John Legend: There’s a ‘psychic cost’ to Twitter
John Legend believes there is a "psychic cost" to social media.
The ‘Love Me Now’ hitmaker is happy to share his political thoughts on Twitter but understands that the microblogging site can attract a "certain amount of negativity".
He said: "There is a psychic cost to it [social media], because you deal with a certain amount of negativity as well … If you don’t agree with my politics, the best way to love me is to just not follow me on Twitter. Honestly. Because I’m going to talk about politics on Twitter, but you can enjoy my music without even reading my Twitter."
And the 38-year-old singer – who has nine-month-old daughter Luna with his wife Chrissy Teigen – feels artists like him have a "more global view and more inclusive view" than some politicians as "most creative people are liberal".
Speaking on NPR, he said: "Well, we’ve always been liberal. Musicians, actors – it’s almost by disposition. We deal with the gay and lesbian community all the time, so we’re gonna feel like they should have the right to get married just like we do. We deal with people of all colours and all races and we travel to different countries all the time to perform, so we’re going to have a more global view and more inclusive view. It’s almost by nature and by circumstance of the things that we do.
"So if America doesn’t want to consume the art of people who are liberal-minded, there’s not gonna be a lot of art for them to consume. It’s as simple as that, because the best artists – most of them are liberal. Sorry! There are some country artists I know that are conservative, but there’s a lot more country artists that are liberal and just don’t talk about it ’cause they know their fans will reject it. I have a lot of friends and believe me, some of them are liberal but they don’t make a big deal out of it, because they know it’ll alienate their base. I’m telling you, most creative people are liberal."
