Hours after announcing that he was leaving “The Voice,” Adam Levine took to Instagram to explain his decision. “For me, it was time to move on,” confessed the Maroon 5 singer, who’s been with NBC’s reality TV show since day one along with country superstar Blake Shelton. (See Adam’s parting words below.) Over the past 16 seasons Adam mentored three winning artists: Javier Colon (Season 1), Tessanne Chin (Season 5) and Jordan Smith (Season 9). However, he hasn’t had a finalist on “The Voice” since Addison Agen back in Season 13.

 

Throughout his time on the show Adam engaged in a friendly rivalry with Blake that often saw them poking fun at each other or trying to convince artists not to join the other’s team. However, Adam had nothing but love for Blake in his goodbye message, writing, “I couldn’t hide my love for you if I tried. Seriously. I tried. Can’t do it. Our friendship is and always will be one for the books. Whatever this whole surreal experience was, I’m just happy I got to experience it with you. You’re my brother for life.”

 

Adam also instructed remaining coaches Kelly Clarkson and John Legend to “take care of the cowboy,” adding that, “I’m sure I’ll be back to say hi very very soon.” Blake, Kelly and John will all return this fall for Season 17, with Gwen Stefani, aka Blake’s girlfriend, replacing Adam on the judging panel. Perhaps Adam will return sometime as a mentor or a special adviser, like former coach CeeLo Green did in Season 15?

Since he had no artists in this week’s finale, Adam became a sort of cheerleader for Team Legend’s Maelyn Jarmon. He declared on multiple occasions that Maelyn had the best voice and deserved to win the season, and viewers clearly agreed as she beat out Team Blake’s trio of country singers — Gyth Rigdon, Dexter Roberts and Andrew Sevener — to claim victory. Watch our recent video interview with Maelyn.

It’s no secret that “The Voice” fans have questioned Adam’s coaching style in recent seasons, particularly in the wake of the Reagan Strange/DeAndre Nico drama from last fall. To recap, after both of his artists found themselves in the bottom two, Adam told America to vote for Reagan, who was too sick to perform, instead of DeAndre. Even after the dust settled on that controversy, 70% of “Voice” fans admitted that they still hadn’t forgiven him for throwing DeAndre under the bus.

Be sure to vote in our poll below to let us know whether you’ll miss Adam on “The Voice.” Here are his parting words in full:

About 8 years ago, Mark Burnett convinced us to sign up for this show where you sit in a big red chair with your back turned away from the singers on the stage. First thank you must go to Mark. We had no idea what we were doing or where it was going. After the first day of shooting, I sat there, stunned. I said to myself “theres some magic here. Something is definitely happening.” It went on to be a life shaping experience that will be close to my heart forever. Thank you NBC for signing me up. I am truly honored to have been a part of something I’ll always cherish for the rest of my life. Thank you to every single coach I ever sat in those chairs with. That is shared experience that is singularly ours. We have that for life. Thank you to everyone who supported this long strange and amazing left turn into a place I never thought I’d go. Thank you Carson Daly for babysitting the musicians and making sure our shoes were tied and we had our lunch boxes. You are the backbone of this thing and we appreciate you more than you know. Audrey, thank you for being perhaps the most patient person in all the free world. 4 musicians all at once is a lot. Sainthood is imminent. Thank you to Paul Mirkovich and the band for their ridiculously hard work and learning more songs than maybe any band ever. Thank you to the people behind the scenes who do the real work and make this machine hum. To the amazingly talented vocalists who competed on the show and blew my mind on a daily basis. And, BLAKE FUCKIN’ SHELTON. I couldn’t hide my love for you if I tried. Seriously. I tried. Can’t do it. Our friendship is and always will be one for the books. Whatever this whole surreal experience was, Im just happy I got to experience it with you. You’re my brother for life. Kelly and John, take care of the cowboy and I’m sure I’ll be back to say hi very very soon. So much love to you both. And lastly, to all of the loyal voice fans, there’s literally no show without you guys. For me, it was time to move on. Your support has meant EVERYTHING. And Lastly, I’d like to thank my manager Jordan for convincing me to take that meeting. What an amazing ride. Thank you all so much.