Critics Like To Describe And Categorize Things, And Categories Often Have A Way Of Limiting People.

Music Business Is Hard. It's Very Difficult. And It's Not For Everyone. Even If You Can Sing Or Even If You Can Write A Song, It Takes A Lot Of Determination, It Takes Some Kind Of Thick Skin.

Well, I Like Songs That Have Like A Little Bit Of Quirkiness To Them.

I Gravitate Toward People That Are A Little More Outrageous Than I Am. And We Complement Each Other Well.

I'm Used To Getting Sexy Sometimes In The Lyrics.

we're So Used To Having Everything We Want At Our Fingertips So I Think That When Things Get Tough It's difficult for People To Persist Through That.

I Listen To All Those Kinds Of Music, From Classic Soul To Hip-hop To Brazilian Music To, You Know, Jazz To Indie To Alternative. So Whatever. I Listen To All If It. Classic Rock And Classic Pop, All Of That.

I Do Believe That Part Of Us Ending Racism Is Us Seeing Each Other's Humanity And Learning To Love Each Other, Even If We Look Different Or Worship Differently Or Live Differently.

The Struggle For Freedom And Justice Is Now.

Struggle For Freedom

Music, To Me, If It's Good, It's Good. That's All That Matters.

Music Business Is Not For Everyone. But If You Have It In You, You Have That Passion, If You Have That Energy In You That You Really Want To Make Something Creative And Make Something That's Going To Impact The World, Then Go For It, Do It And Don't Let Anybody Tell You No.

When I Write, I Don't Really Focus On Duets Or Anything Like That, Or Whether I'm Going To Feature This Or That Rapper. I Just Focus On Just Making A Great Song And Figure Out The Rest Later.

I Do Speak To Kids A Lot. I Am Very Clear With Them That Not All Of Them Should Aspire To Be Me And Not All Of Them Should Be Aspire To Be Lebron.

You Have To Be Careful When It Comes To Copyrights, Whether Just Sounding Like Or Feeling Like Something Is Enough To Say You Violated Their Copyrights Because There's A Lot Of Music Out There, And There's A Lot Of Things That Feel Like Other Things That Are Influenced By Other Things. And You Don't Want To Get Into That Thing Where All Of Us Are Suing Each Other All The Time Because This And That Song Feels Like Another Song.

I Have A Great Band, With Very Talented Players, And We Give Everything We Have Every Night.

The Biggest Weapon Is To Stay Peaceful

If I Collaborate With People, Ideas...they Take Interesting Turns And Twists, And I'm Excited For That And That Process And Excited To See What We Come Up With.

I Don't Like Going To Football Games. I Like Watching Them On Television. When You Go To A Game, It's Hard To Focus. There's So Much Going On, And It's Cold. I'd Rather Sit And Watch It And Get Replays And Commentary.

I Was The Front Man Of The Choir And Then When I Was 12 And I Was The Leadsinger Of My Highschool Groups.

My Line Is Probably A Little More Conservative Than Some Of My Compatriots In The Business. But Again, I Think It's All - Like, It Just - It Comes Down To Me Knowing Who I Am And Knowing How I Want To Be Seen In The World, How I Want To Discuss Things.

Marvin Gaye Was One Of The Coolest. I Look To Him As A Style Icon And As An Artist.

If A Few People Decide Not To Buy My Album It's Really Not Going To Change My Life That Much.

Changing My Life

I Only Want To Be Associated With Music That Is High Quality. That's My Main Criteria.

The Best Way To Fight Poverty Is To Empower People Through Access To Quality Education

I've Written Good Love Songs When I Have Been In Love And I've Written Good Love Songs When I Haven't.

John Legend Is A Nickname That Somebody Started Calling Me A While Ago And Part Of It Is 'cos I Sound Like An Old Man When I Sing.

Even If You Can Sing Or Even If You Can Write A Song, It Takes A Lot Of Determination, It Takes Some Kind Of Thick Skin, Because You Got To Persevere Despite The Fact That People Tell You You Shouldn't Do This Or You Shouldn't Do That Or You're Not Good Enough Or Your Style's Too Different. I've Heard All Of That Stuff.

