John Legend found performing in front of a crowd "addicting" from a young age.
The 35-year-old singer became hooked in singing for an audience when he was a member of a church choir as a child because he loved the feeling of having the congregation respond to the music.
He said: "When I was singing in church, people will let you know how they feel pretty quickly.
"You can feel the energy of the congregation, and you get a sense of whether they like what you’re doing, if you did a good job. That was very tangible to me. It was very addicting too, that feeling of affirmation and love, just feeling the elevation of the spirit and excitement of the crowd."
The ‘All of Me’ hitmaker – who is married to model Chrissy Teigen – was always "very precocious" and quickly learned to play the piano.
Speaking to the new issue of Los Angeles Confidential magazine, he said: "I was a very precocious kid, so I was very thirsty for learning. I wanted to learn the piano. I wanted to study the encyclopedia. I wanted to do everything. I just wanted to soak up a lot of knowledge."