Adam Levine Part 2

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Speaker 1: Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: What Up, y'all, It's Layah from West Love Supreme.

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Speaker 3: We are back with part two of the conversation between Adam Levine and Quest Love Supreme and rhymes. So it must make sense anyway. Look, if you haven't, you must hear part one. We never forget. We did this in studio in New York. So there's a really great role called that Adam Killed and talks about his first musical memories, lots of funny stories and so much more.

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Speaker 2: So check that out.

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Speaker 3: Now, let's get to part two of Adam Levine and kick it off with the brilliant, the ever so brilliant Fonte with his question.

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Speaker 4: How did y'all make the transition from you know, the Karross Flowers days to working on your first songs about James first record?

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Speaker 5: So I remember very distinctly, like we were like, okay, I mean, gret Fortunately, we were all super young, you know, so I thought in my mind, I'm like you running out of time, you know, nineteen.

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Speaker 4: You know, you don't realize how young you are, you know, And.

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Speaker 5: That's part of the motivation though, because you're so I was so driven that I was like okay, and you know, we gotta go now or it's gonna be too late, and it's just a lot of exploration and you know, getting into I started loving different musical styles because for a long time, that's kind of like when Stevie Wonder came in, I started listening to a lot of Al Green and Bill Withers record So it's just shit just changed for me. And I was like, oh, like because I knew I I hadn't found like my own thing yet, right, And so I and I started listening to the Police a lot, Prince, just shit that wasn't like like Weezer, like Green Day or the shit that I was growing up. Influence started changing. I started loving to go see people, you know, musicians play you know for hours, you know, just going to see stuff, going to see guys that could do it on a level that was really amazing. And so that changed the way I approached music. And I think singing definitely. I think Steve I have to credit Stevie with like the big shift in the way I started going at it. And I was like, in like los feelis at this point with a bunch of hipsters that we're all trying to be like the Strokes, you know, and ship.

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Speaker 6: So it was super.

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Speaker 5: Uncool to try and sound like what we were trying to sound like.

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Speaker 2: What was the Stevie record that grabbed you?

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Speaker 5: So that's what that's what gets you in and you got to go everywhere else, but that of course go back. That's also like the White Album, like like, yeah, yeah, that's crazy everybody starting point double record.

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Speaker 2: That'd be like off the wall, or would be like Thriller.

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Speaker 7: The thriller yeah, okay, Songs is thriller, yeah, and Inner Visions is off the wall.

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Speaker 6: Inner Visions came second always.

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Speaker 7: All right, so we're having Rivers is coming on the show. So because you're Weezer, heead and this is my favorite subject. Are you a Pinkerton?

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Speaker 8: All right?

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Speaker 9: Here's the deal.

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Speaker 5: That records so fucking incredible. Okay, well, the Blue Record is the shit.

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Speaker 7: Everyone lives for the Blue Record, no man, But I feel like people sometimes ride for Pinkerton too hard, as in like that establishes who they are. I'm sticking to my initial feelings of Pinkerton. I listened to it and I was like, it's not like the Blue Record, and I let it go. But then when I started reading every critic, every music snop was like Pinkerton's there Dad in a moment. So Weezer came out with his debut record and you know, in an era of like grunge music and all that stuff, and sort of created their own lane in nineteen ninety four, and then in ninety six they kind of pulled a one to eighty and did like an opposite record or maybe a departure record. I don't know, it remains to be seen. We'll ask them on the show in the future. And so they did this like art record, and I don't know for me.

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Speaker 5: Look, I understand the criticism of it because the first one was super polished, right, and it was like thought through and like every song had I don't know. It was kind of a perfect album, honestly. And then the second one was raw and unleashed, and it was like kind of a fuck you.

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Speaker 8: Record kind of.

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Speaker 10: I kind of think they were trying to Yeah, it's not.

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Speaker 5: Their progress, maybe these things that I look, we shared a manager at the time, so he gave us the record, and I remember cassette tapes. I had the tape before it came out, and I like wore it out in my car, and I listened to it every single day whenever I could, so I have like a special relationship with it because I felt like I had this like in where I could hear something before everyone else did. And then they did the record. I went to Tower Records, Fucking Cower Records Parking Lot. They played the sac whole Saging record, and now they're coming back and playing the Blue record right which I got to see. But Pinkerton is like, it doesn't sound good, like it's the productions kind of it's kind of like you could tell they were trying to just like throw it, throw it together. The guitar sounds weren't like pristine like the ones that recal cases that were like so huge. It didn't have like an aggressive feeling to it. It was artsy like you said, But like the songs were just kind of as good as I believe the songs were as good.

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Speaker 6: It just they didn't give a shit. They didn't want to sit.

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Speaker 5: There and like do takes forever and you could feel that. But I kind of like I kind of just looked through it and it kind of has like Pixies production, you know, where it's just like like big fat drums and just kind of disorganized. But it's chaos, but it's great and I don't know, I love it.

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Speaker 6: And then they got more.

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Speaker 5: Then they kind of went back to like toge, So it's special. I think that's why everyone sees who knows, but it feels like that's what was so special.

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Speaker 7: I always expected Departure album to be like the fourth or fifth album after you established a cannon, and for them, it's.

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Speaker 5: Kind of hard though, to like come out and just be like here you go.

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Speaker 8: What you well?

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Speaker 7: I was held confused at the time, and I think, you know, once three or four years went by him and suddenly I saw this critical turnaround, like that was their greatest album. I didn't want to immediately jump on the bandwagon, so I like held on tight to my initial feelings to it.

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Speaker 5: What's crazy, though, is that like they had a crazy thing because that happened, and then you thought that was a wrap, probably right, because it was like but then they like like then people don't even know that record if you either love Pinkerton or you don't even know or care about it, because they made these other poppier records as time went on that were like much more akin to the first one. So it was this weird blip on their on their on their trajectory, and they.

