John Legend: ‘Trump has no business being close to the reins of power ever again’

telegraph.co.uk:

jazz club in Soho. A few weeks earlier, Legend, who has sold an estimated 10 million albums in his 18-year recording career, won 12 Grammy awards and been anointed ‘sexiest man alive’ by People magazine, had played a 24-night residency in Las Vegas, featuring a full orchestra and multiple set and costume changes, including sparkling bikinis (for the showgirls) and a floor-length faux-fur coat (for Legend). ‘When we do it big, we do it big,’ he says. ‘Because why not?’But at Ronnie Scott’s, Legend sat alone at the piano, keeping the members of the audience enraptured as he told the story of his life through words and music, from growing up in a broken home as the son of a factory worker in Ohio, through his rise to fame. ‘Never done a show like that before,’ Legend tells me when I meet him a few days later, although anecdotes about his life and songs –one might almost describe it as embellishing his legend – have become an integral part of his performance.During the Covid lockdown in 2020, he performed a set from his home, broadcast on his phone.

Seated at the piano, he confided: ‘Pantsless, as promised, but I do have underwear on, in case you’re curious.’ Two songs in, Legend was joined by his wife Chrissy Teigen, a model, bestselling cookery writer and Twitter controversialist, wrapped in a bath towel, wine glass in hand, bouncing up and down on the piano keys as Legend played, and recalling moments from their courtship and marriage.Legend, who is 43, met Teigen, who is seven years his junior, in 2006 when she appeared in a music video for his song Stereo.

They became engaged in 2011 and married two years later in a ceremony in Como, Italy. They have two young children, six-year-old Luna and four-year-old Miles – last.