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John Legend’s Ordinary People was originally meant for the Black Eyed Peas
30 May 2025, 08:30 | Updated: 30 May 2025, 08:40
John Legend revealed to Capital XTRA Breakfast that he stole the hit, ‘Ordinary People’, from his friend, Will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas.
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John Legend joined XTRA’s own Shayna Marie and Robert Bruce on 30th May, to talk about his UK tour, and discuss the highs of his career.
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The ‘All of Me’ singer wasn’t shy in expressing his love for the country but also the city, London, where him and his wife, Chrissy Tiegen, have vacationed for Christmases a few times.
Other than his love for the country, John also divulged to Shayna and Robert that one of his most famous hits, ‘Ordinary People’, was originally meant for none other than the iconic rap group, the Black Eyed Peas.
John shared with the Breakfast hosts that before he has even released his first album, he was a songwriter and friend of the lead singer of the group, Will.i.am.
He said: “We were supposed to be writing hooks for them, and one of those hooks happened to be Ordinary People.”
He then continued: “After a couple of days I was like, let’s take that one back!”
The star’s career then took an exciting turn, with him being signed, touring Europe and the UK with Kanye West, whom he was a backing vocalist for.
John reminisced about how he would write the verses to the song between rehearsals and sound checks, saying he probably wrote some of those lyrics in the UK, tying the country to the singer’s career once again.
However, he said he had “promised Will that I would let him produce the final song for the album, because I stole the song back.’’
But, even after stealing the song from the ears of Black Eyed Peas’ fans, he ended up not needing the production skills of Will.i.am.
The ‘Greenlight’ singer claimed that he recorded a demo with just piano accompanying his vocals, but the execs loved it so much that that demo ended up being the final version.
He believes ‘‘all of that happened for a reason’’, and clearly it did!
The hit now has over 87 million views on YouTube, the star also conveniently ranking ‘Ordinary People’ his number 1 song.
John Legend is touring the UK on his 20th anniversary show for his debut album ‘Get Lifted’ and told Shayna and Robert that fans should expect his ‘special’ new album early next year.