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Speaker 7: Really touch it live in concert, which to me, I don't know if they.

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Speaker 5: I don't know how they see listened to it, see how he feels about it, because it's must be a really interesting perspective coming from him, But who knows.

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Speaker 10: So was your north star? You can be your own north star?

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Speaker 6: You see me trying to figure that one out. Yeah, I mean it isn't.

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Speaker 10: Not my north.

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Speaker 2: You won't hit the five. Oh yeah.

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Speaker 5: Weezer was the band and I was like, and then we departed from them and I started listening to all this other ship and then change everything. And also I love the fact I loved going against this a sick desire to always not do what everybody was doing. Like in town, it was this like resurgence of like it was like joy division was back, and then was loving that and it was all, you know, strokes were so big and you can't One thing I would have I've learned over time is like you cannot do it better than the people who are doing it best in that moment, and everyone kind of tries to go for that, and you're like don't do that, like uxtaposed this a little bit and so, and trust me, people didn't like it. Like we start doing shows and ship and people be like that sounds like Michael Jackson, Like what the is this guy?

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Speaker 2: Like that's when the Negroes came back.

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Speaker 5: The whites didn't understand we've been.

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Speaker 6: But the whites did understand it in the beginning.

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Speaker 8: Everybody understand.

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Speaker 5: The beginnings in Hollywood were like this guy and it's l A two.

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Speaker 2: He's not in New York. Now, the whites in New York yap probably would down.

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Speaker 11: Because that sounded like a funk band, white kids who could play funk.

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Speaker 6: It was exciting to be doing ship.

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Speaker 5: We kind of like weren't supposed to be doing it because I was like, fuck it, we're gonna do it. We can we can pose.

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Speaker 7: I remember once I forget who I saw on MTV and they were talking about like, oh, that's my jam whatever this love and I was d jaying and I remember that I needed like a mid temple song and C and I was like there scrolling that was at the end of the alphabet, and I saw this love. I was like, well, I never played that before. Let me see what happens, and I played and Motherfuckers started.

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Speaker 6: Like people love that and one of those ones.

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Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, in a moment of desperation. I didn't know that was even clubbable, you know.

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Speaker 6: Weirdly it is.

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Speaker 5: And like when you when even still when we play it live, like the minute you're going to people just freak out, and it's that's.

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Speaker 8: One of those moments, lighter moment. That's the like.

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Speaker 5: Knowing, like the moment in the conch. I'm like, yeah, is this time for this ship?

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Speaker 8: Where does your set?

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Speaker 12: Early?

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Speaker 9: You're one of those guys early.

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Speaker 12: Here's the thing.

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Speaker 7: Number one, You guys have a lot of hiss, so you can afford that flex. In the last six months, we did a show with the spin Doctors, Oh Jesus, and then Motherfuckers actually had the nerve to make like two princes like number five in a seventeen song set and I'm looking at I ran to the side of the stage like, yo, they can afford the flex two princes that early And the answer is kind of no, like and I was wondering how that works when like you play your biggest ship like oh, and they just did it so casual, like this.

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Speaker 5: Song just like start and end with your unbelievable.

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Speaker 11: Biz Marquee biz Marquis starts and end with Jesse friends.

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Speaker 6: Every time you know who's gonna argue with that?

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Speaker 2: People the crowd want.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, it's so it's so it's like not self respecting, but it's so sick to do.

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Speaker 11: Wait, what what is it like in a culture where it's like single single singles. I've written an album of hits. You guys have that album. It's hits, it's hits, it hits out. It's like I've never I haven't. I mean there are other of course, but like that's a rarity.

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Speaker 8: How's that?

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Speaker 10: Yeah?

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Speaker 6: Well, what's crazy?

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Speaker 5: Do we talk about? Like Eddie Grant and people who had the one and they gotta chase that.

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Speaker 6: That's always like the craziest thing.

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Speaker 5: I remember when we had our first big hit, and it was funny because because this Love was our first huge hit, I remember actually it was the second biggest song of the year. The first biggest song of the year was Usher Yeah and I'll Never were number two man, But it was that meant both those songs were so big and it was like my whole thought process because the first one we had the harder Breathe was the first album song album that was like top five I think, and then back back when you could know what a hit was. Now yeah, it's no gauge. This love got so big and I'm like, oh, like and then she will be loved beauty and I'm like, oh my god. I was like tearworthy because you think, okay, it could be it. One might be it, and you know what lucky You.

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Speaker 7: Get worried when something gets too successful. Are you automatically thinking like, okay, can we keep it up?

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Speaker 8: Can we can we?

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Speaker 5: The hit game is a crazy thing because like your expectations get really unreasonably high.

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Speaker 7: What is that Okay, well, metaphorically speaking, what is that high?

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Speaker 5: Like when God having hits multiple hits, it's like two number one hits feels like a million because you've officially escaped, right, So that's when you know it's real, and that's when you know you could like really run with it. I think it's heart. You get pigeonholed, you know, you get you get put in this place where you're like, ah, this is like this will define you forever. This song is going to follow you around. And when you escape that a little bit, it feels really liberating because then you're like, okay, like this is gonna this has a life beyond and then again and a lot of ways, it's a champagne problem because a hit is a hit is a hit, like but it's look, as we know, it's hard to latch onto that when that's all people know.

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Speaker 2: Can you even fit all your hits in one show? Or do you go?

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Speaker 5: I mean it depends like I'm a weirdo where it's like I love it when they're all big, big, and then the ones that aren't as big, I'm like, we'll do that one.

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Speaker 6: But that's how it started, as like I remember.

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Speaker 5: Because we the band would fight a lot more back in the day about songs being and we we still they still want to put you on the in the set. I'm like, are you crazy?

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Speaker 7: How do you guys decide who who's the alpha when it comes to.

