Like it or not, Maroon 5 is leading the Super Bowl LIII halftime show on Sunday, February 3, and lead singer Adam Levine says he and his bandmates did not take that gig lightly.
“No one thought about it more than I did,” the 39-year-old told Entertainment Tonight on Thursday, January 31. “No one put more thought and love into this than I did. … I spoke to many people, most importantly though, I silenced all the noise and listened to myself, and made my decision about how I felt … I think that to have not done that would have been deeply irresponsible.”
Us Weekly exclusively revealed in September that Maroon 5 had accepted the offer to perform at the Super Bowl, but more than 113,000 people have signed a petition asking the band to cancel the gig in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick. The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback, 31, sparked controversy in 2016 when he kneeled during the national anthem to protest police brutality and racial inequality. He went on to end his contract with the 49ers in March 2017.
In the new interview, Levine assured fans that no one’s voices are going unheard. “That’s all I want to say because I don’t want to spoil anything,” he added. “And once again, I like to think that people know where I stand as a human being after two decades doing this. I’m not a speaker. I’m not a public speaker. I do speak, but it’s through the music. My life’s work and what I put out into the universe has been positive and hopefully inspiring. … So, what I would say is, we are going to do what we keep on doing, hopefully without becoming politicians and continuing to use the one voice we know how to use properly. … To make people understand, we got you. We got you.”
The Voice coach also gave fans insight into his decision-making process: “I thought to myself, ‘What is my greatest tool, you know, what is the thing that I can use to express myself … the best way for the band to express themselves, and how are we going to do it this year? What do we owe ourselves, what do we owe the people?’ And that is what we did, and I am beyond proud of the finished product, and literally [have] never, never been more excited in my entire life to present this to the people because I believe that it’s truly a reflection of all of us.”
Now, Levine is eager to put the controversy behind him. “You know, I think when you look back on every Super Bowl halftime show, it is this insatiable urge to hate a little bit,” he mused. “I am not in the right profession if I can’t handle a bit of controversy. It is what it is. We would like to move on from it and speak through the music.”
The band — which also includes Jesse Carmichael, Mickey Madden, James Valentine, Matt Flynn, PJ Morton and Sam Farrar — announced a $500,000 donation to Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America in conjunction with the NFL on Tuesday, January 29. Their involvement in the halftime show generated even more controversy, however, after the NFL canceled the band’s press conference that same day.
Super Bowl LIII airs on CBS Sunday, February 3, with kickoff scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET.
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