I've Felt Like My Last Name Put Pressure On Me As An Artist. If You're Going To Call Yourself "legend," You'd Better Make Some Good-ass Music.

All Men Should Be Feminists. If Men Cared About Women's Rights, The World Would Be A Better Place

I'm Pretty Adventurous With Food, So I'm Not Afraid To Try Anything.

To Me, As A Musician, There Aren't Any Boundaries Genre-wise As Far As What Can You Listen To To Inspire You.

Women Are Dealing With The Same Thing: They're Dealing With Expectations About How They're Supposed To Look And How They're Supposed To Interact With Men. I Think We're All Trying To Figure It All Out, Especially When We're Teenagers, But I Think The Key Is To Listen And Empathize With One Another.

For Me I'm Actually Doing What I Normally Do When I Do My Solo Thing And The Other Thing Is Actually More New To Me.

I'm Honestly Not A Great Gift Giver. I Could Give Better - My Girlfriends Have Always Complained About That.

If A Relationship Is Going To Work, It Will Require Compromise And, Even Then, It Is Not Always Going To End The Way You Want It To.

There Are More Black Men Incarcerated Today Than There Were Slaves In 1850.

We All Must Follow A Different Path To Let Our Light Shine, And That's What Makes Us So Unpredictable And Unique.

I Wrote The Song "show Me" As A Prayer To God Asking Simple, Honest Questions About Life And Death And Why There Is So Much Suffering In The World. As I Grew With The Song I Realized I Shouldn't Limit These Questions Solely To God; I Should Ask Those Questions Of Others And Of Myself.

I Think The Most Important Thing Is That I'm Making Music That The People Enjoy. So The Fans, The People That Are Out There Listening To Music And Consuming Music, I Want Them To Enjoy It And Love It. And So That's More Important To Me Than Grammys.

I Think It's A Bit Of A Myth That Black Americans Need One Leader. We're Not A Monolith. And Now That Legal Segregation And Discrimination Has Been Pretty Much Abolished There Isn't The Sort Of Universal Mandate That A Black Leader Would Have. Black Folks Live In A Wide Variety Of Social Situations Right Now.

Soul Is About Authenticity. Soul Is About Finding The Things In Your Life That Are Real And Pure.

J. Ivy Is A Brilliant Man With An Incredible Voice And A Way With Words. I've Known Him For Over A Decade And Owe My Stage Name To Him Believing In Me Back Then Before I Even Had A Record Deal. I'm Excited For Him To Share His Truth With The World.

It's Not Enough To Say We Need To Love Each Other, You Have To Go Behind That And Say We Need To Change These Policies, We Need To Fight, We Need To Protest, We Need To Agitate For Change.

I Think People Relate To The Music Because I Have A Sense Of Empathy, And I Think I Have A Good Understanding About Relationships, And I Talk About Them In A Real, Honest Way

Fear. People Are Afraid Of Talking About Their Fears And Insecurities. They're Afraid Of Expressing Emotion Beyond Anger, Dominance, Or Power, And They're Afraid Of Getting In Touch With Their Feminine Side.

A Just Society Is Not One Built On Fear Or Repression Or Vengeance Or Exclusion, But One Built On Love. Love For Our Families. Love For Our Neighbors. Love For The Least Among Us. Love For Those Who Look Different Or Worship Differently. Love For Those We Don't Even Know.

I Want You To Live The Best Life You Can. You Can Be World-changers. .. Pursue This Life Of Love With Focus And Passion And Ambition And Courage. Give It Your All. And That Will Be Your Path To True Success.

I Like Songs That Have Like A Little Bit Of Quirkiness To Them. What I Like To Do With Songs, Is Kind Of Throw A Little Curveball In The Lyrics Or In The Arrangement, To Kind Of Give It A Little Twist To It.

