After 20 years, if you play a song and the crowd gets excited off the first lyric, you're like oh shit.
What was the biggest kind of what the fuck moment?
Being adults, we can look at that and say, we know that that was uncomfortable and wrong.
Also, none of your fucking business.
So the band breaks up.
Would you guys change anything about the way that went down?
When it comes to music, I didn't feel being transparent, confident to do it independently.
We were just kind of getting over the hump of having to talk about Imperial Rings a lot and we're like Hi, I'm Michael Sebastian.
Editor-in-chief of Esquire.
Today, I'm joined by a band of brothers, one that started in a New Jersey garage and went on to achieve international acclaim all before they could legally rent a car.
From Disney stardom to the global stage.
Two decades in their place in the pop culture, pantheon has been firmly cemented.
Three brothers, countless hits, one hell of a second act.
Please welcome the Jonas Brothers.
Hey.
Hey.
That was a great intro.
Thank you.
What an intro.
One take, by the way.
That was one take.
That was one take.
Professional here.
I don't mean to give any notes, but technically not the garage but in a very, you know, similar room.
It was the basement, right?
It was the basement, yeah.
I'm sorry.
I just had to make that clear.
I think we did set up in the garage once just to take a photo to pretend like we were a garage band.
Yeah yeah, that that's actually where i want to start.
I've seen the documentary a couple of times, as a matter of fact, and i was getting these kind of like bruce springsteen born to run vibes as i'm, as i'm watching you guys make this, this music, in your basement, so take me there, take me there to to.
When you're there in your basement and like, just paint this, paint the picture.
For us.
That was the, the place we could be the loudest.
Really, four boys growing up in new jersey, a very small home, but it was just us, kind of like this in a circle, playing music that we loved, bands that we would go listen to, like Switchfoot or Oasis Coldplay, to name a few, just great lyricists and people that we aspired to be one day.
But in the basements, where we were able to really go down till the wee hours and just play literally drenching sweat, usually playing over and, over and over again with pipes all around us.
I mean, humble beginnings, but also really the core memory of us as brothers becoming a band.
What kind of music was playing in your house in New Jersey when you guys were doing this?
So we had a Ford Windstar.
It was sort of that greenish-gray tone.
It was a minivan.
And our dad would drive back and forth to New York City.
At the time, there was a black CD booklet case with 30-something CDs in it.
Our dad filled it with all of his go-to's, you know Carole King tapestry, Stevie Wonder, songs in the key of life Bee Gees, number ones Beatles, number ones.
It really became our musical education.
And the thing I really appreciate most about the way our dad taught us about his favorite music is that when we would discover something on our own, or when we would want to hear something in the car that we heard on the radio that perhaps was outside of the things that he knew or was familiar with,
He was so encouraging.
He always said that if someone has made it to that point, they've done something right.
So I want to go to a specific moment.
Your dad loses his job.
What?
Yeah, sorry to tell you that to you.
When?
Yeah.
So he loses his job.
The record label drops you at that same time, right?
You move out of your house in Wyckoff, New Jersey.
You move to Little Floyd.
It's a small house.
It's like, what, two bedrooms or something like that.
Tell me what that moment is like.
What do you learn from something like that?
We were sad our life was changing dramatically, but we also like, just kept pushing forward.
Yeah, four boys, one bedroom in the little falls house and we ended up getting dropped.
And then nick wrote a song called sos in the basement and it just unlocked the potential of the jonas brothers.
And that's why I think that album, the self-titled album that came as our second real album, was why we named it that.
It truly was who we were.
I think we found ourselves.
Yeah.
It forced us to.
Yeah, it's the first moment in, I think, all of our lives where we perhaps better understood what financial stress can do to a family, which is a very important lesson to learn.
And I think it was invaluable to us at that time.
Obviously traumatic and tough to navigate as a family in real time.
But I think we all had this deep sense of belief that it was going to work.
And we were that close.
A lot of very real sacrifices and very big swings that, you know, either would be an enormous consequence for us that we'd have to figure out, or it was going to work.
Yeah.
And so thank God it worked.
Yeah.
We were living what felt like an oddly double life because we'd go play these concerts and have these like massive crowds.
Yeah.
And that kind of rock star mentality that we were feeling on stage.
And then we'd go back to a small room with a crying baby.
And we're like, what?
This is like...
Again, thank God that that was our case, because it really kind of, I think, reminded us of just where we came from all those years later.
And for some of us, we were like, we've got to get out of here.
We can't take this place anymore.
It's holding us back.
Fast forward, you look back at those memorable moments and years, and you're like, that was so definitive of who we are as a band and people.
Let's move beyond that.
And you're out in LA.
The Disney Channel is playing one of your songs over and over again.
I mean you go from three guys in a two-bedroom house in New Jersey to worldwide sensations in what like less than two years, or something like that right.
