John Legend caught up with Billboard’s Chelsea Briggs on the red carpet at the Billboard Music Awards on Sunday (May 20) to discuss performing at the show, his new baby boy, to share some advice for the new royal couple and to weigh in on Kanye West‘s vocal support of President Trump.
Legend, who performed his new song “A Good Night” for the first time at the show, says ahead of taking to the stage, “I don’t get too nervous, just a little bit. But more so, I’m just excited. I’m excited for people to hear the new song – we’ve only played it once before and this is the first big awards show performance for the song. You work on the song in the studio and you’re trying to get it right, and then finally you get to do it for the world and it’s exciting to do it here at Billboard.”
The singer also gushes about his newborn baby boy Miles Theodore Stephens, telling Billboard, “I’ve been outnumbered in the house for a while now, when it comes to the gender balance, so it’ll be nice to add one guy in my favor in the house.”
“But we’re all excited,” he continues. “Chrissy [Teigen]’s so excited – he’s just a tiny little thing and he’s so innocent right now and we just wanna give him all the love that we can and Luna is giving him a lot of love, too. She’s being really good about it, she’s being really sweet to him. She wants to hold him a lot, which we have to kind of [say], ‘No, not yet, you’re not ready yet.’ But she’s being really sweet and loving to him.”
In the interview, Legend also comments on his friendship with Kanye West and the recent controversy surrounding the rapper and his public support of President Trump. “It was a little surreal,” Legend says of being thrown into the conversation after West publicly posted Legend’s private text messages to him.
“I didn’t expect it to happen in that way, the whole thing was unexpected. But I just told him what I believed and what I thought he should think about. He has a lot of people that listen to what he says and his platform is powerful, so I just wanted him to use that power in a way that was responsible and aware of what’s happening in the world.”
In the video interview, which you can watch above, you can hear much more from John Legend, including what his advice is to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle and whether or not he plans to take on any more acting roles following his starring role in Jesus Christ Superstar Live. Plus, you can view his performance at the Billboard Music Awards below.