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Speaker 5: Okay, yeah me but but but also we've done things where we tried shit out and I'm like, it's not a good idea, I don't want to do it. We'll do it anyway, and then maybe and it's something on the rare the rare occasions, I'm wrong, Okay, but people want to hear. I think when you and I guess you could say it's like, sometimes I wish we could kind of branch out and play more that I thought was going to be more received well, But then I feel like there's an expectation, like you're not not gonna play girls like you have to playing that song or you're an asshole. So like that's and once again, can have many problems, but it's so fun to have a set full of hits. And I remember when we first started, it was like, shit, Okay, this one is gonna go here, and then this on's gonna go here, and then this one has to go here, and then it was like, oh but why not. My whole thing was like, oh what if we were just all hits? That's what I was thinking. I was like, manifest, but manifest, I was like, why to make them all hits?

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Speaker 8: Where is weight in y'all? Section?

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Speaker 4: I love that song, man.

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Speaker 6: We don't play that song enough.

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Speaker 9: One of them.

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Speaker 5: You don't play that song enough. And I love that song. That's hard because it's kind of mellow. So it's like it's hard because we have Also, we haven't a lot of ballads all of a sudden. I love that song, though.

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Speaker 4: No, that's that's a jam man, for real.

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Speaker 7: I mostly judge acts, not on the hits, but the filler like against a lot of your favorite wonder songs are filler songs, like at least for me, like Pastime Paradise wasn't a single.

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Speaker 8: Another fun.

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Speaker 7: I know, but still like when people think of songs in the key life, they're thinking of summer soft, they're thinking of other songs.

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Speaker 10: Like they're not.

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Speaker 6: Do you think of.

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Speaker 7: You just dropped the one song I don't like Here's no, But here's another great example. Do you know what song was not a single? Isn't She Lovely? Was never a single? One song I thought Isn't She Lovely? Was the first single.

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Speaker 6: It wasn't a single.

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Speaker 7: No, it was an album cut that was so goddamn popular that we just thought he eventually made it a B side of as which I never I wish was the first single.

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Speaker 9: I never knew that.

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Speaker 7: I actually thought, Isn't She Lovely was the first single off song, which wasn't the case.

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Speaker 10: I wish was first.

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Speaker 8: Uh, then it heard Duke was second.

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Speaker 5: And and I wish her back to back right on the record, they go into each other. Yos, that's what's so fucked up about that records Like, oh my god, but.

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Speaker 2: Ps Adam was it?

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Speaker 3: What did you feel like when you saw that PJ did the whole Stevie duet, Because like you said, right, like, what was that?

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Speaker 5: He's talked about a lot too. We're like, oh, you talk like you'll be late.

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Speaker 7: We're like, oh, Steve, can you talk about the expansion of the band and the whole story of how with PJ?

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Speaker 5: Yes, Basically like Jesse left for a little bit and came back, so he when he left, should we have someone to play he PJ came in. I think that was it. I think once PJ was in, we had like it was like, okay, well, like a bunch of people are gonna come today and PJ came in. I'm like, no, we're good.

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Speaker 3: This is now full story because we have Pj's perspective. Adam Blackstone too, right, because Adam Blackstone involved.

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Speaker 7: In Yes, Yeah, there was a period where I thought I was going to be the exhibit of music, like the whole Pimp My Ride thing.

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Speaker 8: Well, because we started.

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Speaker 7: You were playing with jay Z right and right, I was, and then Eminem called and was like, yo, fix my ship. And then we fixed this ship, and I think once the Tonight show came then it was like I can't do this, so I gotta pass it off to somebody. So then you guys called and I was like, wait, why would a group with hits want anyone from the roots to determine their future? Like I literally taught myself out of man. I'm like, wait, he wants me to what they got hits? Like they don't need me, like just you knower six hits like throughout the and so we put Adam on the case, of which I thought like they might not go for this, like I think they want me there, So I physically went out there well.

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Speaker 5: And then Blackstone taught me a lot about ship that I took from him, and I was like, okay, like I'm gonna I'm gonna.

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Speaker 2: Do because he was I'm music director.

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Speaker 6: He was r MD for a couple of tours.

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Speaker 5: But then I was like, then I kind of like took all the I was like, Okay, now I know dude, it'll we do good.

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Speaker 4: But I wanted to ask you the session for heard him say with Kanye, what do.

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Speaker 2: You remember about Oh my god, Yes.

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Speaker 6: Where he's thank you for putting that up.

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Speaker 5: Those were my most favorite moments.

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Speaker 12: You know.

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Speaker 5: Back then it was like everybody was around everybody all the time. It was just there was actually a scene still and we were at the e m As. We were on our way to the e m As in Europe and he was on the plane and we met and we talked and he was like, hey, I got this. They let's do something. And so we're on the plane place in this beat and I was like, I have I got something perfect for it. He's like, all right, cool, I'll hit you and get back in LA. We'll go in the studio and was with John Bryan, which I thought was like the craziest choice, so cool, like that what makes that record sound so great? I think that that collaboration was awesome. So we show up and I'm like, I'm like, he's there. They're there, and they're like, hey, go in do it, and we cut it and it was like it was just one of the best music I've discovered. And it's taken me long enough to realize this happens instantly and without thinking about it, and the worst thing you could ever do, I think is sit down and like try to write a song because that won't ever work, you know. I can't just be like okay, and so it just has to be you have to be so unself conscious and just freedid and that was it, and he trusted me. I trusted him. Neither one of them really said much. They were kind of just let me do my thing. And then I left and I was there for an hour, you know, and but it was just so quick and easy.

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Speaker 8: So you wrote what you say he.

