Roger Stephens was born on December 28, 1978, in Springfield, Ohio.[2] He is one of four children[3] of Phyllis (née Lloyd), a seamstress, and Ronald Stephens, a factory worker and former National Guardsman.[4][5][6] Throughout his childhood, Legend was homeschooled on and off by his mother.[7] At age four, he performed with his church choir. He began playing the piano at age seven. In 1987,[3] when he was nine,[5] his parents divorced. At the age of twelve, Legend attended North High School, from which he graduated four years later.[8] Upon his salutatorian graduation, Legend was offered admission to Harvard University and scholarships to Georgetown University and Morehouse College.[9] He attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied English with an emphasis on African American literature.[10] Neo-soul singer and pianist John Legend combined the raw fervor of contemporaries Cody ChesnuTT and the burning precision of DAngelo. Born John Stephens, Legend was a child prodigy who grew up in Ohio, where he began singing gospel and playing piano at the tender age of five. Legend left Ohio at 16 to attend college in Philadelphia, and it was there that he first found a larger audience. Not yet out of his teens, Legend was tapped to play piano on Lauryn Hills Everything Is Everything in 1998. After completing college, he moved to New York, where he began to build a loyal following playing in nightclubs and releasing CDs that he would sell at shows. He also became an in-demand session musician, playing and occasionally writing for a wide array of artists, including Alicia Keys, Twista, Janet Jackson, and Kanye West. youtube/watch?v=Mk7-GRWq7wA
Posted on: Thu, 09 Oct 2014 21:31:37 +0000
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