Maroon 5‘s ‘Girls Like You’ spent seven weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 this year, making the song one of the biggest hits of the band’s nearly two-decade career. Frontman Adam Levine, who is on the cover of the latest issue of Variety, spoke to the magazine about what the song means to him.
Levine revealed that “Girls Like You” was an “11th hour addition” to their album Red Pill Blues, and Levine had to beg to get the song included on the record. Levine told Variety that he thought “Girls Like You” ‘s message of feminist empowerment was crucial to share in 2018.
Look what just happened — we had a historic [midterm] election with how many women turned out and ran. Like, hell, we can actually do this! That’s why the iconography of the video is really important — for all of us to remember as men to support these women. Let’s be pillars of strength and support and not approach it from a defensive standpoint, or one which would suggest I know anything about how a woman would feel. Remain reverent to what is happening and not claim to know. Just be a set of ears.
While writing and recording Red Pill Blues, Levine became a father — he has two young daughters with wife Behati Prinsloo. Levine spoke about the urgency he feels to stay “on the right side of something you feel passionately about,” and to nail the concept of the song to do his family justice.
I have two young daughters, and to think about them being mistreated at all — ever — made my blood boil. So we went for it because I felt that as long as I stayed close to my heart with this concept, I could never go wrong. … In the video, I was doing it for my kids and my wife. If anyone doesn’t understand the intentions, f*ck ’em.
Read Adam Levine’s full interview with Variety here.
