Pop singer Slash thought he sang “like an angel”
(Source: Far Out/Tidal)
Slash has never bothered to restrict himself strictly to one genre. There’s no denying that he’s still one of rock’n’roll’s biggest figures, but his ability to work with virtually anyone has taken him through the wildest experiments of his career, whether it was working with Michael Jackson, performing with Carol King, or performing at the Oscars with Ryan Gosling. His first love was still rock, but Slash thought it was special when Adam Levine opened his mouth.
This is odd considering how poor Maroon 5’s recording has been over the years. After years of being a watered-down version of a power pop act, something interesting happened when they released “Moves Like Jagger.” They may have highlighted a famous rock musician in the title, but every element of rock was removed from their DNA.
But were they ever a rock band? There are definitely some heavy guitar sounds on their first few albums on tracks like “Harder to Breathe,” but aside from a few Beatles covers, many of their songs are more in the world of R&B and old-school pop than trying to compete with Led Zeppelin.
However, when Slash began working on his solo album, he needed a wide variety of singers to work with him. Many of his riffs tended to follow the same formula, but sometimes when you have something subtle, you need someone with just the right amount of emotion to bring it across, and for the guitarist, Levine was a no-brainer.
Although he used effects on some of the group’s later songs, Slash was blown away by the singer’s raw ability when performing the song “Gotten.” He said, “I was at his house and he really liked it and he wrote the perfect vocals for it. He sings like an angel and it doesn’t sound like Maroon 5, but you can hear it’s his voice. I think people are really going to appreciate the sound.”
Even though Maroon 5 fans would slowly get songs like “Payphone” in the near future, it’s refreshing to hear Levine’s voice not having to hide behind anything else. Slash’s guitar is still the star of the show, but Levine managed to bring his best to the table, delivering vocals that feel halfway between Prince’s smooth voice and the kind of sentimental ballads that come from Stevie Wonder’s later catalog.
This collaboration likely opened the door for Levine to take even more risks later on. At a memorial concert following Chris Cornell’s death, Levine showed up to play a standout version of the song “Seasons,” where he managed to match Cornell’s more acrobatic vocals almost note for note.
If anything, this kind of song helped many listeners appreciate Levine more for his musicianship than anything Maroon 5 has done in the last decade. In a world where his main band insists on making songs like “Sugar” and “Animals” for the pop market, where is the guy who showed up on that song these days?
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