For John Legend, forgiving an old friend doesn’t necessarily mean he’s ready to make music with them again. The singer remains open to having a private conversation with Kanye West, but he’s far less enthusiastic about reuniting professionally. His hesitation stems less from their personal differences and more from West’s history of inflammatory comments about Black and Jewish communities.
While promoting his new album, Muse, Legend spoke with Complex about his current relationship with his former G.O.O.D. Music collaborator. “He’s not reached out to me,” Legend said. “So I don’t want to act like I’ve refused to meet up with him or talk with him. But if we did talk, it wouldn’t be a public reunion. It would be man-to-man, like a private conversation.”
Legend also explained that he has no trouble personally forgiving people, even when they’ve made negative remarks about him. “I don’t have a hard time forgiving anybody personally for any slight — and, you know, he’s said a few stray comments about me. But he hasn’t done much to harm me, or with the intent to harm me at all.”
The two artists go way back to the early 2000s, when West helped establish Legend’s career through G.O.O.D. Music and served as executive producer on his debut album, Get Lifted. However, their friendship began to unravel years later, especially after Legend refused to support West’s 2020 presidential campaign. In a 2022 interview, Legend admitted that their political differences had taken a toll on their relationship.
West has since drawn widespread backlash for repeatedly making antisemitic remarks and expressing admiration for Adolf Hitler. In January 2026, he took out a full-page advertisement in The Wall Street Journal to apologize for his actions and address his mental health struggles. He acknowledged the harm he had caused and expressed a desire to make things right.
However, Legend doesn’t believe the public apology does enough to address the damage West has caused. Speaking to Complex, he argued that West should prioritize making amends with the communities he offended rather than concentrating on rebuilding relationships with individual celebrities.
“Any forgiveness that he needs to seek isn’t about anything he’s done to me,” Legend stated. “I feel like what he’s done to society has been really harmful. What he said about entire communities has been really harmful. The Black community, the Jewish community, those things have been really harmful.”
“I don’t think I’m interested in making art with him,” Legend added, though he admitted that his perspective could change in the future. He also made it clear that West’s past personal jabs weren’t serious enough to stop them from having a conversation down the road.
The discussion came as Legend marked the Friday (Oct. 23) release of Muse, his first full-length collaborative album with Pharrell Williams. Interestingly, Legend recently revealed to the Associated Press that West’s role as executive producer on his earlier albums was one of the reasons a full project produced by Pharrell hadn’t materialized sooner.
Now signed to Republic Records, Legend says he has more creative freedom to pursue the collaborations he wants. That independence has finally allowed him to bring his decades-long friendship with Pharrell into the studio for an entire album, which also features Clipse on the track “Bodies on the Floor.”
