John Legend has music on his mind even when he’s asleep. There are nights when the singer-songwriter is so inspired, he dreams of new melodies and concepts, eventually jolting awake and grabbing his phone to record them before they disappear.
The constant, even compulsive churn of Legend’s creativity can perhaps be explained by the fact that the 45-year-old has been writing songs since he was a child, regularly harnessing inspiration from the ether and channeling it into the songs making up his extensive discography.
In the 20 years since the release of his debut album, Get Lifted, Legend has often chronicled defining moments of his life through his work; his signature song “All of Me,” dedicated to Chrissy Teigen, was released a month before their Lake Como wedding in 2013. Now the father of four children under age nine (the youngest, a baby boy named Wren, was born last summer), Legend is decidedly a family man—so it follows that his tenth studio album, the aptly titled My Favorite Dream, is a project focused on lullabies and music for kids. For Legend, the project represented a chance to put his distinctive stamp on a largely overlooked genre.
With Sufjan Stevens aboard as a producer, My Favorite Dream spans joyful original compositions and covers of Fisher-Price ditties that many parents know all too well. Legend spoke to Vogue about the project and the magic of creativity—as well as about his recent headline-making performance at the Democratic National Convention.
Vogue: Aside from songs like “Rainbow Connection” or Vince Guaraldi’s Peanuts music, serious songwriting and children’s music haven’t always mixed…
John Legend: I don’t want to denigrate all of the folks who make children’s music for a living, because there are plenty who make it and put a lot of thought and energy into it. But it’s true that there haven’t been a lot of mainstream pop artists who make a full children’s album like this. But I wanted to think about it like I would any other album, in the sense of setting a standard of musical excellence and just sonic quality and every standard I’d hold any other album of mine to.