Cee Lo Green came under fire for changing the words to a classic John Lennon tune — and now The Voice judge is explaining why he did it.
When Cee Lo Green changed the lyrics to the “Imagine,” John Lennon’s classic pacifist song, he took a lot of heat from music purists — but the judge of The Voice says he is standing by his switch.
Cee Lo addressed the mini-scandal at the Television Critics Association meeting to discuss the upcoming season of The Voice.
“I will say that it’s all about love,” he said. “It was all done out of love and out of peace and unity and tolerance and acceptance and all those many wonderful things that seem cliché and a little bit cheesy. ‘You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.'”
Cee Lo storms off stage at Coachella >>
“I believe that we’re just advocates of individuality, you know what I’m saying,” Cee Lo continued. “I’m pro choice. I’m pro expression. You know, that’s just me. And I meant no harm and no disrespect to anyone [of] any religious preference.”
Adam Levine, Cee Lo’s costar on The Voice, chimed in with his support.
“We all worship John Lennon. He would have said the same thing — ‘It’s only a song, you know. But you put your spin on it.’ And that’s what you did,” Levine said.
“Sometimes we say stupid s**t, and it goes out on Twitter for millions to see,” the Maroon 5 singer continued. “People make mistakes because they’re human, and we all make them all the time, sometimes more publicly than others… but, you know, whatever. Life goes on. You can’t worry too much about it, right?”
Sounds reasonable — and as it turns out, Lennon’s widow Yoko Ono agrees. She wrote on Twitter on Jan. 3, “Imagining Peace — that’s something that we can all do together — even when we have different opinions about so many things!”
The new season of The Voice is slated to premiere after the Super Bowl on Feb. 5.
Leave a Comment