John Legend Opens Up About Kanye West, a Possible Presidential Run and More With WSJ

Amid Kanye West’s recent outbursts and controversial hottakes, many have turned to his Hollywood friends and peers to understand what’s really going on with Mr. West, but when it comes to his good friend, John Legend, he feels it’s not his place to speak on the rapper’s mental state. 

“A lot of people have tried to armchair diagnose him,” John Legend said in a recent interview with WSJ Magazine, as part of his cover story for November’s Innovator’s issue, “but I leave it to him and his doctors to discuss what’s going on in his brain.” 

As singer the continued, he opened up about West’s recent controversies, his concerns pertaining to the rapper’s outburst, as well as his own political views in relation to the “Good Life” rapper.

“Clearly I disagreed with some of the things he was saying, and I was worried that his saying it might empower some of the wrong forces, might be really demoralizing for people who looked up to him and thought of him as a leader,” Legend said. ”I understand what Kanye sees in Trump, and I think it’s a reaction to his personality and his marketing panache and don’t-give-a-f—ness. But my point to him was that when you wear that hat, when you appear to be endorsing him, you’re endorsing his policies as well, all of his rhetoric and not just the parts you like.”

Legend added, “I think we had to talk about it, because we didn’t want people to be deceived into following his line of thought without considering the full ramifications.”

Although Legend has been very vocal about his political stance, speaking out and spreading awareness is where he draws the line in his political career, at least for now. 

“People ask me if I want to run for office, but I don’t,” Legend said. “Maybe when I’m 60 – who knows what the world is going to be then? – but I love my life now and what I get to do.”

“Part of me does want those things – when I hear things our leaders are saying, I’m like, ‘If it were me, I would do this, this and this.’ But I would not want to go to work every day, even at the Capitol Building or the White House,” Legend added. “I just couldn’t see it as the life I would want to live.”