American singer, John Roger Stevens has revealed how he got ‘Legend’ to his name to make up his stage name.
The singer who was hosted on a TV Programme, The Tonight Show, said J. Ivy, a spoken-word artist who he met through rapper Kanye West was responsible.
“It was a nickname that some friends started calling me in the studio, just guys that I was collaborating with. The first guy to call me that was J. Ivy. He’s a spoken-word artist from Chicago.
“We were all in the studio together. He just started calling me ‘The Legend’ because he thought I sounded like one of our old-school soul legends. And it just caught on with our little group of friends and then they were like, ‘We should call you John Legend.’ And it just really was in our little circle.”
John recalled Kanye referring to him as “John Legend” on a mixtape that he released and immediately the name just spread and stuck. “At some point, I had to decide, ‘Am I going to stick with John Stephens—which I was perfectly fine with, I wasn’t looking for a stage name—or am I going to go with this more audacious name and call myself a legend before I even have a record deal?'” The singer said.
