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On Tuesday, June 23rd, “Tamron Hall,” welcomed Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award-winning musician John Legend on the show to discuss his new album, “Bigger Love,” his musical upbringing, his day-to-day life under quarantine with his wife Chrissy Teigen and his hopes for a better world for their daughter Luna (4) and son Miles (2).

On Sunday Legend hosted an ABC special “John Legend and Family: A Bigger Love Father’s Day,” featuring fellow celebrity dads Marlon Wayans, Anthony Anderson, Lil Rel and more. He opened up to Tamron about the emotional conversation he had with his father during the broadcast, saying:

“Well whenever my dad starts to cry, it’s automatic that I get emotional too…We were talking about what it was like for him to raise us, and for a portion of my later years at home, he was a single dad because they got divorced. And so I was just telling him how grateful I was for him being such a great example to me and to my brothers and my sister and for showing us what a good father was, and hopefully I’ve learned those lessons and can apply that with my own kids.”

Legend has also been outspoken in the quest for justice and racial equality. Earlier this month he wrote an Op-ed for Entertainment Weekly entitled “We need to #SayHerName: Happy birthday, Breonna Taylor” added:

“It was important for me to say that to my father and we should think about the families of those folks that we lost. Because a lot of times I think that is the best way to empathize with these folks who may not be from the same areas as us, may not look like us. Realize that all of them have family members, all of them have people that love them in their lives. And if we recognize each other’s humanity, each other’s value, and have empathy for each other, I think that can take us on the path to get us closer to justice.”

We don’t know about y’all but we’ve been blasting John Legend’s new album ‘Bigger Love’ since it dropped last Friday. The songs are beautiful, all about humanity and convey the same spirit of kindness and positivity that he always seems to exude. He spoke with Tamron

about releasing his album amidst both the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent police killings and protests, saying:

“I didn’t know, you know, what the world would be like when we released this music. I was writing it, I was in a mood, I was inspired by love, I was inspired by the hope and joy that I feel. And I still feel some of that, but of course we’ve had a lot of tragedy recently with the pandemic, with these police killings and the protests. We’ve had a lot of images of us mourning and of us in outrage, but we also are fully human and we experience joy and love and human connection and this album is a celebration of that. And hopefully it’ll help people get through these tough times.”

Legend also opened up about the desire he has to make the world a better place for his children, saying:

“I do want the world to be better for my daughter and my son. I do want them to live in a world where their skin color is not seen as any kind of deficiency or any kind of negative, but that’s not the world we live in yet and because of that, we have to keep working. And what I was encouraged by watching these protests and watching all these people out in the streets is seeing a real multiracial, multigenerational coalition out in the streets saying ‘We believe in equality. We want to be anti-racist, we want to be a more just and more loving country.’ That encourages me, so hopefully we can get there as a nation and as a world.”

Later in the interview, Legend shared what his day-to-day life with wife Chrissy Teigen and their two children looks like during quarantine: “Music was such a big part of our upbringing as kids, so I wanted that same experience to be there for our kids as well. So we have little dance parties, I play songs for them on piano. They try to play with me too, although they’re not quite good at it yet. We have a little baby drum kit. So music is a big part of our lives, and of course, now that we’re spending even more time together, we’ve been doing a lot more dance parties and listening to a lot more music.”

On how Luna and Miles are handling the quarantine, Legend said: “Right at this moment, we’re the centers of their world and they’re so happy that they get our undivided attention most of the day. They’re getting lots of mommy and daddy time, and I think they love the quarantine.”

When asked if he’d discovered anything new about Teigen during these times of social distancing, Legend shared: “Well I think the coolest thing about what I’ve seen from her during this time is her creativity with our kids. My dad was actually that partner in my parents’ relationship, he was always so creative, coming up with fun games and treasure hunts and all of these other things for the kids. And Chrissy’s that in our relationship… She just has kind of a childlike wonder about her and an imagination that makes her a really good mom. She said if things were different in her life, she probably would have been a preschool teacher, and you can see why she would have been able to do that.”

On his strategy for his return as a coach on the upcoming Season 19 of “The Voice,” Legend said: “Well I just do the best I can every season. I turn for singers that really move me and really inspire me, and I try to help them win. And you know we all have differences of opinions about whether or not this or that singer deserved to win, or whatever the case, but the people decide. And all we can do is put our best foot forward and coach our artists up and make them the best they can be, and then the people are going to decide.”

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