Cee Lo Says He Quit “The Voice” When It Became ‘a Job’
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Mark Seliger/NBC(LOS ANGELES) — Cee Lo Green will be on TV this summer with his new TBS reality series The Good Life, which follows his reunited early hip-hop group Goodie Mob. But he won’t be back on The Voice. Despite rumors that circulated last winter that the singer quit the competition show to avoid being fired, Cee Lo says he left because the show had become a grind.
“It easily and quickly became a job,” the singer tells Us Weekly. “Very, very obligating…Taxing and tiring…I still tip my hat to Adam [Levine] and Blake [Shelton] and those guys who continuously do it, but I think I ran my course there just naturally.”
Cee Lo says he parted ways with the show “amicably” and added, “I’ve got some very great memories there.”
He also recounts for Us Weekly that he was recruited for the show by Adam who said he wouldn’t do the show without Cee Lo.
“He called and said, ‘Hey man, there’s this new show The Voice and I don’t really know what it’s going to be about, and I don’t really want to do any more kind of music shows. Do you think it’s cool? If you do it, I’ll do it. If you don’t do it, I won’t do it,'” Cee Lo says. “And I was like, ‘Well, just judging from the premise, the blind auditions,’ it’s something that everybody agrees is just really original. It had a great new spin.”
The singer does have some advice for incoming coaches Pharrell Williams and Gwen Stefani. “Just kind of pace yourself,” he says. “Just find it enjoyable, and as long as you’re passionate about discovering new talent and really helping people and encouraging them to be themselves and live out loud and follow their dreams, then you should have no problem.”
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