{"id":293115,"date":"2025-12-01T14:08:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T14:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/293115\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T14:08:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T14:08:16","slug":"john-legend-spills-on-having-to-negotiate-with-porn-producer-over-his-iconic-stage-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/293115\/","title":{"rendered":"John Legend spills on having to negotiate with PORN PRODUCER over his iconic stage name"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Legend<\/a>\u00a0is sharing more details about the\u00a0having to negotiate with a porn producer in order to officially go by his iconic stage name.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The star, 46, previously revealed he came<\/a>\u00a0to an agreement with porn producer Johnny Legend in order to be the official ‘John Legend’.<\/p>\n

But now Legend has shared another detail in the bizarre legal obstacle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As it turns out, Johnny Legend also has an interest in music – a factor that only added to the possibility of a trademark infringement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘And lo and behold,’ Legend said on the MGM+ show Words + Music, ‘There’s a porn producer – I kid you not – a porn producer who dabbled in rockabilly music, and he went by the name Johnny Legend.’<\/p>\n

‘The fact that he made music, rockabilly music, and his name was Johnny Legend, meant that there was a possible trademark infringement case,’ he continued.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"John <\/p>\n

John Legend is sharing more details about having to negotiate with a porn producer in order to officially go by his iconic stage name\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Legend <\/p>\n

Legend reached out to porn producer Johnny Legend in order to come to an agreement about their names; pictured 2007<\/p>\n

‘We had to find Johnny Legend, negotiate with him, cut a mutually exclusive deal stating that he was Johnny Legend, and I was John Legend,’ he said.<\/p>\n

‘He wouldn’t sue me. I wouldn’t sue him. He wouldn’t try to get into the soul music business pretending to be John Legend. And I’m happy to make clear that I kept my side of the agreement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘I didn’t produce any porn, didn’t make any rockabilly music pretending to be Johnny Legend.’<\/p>\n

The humorous story came after Legend revealed how poet J. Ivy conceived of the name, prompting him to go by the name despite not having a record deal at the time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Legend previously shared the Johnny Legend story back in 2023.<\/p>\n

‘I\u2019ve never met him before. My manager, we had to clear the trademark. He reached out and negotiated a deal. I would always be John Legend and he\u2019d always be Johnny Legend and we\u2019d never cross,’ he said on the Jonathan Ross Show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Johnny’s IMDb describes him as a ‘modern-day Renaissance man’ and an ‘actor, director, rockabilly singer, trash film historian, wrestling manager, and promoter.’<\/p>\n

His musical background includes recording multiple tracks for Ronny Weiser’s Rollin’ Rock Records and co-writing the song Pencil Neck Geek in 1977, according to IMDb.<\/p>\n

In 1977, Johnny also released the crude porno comedy, Teenage Cruisers, according to his IMDb.<\/p>\n

\"Legend <\/p>\n

Legend recounted his name’s origin story on the MGM+ show Words + Music<\/p>\n

Legend – born John Stephens – was given the name by his friend, poet J. Ivy, who conceived of the moniker after hearing his music.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a 2024 interview with The Daily Mail<\/a>, J. Ivy recalled giving the name to Legend while they both were working on Kanye West’s 2004 album The College Dropout.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘I met John Stephens the night that I recorded my verse of Never Let Me Down,’ Ivy told The Daily Mail.<\/p>\n

After listening to Legend’s music at West’s urging, the Ordinary People singer ended up walking into the studio.<\/p>\n

‘I didn’t know he was there. So I was shocked to see him! “Ah what’s up man!… I heard your music, it’s amazing. It sound like that music from the old school! Sound like that music my folks used to listen to!”<\/p>\n

\"Legend <\/p>\n

Legend was crowned ‘John Legend’ by his friend, poet J. Ivy, who gave him the moniker after first hearing his music; J. Ivy pictured earlier this month<\/p>\n

‘I was like, “Man, you sound like one of the legends! You a legend, you a legend! Matter of fact, that’s what I’m going to call you from now on. I’m going to call you legend.” So I started calling him John Legend, John Legend. So it was just me and him talking and a couple days later we’re in the lounge of the studio we were at record playing.<\/p>\n

‘And John Stephens, who was signed to Kanye as John Stephens, he had albums out as John Stephens. I mean this is his government name, he’s been John Stephens his whole life.<\/p>\n

‘So they were going to put him out as John Stephens and he walked in the room, there’s like 10-12 us in the lounge, everybody is shouting him out, “John Stephens in the building! John Stephens in the house! What up John Stephens!” I was like “John Legend!…. that’s your name from now on, you John Legend!” It stuck.’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Legend\u00a0is sharing more details about the\u00a0having to negotiate with a porn producer in order to officially go…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,97,96,478,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-293115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-dailymail","tag-entertainment","tag-tvshowbiz","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}