I mean, hearing our song on the radio for the first time, I'll never forget.
We were at I think it was Coney Island, but running on hot pavement to our car so we could listen to it.
Because we somebody said hey, at 3 pm in the afternoon they're gonna play your song.
Everything was happening at once and and i think we were just kind of ready for the ride and i think we were, we were built for it because we're like okay, we know what it feels like not to have that let's, let's lock in.
When they get, when we get our shot, we have to go for it.
Yeah, give it everything.
Yeah, what was the biggest kind of what?
The moment for you, like The thing that you're just kind of like this is weird.
I think it was the interest in our personal lives.
You know, at first was something that we were obviously foreign to, but also we were so young and i think some of the the things that people were talking about um, in today's day and age, i'm i'm thankful to say we've come such a long way in 15 to 16 years yeah, to where it would be completely inappropriate to speak about a 13 or 14 year olds right dating life or sex life or you know all of that and it was something that was really synonymous with our name and our image for a while, whether we wanted it or not.
When you live that public life, it's part of the, I'd say like the tax you have to pay.
I'm grateful that, you know, for the most part, I'm pretty well adjusted.
We all are considering some of the things we had to sort of navigate, speaking of people prying into your personal lives at that young age.
Let's talk about the purity rings.
Do you have yours still, Joe?
Yeah?
Somewhere here.
Hold on, let me find it.
You know what I mean?
You guys have talked about it since then, but people are asking you about these purity rings that you wore that were supposed to signify that you were going to be what is it?
Virgins until you were married, or something along those lines.
So yeah, basically you know, in the church system that we grew up in this was pretty much customary for born-again Christian faith to sort of make this commitment in your youth group or whatever.
And it was just sort of part of the, let's call it the curriculum, right?
I would say the success rate of that commitment for most people is probably not that high.
Because that's life.
You grow up and you start making your own choices.
And I think if the conversation was able to be had, there'd be some levity that would come with just being like it's a really good concept.
It's a great concept.
Wait for the right person.
Wait for the right person.
Wait till you're ready.
Wait till you understand this.
Perhaps not at your youth group.
When we were playing at the Jingle Ball it's the show that iHeartRadio puts on in New York.
We had this big interview and cover story set up with a magazine and the journalist right away sort of dug into talking about the purity rings.
Meanwhile, I'm 14, I think at the time, 14 or 15, Joe's 16, Kevin's 17 or 18.
Quite young to be, to my point before this, to be asking us about that.
And also, I'll say, none of your fucking business.
And these are the things we could never say then, which now, being adults, we can look at that and say we know that that was, in the moment, inherently uncomfortable and wrong.
And the interview kind of got like shut down.
Things got weird because he was pressing so hard on that.
You know, eventually the article comes out and it's all about that.
It just got spun out of proportion.
And eventually, as I said before, it became really synonymous with our name for a while.
The South Park episode, other things that, you know, talked about it.
And I think we're all pretty balanced in saying, we get it.
It's a bizarre thing for a lot of people to digest.
And we're teenagers navigating our own journey with something that's a very complicated and important subject.
We certainly learned a lot from it.
You mentioned the South Park episode.
When you saw that, did you think it was funny?
Or were you like, or was it uncomfortable?
I was a fan of South Park knowing they make fun of you.
It is a what the fuck moment where you're like oh, this is incredible.
This is insane.
I think it was more about the concept and like making money about it and using purity rings to make money.
Foul mouth Mickey Mouse is kind of fun.
I mean, getting my ass kicked by Mickey Mouse is one of the highlights of my career thus far.
You know, we were just kind of getting over the hump of having to talk about the purity rings a lot and we're like You see,
We were right about the purity rings.
A nice Christian symbol can't be used for profit gains.
We've all anchored God.
No, it's hilarious.
No, it's hilarious.
I think we show it during our concert.
But at the time, you know, it was a little confusing, even though it was like and I'm secretly thinking it's pretty funny.
I'm like, this is pretty good.
But obviously, it's like, nobody wants to be the...
No one wants to sit front row at the comedy store knowing you're gonna be the one being made fun of.
You know.
Your dad was a pastor and I'm curious what your relationship is with God or with religion now, compared to what it was when you were young.
Uh, still have a relationship uh with God, with the church, in in my life, and it's important to me and it's how I was raised, but it's also become more than that.
It's my relationship that I have, you know, and it's also what I want to pursue, how I want to pursue it.
I think the difference in my life now is I understand that not everything is black and white.
Yeah, you know there is there's way more gray than there is clarity.
Joe, You know, being a pastor's kid, it was pretty mandatory to be second pew at church, well-dressed.
And I remember being like I don't wanna go today and have a conversation with my mom and be like I'm not gonna go.
And she was like, why?
I was like, I don't know if I believe in God.
And she was like, what?
