Adam Levine 'reveals musical influences'

Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine has named Tupac Shakur and Marvin Gaye as the influences behind his band's latest LP Hands All Over.

Speaking to The AP, the singer explained that he admires Shakur and Gaye for their dedication to pursuing their own unique musical vision.

"Those were two people that did whatever they wanted to do, and artistically, just kind of followed whatever path they wanted to follow," he said.

Levine also admitted that he finds it difficult to relate to prolific writers because he tends to only pen songs when he's personally connected to the subject matter.

He explained: "It's never really been a business thing for me. It's hard... I heard some famous story about somebody who'd go in every day and just write something to write something, and I'd love to get to that point in my career, in my life - just that kind of prolific songwriting.

"But I just don't. It has to be something that I'm going through. If it's not then it's hard for me to write down. So yeah, there's times when I really don't want to write a song."

Maroon 5's Hands All Over is out now.