Maroon 5: "It's Cool For People To Likes Us Now"

30 June 2012, 11:09 | Updated: 30 June 2012, 11:25

The 'Moves Like Jagger' star admits he would also be open to former keyboardist Jessie Carmichael rejoining the band.

Maroon 5 front man Adam Levine has revealed it was "hard" to see his friend and keyboardist Jessie Carmichael leave the band earlier this year and thinks people's perception of the group have changed.

The 'Payphone' star told The Sun newspaper that although he found the incident tough, he is more then open for the star to rejoin the band.

Jessie left the group back in March in order to focus on his studies of music and spiritual healing, and Adam told the publication that it's been an "interesting journey" since that day.

"It's been interesting. It's been a journey, let's put it that way," he confessed. "It's hard to be in a band with somebody for 20 years and then they up and leave.

"But he's been doing this his whole life. He wanted to explore other things and I completely respect that. We have a totally open-door policy and if and when he decides to return he's welcome."

Jessie was replaced by touring member PJ Morton and the singer went on to reveal how difficult it has been to face the critics of the band over the years.

You can view a picture of the band, complete with Jessie (second from right) at the American Music Awards 2011 below:

"I put my heart and soul into our songs and love them, so when someone writes they don't like them or me, it hurt," he admitted. "Now it’s OK to like us. For ages it was uncool to like Maroon 5."

The band released their new album 'Overexposed' this past week and have also unveiled a tenth anniversary special edition of their debut 'Songs About Jane'.

Meanwhile, Adam, who is a coach on The Voice said he would love to see Coldplay frontman Chris Martin join the UK series of the show.