Witnessing The Extreme Poverty In Remote Parts Of Affrica Can Make You Feel Sad And Powerless Until You Realize How Little It Takes To Change These People's Lives Fundamentally In Sustainable Ways.

People Tell Me All The Time That My Songs Help Them Express Things To Loved Ones That They May Not Be Able To Say Themselves.

Artists In General Never Stay In The Same Place, We Keep Growing. It's Still You, You Still Have That Core That You Always Had, But You Work With New People And Hear New Things.

Music Wasn't Forced On Me [in My Childhood]. It Was Something I Wanted To Do. And Ever Since, I've Never Stopped, I've Never Stopped Playing Music.

We Should Care About What Is Going On In The World.

We Have A Serious Problem With Incarceration In This Country. It's Destroying Families, It's Destroying Communities And We're The Most Incarcerated Country In The World, And When You Look Deeper And Look At The Reasons We Got To This Place, We As A Society Made Some Choices Politically And Legislatively, Culturally To Deal With Poverty, Deal With Mental Illness In A Certain Way And That Way Usually Involves Using Incarceration.

I Thought It Would Be Funny To Take A Photo In The White House Bathroom, I Take Pictures Everywhere I Go, But I Don't Think I Can Top That One.

I Think You're Always Policing Yourself By Trying To Do What You Think Would Be "cool" And Accepted By Other People, Until You Start To Figure Out Who You Really Want To Be. Growing Up Is An Ongoing Push-and-pull Of You Being Yourself And You Performing To What Society Expects You To Be.

I Don't Love The Idea Of Three Superstars Coming Together To Form A Dream Team, I'd Rather Teams Are Built More Organically, Just As A Fan It's More Interesting To See.

Musicians Are In-season All The Time.

Some Of Them [family Names] Have Sentimental Value For Some Reason Or Another, Some Of Them Just Sound Beautiful. Some Of Them Are Because Of People That Are Meaningful To Us In Our Lives. So It's Hard To Say Which One We'll Pick. Sometimes They Say You Have To See The Child Before You Decide. So Maybe When We See Her We'll Make A Last-second Decision.

You Learn So Much From Taking Chances, Whether They Work Out Or Not. Either Way, You Can Grow From The Experience And Become Stronger And Smarter.

I Played Classical As A Kid.

It's Important For Us To Fight For Certain Changes That Need To Happen. And One Of Those Issues That I Really Care About Is Education. But Also Another One Is Incarceration.

Sometimes There's That Perfect Moment When The Crowd, The Music, The Energy Of The Room Come Together In A Way That Brings Me To Tears.

My Head’s Under Water But I’m Breathing Fine

Sometimes Success Is Just Limited To Festival Circuit.

It's Really About Making The Best Music You Can Make. It's Really About Working Hard.

I Want To Move People, Stir Something Within Them That Makes Them Feel. That's What A Movie Should Do And An Actor Should Do, Make You Feel Something. I Think That's Why People Love Films So Much.

Hip-hop And R&b Are Especially Fertile Bases Of Collaboration. It Always Makes Good Records And Good Music.

There's So Much Music Out There, And So Many Different Styles That I've Been Influenced By, So Each Album Reflects Some Of That Knowledge Or Influence That I've Had.

There's A Lot Of Hurry Up And Wait. But It Gives You Time To Write A Song.

But In My Mind I've Always Been A Solo Artist- I've Just Been Working With A Lot Of Great People Like Kanye And Alicia Keys And Jay-z.

I Was In An A Cappella Group In School, So It Particularly Helped Me Keep My Piano Chops Up.

I Just Want It To Be Timeless And Timely At The Same Time.

I Think It's Not Enough For Us To Extend The Hand Of Love. I Think It's Important That That Goes Both Ways. It's Important Also That We Look At Policies We Need To Change As Well.

I Feel Like My Job Is To Make Impact, Spread Love, Tell Great Stories, Inspire People, That's What I Am Going To Do.

John Legend Is A Nickname That Some Friends Started Calling Me, And It Kind Of Grew Into My Stage Name.

