Adam Levine is opening up about the unexpected reaction Paul McCartney had to Maroon 5 covering a couple classic Beatles tracks over a decade ago.

During a recent radio interview, Levine and Maroon 5 guitarist James Valentine reflected on their band's contribution to the 2014 broadcast The Night That Changed America: A Grammy Salute to the Beatles that honored the 50th anniversary of The Beatles' debut on The Ed Sullivan Show, per Billboard. Maroon 5 was one of several groups and artists to perform in the tribute, including McCartney and Ringo Starr, with the band showcasing their take on "All My Loving" and "Ticket to Ride."

Levine, who along with Valentine said they were "scared" of the performance, didn't have to wait long to get McCartney's reaction to the tribute.

"Afterwards, I see Paul and Paul kind of took me in close and he goes, 'You know, we did it better,'" Levine recalled, laughing. "I thought it was so funny. And I cracked up and I'm like, 'Yeah, no s---, you're Paul McCartney, you're The Beatles."

Apparently the interaction also had a lingering effect on the legendary musician as he approached Levine at a party months later to apologize, even though the "Move Like Jagger" singer had no hard feelings.

"He's like, 'Hey man, I just wanted to let you know, if that bothered you, I've been thinking about this, I don't want to insult you or anything,'" Levine said. "It was something like that. Like, 'If I insulted you, I apologize.' And I'm like, 'Oh my God. Like, you're good. Dude, you're Paul F---ing McCartney."

Levine said the interaction helped to dispel illusions of musical "heroes" and reinforce that they are also people just like everyone else.

"But it kind of shattered in a great way this whole thing about your heroes being who they are," he said. "It's like, he's a human being with a beating heart and a really beautiful soul who actually was thoughtful enough to even take into account that maybe for some reason my feelings might have been hurt, but of course they were not."

Kevin Johnson