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Somewhere between winning three Grammys, singing at the baseball All-Star game, doing tours of the U.S., Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Africa, showing up on "Sesame Street" and stepping out in front of 15,000 people in Veterans Park, John Legend forgot to get nervous.

But the best new artist will enter his sophomore year on Tuesday — and he's practically as giddy as a freshman.

"I get excited," the Springfield native explained. "Excited and nervous. There's a fine line between them. I think I'm on the side of being really optimistic and excited, with a small hint of nervousness."

The whole world will watch as the North High grad-turned-R&B star drops his second album, "Once Again."

"The excitement comes from the fact that I worked so hard on this and I feel very proud of it, but not very many people have heard it yet," he said. "I can't wait for them to hear it.

"On the other hand, if they all hate it, that would really suck."

To hear Legend, 27, describe the new disc, there's no way people are going to hate it.

And if they do, they have no soul.

"I think what I'm doing is more soulful than most new R&B is," he said.

While Legend's first album, 2004's platinum-stamped "Get Lifted," was R&B of the highest order, it only hinted at the experimentation on "Once Again."

It's a little bit pop and a little bit soul — a little bit Brill Building and a little bit Motown. (With one ballad that would have made Jimi Hendrix weep.)

But is it R&B enough to keep three million "Get Lifted" customers happy?

"It just depends on what you define as R&B, because R&B today — like, what is that?" Legend said. "That's not soulful, really."

Enter "Once Again."

"Melodically, it actually has melodies, whereas I think a lot of R&B is migrating toward hip-hop," he said. "R&B singers are trying to rap almost, so they abandon melody or they only lightly have melodies. It's more about the cadence of the voice."

Legend's newest definitely bucks that trend.

"This is a more organic, natural-sounding album," he said.

Obviously, though, taking chances is right up Legend's alley — the piano-driven single "Ordinary People" performed admirably the last time around, earning enough downloads to go gold.

So going into Tuesday, there's at least a precedent for this sort of thing.

"I didn't make the album a certain way to cater to one radio station or another," Legend said. "I feel the fans are missing something right now.

"They don't need me to do the same thing everybody else is doing."

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0352 or amcginn@coxohio.com.