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Speaker 5: Had like heard him say sometimes. And so then I had a song that actually I put the song on an album of ours that was not that was the version I heard him say before. But ours was like nothing's ever. His was nothing's ever promised tomorrow today, and mine was nothing last forever. But be honest, it hurts, hurts, but it will be the maybe the only way I took. We took those two and we smashed them together and made him made what became hurt him say, But it was it was the same melody.

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Speaker 6: So the melody went.

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Speaker 5: Over the beat perfectly, like eerily perfectly, and I was like ship. That was one of those like synergistic moments that I'll never forget. And then it's one of my favorite things I wrote. Yeah, it's and to this day that's like all the ship I've managed to accomplisable Room five, Like that's the number one thing that especially guys, guys I feel comfortable saying that they love. They may not stay comfortably like Sugar, but the.

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Speaker 8: Record where you.

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Speaker 7: Guys are now with doing your your residency stuff, how do you? And it's so weird that you know, maybe pre Celine Dion, Vegas was seeing as a four letter word of a career, like you want to avoid the end of the train stop, which is that? But now it's almost like you gotta get a Vegas.

00:20:03
Speaker 9: Regular kill that shit.

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Speaker 6: Vegas used to be that way. A singer being on TV used to be that way.

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Speaker 5: He'd be like, shit, this is it, you're gonna do this TV. So it's changed so much, and I think we kind of let we gotta let it come to us over time because we had a couple offers early. Early I was like it was too scary because nobody was really doing it yet.

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Speaker 7: Did you have trepidation about accepting the voice like wait a minute, oh yeah, oh.

00:20:26
Speaker 8: Yeah, I'm a singer song and I don't want to.

00:20:30
Speaker 5: Back then, I mean it was like twenty eleven twelve.

00:20:33
Speaker 10: Did you discuss it with the band first or like, oh, the band was not.

00:20:36
Speaker 2: I know they weren't because it's like, I'm not working. What do you mean you're going to work every day?

00:20:40
Speaker 6: Also like but also forget about that.

00:20:42
Speaker 5: They were like what are you doing right?

00:20:43
Speaker 2: And what does it make us look like?

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Speaker 6: To share?

00:20:45
Speaker 5: This has spin around ruin our career, So there was a lot of fear with the voice and like, I remember that too, and I remember even then being like, remember earlier, hey let me lead. I didn't believe my own words, but I was like.

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Speaker 6: It's good, It's gonna be great.

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Speaker 5: Ship. I don't know because the band kind of like plateaued a little bit, and so we were looking for something and it was one of those moments where I was like, this could either be the biggest disaster or the or the greatest I'm either go like a genius or an idiot. There's no in between it.

00:21:12
Speaker 7: So what was the process of coming up with Jagger And at the time did you feel like, all right, this is it or was it like an arranged marriage situation where it's like I gotta have a song for the show and.

00:21:23
Speaker 6: Well, what's crazy.

00:21:24
Speaker 5: This is a great story. So how they could say, gus the story, this is a great fucking story. So we had a single out, so we had I think this was like our third third album. We had a single out called never Gonna Leave This Bed, which is a great song, but it just wasn't a hit, and it wasn't and it was kind of stalling and all that stuff, and the label it would kind of like one of the like I said, we were kind of it was kind of platauing a little bit, and but I was on the voice. It just started shooting the voice and this song kind of it was like Jagger just kind of just fell into our laps, like these guys had it and they were like Originally the story with it was that it was meant for like a female artist to sing about a guy he's like he got the moves like Jackson and knowing what he wanted to touch it really and then I think even maybe it was pitched to like Genell Monad. I'm sure point it was like, I know that sounds crazy. She didn't obviously didn't want to do it, but like I remember hearing that name. It was early, early, and then I kind of got in there and I had like I'm a lyrics guy, like if the lyrics are really bad, like I can't touch something. So I had to go in and I was like, look, I think this could be great. I'll say I got the moves like Jack, and they're like, are sure you want to do that? That's kind of a crazy thing to say because the song was about like a romantic, you know, love interest for a girl. It was like a totally different perspective. And I was like, yeah, fuck it, why not? And then fixed the lyrics, which were like not good and Shellback great songwriter producer kind of it was his like Kernel. He was basically his idea, but there was like gibberish on the lyrics. So I got to run with those a little bit.

00:22:54
Speaker 8: Were you allowed to Yeah?

00:22:56
Speaker 5: Okay, I couldn't live with what was there? Bro?

00:23:01
Speaker 10: That sounds like a Max one I never co wrote before.

00:23:04
Speaker 9: Know the rules.

00:23:04
Speaker 6: I was like, yeah, we gotta change Swedish.

00:23:07
Speaker 8: They're Swedish.

00:23:07
Speaker 6: It was very It was a lot I want to sing.

00:23:13
Speaker 5: It wasn't Yeah, it was shell Back and that was like early because he was like maxis protege kind of that was like the beginning of my relationship with Max and show Back and all the that was like the Swede the Swede era, who did you physically go there?

00:23:26
Speaker 3: No?

00:23:26
Speaker 5: I didn't go. I haven't gone yet, okay, and I still haven't gone. But I love they were all here.

00:23:29
Speaker 11: Their lyrics are all gibberish, though it's most of them.

00:23:31
Speaker 6: They don't give it about later, which was great.

00:23:34
Speaker 8: What do they care about?

00:23:38
Speaker 6: But that was a dream for me because I'm like, oh, cool, I do give.

00:23:41
Speaker 5: A ship about and They're like, great, we don't give a ship.

00:23:45
Speaker 6: So I was like, awesome. It was a perfect relationship.

00:23:47
Speaker 8: So they then may prioritize that, but that's what That's what I'm saying.

00:23:51
Speaker 6: But they were the best at that.

00:23:53
Speaker 5: So they had that and I was like, I'm gonna talking about like your favorite car, you're Ferra.

00:23:58
Speaker 6: I'm like, no, that sounds like him. I was like, that ship right.

