Maroon 5 consists of Adam Levine (vocals, guitar), James Valentine (guitar), Jesse Carmichael (keyboards), Mickey Madden (bass), Ryan Dusick (drums).
Maroon 5 is a Grammy Award winning pop/ rock band from Los Angeles, California, and has won several awards for their debut album Songs about Jane. Released in June 2002, the album enjoyed major chart success, going gold, platinum, and triple platinum in many countries around the world. Even their follow-up acoustic album 1.22.03.Acoustic, which features live, unplugged versions of Songs about Jane, has reached platinum status. The group won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 2005. In the fall of 2005 they released a live record called "Live, Friday the 13th" which was recorded on May 13, 2005 in Santa Barbara, California and has earned them another Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group in 2006.
Adam Levine was first introduced to Maroon 5's drummer, Ryan Dusick, around 1986. The two were brought together once again by a mutual friend in 1990 to record a version of Knockin' on Heaven's Door in Dusick's garage.
On his first day at Brentwood School, Adam met the third member of Maroon 5, Mickey Madden. Adam is noted as describing Mickey as a "musical encyclopedia" and it is thought that Levine's influence played a major role in Madden acquiring his first bass guitar soon after. The two friends improvised, Madden taking up drums and Levine occasionally playing bass in their early jam sessions. (It should be noted that, in this era, Adam Levine played in front of his first audience in the band Blurred Vision at the Troubador. It was Adam Salzman's band; the mutual friend mentioned earlier).
The fourth member of the band is Jesse Carmichael. Jesse has a solid background in music, having had piano lessons since a very young age. When he and Adam first became friends, Carmichael was playing clarinet in the Brentwood School Orchestra. As freshmen, the two formed the bond that would make them best friends to this day. Levine, Madden and Carmichael played their first show together as Edible Nuns at their Jr. High dance, playing only cover versions of nineties favorites such as Pearl Jam and Alice In Chains.