John Legend has revealed the secrets to a successful songwriting career.
Speaking to Spotify at the Cannes Lions Festival on Tuesday, the hitmaker opened up about the key to his two-decade songwriting career.
“The more you write, the better you get at it,” John explained, via Page Six. “I think it’s such a good thing to go to the well a bunch of times, and everything you make is not going to be amazing.”
The 45-year-old EGOT winner continued, “The more you go to that well, the more likelihood that you’re going to come up with something special.”
John, who has collaborated with a wide range of artists including Kanye West and Alicia Keys, then went on to say that working with fellow artists could “help spark that idea that’s going to change your life”.
He noted, “A lot of my biggest songs have been collaborations.”
John then credited his collaborations with pushing him in “a certain direction”.
“Even though I’m still responsible for a lot of the creative content that comes out of those co-writing sessions I believe a lot of those songs wouldn’t have happened if I weren’t in the room with somebody else that sparked the idea and pushed me in a certain direction,” he explained.
The All of Me hitmaker added that creatives should be “humble enough” to realise that they “don’t know everything”.
“Pick the brains of people who are experts at what they’re experts at and know what you bring to the table, but also know what your deficiencies are,” he stated. “Bring other people to help support you and complement your skills so that together you create something better than you would have done by yourself.”