My Family Is Very Musical, I Was Surrounded By It. And From Four Years Old I Was The One That Asked My Mother Could I Take Piano Lessons... It Wasn't Forced On Me. It Was Something I Wanted To Do. And Ever Since, I've Never Stopped, I've Never Stopped Playing Music. I Never Went Through A Period Where I Didn't Want To Do It.

I Think It's Hard To Really Write A Song That Will Educate Someone Because Songs Are Meant To Be ... You Don't Want To Be Too Didactic In A Song Because It Doesn't Make For Good Music. And I Think The Role Of Songs Can Be To Inspire People But There Needs To Education And Prose To Back That Up.

I Hear Melodies And Hooks All Day. I've Always Been That Way, Since I Was A Kid.

Recently, John And I Got To Go To Selma And Perform It On The Same Bridge That Martin Luther King Walked Over. Once A Landmark Of A Divided Nation, The Spirit Of This Bridge Now For All People Regardless Of Race, Gender, Sexual Orientation Or Social Status. This Bridge Was Built On Hope And Welded With Compassion. Common

The Fun Part About Collaborating Is That You Naturally Just Bounce Off Each Other's Energy And Learn Off Each Other.

I Don't Think I'm Craving Any More Fame. But Success And Being Recognized For Making Great Work All Around The World, I Think It's A Great Thing.

If You Want The Film [la La Land ] To Represent All Things Jazz, It Does Not. You'll Be Disappointed By That. But, If You Just See It As One Guy's Point Of View, One Filmmaker's Point Of View, And One Story Among Many Stories That Can Be Told About Jazz, Then It's Not As Much Of An Issue.

I Always Felt That Rap Didn't Cause Crime; It Just Reflected It.

Kind Of The Critical Acclaim Of This Movie [la La Land] Is That It's Striking A Chord With The Public In A Way That Has Been Really Beautiful And Powerful.

There's A Certain Confidence That Comes With Being Sure About The Way The World Works.

You Can Always Find A Stray Negative Comment On The Internet. It's Like Everybody Loves To Put Negative Comments On The Internet Under The Cloak Of Anonymity.

I Always Saw Myself As A Singer-songwriter, A Solo-artist, That's Why Working With Other Artists Was Never Satisfying For Me.

Working With Others

I Like Cool Jackets - A Nice Fall Or Winter Coat. You Can Get A Lot Of Use Out Of It, And You'll Wear It Frequently, So It Can Really Set The Tone Of Your Uniform For The Season.

You Believe In Equality For Women And Men. And That Means That, Not Only Do You Believe In It Kind Of In The Abstract But You Actively Think People Should Seek It When It Comes To The Way You Hire People, The Way You Compensate People, The Way You Treat Women And Men In Professional Settings And School, Whatever The Case, Giving Them Equal Opportunities Without Disadvantaging Them Because Of Their, For The Fact That They're Women. And To Me That's What It Means For Me To Be A Feminist. I Don't Think It's That Controversial.

In Terms Of The Technology I Use The Most, It's Probably A Tie Between My Blackberry And My Macbook Pro Laptop. That's How I Communicate With The Rest Of The World And How I Handle All The Business I Have To Handle.

I Just Want My Music To Measure Up To. Part Of It's Just Thinking About My Place In History And How This Music Is Going To Be Perceived, If It's Listened To 30, 40 Years From Now.

I Believed In Myself And I Am A Firm Believer You Have To Think The Things You Want And Visualize.

I Have A Structured Songwriting Process. I Start With The Music And Try To Come Up With Musical Ideas, Then The Melody, Then The Hook, And The Lyrics Come Last. Some People Start With The Lyrics First Because They Know What They Want To Talk About And They Just Write A Whole Bunch Of Lyrical Ideas, But For Me The Music Tells Me What To Talk About.

I Know When Things Feel A Little, Like, Intrusive And When They Don't. I Don't Have A Lot To Hide. But I Do Sometimes Think, Don't Share Everything.

