Maroon 5’s “scared shitless” Adam Levine shares Paul McCartney’s brutal reaction to Beatles cover

Maroon 5‘s Adam Levine has shared Paul McCartney‘s brutal reaction to when the band covered The Beatles’ tracks ‘All My Loving’ and ‘Ticket to Ride’ back in 2014.

While appearing as a guest on The Howard Stern Show with guitarist James Valentine, the Maroon 5 musicians were discussing their involvement with The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to the Beatles. It was broadcast by CBS in February 2014 in celebration of The Beatles and commemorated the 50th anniversary of their iconic performance on The Ed Sullivan Show.

McCartney and Ringo Starr performed at the event, alongside the likes of Alicia Keys, Ed Sheeran, Katy Perry, Stevie Wonder, and John Legend who all performed covers of tracks by the Fab Four. The show was opened by Maroon 5, who covered ‘All My Loving’ and ‘Ticket to Ride’.

“ I was scared shitless,” Valentine said, as Billboard reports. Levine added: “I told you I’ve been scared a handful of fucking times in my life, that was definitely one of them. “I was like, ‘Holy shit.’ I’m sorry man, but it’s just like, you can be too cool, but not always. It’s Ringo Star and Paul McCartney. Fuck off if you’re gonna try and be cool about that.

“Afterwards, I see Paul and Paul kind of took me in close and he goes, ‘You know, we did it better,’” Levine remembered while laughing. “I thought it was so funny. And I cracked up and I’m like, ‘Yeah, no shit, you’re Paul McCartney, you’re The Beatles.’”

According to Levine, months after the initial interaction McCartney then tried to get his attention at a party to apologise for any tension that may be there. “He’s like, ‘Hey man, I just wanted to let you know, if that bothered you, I’ve been thinking about this, I didn’t want to insult you or anything,’” Levine said on the TV show. “It was something like that. Like, ‘If I insulted you, I apologise.’ And I’m like, ‘Oh my God. Like, you’re good. Dude, you’re Paul fucking McCartney.

“But it kind of shattered in a great way this whole thing about your heroes being who they are,” Levine concluded. “It’s like, he’s a human being with a beating heart and a really beautiful soul who actually was thoughtful enough to even take into account that maybe for some reason my feelings might have been hurt, but of course they were not.”

In other Maroon 5-related news, the band will release a new album in 2025 – teasing that the first single is coming very soon. During an interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon this week, Levine was asked about recent speculation around a return for Maroon 5.

“I am gonna confirm the rumours are true,” the frontman responded. “The rumours are correct.” Fallon then asked Levine if he could share any details about what’s to come. “There are details,” he replied. “I cannot divulge all the details.”

Levine continued: “But the details are basically – roughly – there’s a single coming at the end of the month-ish. I’m really excited about it. An album is coming over the summer, non-specifically around the summertime. And then, even more non-specifically, there is a tour coming in the fall-ish.”

The band shared their seventh and most recent studio record, ‘Jordi’, in 2021 – which featured the likes of Megan Thee Stallion, Stevie Nicks and H.E.R.

In a three-star review of Maroon 5’s ‘Jordi’, NME described the album as “paint-by-numbers pop that occasionally wows”.

It added: “Ironically ‘Jordi’s stand out songs are the ones lacking almost entirely in guest star pull – instead, in these moments, they fuse ambitious, wide-screen arena-pop with messier, more complicated subject matter and Adam Levine’s feelings and experiences over the last three years. It’s here that Maroon 5 break free of paint-by-numbers pop, and unearth introspective clarity instead.”

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