While Adam Levine has left The Voice, he appears to be nothing but grateful for what the show has done for his popularity.
The Maroon 5 frontman served as a coach on the NBC singing competition series for its first 16 seasons before the surprise announcement in May that he will not return for the next installment, set to premiere on Monday.
“I think when the band made it and had that all going on in the early 2000s, I think I was really young and also, it was a different time,” Levine said in an interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music’s Beats 1 show, released on Friday. “So I think not everyone had a camera on them at all times and you enjoyed a certain kind of privacy that I think you don’t enjoy anymore. And then being on The Voice and stuff really changed that even more. You know, it kind of launched me into the bizarre territory of being, I guess for lack of a better phrase, a household name.”
“So then people’s grandparents know who you are, and then you know, it’s a different thing,” he added.
Levine, 40, is nowadays concentrating on his music. On Friday, Maroon 5 released a new single, “Memories.”
“I think when you write songs and you’re in a band and you do your thing for this long, as you said, you get to the point where, wow, let’s take a look at where we’re at and maybe have that be reflected in the music in a way. For roughly 20 years, almost, I’ve been writing songs about relationships, successes, failures and in that world,” Levine said on Beats 1.
“And so then I think when it came time to think of another song, we thought, ‘OK, hey, let’s try to write a song that’s not about girls. Let’s try a song that’s not about…relationships and not about the broken relationships of the past and lets move on to something that’s maybe a little more, even more universal, I think,” he continued. “And I think it’s an amazing moment to have something that forces all of us to take a look at…something that makes us innately human, which is exploring loss and the things that have happened..”