Adam Levine
Adam Noah Levine was born in Los Angeles on March 18, 1979 to Fred Levine, the founder of retail chain M. Fredric, and Patsy (née Noah) Levine, an admissions counselor. Journalist and author Timothy Noah is his uncle. He has two brothers, Michael and Sam. Levine's parents divorced when he was seven. Growing up, he spent weekdays with his mother and weekends with his father. He underwent therapy for his parents' divorce, but called it a "waste of time" explaining that his parents could not "accept the fact that I might have been OK with it. I cried my eyes out and kicked and screamed and said, 'Why?' and all the things you do when you find out. A few days later I was fine but I still had to go to therapy".
Levine describes his family as "very musical"and credits his mother with "start[ing] me out on the path". He also attributes his mother's idols - Simon & Garfunkel, Fleetwood Mac and, most notably, The Beatles - to shaping his musical style, calling them "a huge part of my upbringing".He attended Brentwood School, where he met Jesse Carmichael and Mickey Madden, his future bandmates. He carried his musical interests to high school, where he states he was "a little rebellious. I didn't want to do the things they were teaching me ... [music] consumed my every thought."
Levine used hallucinogenic drugs in his adolescence. In an interview with Q, he said that using mushrooms "really forced me to look at myself" but added that he had never abused drugs. On Jimmy Kimmel Live!, he stated that he stopped using prescription drugs after his first experience with prescription drug Ambien, which left him unconscious for an hour.
Levine's father and maternal grandfather are Jewish, while his maternal grandmother was Protestant. Levine considers himself Jewish, though according to an interview with The Jewish Chronicle, he "has rejected formal religious practice for a more generalized, spiritual way of life". He chose not to have a Bar Mitzvah as a child, explaining: "I felt as though a lot of kids were trying to cash in ... I just don't think it's the most respectful way to deal with God and beliefs and years and years and years of cultural heritage".
In early 2010, Levine met Russian Sports Illustrated swimsuit and Victoria's Secret model Anne Vyalitsyna while performing at the 2010 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue release party in Las Vegas, who he later started dating.[ After two years together, in April 2012 Levine and Vyalitsyna announced that they had split.The following month Levine began dating Namibian Victoria's Secret model Behati Prinsloo.They broke up in March 2013, but later reconciled and subsequently became engaged in July that year. The couple were married on July 19, 2014 in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
Levine, whose brother openly identifies as being gay, is an outspoken supporter of same-sex marriage and LGBT rights. In 2011, he made a video
on Maroon 5's official YouTube account in support of the It Gets Better Project. In January 2012, he announced that Maroon 5 had changed the location of their post-Grammy Awards show because of the "unnamed Los Angeles restaurant's backing of Proposition 8".
In 2013, Levine was mentioned in a hostile work environment lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by an unnamed security guard who claimed that Universal Music Publishing Group's Santa Monica location was "infiltrated with pervasive drug use where you could smell marijuana seeping from various offices and openly used in common areas, and lounges". The guard claimed that when she complained about the cannabis smoke coming from one of the studios, she was told that "it's Adam Levine ... if he wants to come to the lobby and do a line of cocaine on the floor, it's OK". In an official statement to The Hollywood Reporter, UMPG described the allegations as "absurd".
Levine's interest in music started at around ten years of age, when he first started playing the guitar. He found music an outlet for feelings, stating: "I picked up a guitar and that was it. I fell so madly in love with it, it's all I did". He performed his first professional jig at The Troubadour when he was twelve, but was so nervous he played with his back to the audience. Throughout his childhood, he had been influenced by the diverse groups like the Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, The Who, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, and Nirvana, and, in high school, by Bob Marley, Bill Withers, Al Green, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and Michael Jackson. He also incorporated elements of The Police and Prince into his music. In an interview with
Billboard, he explained the diversity of his influences: "I love every single kind of music ... even the most saccharine, sugary pop song can be the greatest thing ever. But so can a 25-minute crazy avant-garde fusion gnarly Herbie Hancock jam from the '70s".
Levine remembers that listening to "Are You That Somebody?" by Aaliyah convinced him to pursue a more soulful sound than that of his then-band Kara's Flowers. His move to New York introduced him to a new music scene that involved hip-hop, R&B, gospel and soul music. He took to changing his musical style, extensively emulating Stevie Wonder. Subsequently, Songs About Jane was released, deemed "bluesy funk" and similar to Busted's music.Critics also drew comparisons between Levine and Jamiroquai singer Jay Kay. Maroon 5 worked without any prominent outside collaborators until 2010's "Moves Like Jagger", the band's most successful single as of 2014, which symbolized a shift in their music.
He considers himself an orthodox lyricist sticking to conventional themes, acknowledging: "Romance, love, the lack thereof are still very big themes. I haven't figured out a way to use everything yet. As a songwriter, I'm still limited to that one thing." He also claims he does not like mincing words, stating in a Rolling Stone interview: "I was so sick of typical lyrics like 'Ooh, baby' and 'I love you' and all this vague shit. I thought the more explicit I got without being totally explicit was a nice approach".
