But Levine’s reputation as a ladies’ man had so far preceded him that he signed up for The Voice in 2011 partly to help give his image a tweak.
“I’ve always felt a little misrepresented in the world,” he told Details in the spring of 2012. “I felt like people only knew me as a singer who dated pretty girls. A little bit of a bimbo. Maybe I was kind of a bimbo. I was the music dude that was naked all the time with the girls, and that’s fine, no problem with that.
“But I wanted to create a little balance. When the show came around, I thought, ‘People now know that I have a brain.'”
His tenure on The Voice, which lasted for 16 seasons over eight years, was the start of a whole new era—he was still the tattooed, cocky singer, yes, but finally the essence of his charm and appeal were on display for a national TV audience.