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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.
John Roger Stephens -
Shoes are important, of course. I love my Lanvin sneakers - they go with a lot of things. And then I think a nice bag is great, so you carry your computer or whatever else in style. I've been carrying a Tom Ford backpack lately.
John Roger Stephens
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I don't feel like that many musicians are competitive with each other.
John Roger Stephens -
When we meet people who are astronauts or deal in astronomy, it's always really fascinating.
John Roger Stephens -
In the 1970s, for all the Stevie Wonders, I'm sure there were five artists that were making forgettable music.
John Roger Stephens -
Soul is about authenticity. Soul is about finding the things in your life that are real and pure.
John Roger Stephens -
Well, what's interesting, I try not to think about the radio when I'm writing a song. I want people to love the song, and that means it might not be exactly thinking about the radio, but it's thinking about your audience and saying, 'I want people to like this song after it's done.'
John Roger Stephens -
My dad liked a lot of Motown, but I didn't listen to it until my teenage years.
John Roger Stephens
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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. So whatever. I listen to all if it. Classic rock and classic pop, all of that.
John Roger Stephens -
Even with G.O.O.D. Music, we have artists that have done very well, and we've had artists that haven't. Being attached to Kanye is only going to get you so far. You've still got to have the records and the talent and the artistry on your own to carry it.
John Roger Stephens -
Hip hop is usually a bunch of guys talking to a bunch of guys, in my experience. It's homosocial, not homosexual, in that it's almost always all one gender in a room where it's being created. That locker-room environment has an impact on the language. I think the music suffers 'cause it allows an almost cartoonish level of misogyny.
John Roger Stephens -
Experience is a great teacher.
John Roger Stephens -
I always figured I would live long enough to see a black president. The movies predicted it. Usually, Morgan Freeman.
John Roger Stephens -
Trump's been a public personality forever, and that's fine if you want him to be a reality-TV host, but if you want him to be president, there's a different standard.
John Roger Stephens
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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.
John Roger Stephens -
Hip-hop is one of the most free art forms there is. There's so many sounds you can use, so many things you can bring in. You never know, man. I bet years ago people would've never said they would hear me with Rick Ross, and we did four classic songs together.
John Roger Stephens -
I work with a bunch of producers on every album, but the difference for 'Evolver' was that I couldn't get any time with Kanye. I forget what he was doing at the time, but he was all over the place. We were never at the same city at the same time.
John Roger Stephens -
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.
John Roger Stephens -
I know how it feels to be a singer who wants to get discovered.
John Roger Stephens -
I think the thing about love is that even though the things around us change, we as human beings, a lot of the ways we interact, and the ways we love each other is timeless. It requires trust, honesty, commitment, romance, and physical chemistry.
John Roger Stephens
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Marvin Gaye was one of the coolest. I look to him as a style icon and as an artist.
John Roger Stephens -
I was around a lot of gospel as a kid.
John Roger Stephens -
I signed with Kanye back in 2003, and at that time, 'The College Dropout' hadn't even come out, so he was still relatively unknown compared to where he is now. He wasn't a household name; people were still calling him 'Kane.'
John Roger Stephens -
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.
John Roger Stephens