You know we're only here for a short time, right? You know we can't stay here, don't you? Given those realities, have you ever thought deeply about what you want your life to be about? By that I mean, what you're willing to exchange it
for. Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, would ask himself each day... "Is what's on my schedule today worth a day of my life?" If it wasn't... he changed his schedule. To him, a day was too precious to waste. In the conclusion (Part 5) of The Church Boy Who Encountered Troubled Waters, we’ll see what Johnny Stephens decided to exchange his life for. I think you'll find it insightful, and it may prompt you to think about how to spend your precious days. Days that you'll never get back. Spoiler alert! If you’ve not read Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4, you'll want to do so before going on to Part 5. The links to them are below. If you have read Parts 1 through 4, you're good to go. The conclusion to the Johnny Stephens story awaits you below. The Church Boy Who Encountered Troubled Waters - Conclusion The Transfer When we left Johnny in Part 4, he was living in Boston and working for a consulting firm. The money was great, but it came at a cost. He'd lost the ability to write songs and compose music. His musical anointing was gone, and his dream was running on fumes. But he wasn't going down without a fight. He was determined to get his inspiration back and resurrect his dream from the dead. So, after a year on his new job, he went to his boss and asked if he could transfer to the New York office. If he could get to New York, he figured, he could make a living from 9 to 5… and then moonlight as a musician at night. He’d be plugged in again. Fortunately, his boss signed off and the transfer went through. Plugged In Once Johnny moved to New York and plugged into the music community there, his creative energy came rushing back and things really started to move for him musically. He was back in his groove… writing songs, composing music, making demo tapes, and playing at small clubs all over the city. Realizing that faith without works is dead, he got after it and stayed after it. Night after night he was in a club somewhere… just trying to get discovered. But he wasn’t just waiting to be discovered. Good things come to those who work… not those who wait. Grinding So, Johnny worked hard. And he worked smart too. He grew an email list of 3,000 to 4,000 people that really liked his music. This proved invaluable because he could let his fanbase know where he would be performing. On
any given night, 200 to 300 of these folks would show up to see him perform at clubs like The Elbow Room, The Downtime, The Cutting Room and The Knitting Factory. He also had a friend from college build a website that allowed him to start selling his own music online. Johnny filled all the orders himself… duping CDs, licking envelopes, licking stamps, and running back and forth to the post office. As the young folks say, he was grinding. Roommates One thing about New York is the rents are sky high. Even though Johnny had a great job, he decided to room with two classmates from
college in order to save money. One of his roommates, Devon, was originally from Chicago. It just so happened that Devon had a cousin
who was as into music as Johnny was. The cousin had also moved from Chicago to New York… and was well on his way to being a success in the music business. The cousin’s success was a year or two away, but still… what are the
odds? It was Tara Michelle all over again. Like Tara, Devon thought Johnny had something special too. So, he invited his cousin to watch him perform at Jimmy’s Uptown Club in Harlem. Teamwork Makes the Dream Work His cousin loved what he heard. So much so that he and Johnny met after the show and talked. And talked. And talked. Within a few months they were working together on the cousin’s debut album. Their collaboration
was magical. It combined Johnny’s old school, gospel vibe with the cousin’s cool, hip-hop vibe. They co-wrote several songs for the album… and Johnny played and sang on most of them. Many of us view our Black peers as rivals to compete with. Devon’s cousin was the opposite. Yes, he wanted to succeed. But he also wanted the same for those around him. He was unusual in that he did everything he could to help Johnny get his career off the ground. Wherever he went in New York, he would take Johnny along and introduce him to other artists and people in the music business. He even got Johnny a gig singing backup for Alecia Keyes. One of the tracks he sang on was You Don't Know My Name. The part he sang was... Ooooh oooh oooh oooooooooooooh.... During this time, Johnny also continued to write songs that would hopefully be on his own debut album. Assuming he ever got a chance to make it. Clearheaded musicians understood that the music business was risky and tough. Success was by no means guaranteed. But the good news was that he was surrounded by a community of passionate musicians. Jim Rohn once said, “We're the average of the five people we spend the most time with.” That was true for Johnny, and it was one of the keys that unlocked his destiny. He was absorbing energy, inspiration, and belief from the people he was spending the most time with. In particular, working with Devon’s cousin and seeing his total commitment to music had a tremendous impact on Johnny. Push that Baby Out Like Lazurus shuffling from the grave, Johnny's dream was rising from the dead. And it was growing stronger by the day. Eventually it became so strong that he began to have a strange feeling. It felt like his dream was beginning to manifest. Like a baby coming down the birth canal, he could actually feel it being born. I see the head! Push! So, Johnny continued to puuuuush. One way he pushed was… he quit his job. Putting fear and doubt aside… he quit his secure, high paying job and
committed to the pursuit of his dream. He was no longer willing to spend his life as a cog in a corporate machine. But he was willing to exchange his life for family... and for music. Your Music Is No Good Devon's cousin was so serious about helping Johnny that they started making the rounds… visiting the offices of record labels all over New York. The cousin, ever the salesman, would pitch them on Johnny’s unique sound and play his demos for them. The demos were songs that Johnny wanted to be on his debut album. But the record label executives didn't like
them. The general feeling was that they were too bland. Too low key. Too boring. Too lame. Too outdated. Too uncool. No one was even
