The controversy surrounding Maroon 5’s upcoming Super Bowl halftime performance hasn’t surprised frontman Adam Levine.
The singer said he “expected” contention when his band signed on for the gig and told Entertainment Tonight that it’s their goal to “speak through the music” when they take the stage Sunday in Atlanta.
Their performance comes amid calls for Maroon 5 to back out of the gig out of support for former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who began protests of the national anthem ahead of NFL games to advocate for social justice.
“I’d like to think that people know where I stand as a human being after two decades of doing this,” Levine said during the interview with ET. “So what I would say is, we’re going to keep doing what we’re doing, hopefully without becoming politicians, to make people understand, ‘We got you.’”
Levine’s group will be joined at the show by rappers Travis Scott and Big Boi.
Maroon 5 had been scheduled to speak to reporters this week ahead of the Super Bowl, but the press conference was ultimately canceled.
Levine says it was the NFL’s decision to nix the press conference.
“You’ll have to speak with them,” Levine told ET.
More than 100,000 people have singed a Change.org petition urging Maroon 5 to drop out of the Super Bowl out of support for Kaepernick, who has not landed an NFL job the past two seasons.
There were reports last year that Rihanna turned down an offer to perform the halftime show.
Levine said his group is eager to move on from the controversy.
“When you look back on every single Super Bowl halftime show, it’s this, like, insatiable urge to hate a little bit,” Levine told ET. “I’m not in the right profession if I can’t handle a little bit of controversy.”
