Adam Levine is still living rent free in Blake Shelton’s mind! It’s been seven seasons since Adam sat next to Blake in the red coaches’ chairs on The Voice, but during the show’s April 4 episode, Blake still poked fun at his former co-star. Amidst the Battle Round performances, it was revealed that one of Blake’s contestants, Adam Whalen, had dropped out of the show for personal reasons, leaving his Battle partner, Neil Salsich to perform on his own. “I told him backstage, if you lose this Battle, it will be the worst fail in history,” Blake joked. “I mean, like, Adam Levine levels of failure!”
This is Blake’s final season as a coach on the hit NBC show. He’s been with the series from the very beginning, with 23 seasons under his belt. Meanwhile, Adam’s final season was season 16 during the spring of 2019. He had been next to Blake from season 1, as well, at that point. Adam’s decision to leave the show was announced after he already signed on for season 17.
Adam had three artists win The Voice during his tenure on the show. However, during his final two seasons, none of his singers made the finals. “I was ready to not be doing it anymore, I think for a little bit,” Adam admitted on The Howard Stern Show in Oct. 2019. “I think that when it all kind of naturally happened, I was like…okay, it feels right. For better or worse, the moment in which we decided to walk away felt really good. It was the right time for me to go.”
While Adam has cited wanting to spend more time with his family as his main reason for leaving the show, there were reports that he was also unhappy with how things were shaping up on the show during his last few seasons. TVLine also reported that Adam had become “difficult” to work with while the coaches were promoting the show’s 16th season. Adam and NBC have never commented on those rumors.
In May 2021, Adam returned to The Voice for the first time since his departure. He took the stage during the show’s season 20 finale to perform “Beautiful Mistakes” with his band Maroon 5 and Megan Thee Stallion.