remotely interested in Johnny’s music. Sorry bub... but you shouldn't have quit your day job. The cold, hard truth is that the music business isn't for the faint of heart. Fortunately, Johnny wasn't faint of heart. He remained undaunted. He could see the head! And he continued to push. Black Boy Joy The record company executives were arrogant. They thought they knew all there was to know about what people liked. But all of that arrogance
went out the window when the cousin’s album came out. When it dropped... it exploded. Like fireworks on the Fourth of July. And, once
again, Johnny was in the mix… contributing to yet another monster album. But this time he wasn’t on just one track, like Track 13. This time, his songwriting, musicianship, and voice were all over the album. And the music buying public loved it. Now... it was on like popcorn. Opportunities and offers started rolling in like a tsunami of bowling balls. The same executives that had dissed him a few months before, were suddenly falling over each other in a desperate attempt to sign him. A bidding war even broke out among the record labels… each of them offering big money to bring him aboard. But, almost poetically, everything came full circle when Columbia Records came in and signed him. It had finally happened. Against all odds… Despite all the difficulties he’d been through… His childhood dream of becoming a musician had come true. And the rest, as they say, is history. The Stratosphere Johnny’s debut album was released later that year. The album he’d been dreaming about and working on for years had finally been
born and was out in the world. The public really liked the album. But they especially loved the album’s second single. It had the makings
of an enduring classic, and it catapulted Johnny to heights he could have never imagined. There was something about the song that resonated with people in a powerful way. It had a raw honesty and truthfulness that touched people's souls. It helped them grapple with the complexities and challenges in their relationships. It was
therapeutic. It told them that even if we have what others consider a model family, a model relationship, or seem to have it made, or even if we are the pillars of the church… We're just ordinary people. Fallible. Fragile and finite. All of us having faults, fears, and feet of clay. We’re just ordinary
people. We don’t know which way to go. Cause we’re ordinary people… Maybe we should take it slow. Ordinary People was the smash that launched Johnny into the music stratosphere like a rocket. Radio stations played it several times a day. Albums flew off the shelves like frisbees. It was playing on boom boxes, I-pods, and car stereos. People would listen and say, I love that song. Who is that? They wanted to know the musician behind the music. One day he picked up the phone and Magic Johnson was on the line! A few hours later the phone rang again, and Oprah was on the line! It
was bananas... do you hear me? Seemingly overnight, he went from being unknown to a household name. It was crazy! The Grammy's Johnny's debut album was essentially the same album executives had scoffed at the year before. They couldn't have been more
wrong. It was nominated for eight Grammy’s. Ordinary People won the Grammy for Best R&B Male Vocal
Performance. Get Lifted won the Grammy for Best R&B Album. And Johnny won the Grammy for Best New Artist. Imagine, if you will, what that must have felt like. It was the culmination of a lifetime of dreams, doubts, tragedies, breakthroughs, setbacks… and continuing to believe in the still small voice inside. It was validation that the power of music was indeed a bridge over troubled waters. And yes, dear reader… it was confirmation that weeping may endure for a night... But joy cometh in the morning. Johnny's Testimony You can hear Johnny sharing about his journey in his own words by clicking on the video below. After you hear his
testimony, come back and scroll down to read the epilogue and closing credits below. Epilogue As you now realize, Johnny’s first album, Get Lifted, was released under his stage name… John Legend. But he didn’t give that name to himself. In fact, he was very reluctant to accept it. During the recording of Devon’s cousin’s album, there was a spoken word artist (also from Chicago) who was on one of the tracks. Whenever he was in the studio and heard Johnny singing and playing, he would say, “Man… you’ve got an old soul inside of you.” You be like those old R&B legends back in the day! We gonna start calling you... “The Legend.” Johnny just laughed it off. Man, stop playin’. Seriously bro… you sing like those old legends back in the day. Johnny didn’t much care for it, but the name
stuck like a stamp. People in the business started referring to him as The Legend. As in… Hey y’all, The Legend is here. Eventually, over time, "The" got replaced with John, and he became... John Legend. This felt very strange to Johnny. He’d been Johnny Stephens for his entire life to everyone that knew him… family, friends, classmates, co-workers, his church. Now people were calling him John Legend. He thought to himself, I haven’t done anything. Who am I to call myself a legend? I'm the guy that people used to call Doogie. The
whole thing seemed ridiculous. But there was another voice inside him too. The voice of faith. The voice of power. The voice of purpose. And that voice simply said, strive to live up to the
name. If you believe in yourself… And you believe that greatness is within you… And you release it… You can live up to it. So, Johnny made a decision to stop hedging his bets, stop doubting, stop being anxious… and step into his purpose. Fully,
completely, and confidently. It was then, and only then, that the church boy who encountered troubled waters… Was finally able to proclaim... I am… John Legend Closing Credits Hometown: Springfield, Ohio Stanton AME Friend: Tara Michelle Tara’s Michelle's Friend:
Lauryn Hill Alma Mater: Penn Corporate Job: Boston Consulting Roommate: Devon Devon’s Cousin: Kanye West Spoken Word Artist: J.
Ivy Next Week - A Bonus Episode Guess what? Next week I'll have a special bonus addition to the Johnny Stephens story. I can't tell you what it is, except that you will love
it and find it very meaningful. So, don't miss it. Are You a Sharer? It ain't
no fun if the homies can't have none. ~ Snoop Dog If you are and would like to share Johnny’s story with a friend, be sure to share them in order. It's easy if you click on the link below. All five parts are in one place. Finally, thank you for reading The Church Boy Who Encountered Troubled Waters. It's just one chapter in the greatest story never told... our story. And... your story. If you know more about it, it will help you live your best life. And that, dear reader... is a fact. If you have comments, expressions or feedback... feel free to hit me up at b.johnson@ethnicexpressions.com Peace and love, Brian |
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