John Legend is a mega-star R&B performer, but when he recently took the stage with country songstress Lee Ann Womack, he quickly got back to his small town roots.
"I'm kind of a country boy," Legend told the crowd at a taping for their episode of "CMT Crossroads," People reported. Noting that he grew up in the "small town" of Springfield, Ohio, he said, "I had a twang for the first 20 years of my life, then I moved to New York and I lost it."
"I'm going to give it back to you!" Womack declared. "I want to hear you make a country record."
Recorded earlier this month in Franklin, Tennessee, the "Crossroads" show isn't Legend's first move into country music. He teamed up with Hunter Hayes and Jennifer Nettles during the recent 2014 CMT Music Awards, crooning his way through a down-home version of his own multi-platinum mega-hit "All of Me." The trio even recorded a studio version of the song, and released it several days after the awards show on June 4.
Meanwhile, Womack has a long history of reaching across party lines, too, with her biggest single, "I Hope You Dance," enjoying airplay on both the country and pop stations back in 2000, according to Rolling Stone.
"It's perfect. It works really well," Legend said of collaborating with Womack. "We were approached by CMT to do it, and they talked about a few different people I could do it with. But when they suggested Lee Ann, we thought that would be perfect. We thought her voice and mine would work so well together. I'm a singer that loves singers and that loves people that have just a great tone and great control. I knew that I would love working with Lee Ann."
Womack said she hoped that her fans gained a deeper appreciation for different genres of music after seeing the "Crossroads" performance.
"I'd love for them to see the connection between the different kinds of music," Womack said. "I think it's all soul music, and I'd love for them to see that."
Legend echoed her sentiments, adding, "I believe that it's all soul music. I believe it's all music that's rooted in American South. I've always felt that soul and R&B and country have always been cousins."
Check out Legend and Womack singing "I May Hate Myself in the Morning" here:
