Maroon 5 has been together for more than 20 years, and singer Adam Levine says it’s amazing that he and his bandmates still love each other. That doesn’t mean there haven’t been challenges along the way.
While appearing on the Questlove Supreme podcast from The Roots and Jimmy Fallon drummer Questlove, Adam marveled at the fact that Maroon 5 hasn’t split up. “We’re really lucky because everyone really likes each other and wants to get along, you know?” he said. “Like, tell me [another] band that’s been able to stay together [this long].”
“We’ve been together for 20 years, longer, almost … and we actually don’t want to kill each other, you know?” he added. “Sometimes … but we love each other and the respect has always been there and is there.”
However, Adam said that when he first started writing songs exclusively with people outside the band, the rest of Maroon 5 was upset.
“That was a controversial moment for us internally,” he said, explaining that the other guys were afraid the band’s “soul” would be “corrupted” by “someone else’s ideas.”
“But then it worked!” he noted. “I mean, our first co-write was ‘Moves Like Jagger!’ So that was like, ‘Oh s***, maybe we can do this for a while.’ And so that was a negotiation of me being like, ‘Hey, it’s working … trust me, and … let me lead. And if it’s not working, then …we’ll talk about it, we’ll regroup, we’ll make things a little more democratic."”
After that, Adam said, the rest of the band was “super cool with it.”
When asked how Maroon 5 got their name, Adam wouldn’t answer.
“I’ll never tell anybody,” he replied. “I told Billy Joel. He knows … and he doesn’t remember, ’cause he’d really had a few and didn’t care!”
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