John-Legend.net

I HAVE MET JOHN LEGEND

Fans' stories

Have you ever met John or had the opportunity to see him performing live? Yes? Write about your unforgettable experience and share your feelings with other JL fans! You can also enclose photos and be sure I will post everything in this segment right away! Feel free to contact me at HollaAtEwe@gmail.com.

• Justyce's story:
In December 2006 I took my son to see John Legend at the Tabernacle in Atlanta and I would like to share a couple of photos with you to use for your site. My son Darius 9 wanted to see what a real concert was like so I arranged to take him there and as you can imagine being the only kid there he was treated like the prince of Zumunda (lol) his family was there and his father is one of the sweetest men I have met. They were so impressed with him fighting that sleep to stay awake and meet him, because my son jokingly says "That will be me in 15 years". Johnny was such a sweetheart and all the attention was surrounding my son that I was sort of jealous, (lol) I finally made the comment while his dad was video taping him and John, "don't mind me I'm just mom". He turned around started to laugh and said "come here and give me a hug" of course I could not resist. He is such a gentleman, very humble, and his family is great. My son began to fall asleep and John's dad went to get him, because he said my little man was a real trooper. He was asleep when Johnny came out but then woke up with this Big grin on his face as John sat next to him in my truck and began to talk to him. I guess you could say he is the youngest fan yet of John Legend. By the way he loved the show and said John was real cool and plans on keepin in touch with him.

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• Ewe's story:
Lemme start right from the beginning. In order to see the show I had to go to Germany (I live in Poland for those who dont know). Luckily we made it to Kreuzberg safe and sound and then found the PassionsKirche without any bigger problems as well. At about 6pm, while waiting for the door to open, a lot of other people gathered around and I started to worry about the seats, I wanted to get the front row ones so bad. Having checked the tickets, I went to the will call to pick up the backstage passes for me and my guest. After showing my ID I heard OH SO YOU ARE THE JOHN LEGEND GUESTS, HERE ARE YOUR PASSES. YOU WILL SIT IN THE ROW CLOSEST TO THE STAGE! I was like NFW!!!! lol Then, one of the security guards noticed the pass in my hand and he immediately became nicer to me and took us straight to our seats. IT WAS ONLY ABOUT 50 CM FROM THE STAGE, CAN YOU IMAGINE THAT!? I felt like a real VIP, and when I say VIP, I mean GOD! lol For real, the seats were reserved only for very important people - I sat between a former German minister and a reporter from the US. What's more interesting, even Sony/BMG representatives and their guests were sitting in further rows. Guys, you can't even imagine how special I felt that night! I was surprised that Robin Thicke was opening for John in Europe too! I heard so much about this guy before, but never actually got to hear any of his songs. Now I know the boy can sing & The Evolution of Robin Thicke is the cd I'm definitely getting myself soon. There was also one girl from Germany singing a few songs from her latest album (sorry, but I dont remember her name, I can only recall the most relevant information from that day; god damn excitement lol!) Her voice was ok, but all the songs she did seemed to sound the same, BOOOORING. But then JOHN LEGEND came out!!!! OMG! I have never been as excited as during that show! I couldnt believe that I was in Berlin singing along with John Legend (I sang so lound that I almost lost my voice after the show). Everybody was clapping their hands, bouncing, dancing, JL DEFINITELY ROCKED THE CHURCH! He did a lot of songs from Get Lifted which was cool as well! And now I can surely admit that John sounds damn GOOD live!! He's a genius, but you already knew that, right? Another surprise was when Estelle went onto the stage to sing together with John, she is such a talented gurl. Im sure you would love their performance as much as I did. When the show ended I went backstage right away to meet John... I mean I wanted to, but they made me wait outside the door at first. And then I saw Sharief walking towards me. I was TOTALLY SHOCKED when he started to wave at me and came over to say WHATS UP SUGAH? Yeah, he recognized me!!!!, hugged me, asked how I liked the show etc, we had a nice little chat (I met him a couple of weeks before on MySpace). HE WAS TOO SWEET. We were waiting for John to come for the next couple of minutes, but he still wasnt reachable. Then I saw Estelle in the room. I took a picture with her and said how much I enjoyed the show. When I saw Hassan, I told him HELLO. He looked quite surprised that I knew his name, he gently took my hand and just started to talk with me, he's so charming! And he said that John would be there in 2 mins. Then I knew that I missed my chance to catch John before he hit the Meet and Greet thing with the other fans. But I didnt care, even one second with JL would be worth the wait (lol). John finally arrived. As we were VIPs (yeah baby! ha ha), we were able to take a picture with him first. He shook hands with me and my friend, and when I told him that I was Ewelina, the webmiss of j-l.net, John smiled brightly and shook my hand once again, more enthusiastically this time, hugged me tightly and then said that he was very happy to finally meet me! I was (still am) on cloud nine! We were constantly being hurried up though cause there were a lot of other fans waiting in the line to take a pic with John. But before we moved away John hugged me one more time, and whispered in my ear: THANKS SO MUCH FOR EVERYTHING THAT YOU DO FOR ME & MY FANS, I REALLY APPRECIATE YOU. It was the most beautiful moment of the evening that I will never forget.

