John Legend says his friendship with Kanye West changed after he didn't support the rapper's run for office
When it comes to what changed John Legend and Kanye West's friendship, it wasn't so much a heartless thing as it was a political one.
Legend has gotten candid about the breakdown of his bond with the rapper. "We aren't friends as much as we used to be," he said on The Axe Files podcast with CNN's David Axelrod this week. "I honestly think because we publicly disagreed on his running for office, his supporting Trump. I think it became too much for us to sustain our friendship."
The singer continued, "He was upset that I didn't support his run for presidency of the United States of America — for understandable reasons. I wasn't alone in that, but, you know, he was not happy about that. And we really haven't been close since then."
Matthew Simmons/WireImage John Legend and Kanye West
West's highly publicized bid to become our next POTUS in 2020 ultimately resulted in him garnering about 60,000 votes in a dozen states. At the time, Legend was open about his support of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and later, President Joe Biden.
The artists met in New York when they were new to the industry. "[West] broke through just a little bit before I did, but we were basically peers and coming up together," Legend said. "But he was in a position to really help me as a producer, and he began to have more and more connections in the business. So eventually I signed to his production company as kind of like a go-between between me and any major label that I would sign with. So I was signed to his production company, Good Music, and he helped me get signed to a major label deal with Columbia."
Though they no longer work together nor are they close, Legend considers what they had to be "a formative relationship" and admits that West is, at the end of the day, very genuine.
"I think he's been very open with who he is and his struggles with mental health," Legend said. "And he's very real, honestly. So I think there's not a lot about him that people don't get. Like he's been pretty upfront with his opinions, his struggles, all the things that he's dealing with. And I think what you see with him is pretty much what you get."
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