John Legend and I, our song on this record, “Run Run Run,” it just sounds like it should be in a movie. It sounds so epic and I love that. [With John], we had sang together before on Duets, the show we did together, and we kind of just blended well. We sang together on that show and then he came and sang on a tour at the Hollywood Bowl I was doing. We already had a relationship so I felt like it was very natural to ask him. He is so sweet. He got back to me within ten minutes of sending the email. “Oh my god, I’d love to do it. Send me the file!” He was on tour so we weren’t able to actually be in the studio at the same time, but he’s perfect for the song and how I wanted to take it — very dark and very soulful. I already knew we blended well.

–via Spin (2015)

I just found out today that it was a Tokio Hotel song. I didn’t actually know that. [Laughs.] I was just talking to my assistant about it, like, “Man, I gotta reach out to them about it!” I didn’t cover them, because the only time I’d ever heard that song was from my publisher, who sent it to me and said, “Hey, I have this demo with a piano and a vocal from David Jost,” one of the writers. That’s the only way I knew it was the song. I didn’t know it was already out there, so that was really fun finding out. It’s a great song so I could see why another band would wanna sing it. It’s so good and intense, but I guess we have the duet version.

–via Spin (2015)