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• Donna-Marie's story:
My name is Donna-Marie and I from the Trinidad and a witness to the bmobile John Legend and Rihanna concert on Saturday 26th 2006 at the Pier 2. I am not one of those overly zealous fans to scream, faint or cry when I see an artiste I really appreciate in the music world but John is indeed a legendary performer and artiste, no pun intended. I am a 24 year old enthusiast of old soulful music from the Motown era with great performers like Marvin Gaye, Al Green and Barry White, all way out of my generation and annoying to others within my age bracket. Witnessing John's performance confirmed that all is not lost in the "soul world" for expressions of "unconditional love" via lyrics. After Luther Vandross died, I dwelled in the notion I would just have to keep playing all his CD's coupled with my other old school singers but then came along John Legend. Apart from him, no other artiste exists to fill the shoes of the Motown singers that left a vacant gap in the music history. Indeed he added life to fill the gap that the absence of these singers left.
It was last March when I heard the song Ordinary People that I was blown away and I took loads of people away with me. A co-worker and I sat in the office (not to far from each other) and we timed each other to start his CD so both our songs would be playing in harmony, no lags. We played his album for approximately 2 months on repeat mode until the office learned all his songs together with us, every "oooh" and " aaahhh" that he uttered from his prelude to the very last word on his 14 track CD.
At the concert, I got a preview to some of his new tracks from his album entitled " Once Again" expected to be released in October 2006 ... "Slow Dance" making big waves throughout my veins ... no other words to captivate my expressions but "wow" ... "Save Room" - another delightful track gratifying my expectations from his previous album and not to mention his remake of " Let's do it again by the Staple Singers" had me in a blissful state of euphoria as I sang my heart out to his performance. Indeed his new album would be added to my music library and who knows, the déja vu would be repeated as I lose myself in playing his songs at work on a repeated itinerary and perhaps my girlfriend co-worker would join as we time clicking start for all the songs to play in unison...
I know John would not be reading this (who knows? lol) but I just wanted an opportunity to extend my sentiments of appreciation for the music he embraces the world with. Hopefully it is conveyed to him but if not I definitely am aware of my core's enchantment to his expressions and style of music as he keeps the momentum alive for all the hopeless lovers that are left. The New Era of Hip Hop and Rap does not cater for these but with John's continuous contribution, there's no stopping the soul from penetrating all the rigidness that comes with the Gangster Rap and Hip Hop.