00:24:02
Speaker 5: So we changed it. We made him more bearable anyway, So that happened.

00:24:06
Speaker 6: It was great.

00:24:07
Speaker 5: It was fun. We were like, man, we got a fucking monster. I went to Mark Burnett, it was a producer of the voice, and I'm like, so we had a single. So here's where the story gets really good. So we had a single out so the you know, Interscope was pushing the single and we had this other song right that he didn't really I mean I wrote it, but not really. And Jordan, our manager, kind of hatched this scheme of like, okay, so we got Christina Aguilera to do the bridge of that song. It was like Jack, she's on the voice too. Obviously, Mark Burnett's like, I want this song, like I don't want you to do your single. I want you to do that. I played it for him, I played the song from him. He was crazy. He's like, dude on the show, but you have to get someone from the voice. And I'm gonna we can't put your single. You gotta do this song. I'm like, all right, fine, fucking Interscope's not gonna like this at all.

00:24:47
Speaker 10: Is Ron fair anywhere in the story, No, damn.

00:24:50
Speaker 6: He was going as like Jimmy.

00:24:51
Speaker 5: Jimmy was still Jimmy was still kind of running things whenever Beach was like about to happen, Oka, he almost got dig a ship.

00:25:00
Speaker 13: Even back then, I've been there before anywhere goes.

00:25:07
Speaker 5: I want to just keep.

00:25:10
Speaker 6: You already known.

00:25:15
Speaker 9: So fact come on Loca this guy.

00:25:24
Speaker 5: So so you're like, okay, how do we do this because we got a song. So we didn't tell anybody in the scope, which is like crazy, right. We just did it and it was live, right, So so that was when like the song will go available. It would like you do something on TV, A zillion people will watch it, because's wheople used to watch TV. And then the next day the ship would just shoot to the top on like iTunes all that stuff. And so we just didn't tell anybody. We did it live. And so that night, Jimmy, everybody calls and it's like, what the fuck, like our present, our label, guys are in indie guy. I was like, this is fuck.

00:26:01
Speaker 2: What the fuck?

00:26:01
Speaker 5: You guys went rogue, like you have a single out.

00:26:03
Speaker 6: I can't believe you didn't.

00:26:04
Speaker 5: This is the worst piece of shit I've ever heard in my life.

00:26:07
Speaker 10: What are you doing?

00:26:08
Speaker 5: And Jordy it was just like cold blooded. He was just like, let's talk in the morning. He was like, let's just talk in the morning. And of course the morning boom, biggest song on the planet and uh. And so that was like that was the moment where it was like, okay, record label, we will deliver the songs to you and you will put them out Like that was the battle that we won. And I still I will talk shit about all this because I don't give a fuck, like because record label shouldn't tell I don't think what PANTS was to do. And so that was where we took all the power because they were completely wrong. Hey, if we were wrong, it would be like we would be babysat for the rest of our lives.

00:26:48
Speaker 2: But plus you had a steady path after that.

00:26:49
Speaker 3: It's like, I'm still on this platform, so I'm gonna still be selling your ship and it's to go higher because I'm here.

00:26:54
Speaker 6: So, like I said, we became an r in that moment. I was like, give me my badge over that.

00:27:00
Speaker 8: After that, then they just left you guys alone, and I don't.

00:27:02
Speaker 5: Think I talked to another person in the regular label to this day.

00:27:05
Speaker 8: Nice.

00:27:06
Speaker 9: I love that.

00:27:07
Speaker 7: Okay, So I did want to ask you as a member of a band whose manager was kind of like our fifth beatle, Richard Nichols, like he was our Peter Grant, you know, our George Martin. That devastated us so much that we never made an album after, Like we're it's it's always ten years to make and one of the biggest fears was how do we even navigate without his presence to tell us things? How did you bounce back from from Jordan's passing away? Like, how did that affect the band?

00:27:45
Speaker 5: You know, it'll never be the same, I think, like for accepting that is important because when he passed away, First of all, it was super sudden, it was super tragic. He was too young, was so you know, still to every single band, not a day goes by I don't think about. And it was a crazy moment because he passed away all of a sudden, we were thrust into that whole Super Bowl nightmare, which couldn't have needed him more for anything than I did in that moment. Didn't have him twenty nineteen, Okay, so that all these things happened that I really needed him for. So yeah, Look, I thought we talked every day. Every single decision we made was was a joint decision. Nothing was decided alone. So I felt overwhelmed because I did make a lot of these decisions with him, right, So, and then we'd go to talk to the band and so shit, I mean, it's a hole that will never be filled. I think that I kind of thought to myself, Okay, we got to have a couple of big songs, because first of all, he lived and died by if we could do that, it was almost like that's what kept me going, was like, Okay, I know what this dude wants, right, and you know, you get into the ethereal and the spiritual and all that stuff. But like I definitely felt like I knew what he would be saying right, Like whether I was telling myself that or not, it's still I could feel him all the time, and I kind of tried to let him because you know, we have great people, and you know, great people taking taking the reins. But of course it's never gonna be They all know it's never gonna be the same. And I just tried to like listen for him a little bit and just go, Okay, I could tell when he was angry, fucking laughing. I could tell when I could I could tell when I was about to make a decision that he would be pissed that I would make right, and just tried to like adhere to that a little bit. But I mean it's just and still, I mean, it's it's not as heavy as it was in the beginning, but like, and I mean to do the super Bowl.

00:29:34
Speaker 6: I mean, no, no one really caught it.

00:29:36
Speaker 5: But this first thing I said on that mic was like this for you, Jordy, you know, the most exciting moment I think for me kind of post Jordan was surviving the super Bowl. But that's the whole fucking nightmare conversation. But it was it was like having a big, big, big memories girls like you, like those were big songs and they were after Jordy, and so like that made me feel like like, can we can do a version of this like without him, But it also never feels like he was really gone. So until every night I play Memories, is like think about him every single time. So it's he's still around. He's still around. But yeah, it's it's it's impossible. It's impossible not to have him.

