Adam Levine covers Paper Mag’s May 2020 issue. The 33-year-old rock star has an incredibly busy schedule and loads of plans on the works. The Maroon 5 frontman is one of the four judges on NBC’s reality singing competition The Voice, he has signed on for a guest starring role alongside Jessica Lange on Ryan Murphy’s FX cult-hit American Horror Story and he has a new music label 222 which also happens to be the name of his fragrance coming in stores in 2020, among others.
Levine sits down for a chat with the magazine and dishes on marriage, his personality, and the fourth Maroon 5 studio album out this June, Overexposed. “We’ve kind of succumbed to the fact that that’s what’s going on. It’s better to know about it and make light of it because I don’t think we ever want the music to be overshadowed. You can’t get sick of us if we’re already sick of ourselves,” he says.
Speaking about his personality, Levine confesses that, “I can be a huge pain in the a**, huge pain in the a**. That’s part of who I am and there’s not a person I know who doesn’t think I’m a pain in the a**. But I’m also really nice and a completely affable and socially adept person. There’s a difference between being an a**hole and a pain in the a**…”
Last season, at The Voice, Levine managed to lead the smooth and soulful soft-rocker Javier Colon to victory. “I’m a very competitive person and I think it took a minute for everyone else to get it,” says Levine. “Now they’re all gunning for me.”
After high school at Brentwood Academy in L.A., Levine didn’t go to college.”I was a loser,” he told Paper Mag. However, during this time he saw “the most beautiful girl” he’d ever seen at a gas station. She was Jane of the album’s title. Levine wrote her a song and had a friend play it over the speakers where Jane worked. “If I really liked a girl and I felt these romantic feelings towards her, I would literally write a song and make sure they heard it. I was so bold,” he recalls.
“It was a brief relationship,” he explains, “but we really did fall in love with each other and when we broke up, my heart was broken. I didn’t have money or a job. All I had was a girl I was in love with and the dream of being a famous musician. I was like, ‘I need to turn this into something good or it’s going to be a bad thing.’” And his feelings were the source of songs like “Harder to Breathe,” “This Love,” “Sunday Morning” and “She Will Be Loved.”
Levine is single again, after ending a two-year relationship with Russian model Anne V last month. His idea of marriage? Levine explains it in the interview with Paper Mag “I’m extremely fascinated by marriage,” he says. “I want to study marriage. I want to learn about it. I want to know it. I want to figure out whether or not I want to do it. I’m not just going to leap into it, because that’s not good for anybody.”
Adam insists that he has no plans to leave Maroon 5. “I’m going to do everything in my power to avoid [going solo]. Everybody does that,” he says. “I spent my whole life doing everything I’ve ever done for Maroon 5. I love playing music with my friends.” “I’m a big fan of not doing everything the way that I’m supposed to. I like to spike in some weirdness – not that it’s weird to stay in my band, but nobody does it anymore so it makes it more of a challenge to keep that as your rock,” he added.
On his plans of working overtime forever. “I just hope this isn’t the case when I’m 40,” he says. “I turned 33 and I thought, ‘OK, this is exactly where I need to be,’ and why should I stop until I get to a point where I can, and say, ‘F*** this, I’m going to go play golf.’”
Photos courtesy of PAPER MAG