LEILA FADEL, HOST:
This is the sound of two great artists coming together. It was December of 2024. John Legend was trying to figure out what his next album was going to sound like. Then he got a call out of the blue from one of the most successful producers of this century, Pharrell Williams.
JOHN LEGEND: And he said, if you're coming to Paris anytime soon, I'd love for you to spend a few days with me and see what we come up with.
FADEL: As if anyone needed an excuse to go to Paris. Their chemistry was instant and impossible to ignore. I spoke to John Legend about the album that came out of those sessions, "Muse."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GET BACK")
LEGEND: (Singing) I guess he did it again, he did it again. So what now, you want revenge? You want revenge. I can't be your lover, can't be your lover. I can be only a friend, only a friend.
FADEL: You've described this album as having a Black James Bond aesthetic. You can definitely pull off a tux. But what aspects of that...
LEGEND: (Laughter).
FADEL: ...Do we hear in the music?
LEGEND: We were intentionally trying to make it sound cinematic.
FADEL: Yeah.
LEGEND: I think the storytelling is cinematic. I think even the lyric is like it's the soundtrack for a film.
FADEL: What story are you telling?
LEGEND: Oh, it's an artist and their muse. And it's partly about their relationship, it's partly about the artist's journey. And some of it mirrors our own lives. But some of it, you know, we kind of reserve the right to get creative and embellish...
(LAUGHTER)
LEGEND: ...And heighten the intrigue. So it ends up feeling like it's neither one of us specifically.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GET BACK")
LEGEND: (Singing) You always were the type that likes to daydream and pretend the story goes your way right up to the end.
FADEL: I read that you created this music inside the Louis Vuitton headquarters.
LEGEND: Yeah, that is true. We - a lot of the music was made in Paris at Pharrell's day job...
(LAUGHTER)
LEGEND: ...Which...
FADEL: His day job. Menswear creative director at Louis Vuitton.
LEGEND: Exactly.
FADEL: Kind of a big day job (laughter).
LEGEND: Yes, it's a big day job. And I think they value his full creativity...
FADEL: Yeah.
LEGEND: ...In such a way that they encouraged or allowed him to build a music studio in their design offices. So it's quite an interesting juxtaposition walking into this iconic fashion house right on the Seine river - walking through a hallway where you see so many fashion designers working together, collaborating on sketches and what the next collection is going to look like and what Zendaya is going to wear to the Met Gala - and then getting to the corner office and there's a piano and a music studio there.
FADEL: So it did inspire? Would you say it had an effect on the creative process?
LEGEND: I think it had to. Just being around so much creativity and beauty and, you know, being in Paris. It's pretty famously (laughter) a special place. Being there to write and record so much of this album was pretty incredible.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FIREFLIES")
LEGEND: (Singing) Get away. Ancestors' blood, there's iron in the clay.
FADEL: I heard "Fireflies." And I was reading along with the lyrics as I listened to the song. And it just feels very different than the rest of the songs on this album. Tell me about that one.
LEGEND: Well, it's one of my favorite songs. And it feels in some ways like the most autobiographical...
FADEL: Yeah.
LEGEND: ...For both myself and Pharrell, even the imagery of the fireflies. And both of us grew up in regions where there were actual fireflies, he in Virginia and myself in Ohio. We called them lightning bugs when I was a kid. But the fireflies are - in the song are lighting up dead bodies in the street.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "FIREFLIES")
LEGEND: (Singing) I am a candle in the dark and I come from a divine spark. And I'm my ancestors' thoughts and their wildest dreams, their wildest dreams.
It's really an homage to our ancestors in some ways, and then also a conversation about what it means to carry that legacy forward and then aspire to something even greater. And I think both myself and Pharrell have come a long way from our beginnings.
FADEL: Yeah.
LEGEND: And part of this song is about being from somewhere, but also knowing that to fulfill your dreams, you're going to have to get away.
FADEL: It's a beautiful song.
LEGEND: It's so inspiring to me. And I sometimes would cry when we would get to the bridge, when we say, I'm a candle in the dark and I come from a divine spark, and I'm my ancestors' thoughts and their wildest dreams. I would well up with tears (laughter), as I was singing it, as I was playing it back. It still moves me. I think it's moving a lot of people 'cause the response has been amazing for it.
FADEL: Now, you're also playing Harry Belafonte in a new movie?
LEGEND: Yes. "The Road Home."
FADEL: "The Road Home." Now, he's somebody that was a mentor of yours, a friend.
LEGEND: Yes, he was a friend and mentor. And I got to spend a decent amount of time with him and with his daughter, Gina. I still talk to her quite a bit. And he's meant a lot to me. He really has always been an example of what it means to be an artist that has impact with their art but also well beyond their art and used their art as a platform to change the world.
FADEL: Do you see that as something that is also your responsibility, especially today in 2026?
LEGEND: Yeah. I've seen it as my responsibility since before my career started. I wrote an essay about it when I was 15. It was for McDonald's, actually. And they did a Black History Month essay competition called Black History Makers of Tomorrow. And the question was, how do you plan to make Black history? And I told them, well, I'm going to become a famous recording artist and I'm going to use my platform to make a difference. I was inspired by Harry Belafonte and Martin Luther King and all the artists who collaborated with him during that time. And I said, that's what I'm going to do. And I've always seen it as part of my job as an artist to do more than just make music, to try to make a difference in the world.
FADEL: That's John Legend. His new album is called "Muse." Thank you so much for speaking with us.
LEGEND: Thank you. What a pleasure.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MUSE")
LEGEND: (Singing) Hey, she cannot lose, she cannot lose, she cannot lose with it. She is my muse. She is my muse that makes me a musician. Whoa, heaven is calling, they missing an angel. Whoa, her body's pineapples and mangoes. I said the fancy things are like sand to me. The way you... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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