00:30:16
Speaker 8: But it forces you to grow up and now ye.

00:30:18
Speaker 5: And take more accountability for the decisions, you know, make those decisions with confidence and grow up. You gotta grow up because he was he was my greatest I always say, he was like my protector, the dude I have my back, you know.

00:30:37
Speaker 12: Oh my god, I cannot believe we have winning.

00:30:48
Speaker 1: God I'm happy.

00:31:01
Speaker 6: Isn't live.

00:31:05
Speaker 8: How the field to have these guys in your band?

00:31:07
Speaker 10: And please six grammys?

00:31:12
Speaker 8: These guys, these guys.

00:31:14
Speaker 9: Know the band we have eight? We got eight Grammys.

00:31:18
Speaker 6: Yeah, ok, yeah, we only responsible for less than half of those.

00:31:22
Speaker 8: Doesn't matter.

00:31:23
Speaker 5: No really, no, if it matter, we wouldn't be talking about it. We'd be holding it inside.

00:31:28
Speaker 12: Yeah.

00:31:28
Speaker 13: Notice the fact he jokes about it on stage almost every night.

00:31:33
Speaker 6: I'm like, I'm like, like, keyboard, introduce this guy.

00:31:36
Speaker 5: He loves when I talk about all his Grammys, right because.

00:31:39
Speaker 9: I hate it.

00:31:40
Speaker 5: I hate it.

00:31:41
Speaker 10: Yeah, they told me I was gonna win more Grammys, and.

00:31:44
Speaker 12: I'm like, man, you know it's cool.

00:31:45
Speaker 13: I'm happy to get that one. It took forever for me to get one. I'm like, you know, man, look I'm just happy.

00:31:51
Speaker 8: I'm just they fit in the bathroom.

00:31:53
Speaker 9: You got to put them out on your Yeah.

00:31:56
Speaker 4: No.

00:31:56
Speaker 9: But I mean I think it's also such different worlds too.

00:31:59
Speaker 5: I mean, you know, you know on the tour thread, you know, on our band, thread will be like can you grass PJ?

00:32:04
Speaker 9: Like I just asked Adam.

00:32:08
Speaker 3: I was like, look a life when you saw the PJ got to duet with Stevie's like, man, I like to remind him.

00:32:13
Speaker 5: I'm like, whatever, man, I remember my first beer.

00:32:18
Speaker 13: Yeah yeah, no, you performed live when I'm at like Live eight or something live.

00:32:23
Speaker 5: And almost was so petrified I almost didn't make to the stage. And really, oh yeah, it was like a mill.

00:32:30
Speaker 8: Record.

00:32:30
Speaker 6: U sis delivery And by the way, talk about no rehearsal.

00:32:37
Speaker 5: I meet the dude. Sorry, I'm taking your ship right now, but you can talk about yours. I'm chilling, he goes, he goes, he goes, uh no, like I'm listening to the record kind of thing. I'm like, shit, Okayan, I know the record, okay, practicing to it. I meet him for thirty seconds, right, and he gives me a big bear hug, big Stevie Barrack and he's like.

00:32:58
Speaker 2: Like all right.

00:32:58
Speaker 5: He's like minutes before we go, right, and he's like all right, So like you do like a fool. He's telling me all the ship I gotta do. I'm like, really, bro, like this is it. He's like yeah, He's like oh downstown yeah. And so I'm like all right. And so I'm standing on side of the stage and Fred, you know, tour managers got me in and he's goes, come out here just sing this ship, and I'm like, like, I've never frozen before. But it was like a million people there and it was Steve, and I'm like, if this up, it's not good. And so I'm like, oh ship, And you can see there's the video of it. You see me running to get to the mic. And then, of course, in the worst fashion, I I mess up the first line so bad. I mean I I caught myself and finally got into the It was great. It wound up being great, but I was like, and the stage too long, and then like.

00:33:53
Speaker 6: It's horrible here man, God.

00:33:57
Speaker 5: I figured out anywhere that's my.

00:33:59
Speaker 7: Se So sorry for So, how how far in the creative process are you guys into another product like your next project?

00:34:08
Speaker 6: Man, I'm writing we have us too.

00:34:11
Speaker 5: I am on on one, like I no more code writers, So I'm done. It got It's just after however many years and all the things we got to do, like I finally have just started doing it on my own and everything now is coming from me, starting with me, and that's I have never been happier like it originally was. Yeah, going nuts.

00:34:36
Speaker 7: So when do you for your creative process when is your best time of creating? Are you a nighttime person? First thing? In the morning person?

00:34:45
Speaker 5: Daytime? Like midday like I'm useless like after eight and and in the early early morning, like I need to do shit to like get my brain right, Like.

00:34:55
Speaker 8: What is your morning routine?

00:34:56
Speaker 5: Just like exercise. I have to exercise. I can't think, like I have to get out and run shout out to Austin.

00:35:07
Speaker 13: Yeah, it's exciting for me because I joined the band at a unique time, you know, be fourteen years in July. But I joined on the last album where it was like heavy heavy, like all band, right, the one you guys did in Switzerland. And then I always say pre moves like Jagger, post moves like Jagger. But then I think he just needed a break in a way, like just a brain break. And it took years, I think from all of that, I mean eighth grade, you know, being a band, all of that, and to see him now, I hadn't.

00:35:40
Speaker 9: This is like vintage Adam.

00:35:41
Speaker 13: He's like excited like a kid, like sending me records every other day, like and they're good and they sound like him, and it's like I tried to give him one, you know, some of my boys be like, yo, man, slide this, I said him. He was like, bro, I just gotta I gotta do it myself, you know. And I told understand that. So I'm just I'm excited.

