The Darkness singer Justin Hawkins revealed that Maroon 5 receive the advertising revenue for one of his vlog entries after he fell foul of YouTube rules.

He has been presenting his Justin Hawkins Rides Again channel since October 2021; the videos find him exploring hit songs and breaking them down, or discussing his personal experiences in the music industry. In a recent interview, he explained that one episode, titled “I’m Sorry. It’s Just Shit,” led to legal action from Adam Levine’s band.

“Today, I’m doing ‘Be Nice,’” he says in the clip. “I watch a video that is widely regarded to be, you know, shit, and then I look for only positive things to say about it. It’s a video by the band Maroon 5, and it’s called ‘Moves Like Jagger.’” He claimed that Levine moved “like Maud Jagger, Mick’s great auntie” and said of the song’s rhyming structure, “It’s never been enough for me. If it was, I’d have written one million songs by now – because anybody can fucking do that. It’s shit!”

You can watch Hawkins criticize Maroon 5 below.

Hawkins told The Guardian that the episode led to Maroon 5’s lawyers accusing him of infringing the band’s copyright. “Which I wasn’t,” he argued. “But they challenged it, and YouTube will always go with the copyright holder.” As a result, all income from watching the video now goes to Levine’s “people.” “I’m slagging them off, and they’re getting paid for the privilege,” Hawkins noted.

He described the channel as a profitable “sideline” and expressed hope that it would never become an “obligation.” “But the amazing thing has been that after listening to all this stuff, I really want to make some music,” he said.

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