John Legend’s moniker wasn’t always so legendary. In fact, it took a legal contract to secure the right to even use his now-popular stage name.

“J. [Ivy] heard me singing, playing and doing all I was doing on those College Dropout tracks [with Kanye West], and he was impressed,” Legend, 46, recalled of his musical origins in Amazon’s Word+Music docuseries, per People. “He said, ‘Man, we’re gonna have to call you the legend.’”

Legend (born John Stephens) soon decided to go by his newfound nickname professionally.

“I had to decide whether or not I was going to assume this stage name,” he recalled in the docuseries. “Part of me is saying, ‘How you going to call yourself Legend? You don’t even have a record deal yet.’”

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