Maybe Sunday morning at 8 a.m. is not the best time to let your mom know that.
But I think I've gone through quite like a lot of journeys with my relationship with God, like going through some like very life-changing things in my personal life, like the last couple of years.
I found myself praying a lot.
And if there's turbulence, I'm definitely like, hey, God, what's up?
It's me again.
So I've got a relationship with something.
I'm not sure what it is, but they, she, them have been great to me.
Tell me, do you remember the moment or a moment when all of this became a reality to you?
Where giant entertainers, was there a moment where that clicked?
We were nominated for Best New Artist at the Grammys, and we performed with Stevie Wonder.
We were so nervous.
We started with our song, Burning Up, and then Stevie came out and we sang Superstition with him.
And the first people to get up and encourage everyone to get on their feet was Paul McCartney and Chris Martin.
And I got to tell this story to Chris years later.
And of course, Paul was like, that is just the coolest thing.
And it was kind of a question like, are we amongst our peers right now?
This is different.
There's something about this.
And we went on to lose to, rightfully so, to Adele that year.
It was a stacked year.
Yeah, of course, Adele won.
I think that moment for sure was up there.
And then throughout different chapters of our career.
There have been times where you think maybe we've reached the peak right.
And maybe everything else from this moment is just gonna feel kind of less exciting or exhilarating.
And fortunately those peaks have really turned into plateaus where we're able to sort of traverse and get to our next peak.
And that's been the story of our career.
Now, I'm with some valleys as well there, but, you know, it just keeps getting better.
Does that ever come with kind of a sadness or a worry as well?
It's like you've reached this and it's like I mean you kind of said it yourself.
It might not get any better than this.
You know you can sit there and look at the past and think it's only gonna, that was the best it's ever gonna get.
And then suddenly you're in it now and it's even better.
And then 10 years from now, who knows, we might have that same feeling.
So just staying present and trying to enjoy every moment I think has been our North Star.
Yeah.
Okay, here's one I want all of you to answer as well.
How much is too much to pay for a pair of socks?
How much is too much to pay for a pair of socks?
Phenomenal question.
Why don't you start, Nick?
Too much to pay for a pair of socks.
I think $50.
$50.
Nice.
Yes.
Like a really beautiful pair of socks for a suit, that kind of thing.
They should max out there.
Joe?
I want to say $49, but I'm going to go with $40.
Cause I mean, like, I don't, I'm not too picky.
Now, when it comes to compression socks, the older I get, the more I'll invest in an expensive pair of compression socks.
That's well over $50.
I've had like five, six pairs.
Some ski socks.
Like you've had it.
Oh yeah.
One, I mean, blasted like 120 bucks.
Yeah.
Those fuckers better work.
Keep my feet warm.
I was gifted a pair of Tom Ford socks that was a truly like... He was gifted a pair.
I was gifted.
And now you're addicted to Tom Ford socks?
And I have never purchased a Tom Ford pair of socks myself, but I did look up the price.
So I can understand the value of something like a Tom Ford sock.
How much are Tom Ford socks?
Tom Ford socks are north of a hundred dollars for a pair of regular socks.
But they're nice though, right?
They are the best.
Like literally I have them in one drawer.
Per sock?
Yeah.
And they are like, if I'm going to wearing a tux, I'm wearing those socks.
Great.
It's a great gift.
Have you guys fucked around with cashmere socks before?
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I do love like a fun colored socks and a comfortable sock is key.
Yeah.
Cashmere.
Um, all right, you mentioned turbulence.
Let's talk about a couple of turbulent things.
So the band breaks up.
Okay, so that's 2013.
Right, breaks up over creative differences.
Would you guys change anything about the way that that went down?
Oh yeah yeah, loaded question.
But uh, we did not have access to the vocabulary emotionally, that we we needed to yeah, to navigate that chapter.
I had never done therapy, for instance.
Uh, at that point in my life, i regret how the conversation went down and the fact that it it really was like ripping a band-aid as opposed to talking through that moment and that part of our story as family, with love at the center of it.
Yeah, i think what i would have changed is probably the three of us we should have gone to some ranch and had a long weekend and like, let's just talk through, like where's everybody's heads at?
That's what i would have done differently, but i don't know.
We're we're here to tell the tale, and so The ranch thing just sounds fun.
We should probably just do that anyway.
I'd love that.
Go fishing.
Yeah.
Go fishing.
Uh, i think that it needed to happen.
Um, and sometimes those conversations no matter how tough you look back on it and you're like yeah, it was, it had to be like that because we knew no other way.
Yeah, it's never easy, it's never good.
I will say i got lucky, i was.
I was distracted during that time.
If i'm being to be honest, i was about to have my for our first daughter, So my mindset just kind of shifted.
It was like, all right, let's focus on this now.
So I didn't actually like process it appropriately and I didn't like grieve it either.
