Adam Levine Hopes John Legend Will Win ‘The Voice’ Season 16

If Adam Levine can’t win The Voice Season 16, he’s rooting for newcomer John Legend. The Maroon 5 lead singer spoke with Entertainment Tonight about the newest installment of the singing competition — one coming later this month — and revealed that he was excited for Legend to join the ranks as a coach. So excited, in fact, that he said, “If I don’t win, I hope it’s John.”

“John’s great. I’ve known John a long time and [his] mega talent [is] awesome,” Levine told ET‘s Sophie Schillaci. “[He’s the] easiest guy to get along with on the planet. Absolutely [the] greatest.”

The guitarist and singer continued on to say that his experience filming the show’s pre-recorded episodes with Legend — and fellow coaches Kelly Clarkson and Blake Shelton — was unexpected, but great fun.

“John is a much more extroverted person than people realize ’cause he’s so smooth and kind of mellow and serene in a lot of ways, but he went at it during the Blind Auditions. He came out of his shell and he’s not that low-key, which I love… He’s hysterical and I got to sit next to him, which was great,” Levine said.

Legend replaced coach Jennifer Hudson, who is headed overseas to serve as a judge on The Voice U.K. A source close to the singer told Hollywood Life that Legend was very eager to join the team, and to help to build the career of a budding musician.

They also said that Legend — who recently became the youngest EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) winner — is determined to keep his team members in the spotlight even after the season ends. Many viewers believe that the contestants, even those who win, fall shy of stardom when the show is finished.

Legend has joined the show as a guest mentor many times, but this will be his first time in the coach’s chair. It is Clarkson’s third time as a coach, while Levine and Shelton have been with the show since it began.

Despite being veterans, Clarkson, Shelton, and Levine can’t help but worry for their fate with Legend on board. The group appeared in a hilarious promotional video earlier this year for the upcoming season, in which they spoke about working against an EGOT winner, according to People.

The video shows the trio playing around on a giant keyboard on the floor. While the three of them play a few notes of Bill Withers’ classic “Lean On Me” with their feet, Legend comes along and asks to join in. Of course, he shows the other coaches up, doing an entire dance routine on the keyboard to the rest of the tune. Now, Shelton, Levine, and Clarkson are really worried.

The Voice Season 16 airs on February 25 at 8 p.m. EST on NBC.