Maroon 5
Maroon 5 is an American pop rock band from Los Angeles, California. It consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Adam Levine, rhythm guitarist and keyboardist Jesse Carmichael, lead guitarist James Valentine, drummer Matt Flynn, keyboardist PJ Morton, and bassist and keyboardist Sam Farrar. Original members Levine, Carmichael, bassist Mickey Madden, and drummer Ryan Dusick first came together as Kara's Flowers in February 1994, while they were in high school.
After self-releasing their independent album ...We Like Digging?, Kara's Flowers signed to Reprise Records and released their debut studio album, The Fourth World. It garnered a tepid response, after which the record label dropped the band and the members focused on college. In 2001, the band re-emerged as Maroon 5, adding guitarist Valentine. Signed to Octone Records, they released their first album as Maroon 5, titled Songs About Jane. Aided by the hit singles "Harder to Breathe", "This Love" and "She Will Be Loved", the album peaked at number six on the Billboard 200 chart and went quadruple platinum in 2005. In the same year, the band won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. In 2006, Dusick left the band after suffering from serious wrist and shoulder injuries and was replaced by Flynn. Maroon 5's second album, It Won't Be Soon Before Long, debuted atop the US Billboard 200 chart; its lead single, "Makes Me Wonder", topped the US Billboard Hot 100.
The band's acclaimed third album, Hands All Over, was re-released in 2011 with the US number-one "Moves Like Jagger". In 2012, Carmichael took a break from the band and was replaced by keyboardist Morton. Maroon 5's fourth album Overexposed, spawned the single "One More Night", which topped the Billboard Hot 100 for nine consecutive weeks. In 2014, Carmichael rejoined the band alongside Morton to record the fifth album V, released on Interscope Records and Levine's own label 222 Records, and reaching number one on the Billboard 200. In 2016, Maroon 5 added long-time collaborator Farrar to their official lineup as the band continued for their sixth studio album Red Pill Blues. V and Red Pill Bluess respective singles "Sugar" and "Girls Like You" peaked at numbers two and one in the US respectively.
Madden announced his departure from the band in 2020 following his arrest on domestic violence charges, with Farrar becoming their new bassist. Their following albums, Jordi and Love Is Like, saw varying critical and commercial success. Maroon 5 has sold more than 135 million records, making them one of the best-selling music acts of all time. The band has won numerous accolades, including three Grammy Awards and three American Music Awards.
History
1994–2001: Kara's Flowers and the formation of Maroon 5
Maroon 5 was formed as Kara's Flowers in Los Angeles, California, in 1994. Lead vocalist and guitarist Adam Levine was introduced to drummer Ryan Dusick by a mutual friend and guitarist, Adam Salzman. Levine was 15 years old, and Dusick was 16. Three of the five members of the band started playing together at age 12. The four original members of the band met while attending Brentwood School in Los Angeles. While attending Brentwood School, Levine and guitarist Jesse Carmichael joined with bassist Mickey Madden and Dusick to form Kara's Flowers. The name was taken from a girl that went to their high school that the band had a "collective crush" on. The band independently released an album, ...We Like Digging?, in late 1994.The band would play many shows through the next few years, and would also record their official debut. While they were playing a beach party in Malibu, independent producer Tommy Allen heard them play and offered to manage them and record a complete record with his partner, songwriter John DeNicola, who is known for his work on Dirty Dancing including " The Time of My Life". Producer Rob Cavallo's management team heard the record Allen and DeNicola produced, which eventually led Cavallo to offer them a deal with Reprise Records, re-recording the album. However, after the release of The Fourth World, during Levine and Madden's senior year of high school in 1997, it had morphed into a band with an alternative rock, indie rock and power pop style. Despite high expectations from the band and record company, the album failed to catch on and their lead single, "Soap Disco", was a failure. According to Levine, the failure of the album was "a huge disappointment" that nearly led them to break up. The album sold around 5,000 copies and the band was dropped after six months.
Between 2000 and 2001, the band would play very sporadic shows, due to the members going to college. Dusick and Madden attended college locally at University of California, Los Angeles, while Levine and Carmichael relocated to the East coast to attend Five Towns College, in Dix Hills, Long Island, New York. While Levine and Carmichael were in New York, they began to take notice of the urban music surrounding them and later let the style influence the songs they wrote. Kara's Flowers competed in the 2000 UCLA Spring Sing competition, losing to Sara Bareilles.
