ABC/Randy HolmesMaroon 5 is in Cedar Rapids, IA Saturday to perform at the Newbo Evolve Festival, and on Sunday, they’ll hop over to Canton, OH to close out this year’s Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Week — the band’s performing at Hall’s annual Concert for Legends, which celebrates this year’s inductees. Maroon 5 guitarist James Valentine says sometimes he feels like they’re the NFL’s house band.
“We’ve played so many events for the NFL at this point and so many events around the Super Bowl,” he notes “And I’ve now been to the Super Bowl three or four times, I think.”
That brings up an obvious question: Could Maroon 5 ever see themselves performing at the Super Bowl halftime show?
“I think that would be a challenge we’d be willing to undertake,” James tells ABC Radio. “I think we’ve been around long enough that we have the catalogue of songs, even if people don’t realize it.”
He explains, “We have the experience where someone will come to our show [who] wouldn’t consider themselves a Maroon 5 fan, but they…recognize all the songs, and realize that they’re familiar with all the songs, ’cause we’ve just been around for that long. So that could work to our advantage in that sort of situation.”
James prefers tennis to football, but he notes there are some football obsessives in Maroon 5, much to his annoyance.
“Yeah, there’s some huge football fans within the band. I’m not one of them. I mean, all they talk about is football and I’m usually lost in that conversation,” he laughs. “I wait for the Grand Slams, when they start to pay attention to tennis, and then I feel like I can bond with them!”
Maroon 5 resumes their Red Pill Blues tour September 7.
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