“I just remind everybody how old he is as often as I can.”
Riley Green said that on Monday night, Nov. 9. He was standing on the red carpet with a reporter from Extra, shortly before the first live show of “The Voice” Season 30. The reporter had asked which of the other coaches he is roughest on. “Adam, for sure,” Riley said.
Adam is Adam Levine, and he was close enough to hear it.
For anyone who has not kept up with the show this fall, Riley is the Alabama singer behind “Worst Way” and “There Was This Girl.” This is his first season in one of the big red chairs. Adam is the Maroon 5 frontman, and this is his 19th season as a coach. Kelly Clarkson and Queen Latifah fill the other two seats.
Riley is 38 and Adam is 47. Riley has been getting a lot of mileage out of those nine years.
It goes back to the blind auditions in September. A 15-year-old named Koumba Diallo got all four coaches to turn around, and Adam started talking about what he was like at her age. Riley cut in. “Well, the ’60s were tough,” he said, according to American Songwriter’s recap of the episode. Adam was born in 1979.
Later in that same pitch, Riley told the teenager that Adam was “more like your granddad.” Adam had an answer ready. “Well, Grandpa won The Voice last season,” he said. Riley got the last word in his interview after the audition. “He’s officially Grandpa Adam,” he said.
The four-chair audition where Riley and Adam both fought for a 15-year-old singer
So on Monday, when Adam heard his name come up on the carpet, he walked straight into Riley’s interview.
“Two generations of music here, folks,” Riley told the camera as he arrived, Holler reports.
Adam had come to make a point. “He’s literally almost 40 and he makes fun of me and I’m 47,” he said. Then he turned to Riley. “You’re staring down the barrel of 40.”
Riley did not argue with the math. He asked a question instead.
“Can you remember 40?”
He was not finished. The next one was aimed at how long Adam’s band has been around. “Adam was actually in Maroon 1, is how long he’s been doing this,” he said.
Adam’s reply, as iHeartCountry quoted it, was dry. “You know what’s so crazy? I’ve never heard anyone make a joke like that.” Country Now and iHeartCountry word his last line a little differently, but both have him calling Riley “a younger, sexier country guy to mess with.”
Extra posted the two-minute exchange on its YouTube channel that night. It also posted its own chat with Adam from the same carpet, where he talks about the rivalry from his side.
Adam Levine talks to Extra about his rivalry with Riley
The teasing reportedly kept going down the line of reporters. Holler says Adam told People that “Riley is really old, is the thing. He just doesn’t want to admit it yet,” while Riley was trying to give an interview of his own a few feet away.
Riley was plain about what is behind all of it. “We’re rough on each other, but we have a good time with it,” he told Extra. He also said it has “been great” having Adam on the show.
They will be back in those chairs on Monday, Nov. 16, at 9 p.m. ET on NBC, when Riley’s team is reportedly set to sing. Riley turned 38 in October, so Adam has two more years to use the “almost 40” line. After that, he will need new material.