00:36:02
Speaker 5: It's the opposite for this era. It's the opposite it used to be. For a minute, I felt like the security blanket of like if the ideas came from elsewhere, that I wouldn't have the pressure of creating them. And that's addictive, especially when you have some success with it because you're like, Okay, fuck, this formula works, and then very very recently with people I don't know what's going on. This is a whole other sidebar. But music is crazy, like I don't know, I have lost and maybe I'm old. I don't know what's going on, but like shit is sideways so much, I don't know what's happening. So I started getting ideas as usual, but like every idea was one idea was worse than the next. I'm like, I can do better than this. So I think that was a very organic like way to come to that conclusion. It wasn't like yeah, because.

00:36:46
Speaker 9: You were cool with the other.

00:36:47
Speaker 13: I mean, like you're curating, you know, you would fix these lyrics to make it fit fit us. But like now it's like now I can't even hear I don't want to hear other stuff.

00:36:55
Speaker 5: I'm not interested like I used to only be interested.

00:36:58
Speaker 2: In that now But I hope I'm not asking this this. This is a dumb question.

00:37:01
Speaker 3: And y'all have already done this because I know that PJA you do background vocals and stuff, but have y'all.

00:37:05
Speaker 2: Ever have y'all done anything together yet?

00:37:09
Speaker 5: Well, even written?

00:37:10
Speaker 13: You need to come by the way, like I know, I know we talked about it. Look it's crazy to say. I mean, I've been in this band a long time. I'd be super busy when.

00:37:19
Speaker 5: I'm not the band.

00:37:23
Speaker 13: He's locked in so much now I'm like, man, why you wait till I just like fill in every gap that we have, you know. But I'm like, I need parts of this, like what he's doing right now. I'm trying to trying to get in. I sent a couple of tracks, but he's just moved. I'm talking about like three songs a day type vibe.

00:37:41
Speaker 9: That's what he's on right now.

00:37:43
Speaker 13: But I've only written one song with the band, and it was because it was an experiment twenty four hours to not remember. I know, bro, we had to create a song in twenty four hours in front of the world watching this was early like live stream.

00:38:00
Speaker 9: Just put a camera side this, yeah, straight up and then you say and there were comment it's on you.

00:38:07
Speaker 13: So you see the America go to sleep and then you see Asia wake up and they're all commenting like we love this part.

00:38:13
Speaker 9: And it's like he took a nap, and I was like, we need to they have to watch the take a bridge.

00:38:18
Speaker 5: He went to the other room.

00:38:19
Speaker 9: It was and I wrote the bridge was all night.

00:38:22
Speaker 5: It was twenty four hours. It was.

00:38:23
Speaker 13: It was kind of like torture, like this experience literally torture. Know that twenty four is a little different.

00:38:30
Speaker 5: Well now now now I feel like right now we'd be out in like three hours, it's done.

00:38:36
Speaker 6: But back then it was like weird.

00:38:37
Speaker 7: I think the general rule for me, if we're still harping on an idea after twenty minutes, then it's time to lock it down and do it or go to the next door.

00:38:47
Speaker 9: It's gotta be in an instant. It's got to be it's there.

00:38:49
Speaker 11: If it's not there, it's not there.

00:38:51
Speaker 8: I don't work it. If it's work, it's work.

00:38:53
Speaker 9: You don't write music, so you.

00:38:55
Speaker 5: Just get so stuck.

00:38:56
Speaker 7: I know you guys don't like that idea, but I now, I now want to creatively explore that idea as a project.

00:39:04
Speaker 10: The twenty four though, but you don't. You don't like the pressure.

00:39:07
Speaker 5: I don't remember it because it was trauma.

00:39:09
Speaker 6: I mean, like, yeah, you you you don't want people to watch you were eighteen.

00:39:13
Speaker 5: You're like, Okay, look there's a world where I could see it's it's like and I can see your wheels turning about it because you're like this sounds kind of dope.

00:39:21
Speaker 8: Like yeah, I'm like documenting right now.

00:39:23
Speaker 5: Yeah, you get in there.

00:39:24
Speaker 13: I write a platform that will I like the Compact Time I just did out in thirty days in Africa, So I like that.

00:39:31
Speaker 9: But the twenty four, like, I like sleep.

00:39:33
Speaker 8: You know what I'm saying.

00:39:34
Speaker 9: People watch you have to like watch it.

00:39:37
Speaker 12: Why.

00:39:38
Speaker 4: It's like, I just think to observe a process is to change it, Like you're not really if you're watching me create now I'm conscious that you're watching me.

00:39:46
Speaker 5: So now, even a documentary I remember because they came to shoot us like a couple of weeks ago, and I was like and it was me. I was flying like I was on one and then the second they all got in my face because when we did the thing, it was camera people and sound people everywhere, hundred people there.

00:40:00
Speaker 8: Action.

00:40:00
Speaker 6: It's not good.

00:40:02
Speaker 9: It's probably like sex scene, but everybody maybe a go pros.

00:40:06
Speaker 6: But make sure there's no people after like other style.

00:40:13
Speaker 3: Here right now.

00:40:14
Speaker 8: We can damn it.

00:40:15
Speaker 5: We can improve this process, all right.

00:40:16
Speaker 8: We gotta wrap the show up.

00:40:18
Speaker 7: However, one final question, because I wanted to ask just frothy everyday regular questions.

00:40:23
Speaker 9: But I'll pose it to the both of you.

00:40:26
Speaker 10: House on fire, and you gotta save five albums.

00:40:30
Speaker 1: I don't do this, and not box.

00:40:33
Speaker 5: Sets or greatest hits about double albums.

00:40:36
Speaker 7: Double albums are allowed as a single album. What five albums are you saving?

00:40:41
Speaker 13: You should go back and forth, okay, Steed with Stevie visions.

