Even superstars like John Legend have to navigate some unusual obstacles on the path to fame.
The 46-year-old singer recently opened up about one of the stranger challenges he faced: negotiating with a porn producer just to officially go by the name we all know him by today.
The Johnny Legend Twist
Legend previously revealed that a man named Johnny Legend, a porn producer, held rights to the name, forcing John to strike a deal.
But the story has another layer: Johnny Legend also dabbled in music, specifically rockabilly, which complicated things further.
“There’s a porn producer— I kid you not— who made rockabilly music and went by Johnny Legend,” John explained on MGM+ show Words + Music.
“That meant there was a possible trademark infringement.
We had to track him down, negotiate a mutually exclusive deal, and make it official: he’s Johnny Legend, I’m John Legend.”
The Terms of the Agreement
The deal was straightforward but unusual. Neither would sue the other, and neither would step into the other’s artistic territory.
John kept his side of the bargain, promising not to produce porn or dabble in rockabilly pretending to be Johnny Legend, while Johnny would steer clear of the soul and R&B business.
“I’m happy to say I kept my side of the agreement,” John chuckled.
“I didn’t produce any porn, didn’t make any rockabilly music pretending to be Johnny Legend.”
How the Name Came to Be
The story behind the name itself is just as interesting. Poet J. Ivy, a friend of John’s, coined the moniker back in the early 2000s, while they were both working on Kanye West’s The College Dropout.
“I met John Stephens the night I recorded my verse on Never Let Me Down,” Ivy told The Daily Mail.
“I heard his music and thought, ‘Man, you sound like one of the legends! You a legend, you a legend!’ From that moment, I started calling him John Legend—and it stuck.”
At the time, John was signed to Kanye under his birth name, John Stephens, and had albums out under that name.
But after Ivy’s playful dubbing, everyone in the studio soon followed suit, shouting, “John Legend in the house!”
Johnny Legend’s Background
The man who complicated John’s naming rights is nothing short of a modern-day Renaissance figure.
Johnny’s IMDb credits describe him as an actor, director, rockabilly singer, wrestling manager, and trash film historian.
He even co-wrote a song called Pencil Neck Geek in 1977 and released the adult comedy Teenage Cruisers the same year.
A Name Solidified in Music History
Thanks to some careful negotiation and a bit of studio magic, John Legend emerged with his iconic stage name, while Johnny Legend kept his own artistic identity intact.
The humorous story, told years after the fact, highlights the strange twists and turns that even legendary careers can take.
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