Adam Levine speaks ‘The Voice’ return without Blake Shelton (exclusive)

Adam Levine is excited to return to The voiceBut know that it will feel a little different without his best friend, Blake Shelton.

It will still not prevent Maroon 5 front man from making some jokes at Shelton’s expense.

“The best thing about being back with The voice Family is that I don’t have to deal with Blake Shelton, “Levine, 45, Quips while I chat with people in this week’s edition about his return to the NBC -hit series.” I just don’t like him. So it’s been great not to have to be around him. He is a bad friend … ”

“I’m just fooling,” he explains. “Of course I love Blake. And I had to open with a blaking because he’s not on the show anymore, but still they still continue.”

Levine and Shelton, 48, were among the four original coaches, then The voice Premiered in 2011. Maroon 5 -frontman remained on the show until 2019, when he traveled after 16 seasons, and Shelton followed a few years later in May 2023 after 23 seasons. During their tenure of the show, the two close friends became while they also pierced fun at each other with playful insults and jokes.

Now Levine is back to season 27 – and he tells people that he has been welcomed in the fold again with open arms.

“It’s really nice to be back because I had plenty of time not to be on the show and to do my stuff and not have it defined me because of lack of a better way of saying it,” he explains. “It was great to go and just be with my family and go on a tour and make music and do what I was originally in my mind that was meant to do: make music and play music.”

“But it’s so nice, because now I’m here, and it’s totally entertaining because I’ve had that time,” he continues. “It was such a viral when it started that it was suddenly eight years in and it was just nice to be able to take a break. So coming back has been amazing. The family has embraced me with loving arms. .. Many of the same people who work on the set I have missed and to see their faces and do the work.

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In the upcoming season, Levine will be joining Kelsea Ballerini, Michael Bublé and John Legend. But, he says, none of them can replace Shelton and the frenemic quarrel they showed every week.

“No. No, no, certainly not. There is no replacement (Shelton),” he says. “What happened to Blake and I, it was so organic and it was based on our friendship.”

“Because no one is really aware that we were thrown into this thing that wasn’t a thing yet. Our friendship was based on this not knowing what the hell was happening and being silly and stupid with each other,” explains he.

“And it became something that people love to see. It was very organic and very non-planned and spontaneous. And suddenly we realized that people loved us to talk — to each other. So we thought for ourselves, ‘let Us just do it. And I was like, ‘yes, probably not.

As for what he brings into season 27, Levine says he has a renewed idea of ​​his purpose on the show.

“I don’t really see it as a competition anymore and I know they won’t like it but it’s not what it is. It is an opportunity for us to share our experiences with the people on the show. And it has Always been, ”he shares. “I mean you definitely get competitive that these juices are flowing with certainty. But I don’t see it as a competition and I don’t think I can bring anything other than what I have right from life and a career. And I think It is really valuable for the people on the show who need this experience or who push this help.

“I’ve never wanted to think about it in the form of a competition because it’s a kind of ridiculous concept,” he adds. “It’s music and we all have to help each other and get each other’s backs and make each other better. So that’s the kind of what it’s really about. The competition you are enlightened by that part of it, especially at first.

Season 27 of The voice Premier Monday, February 3rd at 1 p.m. 20 one at NBC.

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