00:40:48
Speaker 6: Probably for me that's not as much music songs and life though no repeat.

00:40:53
Speaker 9: Those nine songs.

00:40:58
Speaker 11: Warrant sweet Cherry.

00:41:02
Speaker 5: Making just a drum solo and you got you gotta say in the microphone, I'm gonna take sons like y life just because it's longer, and I'll get more out of it, and it's all right, albums I like her, sure, I'm looking for like the albums I like.

00:41:18
Speaker 2: Okay, don't worry about impressing this crew, just say that ship you go.

00:41:23
Speaker 9: I'll probably take abbey Road.

00:41:25
Speaker 5: I was gonna say, take your.

00:41:30
Speaker 9: Road, all right, off the wall, yes, sir?

00:41:34
Speaker 8: All right? Three?

00:41:35
Speaker 5: Now I'm tempted to go, like doing another Michael record.

00:41:38
Speaker 3: Now do you do.

00:41:42
Speaker 9: Well?

00:41:42
Speaker 10: Thriller's not on your list.

00:41:43
Speaker 12: Your house deserves to get burned.

00:41:46
Speaker 8: Like the Pree. I like the Pree, the Pinkerton of Thriller's Blue album.

00:41:51
Speaker 5: Not because you said off the wall, but I would between those two Thriller, look at the Thriller. That's three.

00:41:57
Speaker 2: All right, all right, you'll gotta name someone.

00:42:00
Speaker 9: Now I'm throw me the one album.

00:42:02
Speaker 10: You wouldn't expect your fan base to expect that you like my fan.

00:42:08
Speaker 9: They wouldn't know about Abby Rose.

00:42:11
Speaker 8: It's Beatles and black people were with j No.

00:42:16
Speaker 13: No, I'm saying, I don't know if my fans would think that abbey Road is my pick. I would expect you James Taylor record probably. Yeah. Well, I started on a on the greatest type thing. I didn't I didn't go separate records, but like like Carolina on My Mind and uh sweet Baby James.

00:42:34
Speaker 9: Yeah, so it's probably that record.

00:42:36
Speaker 2: Shout out to the James Taylor episode, The Quest of Supreme, you know, like like that was so good.

00:42:44
Speaker 13: Yeah, President j T. Man know it's so crazy. I don't want to but I found out about James way later in life. It was like American Music Awards or something and they were honoring him and they played Fire and Rain and I was like, yeah, yeah is that And I just went and like, man, I always go all the way back and I.

00:43:05
Speaker 9: Got the Apples Ship.

00:43:06
Speaker 7: We found out about James at the episode because we thought his music would reflect his life.

00:43:12
Speaker 10: His life is the exact opposite.

00:43:16
Speaker 8: War Yeah.

00:43:20
Speaker 10: Like that everywhere.

00:43:21
Speaker 8: Alright, your last record.

00:43:23
Speaker 5: I've been sitting here trying to think about it, and that's hard. I got only the three man. Anyway, we didn't know who's counting, Okay, I don't want to skiss you. I'm gonna be like, you're gonna judge my choice.

00:43:36
Speaker 8: Hip hop?

00:43:36
Speaker 4: What's one of my favorite hip hop albums?

00:43:38
Speaker 12: Just picked?

00:43:38
Speaker 9: Well say hip hop got narrowed down.

00:43:40
Speaker 5: But then you're gonna judge this choice. Okay, just because it was the first one's judging you on the stop, not overtly, just quietly.

00:43:51
Speaker 12: Will you get out of my head?

00:43:54
Speaker 5: I'm okay, listen if I'm only taking my five records as far as hip hop, as far as the first hip hop record, her first record I ever heard, the blew my mind raising hill. It's like, I gotta take go all the way back and then fine, I would be it is going to be so generic.

00:44:11
Speaker 3: No.

00:44:12
Speaker 9: I have there's so many we respect that.

00:44:16
Speaker 12: Ye.

00:44:18
Speaker 13: I was gonna say witch Prints record because Raspberry Beret is my favorite around the world. That's not my favorite album, that's my favorite song.

00:44:27
Speaker 10: My favorite album is Parade, which you know was sort of a weird period for him.

00:44:32
Speaker 6: But yeah, first round, Yes, Yeah, that's great.

00:44:36
Speaker 8: Yeah, all right, so.

00:44:39
Speaker 10: There you go, There we go.

00:44:41
Speaker 8: Yes, I know you got to get you.

00:44:42
Speaker 10: Out of here because motherfucker's kind of coming and go do fellon.

00:44:48
Speaker 5: We're about to go, do we are on?

00:44:54
Speaker 7: I don't even look at the schedule anymore. Yo, Thank you guys so much for coming on the show.

00:45:00
Speaker 5: Thank you for.

00:45:04
Speaker 12: Thank you so much.

00:45:05
Speaker 7: We have a brand new bill. I'm forgetting your name just the bill. Yes, and sig Steve and Liah G.

00:45:13
Speaker 8: Schnyder called want you to go suck yourself.

00:45:23
Speaker 7: That was awesome.

00:45:25
Speaker 9: Thank you for listening to Quest Love Scream.

00:45:27
Speaker 4: This podcast is hosted by a Mere Quest Love, Thomas, The Boss Man, Light Here, Saint Clair So Black and The Black Myself Fan Sigelo Fante Colman, Sugar, Steve Mandell and Unpaid Bill Sherman. The executive producers are near Quest Love, Thompson, John g and The Unbothered Brian Calhouns Produced by Brittany Benjamin, My Dog Cousin, Jake Payin, My Motherfucking Man, and Like My Work White edited by Alex Conroe.

00:45:58
Speaker 8: Produced for Our Heart by Brown West.

00:46:05
Speaker 1: Love Supreme is a production of Iheartened Radio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.