Growing up in Los Angeles, Adam Levine always dreamed of being a rock ’n’ roll star. When he was packed off to summer camp, he amused his playmates by turning into ‘an 11-year-old freak who could sing Guns N’ Roses’.
Then, in his teens, he grew his hair long, covered his arm in tattoos and embraced the loud, unruly sound of Seattle grunge. But, when he formed his first band at Brentwood School in 1995, Adam had to face the sad truth — he didn’t have the voice.
‘I spent hours listening to Led Zeppelin and I worshipped Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain,’ he recalls. ‘All my heroes had big, masculine voices. But I had this little, high-pitched voice, and all the girls in school thought I was lame. I still have the chip on my shoulder. The only reason I kept singing was that I could carry a tune better than the others in the band. If I’d had my way, I’d have played lead guitar. I was very insecure about my voice.’
Luckily for Levine — and the 15 million fans who have since bought albums by his band, Maroon 5 — hard rock’s loss was funky pop’s gain. Adam eventually found his soul niche and took his old Brentwood classmates to fame and fortune.
Now 31, he can laugh at his early struggles. Chatting in a London hotel, the singer is disarmingly honest. He tells me the turning point came when he began listening to soul music.
‘I discovered Stevie Wonder and Al Green and realised I could sing a bit like them. Then there was Sting, who had a high voice. The Police were the rock band that gave me hope.’
Having reached No. 1 in Britain with their first two studio albums, Songs About Jane and It Won’t Be Soon Before Long, Maroon 5 are now back in the charts with a third, Hands All Over. Once dubbed a boyband on account of their large female following, the polished Californians have never been critical favourites. Adam will pretend not to care, of course, but that lack of critical acclaim clearly niggles him.
Pointing out that the band paid their dues on the sleazy LA club circuit, he feels Maroon 5 could acquit themselves well on any stage.
‘We’re a proper band, so it’s upsetting we still seem to have something to prove,’ he says. ‘We’re in the same boat as Duran Duran. Most of their fans were girls, but they were a legitimate group