• Lisa's story:
Once my “JL roadies” found out that there was a concert where we could get away for another girls trip, we set up everything for our trip to Myrtle Beach, SC.
We got to the Courtyard Marriott that has about a mile from the HOB and checked in. As we were pulling in, we see a TOUR BUS pulling out. I told my friends that John was on that bus and we slowed down. Believe it or not but the tour bus slowed down and KP, who was driving WOULD NOT ROLL DOWN THE WINDOW!! She was like star struck or something. Anyway, the driver (who was CUTE) said something but by then KP was pulling off. I kept telling them that JL and his crew were staying at our hotel. (No one wanted to believe me) We checked in, went to grab something to eat, did a lil shopping at the outlets, did a “drive by” at the HOB, and then took a nap. As we got ready for the show, we were all so excited!
I nicely packed my camera in my purse but after getting to the HOB, they did not allow cameras so I had to take it back to the car. We had GREAT SEATS at the HOB. PEW #6 dead center of the stage. (I love JL but there was NO WAY we could have stood up for the whole concert) We went into the concert and listened to the 2 opening acts. Ne-Yo was the 1st one on and the 2nd act was Esthero. She was good, so good that one of my girls purchased her CD. Then JL came on we sang along with John. It was a GREAT CONCERT. JL & the crew were flawless as usual.
After the show, the girls went to the restroom and then we proceed to purchase our T-shirts then we went back to the car. This is when our whole life changed. (Now earlier in the day, we had done a “drive by” of the HOB to see if maybe we could find that tour bus that was leaving our hotel.) And lo and behold THERE IT WAS!!! We saw a “few” people standing by the back door but it hadn’t really “clicked” to us that John would be coming out that door. Well, we saw some of the band members coming out and then here comes JL with his bodyguard. We started freaking out!! We actually were not going to get out of the car because we were concerned that we didn’t have a SHARPIE for JL to sign our shirts! Well once we saw JL giving autographs, me and 1 of my girls jumped out of the car with our T-SHIRTS. We didn’t even have to stand it line, just walked right up to John. John had his OWN SHARPIE! He came out of HOB PREPARED! I love a man that is prepared. By then one of my other friends that we had left in the car comes running up with my camera (how could I have forgotten about the camera?) It is good to have friends that look out for you. She took several pictures. As JL was signing my friend’s shirt, JL politely asked, “Who should I make this to?” (such a gentleman) I stood behind him so I could spell her name for John to write on her shirt (she had a difficult name to spell). Then he signed my shirt. (see picture) I was so HAPPY. I can’t believe he signed it across my breasts but hey it worked for me!!! My friend that had my camera said, Get together so that all of you can take a group picture. I yell out and said, “I want a picture of John by MYSELF” Then John said “You are SELFISH” (in a cute & funny way) then he put his arm on my shoulder for the group picture. (Check out the picture) That’s why we all are smiling so hard. It was too funny. He was really nice and it was cool to see that he could joke around with us like that. It was as if we had known him “forever”. As we said our goodbyes, we made our way back to the car. We looked at the pictures on my digital camera about 1,000 times. We just couldn’t believe how cool JL was with us. Well it gets better...we stopped to pick up something to eat. I was too “HIGH” to eat. Just as we are getting back to the hotel, THE TOUR BUS PULLS UP!!!
OH MY GOSH!! We couldn’t believe it. We saw JL on the bus watching TV with the crew. We found a parking space then went into the lobby and just kinda hung out waiting on JL to come in. Well we weren’t the only ones waiting. There was only 1 main elevator that would get you to your room so we know JL had to come to that elevator in order to get to his room. A few of the band members started coming in slowly and they were nice. One of my friends wanted to see Swiss Chris so when we saw the bus driver coming in, she asked about Swiss and he told her to just “GO TO THE BUS and ASK FOR CHRIS” well she went out there. I didn’t want to go to the tour bus so I just sat by the elevator just watching the people go up and come down. Well finally JL comes with his bodyguard to the elevator and I say “HI JOHN” and he politely says “Hello, did you enjoy the show?” I said, “YES, I did. You signed my shirt”. He said, “Yeah I remember” He goes on the elevator and that was that. Well, WOW….He remembered me. While all of this is happening, my other “tour bus” friend still has not come back. So I leave my post at the elevator to find her. She is coming in with Swiss Chris. We took pictures with Swiss Chris and my friend took pictures with the background singers. Tara was especially nice; she said she had been singing with JL for 10 years. Jessyca was not as friendly but she said she was tired but she got in the picture too. After talking with Swiss Chris for several hours I was ready to go back to the room but my other friend and Swiss had a good conversation going on. They talked about everything from the industry to religion. Swiss is very deep. Swiss asked if he could take a shower in our room because there was some kind of mix-up with his room. Well, we had to see if it was ok with our other 2 roadies, who by the way were sleep by this time. They agreed and we all went to the room where Swiss was introduced to our other 2 roadies we talked EVEN MORE about life on the road. He took a shower, TALKED SOME MORE. He promised to send us some drumsticks so my friend gave him her business card so he could send them to us when he got off tour. Well, we have not received them as of YET but it is OK. Just the opportunity to talk with him was GREAT and the opportunity to meet JL was EVEN BETTER. I am looking forward to the next adventure to a JL Concert. I hope John stays “reachable & touchable” to his fans as he blows up in the years to come. Fans make the artists. Without us, they do not exist.

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• Ivana's story:
I have been so lucky to have met mr. John Legend him self 3 times in a short time, all in 2005. Get Lifted made it #1 first in Norway, and we are very proud of that. The first time I went to his concert, it was a very small venue. As the bandmembers and John entered the stage and started playing, the power of the music amazed me. John has this increadable voice, and live it`s even more powerful. I was getting lifted, yeah, up so high :) After the show when we got to meet the whole crew including mr. Legend, I kept asking my self : How did I get here? I have never met any artists this big and meeting John Legend was unreal. And so was the next 2 times. Mr. Legend is very humble, genuine and sweet. I have so much respect for him as a person and as an artist. The bandmembers are so much fun to hang out with and they are very talented. I have nothing but love for them all and I wish them the best future there is. And to anyone reading this, who loves and appreciate heart music, in this case John Legend, go to his show, buy his albums, he is a true musician and a true Legend. Personally I have to say that through his music, and because of the love for John Legends music, I have met some amazing people from the other side of the world. You know who you are and I love you!

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