30 Fascinating Facts About The Incredible Maroon 5

Maroon 5, an American pop rock band from Los Angeles, California, has sold more than 20 million albums and 70 million singles worldwide. Their debut album “Songs About Jane” went platinum and has been named as “the sleeper hit of the millennium.” The current members of the band are Adam Levine, Jesse Carmichael, Mickey Madden, James Valentine, Matt Flynn and PJ Morton. Here are 30 interesting facts about the band:

1. With a certified sales of 15 million in the U.S., Maroon 5 have been ranked #15 on the list of “Top Artists - Digital Singles,” by Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA).
2. Maroon 5 is one of the three acts to have headlined the famous Honda Civic Tour more than once - in 2005 and 2013. The band shares this achievement with Incubus (2002 and 2012) and Blink-182 (2001 and 2011).
3. As a part of a charitable campaign with Coca-Cola’s “24 Hour Project,” the band wrote and recorded the famous single “Is Anybody Out There,” from the scratch within in 24 hours. The song is still available for download from the 24 Hour Project website along with the behind-the-scenes videos.
4. The first version of their most popular single “Maps,” was brought to a session with the band by the producers, following which the band started working on it to create a song that balanced the “contemporary [but] still classic” vibe.
5. Before “Maroon 5,” Brentwood school students Adam Levine, Jesse Carmichael, Mickey Madden and Ryan Dusick formed a band in 1994 named “Kara’s Flowers,” after a groupie they all had a crush on.
6. Josh Feldstein, Jonah Hill’s brother, has been managing the band since its reformation from their initial “Kara’s Flowers” days. Feldstein even helped Levine launch a record label named “222 Records,” which in collaboration with Interscope released “V,” Maroon 5’s fifth studio album.
7. The band has been the recipient of three Grammy Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, three American Music Awards, and four Teen Choice Awards. They won the “World’s Best New Group” award from the World Music Award in the year 2004.
8. They, as Kara’s Flowers, appear for about 25 seconds performing the song “Soap Disco,” the only single released from “The Fourth World,” at the fictional basement club in the third episode of “Beverly Hills, 90210” Season 8.
9. The cover photo of their third album “Hands All Over,” was taken by 19-year-old photographer Rosie Hardy, who is also the model in the photo. It is reported that Hardy took the photo in her own bedroom, all by herself in just under an hour.
10. Sam Farrar from the band Phantom Planet is known to sometimes tour with Maroon 5, and has also appeared in several TV performances with the rest of the band.
    
11. At Billboard Hot 100’s 55th Anniversary in 2013, the band was ranked at #94 in the list of “Top 100 Artists of All Time.”
12. While as Kara’s Flowers, they got their record deal from Reprise Records after being discovered playing a house party in Malibu. They released their first album “The Fourth World,” which flopped leading to Reprise Records dropping the band.
13. Since childhood, Levine has been friends with actors Jason Segel, Jonah Hill and Jake Gyllenhaal. Hill reportedly went to Brentwood school for a period and even presided over Levine’s wedding with Victoria’s Secret model Behati Prinsloo.
14. The famous single “Maps,” marks the return of Carmichael to the band after his time off for two years. Maroon 5 celebrated his return with the massive hit single and even gave Carmichael the starring role as paramedic in the first scenes of the video, inspired by the French thriller “Irreversible.”
15. It was after adding guitarist James Valentine and a record deal with Octone Records that the band decided to change their name to “Maroon 5.” Valentine was involved in the group, to showcase Levine as the band’s superstar singer.
16. The band has been a longtime supporter of Aid Still Required (ASR) and has participated in various ASR social media campaigns.
17. The first single “Harder to Breathe” from the album “Songs About Jane,” tells Levine’s relationship with a woman named Jane. However, when asked in an interview with MTV News, Levine admitted the song mostly describes the band’s frustration with their label, Octone Records and that he wrote the song in frustration at the pressure.
18. In 2013, Maroon 5 became the third most-played artist on Top 40 Mainstream radio, becoming one of the most successful acts of Interscope Records.
19. Even before their first album with Reprise Records, the band self released an album “We Like Digging?” as Kara’s Flowers. Around five hundred CDs were sold around Brentwood School in Los Angeles and Hollywood clubs.
20. Levine believes the story behind the name “Maroon 5,” to be such a horrendous tale that keeping it mysterious makes it a better story than the real one. However, other than the band members, the legendary singer Billy Joel is well aware of the story as Levine revealed it to him.
    
21. In the year 2012, Maroon 5 boycotted a Los Angeles restaurant and changed their post-Grammy Awards party location, after learning that the restaurant backed Proposition 8.
22. Maroon 5 is one of the few bands to have a member show up on the NBC’s popular sketch comedy series “Saturday Night Live.” On January 26, 2013, Levine guest hosted “SNL.” The band has also made several appearances as musical guest.
23. In the album “Songs About Jane,” inspired by Levine’s relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Jane, every single has at least one line particularly written about his ex-girlfriend. Especially the famous “This Love,” song’s lyrics are based on Levine’s break-up with her. Levine revealed that “This Love” was written in the “most emotionally trying time” in his life.
24. John Mayer, an American singer-songwriter, attended Berkeley College of Music with guitarist Valentine. He invited the band to open for him during a 2003 tour, after listening to their album “Songs About Jane.” He was quiet impressed with the album’s most successful single “This Love,” and even invited them to open for him in 2004 also.
25. The title of the album “Overexposed” was reportedly connected with Levine’s publicity at that time, due to being a coach on NBC’s reality talent show “The Voice.” The band members felt that they couldn’t get away from Levine’s pics and were very overexposed.
26. The most popular “Moves Like Jagger” single was the ninth-best-selling digital single of 2011 with a total of sales of 7 million copies sold. As of the year 2016, “Moves Like Jagger,” has been ranked as “One of the Eight Best-Selling Digital Singles of All Time” with more than 15 million copies sold.
27. The band consists of actually six members and not five, despite the name. The sixth member is Keyboardist PJ Morton who filled in when Carmichael took his two-year hiatus from the group from 2012 to 2014. He stayed with the band even after Carmichael’s return, making it a six member group.
28. In January 2013, the band headlined a benefit concert at Brentwood School where they were joined by their music mentor and Ryan Dusick, one of the founding members who left the group in 2006.
29. With their incredible single “Maps,” Maroon 5 became the first band in the history of South Korea to have topped multiple charts simultaneously. The single peaked at #1 on the eight biggest music charts in the country, the almost impossible feat for any band.
30. In November 2015, Maroon 5 was ranked at #44 on the list of “Greatest of All Time—Hot 100,” during the Billboard Hot 100’s 57th Anniversary.
    
31. Maroon 5 Net Worth: $45 Million