John Legend claims that in order to maintain his stage name, he had to “negotiate” with a porn producer

The All of Me hitmaker had been performing under his own name, John Roger Stephens, when he got the pseudonym during a studio session with spoken-word artist J. Ivy and then-friend Kanye West. However, his attorney informed him that in order to use the moniker professionally, he had to patent it.

But before he could do that, it was found that there was another person with the same name. Nevertheless, he and John were able to come to an agreement without exchanging any money.

“Lo and behold, there’s a porn producer—I kid you not—a porn producer who dabbled in rockabilly music, and he went by the name Johnny Legend,” he stated while speaking on Word+Music.

He was known as Johnny Legend and produced rockabilly music, which raised the possibility of trademark infringement.

We needed to locate Johnny Legend, engage in negotiations with him, and reach a mutually exclusive agreement whereby I was John Legend and he was Johnny Legend.

He refused to sue me. I wouldn’t take him to court. He wouldn’t attempt to enter the soul music industry by posing as John Legend. 

And I’m pleased to clarify that I fulfilled my end of the bargain. I didn’t create any porn or rockabilly music while posing as Johnny Legend.

The 46-year-old singer told how, while they were in the studio working on Kanye’s debut album, The College Dropout, J. Ivy was astounded by his vocals.

“J. was impressed when he heard me singing, playing, and doing everything I was doing on those College Dropout tracks,” he stated.

“Man, we’re going to have to call you the legend,” he remarked.

Additionally, John like the moniker since he was a “old soul” with a “throwback voice, this throwback style,” and soon after, other people began referring to him as John Legend as well.

He went on: “I had to make a decision about whether or not to adopt this stage name.

I’m thinking, ‘How are you going to call yourself Legend?'” You haven’t even signed a record deal yet.

The hitmaker of Ordinary People made the decision to alter it nevertheless.

“It’s going to make people pay attention, and then I just got to go live up to it,” he remembers thinking.

Additionally, John said: “And you know what? It truly felt like a fresh start.