When the band returned in 2001, they brought those influences with them. Frequent collaborator and future member Sam Farrar explained that the Aaliyah song "Are You That Somebody?" affected the band and influenced the song "Not Coming Home". Producer Tim Sommer signed them to a demo deal with MCA Records and produced three tracks with them in Los Angeles in the middle of 2001, with Mark Dearnley engineering. Against Sommer's advice, MCA declined to pick up the band, and these tracks were never released. The band put together a demo that was rejected by several labels, before acquired by Octone Records executives James Diener, Ben Berkman and David Boxenbaum. While looking for talent for the Octone label, Berkman was given a bunch of demos by the brother of a former colleague at Columbia Records and the song that caught his attention was "Sunday Morning", which he referred to as a "genius song". Berkman was surprised the song was credited to Kara's Flowers, because the band sounded completely different from the one he had heard while at Warner Bros. Records.
Berkman encouraged Diener and Boxenbaum to fly out to Los Angeles to watch a showcase gig at The Viper Room for the four-piece Kara's Flowers. After watching Levine onstage, they were convinced. Berkman believed what the band needed was a "fifth member to play the guitar and free up the singer, so he could be the star I perceived him to be". Octone insisted that the band change its name to break with its pop past. The label began looking for a full-time guitarist to enable Levine to focus on performing as the frontman. James Valentine was recruited as the band's fifth member. On his joining the band, Valentine commented: "I became friends with them and we sort of started jamming together, it was very much like I was cheating on my band, we were having sort of an affair and I eventually quit my other band to join up with them." After hearing Levine play, Valentine noticed his affinity for Phish and the two musicians bonded over the band. After briefly being known as simply "Maroon", the band changed their name to "Maroon 5". In an interview with Howard Stern, Levine revealed that the only person outside of the band to know the story behind the name change is Billy Joel.
2002–2006: ''Songs About Jane'' and Dusick's departure
attended Berklee College of Music with John Mayer in 1996, where they developed a rapport. In 2002, the two reconnected at a Mayer radio broadcast. After Mayer heard their album, he was so impressed that he invited them to open for him during his early 2003 tour. The first single, "Harder to Breathe", slowly started to pick up airplay which helped sales of the album. By March 2004, the album had reached the Top 20 of the Billboard 200 and "Harder to Breathe" had made the Top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts. The album peaked at number six on the Billboard 200 in September 2004, 26 months after its release; this was the longest period between an album's release and its initial Top 10 appearance since SoundScan results were included in the Billboard 200 in 1991. The album went on to sell over 10 million copies worldwide. Mayer invited the band to open for him again in 2004. Over the next three years, the band toured, including visits to seventeen countries. During this time, the band toured with Michelle Branch, Graham Colton, and the Rolling Stones. Other acts the band toured alongside included Gavin DeGraw, Matchbox Twenty, Sugar Ray, Counting Crows, Phantom Planet, the Hives, Dashboard Confessional, Simon Dawes, the Thrills, Thirsty Merc, Marc Broussard, the Donnas, the RedWest, Michael Tolcher, and Guster. It was also during this time that drummer Matt Flynn, who played with Gavin DeGraw and The B-52's, began accompanying the band at concerts.Songs About Jane reached No. 1 on the Australian albums, while "Harder to Breathe" made the Top 20 singles charts in the US and UK, and Top 40 in Australia and New Zealand. The album climbed to No. 1 in the UK. The second single, "This Love", reached number five in the US, number three in the UK, and number eight in Australia. The third single, "She Will Be Loved", reached the number five in both the US and the UK, and number one in Australia. The fourth single, "Sunday Morning", reached the Top 40 in the US, UK, and Australia. Maroon 5 played Live 8, in Philadelphia in 2005. Their set included a cover of Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World" and frontman Levine performed with Stevie Wonder. On May 13, 2005, the band wrapped up the 2005 Honda Civic Tour, which it headlined. On June 9, 2005, the band performed at the American Film Institute's tribute to filmmaker George Lucas. Lucas himself had selected Maroon 5 for the event, as it was his children's favorite band at the time. Over the years of touring with the band their drummer, percussionist and backing vocalist Ryan Dusick had been suffering from the touring life. The strains of non-stop touring aggravated an old sports injury. After several absences from the tour with Ryland Steen and Josh Day taking his place, Dusick left the band in September 2006. Flynn officially joined the band as its second drummer.