Maroon 5’s Adam Levine spoke with Entertainment Tonight in a segment that aired on Thursday to discuss his band’s decision to perform the Super Bowl LIII halftime show, which he described as “the biggest gig in the game.” Criticism has surrounded the Super Bowl and the NFL for its treatment of Colin Kaepernick. Artists, including Rihanna and Cardi B, declined to perform during the halftime set, in support of Kaepernick.

“You know I think that when you look back at every single halftime show, people just can’t – it’s this like insatiable urge to hate a little bit,” Levine told ET‘s Kevin Frazier. “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.”

Levine said he discussed the decision to perform during the Big Game with “many people,” but, “I silenced all the noise and listened to myself, and made my decision based on upon how I felt about it all.”

The singer emphasized that the focus is the music. “The spectacle is the music,” he said of their upcoming performance. “The way that we speak is through the music. The way that we emote and perform is through the music.” In addition to Maroon 5, Big Boi and Travis Scott will also perform. “This is the show that’s gonna have the biggest hip-hop presence that there’s ever been on the show,” Levine said while discussing Scott’s appearance. “I can’t look back and find that to have been the case before. So, he’s it. He’s the man right now and he comes in hot.”

Levine admitted that the decision to do the halftime show did not come lightly. “No one thought about it harder than I did,” he said. “No one put more thought and love into this than I did.”

“It took a lot of looking inward, it took a lot of introspection,” he added. “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. And I’m beyond proud of the finished product and literally, I’ve never been more excited in my entire life to present this to people because I believe that it’s truly a reflection of all of us.”

ET‘s exclusive interview with Adam Levine aired on Thursday on CBS. Levine’s ET interview was the only media appearance made ahead of Maroon 5’s halftime performance. Levine told ET that the NFL made the decision to nix the customary press conference that was originally scheduled to take place prior to their halftime show. The Super Bowl airs on February 3rd on CBS.