The Voice Coach has been crushing it in the studio since the late ’90s, but his sound is “old-school” timeless.

Long before he became an EGOT-winning talent and applauded Coach on The Voice, Legend — born John Roger Stephens — fell into a nickname that stuck. Legend’s love for music is lifelong; not only is he a piano prodigy, but he launched his career by working alongside R&B industry titans, flexing his musical prowess on several albums before even releasing his debut. But Legend wasn’t always a Legend, not in namesake, anyway. Like many musical greats, Legend donned a stage name early into his career that he felt would make a splash.

But what is the origin of John Legend’s stage name, and why did he choose it? Was it bestowed upon him, or did he pluck it out of inexistence? Check out all of the lore about Legend’s mythic moniker, below.

John Legend for The Voice Season 27. Photo: Art Streiber/NBC

How did John Legend get his stage name?

Like many artists who switch up their titles, Legend chose his stage name after friends in college commented on his old-school sound, comparing him to one of the classics. Legend dished the details of his stage name during a March 2021 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

“Well, it was a nickname that some friends started calling me in the studio, just guys that I was collaborating with,” Legend told host Jimmy Fallon. “The first guy to call me that was J. Ivy. He’s a spoken word artist from Chicago. I met him through Kanye [West]. We were all in the studio together. He just started calling me ‘The Legend’ because he thought I sounded like one of our old-school soul legends. And it just caught on with our little group of friends, and then they were like, ‘We should call you John Legend.’ And it just really was in our little circle.”

Legend knew he was running the risk of seeming pompous, but with a name like “Legend,” he knew he’d be more emboldened to deliver the goods.

“It was bold, and I knew people would be like, ‘He’d better be good if he’s going to call himself John Legend,'” The Voice Coach recalled in a 2006 New York Times interview. “So I said, ‘Let me go out and make the best music I can, and maybe, after my career is over, I’ve lived up to the name.'”

The “John Legend” stage name stuck with more time in the studio

Legend’s college friends and studio colleagues not only inspired his stage name but led Legend to form some seriously lucrative connections in the music scene. Legend’s rise to fame came after working behind the scenes with industry heavy hitters like Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys, and Jay-Z. After playing piano on Hill’s 1998 album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, Legend only continued to collect recognition and connections.

The college connections do not end there. According to The Independent, Legend initially met Kanye West through his college roommate, producer Devon Harris, the rapper’s cousin. After Harris invited West to see one of Legend’s shows, Legend soon began working with West on one of his early mixtapes and became a featured musician on West’s Grammy-winning 2004 album The College Dropout.

“And one time, Kanye put a mixtape out, and he called me John Legend on the mixtape,” Legend recalled during his Fallon appearance. “And it just started to spread among more of the people that were listening to our music. And then, at some point, I had to decide, ‘Am I going to stick with John Stephens?’ Which I was perfectly fine with; I wasn’t looking for a stage name. ‘Or am I going to go with this more audacious name and call myself a legend before I even have a record deal?'”

Legend continued, “That was a challenge. And, so, I was like, ‘I know this is a bold move, but I’m not going to go into this expecting to fail. I’m going to go into it hoping that I can try to live up to this. And I’ve spent the rest of my career trying to do so.”

John Legend for The Voice Season 27. Photo: Art Streiber/NBC

The “All of Me” singer may have gotten his start as John Roger Stephens, but he certainly delivered on his “Legend” status. Over two decades since his meteoric rise, Legend has released 10 studio albums and become an EGOT winner, and that doesn’t even account for his iconic tenure as a Coach on The Voice. With his old-school sound and timeless talent, Legend continues to dazzle and delight as one of the industry’s most mythic musicians.