The Tao of Adam Levine

It has already been quite a year for Adam Levine.

Back in February, the tattoo-laden frontman helmed Maroon 5’s thankless headlining spot at the Super Bowl halftime show. Critics swiftly deemed it an unmitigated disaster.

Up until their much-maligned Super Bowl slot, Maroon 5’s success had been considered almost innocuous.

Few critics had even bothered to elucidate their enduring appeal.

Indeed, it was only after that Super Bowl slot that The New York Times’ Jon Caramanica described Maroon 5’s impact on pop culture as thus: “For nearly two decades, it has been wildly popular without leaving much of a musical mark.”

The band, Caramanica added, is “as easy to forget as mild weather.”

That may be the case. But by most metrics, Maroon 5 is a pop culture powerhouse.

Last week, its blockbuster single “Girls Like You” spent its 23rd consecutive week at the top of Billboard’s AC pop radio chart. The song has also racked up 2 billion views on YouTube and 800 million streams on Spotify.

Despite such commercial success, Levine hasn’t escaped creative conflict.

The truth is, while Levine’s music is consumed and adored by millions around the world, he and his band have earned little respect from peers and fellow creatives.

On TV, where he was paid about $13 million a year to serve as a judge on the singing competition series “The Voice,” Levine has also been feeling the pressure.

In a surprise move last week, he walked away from a new two-year $26 million contract he’d signed only weeks earlier, as rumors swirled he had “grown increasingly anxious” about the show and sought “to move on.”

These days, Levine is relatively media shy. But I sat down with him to talk about fame, creativity and criticism a few years ago. Back then, the way he saw it, he was privileged to have a job doing what he loves.

“That's huge at this point,” he told me.

The perception that Maroon 5 is a victory of style over creative substance has plagued the band since they first went mainstream in 2004.

"Some people don't like us," Levine told me. "It's inevitable if you're going to be this big. You really have to expect criticism. But I want us to be the best band we can be. That's all I really care about. The rest all falls into place. The longer we stick around, the fewer reasons there are for people to like us."

Looking back, Levine’s words seem prescient.

After I pressed him a bit further, he admitted he can take the criticism to heart.  

"I'm a musician and a songwriter and also a human being," he said. "I think it's important to listen to what people say, but it's hard. It's not an easy pill to swallow. You feel exposed sometimes. You think, 'Why should I justify myself to you?' Then you realize eventually it doesn't really matter, because what makes me happy is playing huge shows in front of thousands of fans and being so overwhelmed and happy with what we have. One person's random opinion has no bearing on my life. (But) obviously it does manage to sometimes piss me off."

As it is now, longevity was also on his mind back then. At the point we were speaking, back then, Maroon 5 had already been in existence for a decade and Levine openly mused with me about how proud he was of that achievement.

He also spoke about retaining relevance as a band, and maintaining a work ethic.

“We live in very much a flash-in-the-pan world as far as pop culture goes,” he said. “Bands don't want to work. But we do.”

That perspective may explain why Levine left “The Voice” — the show demanded a lot of his time and did not give him or his band much room to tour.

“I'm inspired by this band becoming better live,” Levine said. “That's where our focus is right now. The goal is to become a legendary live act, regardless of the records or radio or TV. We want to make sure everybody knows we can play.”

The lesson for creatives here could simply be to ignore the haters. If you are doing what you love and you’ve built a career out of it, that should be celebrated.

Not every designer can be Frank Lloyd Wright, just as not every band can be Radiohead.

“I'm having as much fun as it looks,” Levine said. “I have an incredibly lucky, amazingly charmed life. Yes, I work really hard but I don't work that hard. We're not working in a coal mine. We're musicians, there's a lot of laughs and a lot of fun. And we respect that.”