Sexy and he knows it
People magazine calls him the sexiest man alive. Adam Levine is lapping it up.
SO Adam Levine won’t talk about his new wife, Behati Prinsloo, how they met or anything else about her, and he won’t talk about being a child of divorce.
But he is prepared to talk about his record company in no uncertain terms.
Meeting with the Hollywood Foreign Press, Levine is handsome, personable, and after a few questions he warms up and is quite forthcoming.
The 37- year- old frontman for Maroon 5 boasts several chart topping hits, gold and platinum albums, numerous Grammys, but he’s best known as the vocalist coach on the NBC hit show The Voice.
Were you really discovered playing at a beach party?
Yeah, I was. Wow! Like memory lane right now.
I started in a band called Blurred Vision, an appropriate name, and we played at the Troubadour. It was like an open mic. They do these open mic nights every once in a while.
I was 12 and everyone else was a lot older than me. I got to sing Rockin’ Robin, and I thought I was pretty good, but they didn’t because I got kicked out of the band like a week later.
Maybe I was a threat or something, but I remember that was a wild time. It was actually the night of ( Rodney King) riot. My mother has some really vivid stories of driving to West Hollywood to see us play.
People were rocking her car, it was all kind of heating up and exploding at that time, and it freaked her out. It was a scary day, a really sad day. I have to remember it as both the greatest day of my young life and one of the worst days in LA’s history; so that’s an interesting kind of fact that no one knows.
And playing on the beach at Malibu?
I was 17 by then. We played at a party. We had just made our first demo, and this guy – his name was Tommy Allen – was jogging on the beach with his dog.
He heard our band playing, and it was one of those out- of- amovie moments; he got our information, we got him the demo, and that was it.
Coming from a broken home, did music help you through those dark times?
Whether it’s your parents getting divorced or just going through puberty, it’s confusing to be young. So, yes, music absolutely saves you from a lot of that because it’s a healthy, creative distraction.
But I don’t think I got into music to avoid anything or to get away from anything. I got into music because I was naturally good at it.
Growing up in Brentwood, you must have lived a privileged life?
You know, people say that I grew up like a rich kid in Brentwood. I was a comfortable kid that got food on the table and had a nice place to live in, but unlike the people that I went to school with who were extremely loaded, my life was very middle class but beautiful, thank God.
And surrounded by famous actors?
My parents taught me to judge someone based on their character, how they behave with you and how they treat others.
They always said, this person might be on television or he might be in a film, but here in LA, you see those peo- ple everywhere.
So I learned to treat everybody the same and not think of anybody in that world as particularly special, and it desensitised me to a lot of the BS I experience now.
Have you watched The Voice in other countries?
It’s funny because I’ll see the chairs – the show will be on TV and I’m in another country – and I’ll do a double take because I’ll think to myself that’s not me ... it’s the Filipino me, but it’s crazy. I mean, the reach of the show, it’s like a dream almost.
You’ve been labelled a sensitive artiste. Does it bother you?
Look, I’m a Pisces. God, how do you answer that question? I’m really incapable of being anything else; it’s in your DNA and comes from your upbringing.
Do you need a special place to write?
Not at all. I write songs in the shower, I write songs when I can’t sleep, I write songs when I don’t want to be writing songs.
If I book a recording session to write music and I have got nothing, I have to cancel. I don’t like to force myself. I probably should. It would be a good exercise, but I can’t.
I have to be thinking about anything other than music, and then it’ll happen.
As a songwriter, does writing come easier now than when you first started?
I need to kick my a$$ a little bit now. I’m a little bit lazier, a little more complacent, not quite as creative – it’s impossible to be as creative as when you needed to make a life for yourself.
When you’re younger, your emotions are all twisted, and you don’t understand how to live yet ... there’s a desperation you can never duplicate ever again.
So, yeah, it’s much harder to write music now because you have to find new ways to be creative.
What music are you listening today?
There’s a guy that I just heard for the first time. His name is Francis Farewell Starlite and he forms the band Francis And The Lights. He’s a stone cold weirdo, but he’s brilliant; he’s like David Byrne meets Prince meets Springsteen meets a lot of other weird things.
He’ll start out dancing and spear fingering and all of a sudden it’s the coolest, strangest music you’ve heard in a long time. Check it out y’all.
What are your thoughts on record companies?
Well, record labels are done.
They’re finished, it’s just karma. Record labels have treated people unfairly since the beginning. They’re corrupt, they’ve done a bunch of awful things. They’ve exploited artistes. They’re bad news.
Fortunately for me, they have to release our records, so I can say anything I want. They have no choice because we’re one of the only bands that they have that’s going to be able to do anything for them.
So I can say, “Sorry guys but we don’t like you.” They’ve done a lot of bad things for artistes, taken their money, spent too much of everyone’s money. They’re bad.
People magazine cited you the sexiest man alive. Did that embarrass you?
Look, I don’t care who you are. If someone calls you and says that to you, and you tell me it’s not awesome, you’re a liar. You’re lying.
So, I admit I was excited. I was flattered, I was pumped because that’s great. I don’t pretend that I wasn’t happy about it.
Are you equally happy about impending fatherhood ( Levine and Prinsloo are expecting their first child)?
The baby can’t come fast enough. I’m so excited. Isn’t that what we’re supposed to do? That’s what we were built for. I’ve always wanted to be a father, so I’m really, really excited, and I’m ready.