Tuesday, Mar 22, 2022 • 3min
John Legend: Don’t Give Up on Love
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Grammy Award winning musician John Legend is our special guest host all week! Today, John talks about how music got him through tough times.
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John Legend
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John Legend
00:48
Hey, my name is
John Legend
and welcome to Radio Headspace
and to Tuesday morning. As you know, I'm guest hosting this week of Radio Headspace
. Thanks for having me.Share
00:58
Today we're gonna talk about how music helped me deal with some particularly difficult moments in my life. We'll explore how I process my emotions with songwriting and how we can all keep our hearts open to love.
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01:14
First, I would love to talk about my maternal grandmother, her name was Elmira Lloyd, she was the organist at my church. She used to show me the songs that she was playing for the church choir and helped me learn them after church. She would cook, I would sit under her wing and just hang out with her, learn from her and be inspired by her. She was just a magical presence in my life.
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01:42
My grandmother passed away at a very young age. She was in her late 50s. I was only ten years old and for her to be gone at that early age, so unexpectedly, it really knocked her entire family for a loop. My mother got depressed and had drug addiction issues that stemmed from that period and all of us in the family had a hard time reacting to it and coping with it.
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02:10
Not long after that we saw our parents break up and so music was really important for me during this time because I needed something to focus my energy on. I needed music to help me voice what was going on in my head, make me feel better about what I was going through and what I was dealing with. But also give me an opportunity to feel joy singing at church, singing at school, feeling the love and the adulation that people gave me when they appreciated what I was doing. I needed that.
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02:46
Once I found the person that I wanted to marry, I really wanted to work to make sure that, you know, I didn't get a divorce too and that my kids didn't have to grow up splitting time between parents and dealing with the trauma that divorce can bring to kids.
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03:04
I really believe it's hard to be happy if you don't open yourself up to love, which also means opening yourself up to being hurt or being disappointed, having true honesty and emotional availability in your relationships. I think all of that's really important because if you do open your mind, open your heart up to those things, you really can be happy.
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03:31
But it doesn't mean you're gonna be happy all the time. Part of the time you're going to be challenged, you're going to have stress because you care enough about it to be stressed about it. When you have passion about something, you're going to feel some angst sometimes and that's okay. But I think you'll be happier if you open your mind and your heart to love, pursue it with passion and give yourself to it.
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03:59
Well, that's it for me today. Next time we'll explore self care. I'll tell you about how I organize my very busy life and the routines I have in place to make sure I show up for my work, family and relationship.
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04:14
Thanks for listening and I'll see you all tomorrow.
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John Legend