Adam Levine spoke out for the first time to address the controversy surrounding Maroon 5 's decision to perform the Super Bowl LIII Halftime Show.

In an interview with Entertainment Tonight , the band's frontman defended their decision to take the SB stage, saying it was not a decision he nor the group took lightly. "No one thought about it more than I did," he said. "No one put more thought and love into this than I did. [...] I spoke to many people, most importantly though, I silenced all the noise and listened to myself, and made my decision about how I felt." He added: "I’m not in the right profession if I can’t handle a little bit of controversy. It’s what it is. We expected it. We’d like to move on from it and speak through the music."

As for those who feel like their voices aren't being heard, Adam hinted that the band plans to honor them during the Sunday (February 3) performance. "They will be [heard] — that's all I want to say because I don't want to spoil anything," he shared. "And once again, I like to think that people know where I stand as a human being after two decades doing this. I'm not a speaker. I'm not a public speaker. I do speak, but it's through the music. My life's work and what I put out into the universe has been positive and hopefully inspiring [...] So, what I would say is, you know, we are going to do what we keep on doing, hopefully without becoming politicians and continuing to use the one voice we know how to use properly." He continued, "I think we wanted to make sure we were able to speak once again through the music [...] I thought to myself, 'What’s my greatest tool, what’s the thing that I can use to express myself and what’s the best way for the band to express themselves, and how are we going to do it this year? What do we owe ourselves? What do we owe the people?' And that’s what we did."

"I am beyond proud of the finished product, and literally I've never been more excited in my entire life to present this to the people because I believe that it's truly a reflection of all of us," he said before getting into how Travis Scott 's addition to the show is what truly makes their performance so special. "This is a moment for him and we love what he does [...], what he represents. This is the [Super Bowl halftime] show that is going to have the biggest hip-hop presence that there's ever been [...] So, he's it, he's the man, and he comes in hot."