Adam Levine slams American Idol on gays

Adam Levine is in OUT magazine this week! He talks about The Voice (slamming American Idol about not letting gays be who they are on that show compared to The Voice), his gay brother and even does a shirtless photoshoot.

I love how Adam Levine just like his other co-coaches on The Voice are standing up for the show -- all-year-round. They truly have something at stake with the program and not just a salary (unlike some people who only judge for money -- you know who you are).

Go Adam!

From OUT:

The Voice is one of a new wave of music competition shows, all of which have set their sights on the aging elephant in the room. (The X-Factor, with Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul, was considered the real threat before The Voice debuted.) “I can’t fuck with American Idol,” Levine says. “It’s a cultural institution. On The Voice, we just care about a different list of things. It’s for a different type of person, I guess.”

On the show, there were four openly gay contenders, two of whom -- Beverly McClellan and Vicci Martinez -- made it all the way to the finale and were championed by Levine, even though they were not on his team. And while the televised auditions may have been blind, with coaches’ backs to the singers -- “It’s impossible to tell who anybody is… I even thought [a male vocalist] was a girl” -- the original casting and accompanying back-story segments with host Carson Daly were matter-of-factly inclusive.

Levine is less diplomatic about this particular difference. “What’s always pissed me off about Idol is wanting to mask that, for that to go unspoken. C’mon. You can’t be publicly gay? At this point? On a singing competition? Give me a break. You can’t hide basic components of these people’s lives. The fact that The Voice didn’t have any qualms about being completely open about it is a great thing.”

He acknowledges that the music industry may still have a double standard for gay artists but says The Voice can help correct that. “It’s a great show because it doesn’t alienate anybody. If you’re a talented person, and you want a career, and you’re trying to join an extremely intimidating and also completely dismantled industry -- skip all that other bullshit, and go for what can be immediately effective.”

Watch the video here:

http://player.theplatform.com/ps/player/pds/PvTSPbANg1&pid=_dIMlvF6FzUdJw_E5Xkb_gV7UFKCVoSf