Adam Levine’s Unforgettable Night at Prince’s House and What the Legend Thought of His ‘Purple Rain’ Cover

Even though Prince is gone, his influence lives on in countless musicians, and especially with Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine. On Wednesday’s Stern Show, Adam told Howard how much Prince meant to him and detailed an incredible night he spent with the legendary rock star many years ago.

“Prince, he shaped a lot about how I approached singing, with that kind of like almost effeminate, high falsetto,” Adam said. “He was just the consummate artist. He really was. And for all the things people say, my experiences with him were genuinely really beautiful and special.”

One such experience occurred a decade ago on a night that, as Adam remembers it, started with Salma Hayek announcing she was bringing Prince over to hang at Adam’s house. What was supposed to be a casual, low-key gathering was now a very, very big deal to Adam. And Prince did not disappoint.

“He shows up and it was literally like, it was as if we were in a movie where Prince shows up with the band,” Adam told Howard. “He walks in and he’s like, ‘Mind if we play?'”

Adam of course answered “yes,” and Prince and his crew began jamming out on the equipment Adam had lying around his living room. “He’s bringing down my house, literally. Like the walls are shaking,” Adam said.

As Prince was played on, however, something about the sound seemed off. “I kind of hear my guitar crapping out,” Adam recalled. “He like, does a hand gesture and the band kind of stops on a dime, James Brown-style.”

Calmly, Prince walked up to Adam and suggested they move the party to his house. Guests then piled into cars and drove to Prince’s place where the impromptu concert continued. “[His house is] exactly like you’d expect. He fulfills your expectation,” Adam told Howard, describing the purple velvet elevator he had, complete with an insignia of the Prince symbol. Even the address had Prince’s personal touch put on it – Adam said he had the house number changed to 3121 to match his own 2006 studio album “3121.” Both Howard and Robin questioned if anyone could actually do that.

“I don’t think you can do a lot of the things he does. He’s Prince, man,” Adam told them.

The party at Prince’s lasted until 5 or 6 in the morning and included listening to his new record at the time in its entirety. “All he cared about was just passion and music,” Adam said of Prince.

Prince was also interested in other artists, including Adam Levine. While their conversations were limited, Adam said the two kept in touch over the years. Word got back to Adam that Prince had heard him covering his song “Purple Rain,” which Levine performed at Howard Stern’s Birthday Bash in 2014.

“He said, ‘You getting it,'” Adam told Howard. “Him saying that is, basically, the highest praise … because it’s really easy to fuck that song up and wasn’t I aware of that.”

Maroon 5’s new song “Cold” is out now. Watch Adam Levine on “The Voice” Mondays and Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.