In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, John Legend and ?uestlove spilled new details on their forthcoming Wake Up Sessions LP, due out this September. Originally starting off as a collaboration to cover Arcade Fire track, the project took on a life of it’s own, maturing into a full length album.

“People tend to frown on the cover album,” ?uest told R.S., “so I wanted to choose cover songs that were so under the radar, so uniquely interpreted, that it would take you a second to realize that these are cover songs.”

Among these tracks are covers of Marvin Gaye’s “Wholy Holy”, Roberta Flack’s “Compared To What”, Nina Simone’s “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free”, Prince Lincoln & The Royal Rasses “Love (The Way It Should Be)”, Donny Hathaway’s “Little Ghetto Boy”, Baby Huey and the Babysitters’ “Hard Times” (featuring Black Thought), Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes’ “Wake Up Everybody” (feat. Common), and Ernie Hines “Our Generation”, (as sampled by Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth for “Straighten It Out”).

“I wanted this to be his worst performance ever,” ?uestlove told the magazine. “The side I wanted to expose was very raw, so for every vocal take he did, I tried to choose the one with the cracks.”

Meanwhile, Legend will appear on The Roots How I Got Over, appearing on “The Fire”, and a remake of “Again”, from Legend’s Once Again LP. ?uest considers the two albums – How I Got Over and The Wake Up Sessions – companion pieces to one another, The Roots LP representing the “midlife crisis of america”, while John’s is “the spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down.”

They were deeper into Legend’s album at press time, despite The Roots’ LP having a June 22nd street date, as confirmed by Universal.

“We play it very close to the edge,” ?uestlove added. “I won’t turn in any record before its time, before I get goose bumps and I get that feeling in my stomach. I definitely have it with both albums.”