Maroon 5’s Adam Levine Makes No Apologies For Controversial ‘Summer’ Song Title

Maroon 5 front man Adam Levine will defend his music, no matter what controversy his lyrics or song titles may bring. Such has been the case with the band’s newest smash hit, “This Summer’s Gonna Hurt.”

“Despite some of the bad words, I think it is just a great, fun summer song,” Levine unapologetically told the National at the Moroccs Mawazine festival. “The way the song feels is that the bigger the audience we play it to, the better it sounds. We love it and I hope people love it, too.”

Levine needn’t worry. Despite explicit language in the non-abbreviated title, Maroon 5’s “This Summer’s Gonna Hurt” topped the Trending 140, according to Billboard. And their music video for the song caused quite a stir when Adam revealed his bare butt in a controversial scene.

Controversy seems to be the watch word for Maroon 5 these days, as two other songs off their latest album, V, riled the general public up. First, there was the song, “Animals,” that featured Adam and his wife, Behati Prinsloo, engaged in a stalker-like courtship that immediately drew the ire of RAINN (The Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network). RAINN claimed the video for “Animals” was a “dangerous depiction of a stalker’s fantasy” that “trivialized” the crime.

Then, of course, was the controversy surrounding their other number one hit, “Sugar.” In it, Maroon 5 appeared to crash a series of unsuspecting couples’ weddings, which made for a terrific and entertaining video. It helped push “Sugar” to the top of the charts before information leaked that the crashing was staged. Adam Levine did come clean, however, to clarify what actually happened.

“Half of the weddings we crashed and the other half were set up, we did that to cover our bases and to make sure we had all the footage. I would say 65 per cent of the video was real. It was crazy and a lot of fun.”

Overall, it seems like Maroon 5 are continuing to push boundaries regardless of how long they’ve been in the business, something even Levine himself is surprised lasted this long.

“I am 36 years old and our first album came out when I was 22; to have that much success over this long in this business is astounding.”

And as long as Maroon 5 continues to put out catchy musical hits that seem to evolve with the times, there should be no shortage of future controversies for Adam Levine to rally around.

[Maroon 5, Adam Levine image credit David Becker / Getty Images]