Why Adam Levine Left The Voice and Why He Came Back for Season 27

Adam Levine has a simple reason for returning to The Voice as a Coach for Season 27 after a five-year hiatus: he wanted to. Levine, who was one of the original four Coaches on the show, took a step back to spend more time with his family after Season 16, but when the time was right, he couldn’t resist the call of the red chair.

Now, he’s back, and though he doesn’t have his pal Blake Shelton next to him, he’s giving fellow Coaches Kelsea Ballerini, John Legend and Michael Bublé plenty of competition. Here’s how the Maroon 5 singer explained his absence in his own words.

Why did Adam Levine leave The Voice?

“I do miss it,” Levine said in 2019 after leaving the series. Still, he had a good reason to clear up his schedule, explaining, “I was constantly working for so many years, very lucky, very fortunate, very blessed and all that, but to just be able to stop in this moment to spend time with my new young family and just have the greatest time ever.”

It’s a sentiment he reiterated to Howard Stern, saying, “I was ready to not be doing it anymore … for a little bit. When it all naturally happened, I was like, ‘OK, this feels right.’ For better or worse, the moment in which we decided to walk away felt really good. This was the right time for me to go. For eight-and-a-half years, I was so busy — [I] had the band, [I] had The Voice. I was beyond fortunate to go through all of it because it was a life-altering experience being on that show … and then it got to the point where I got married, I had two kids, and I wanted to spend time with them.”

Adam Levine on The Voice Season 12, Episode 16B. Photo: Trae Patton/NBC 
 
 

Why did Adam Levine come back to The Voice?
“The only way to sum it up is that just energetically…the opportunity came at the right moment and I was really ready, and we started talking about it and one thing led to another and here I am. It was that simple,” Levine told NBC Insider, insisting, “It didn’t involve too much deliberation or overthinking. I kind of just felt ready. I was really happy to come back and experience it again with these three wonderful people.”.

“It was time,” he said simply after Bublé quipped, “America needed Adam.”

Levine is definitely where he wants to be right now. “First week of taping Season 27 of @nbcthevoice with these three is done, love them, it’s great to be back!,” he wrote on Instagram a few months back.