Sometimes life imitates art. Sometimes, Mick Jagger dances to your song about Mick Jagger dancing.
Adam Levine has had that most unusual experience. Last month, video surfaced of the legendary Rolling Stones frontman goofing it up in a bar, grooving along to Maroon 5’s 2011 hit “Moves Like Jagger.”
Jagger, now 80, but showing more moves and juice than most chaps half his age, shared the snippet on his Instagram account, captioned with the comment, “Moves like who!”.
In the clip, which can be seen below, the British rock hero is clearly having a blast, cutting some of his iconic shapes as the band Splash performs a cover of the song.
When Levine stopped by NBC’s The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday night (April 10), conversation casually moved to the Jagger video.
“It’s really surreal,” he tells the late-night host. “It’s just one of those things you’re like, ‘oh my, like how is this possible. What is happening. It’s bizarre.’”
For such a surreal, bizarre, career highlight, few friends thought to share it with Levine. “My mom and like one of my friends sent me the video.” Yeah, he continues, “I was shocked not more people sent it to me.”
When the song originally took shape all those years ago, the mover at the heart of the story was a woman. Then, reckons Levine, he was “the only idiot crazy enough to say that I have the moves like Jagger.” Apparently, it’s a “confidence thing. It’s a swag thing,” says Levine. “He’s the man.”
During his late-night guest spot, Levine also hinted at new music, for which he and Maroon 5 will take an in-house approach, and he discussed the band’s residency in Las Vegas.
“It’s coming,” he says of new works. “For the first time in about 13 years, I’ve decided to take the reins back from the songwriting part of it.” He’s determined that “the ideas come either from myself or the band. So that we’re not going to have any real co-writes. The ideas are coming straight from the nucleus of Maroon 5,” which, he assures, will make the music “sound a like it did in the very beginning. I’m so excited about what’s happening right now.“
The pop group’s seventh and most recent studio album, 2021’s Jordi, peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard 200.
Following a run of 2023 shows, Maroon 5 are headed back to Las Vegas for a new slate of dates in their M5LV The Residency at the Dolby Live at Park MGM theater, a 5,200-capacity venue.
Playing to punters in Sin City, many of whom likely made a choice that night to see Maroon 5, rather than super-fans who saved all their dimes and marked their calendars, was a challenge accepted. “It’s a new type of crowd to conquer,” he admits. “That was a nice challenge” and, ultimately, the dates “injected new life into the way we perform.”
The singer also stuck around for a round of “Wheel of Music Impressions” with Fallon. Watch below.