I Keep Learning, Listening, Growing And Experimenting.

I Was Always The Front Man For What I Was Doing From When I Was 6.

Well, I Was Always A Bit Of A Political Junkie. Even As A Kid I Would Read Biographies Of Presidents And Of Civil Rights Leaders Like Martin Luther King And Frederick Douglass And Booker T. Washington.

People See Me As Pretty Low Key In A Lot Of Ways. And For Me, Like, Even Choosing To Be John Legend And To Be Who I Am As A Star, As An Artist, It's A Risk 'cause I - You Know, I Graduated From College And Worked As A Management Consultant, And I Could Have Had This Very Kind Of Buttoned-up Life And Worn Suits To Work Every Day.

In The 1970s, For All The Stevie Wonders, I'm Sure There Were Five Artists That Were Making Forgettable Music.

Happy That New York Passed Marriage Equality Tonight. A Victory For Human Rights. Progress.

Love Your Curves And All Your Edges All Your Perfect Imperfections

My First Big Break Came With Lauryn Hill On A Track Called Everything Is Everything, I Played Piano On That Track Way Back In 1998.

Every Artist Wants Some Sort Of Feedback, Because You Make This Music And You Hope People Love It And You Want To Hear If They Love It And What They Love About It, What Their Favorite Song Is, What They Think The Next Single Should Be. I Like To Hear Those Things.

I Was A Busy Kid In High School - A Little Bit Of An Overachiever, I Guess. Prom King Was Kind Of Silly, But The Rest Of The Stuff Was Important To Me.

Anybody Under The Age Of Forty Knows Hip-hop, Gospel And R&b Pretty Well, And It's All A Part Of What We Consider To Be 'black Music.' There Is A Natural Synergy Between The Three.

We Want To Do Things That Are Interesting, Great Storytelling, Some Of It Is Gonna Be More Fun And Funny, Some Of It Is More Serious And Talking About Interesting Issues That We Think Are Provocative And Interesting To Us. Kind Of On A More Political Level. But, You Know, Just Things That We Find Interesting That We Think Stories That Need To Be Told.

I'm Craving More Soul, I'm Craving More Truth, I'm Craving More Socially - Just People That Are Aware Of What's Going On In The World.

I Respect People Who Are Willing To Deal With Everything That Comes With Being A Politician, But I'm Not Willing To Deal With Half The Country Rooting For You To Fail. I'm A Singer; I Deal With Enough. But At Least Half The Country's Not Trying To Destroy Me.

You Can't Be A 25-year-old Forever.

We're Just Ordinary People. We Don't Know Which Way To Go.

London Is A Good Fashion City. They're A Little More Daring. There's The Element Of The Aristocracy, Which Is Always Interesting.

I'm Trying To Be Me And Embrace All The Parts Of Me That Have Grown Up, Listened To More Music And Soaked Up More Influences.

My Mother, I Want Her To Like My Music, But She's Not Exactly My Target Audience. So I Care More About The Fans In General, Just Making Sure They Enjoy What I Do.

Target Audience

Some People, You Know, Should Just Go To College And Do What They Do And Have A Great Job And Not Worry About Trying To Be Famous As A Singer. It's Not For Everyone.

In My Neighborhood In Springfield, Ohio, There Were A Lot Of Young Kids. We All Played Tackle Football After School, But I Knew Very Early On That I Was Not An Athlete.

For Me There's Insecurity When You're Releasing An Album Because You Spend All Of This Time Working On That One Thing And Then Once It's Done, It's Done. After You Put It Out There To The Public You Never Know Which Songs Are Going To Work Or Even If The Album Is Going To Work As A Whole So There Is A Little Bit Of Nervousness Around Predicting What The Numbers Will Be And If It's Going To Be Well-received.

I Used Read About Dr. King A Lot As A Kid. Independently, From Being Assigned It Or Being Told By My Parents Or Anything, I Was Just Really Excited About Him. So I Just Started Reading About Him Very Young And Was Inspired By His Legacy And Looked To Him As A Role Model.

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