Then I came crashing down.
But I just emotionally wasn't present.
It was kind of interesting that I just shifted focus.
Obviously, Nick, you had a solo career.
You had this huge hit as well.
Both of you guys went into music and then Kevin, you didn't really, right?
I did not, no.
Tell me a little bit about that.
How come you swerved when these guys?
It just wasn't in the cards for me at that time and I've always felt like when it comes to music, it has to be right for what you want to do, and these guys had a passion for it.
I didn't feel being transparent, confident in my vocal ability, my playing ability to do it independently.
I leaned on these guys and I think that was my crutch for so long that I just felt like I wasn't there, wasn't prepared and wasn't good enough.
If I'm being frank,
For me, I focused on other things.
I went into thinking, OK, well, that was that chapter in my life.
Now I'm going to go do this chapter in my life.
I also feel like I didn't pick up a guitar for about a year and a half after we broke up.
Wow.
Because I felt like I couldn't.
Yeah.
You guys have all referenced being dads.
And I think all of us here are dads of girls, right?
Yeah.
All of us are, yeah?
So let's talk about that.
I mean, what have you learned?
I mean, what have you learned being dads?
And let me be specific about it.
What have you learned about being girl dads?
What have I learned being a girl dad?
Well, that's the greatest inspiration I've ever needed to go and do what i love but also like provide for them and create for them and they're in london right now so i look at like a flight that'll take me across the world for a day and then fly back and play a show just the next day it's like so worth it to be able to just you know take my kids to their first day of school like it's it's it's gonna be tough on the body but it's you'll do i'll do anything when in the past i'd be like I'm gonna put my feet up or I'm gonna go just like, I really need a massage, whatever it is.
It's like, it makes you much stronger and you wanna be healthy for them.
You wanna be really present.
I think just being able to put my phone down and sit with my daughters and get to know them every second is so important.
Every moment matters.
Someone said something to me, and I've tried to live this now.
They said it takes 10,000 hours to be great at something.
Right.
That's traditionally the idea.
Try to put 10,000 hours in before they're 10 years old.
That's good.
Because I have an 11-year-old now.
She's definitely already on her way.
Yeah, yeah.
And 10,000 before 10 is, for anyone about to have kids, that's the advice I'd give you.
Yeah.
Yeah, I don't even know where to begin.
Right.
But I didn't know prior to being a parent that it was possible to access love this big.
There's romantic love and we understand what that is.
But when that unit then experiences this big love together, this larger than life spiritual, you know explosion of love, it's a profound thing.
And I think it's changed me in ways I can't even begin to describe.
Joe, you've credited your mom with raising four boys and instilling quote an understanding of how to be nice guys to women.
So I'm curious, what is most important to impart on your daughters? in that sort of realm?
That's a great question.
Yeah, our mom is a super mom with our dad, of course, raising us.
But it's a big undertaking to have four boys running through the house at the time.
But for girls, I think it's definitely for me having incredible strong female presence in the household and in their household as well.
I mean, they've got a fantastic mom.
And so I get to co-parent with a great person who who prioritizes these kids as well.
I want them to grow up in a world where they feel like they can do whatever the hell they want.
And they get the experiences that life can provide.
And I hope they can come to me to talk about anything.
I want them to feel safe enough that I am their friend.
And then I happen to be their dad.
Um, that that's what i hope for.
What happens if they come to you and say dad, we want to be a sister band of pop stars?
Well, i would say how old are you now?
Um i, i think that's something that i'd be pretty weary on just at a young age.
Yeah um, but i would like the idea that they wait till at least they're like, old enough to buy a lottery ticket.
That would be nice because it's similar where it can be a gamble.
And it can be a gamble personally and mentally.
And it's as great as it is to start young.
I don't envy the young artists that are starting today.
One thing I want to talk about is how, as brothers, you guys have rallied for each other.
And I say that because I feel, like you know, I'm sure that there have been hardships that you guys have gone through that the public doesn't know about, but there are others that the public does know about.
And for instance, Nick, you getting diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at such a young age.
You've talked about that, but, you know, I'm curious, like, what was your reaction to that?
How did you kind of rally around Nick and help him through that?
It was a scary time.
You know, we were on the road in that van that I mentioned, going up and down and playing shows.
How I remember it is, you know, Joe, we saw Nick's back and something was not right.
Like, he was skin and bones.
And it was a scary thing.
Like, I thought I was gonna lose my brother.
Truly.
I didn't know, like, any... I didn't understand how that was even possible.
Yeah.
There are other moments where you know Nick and Joe, you've come together for Kevin, or Kevin and Nick, you've come together for Joe.
Like, I mean, what are some of these moments?
My divorce.
You know these guys and many others being by my side through probably the most difficult time in my adult life thus far.
Navigating it while we're traveling and touring and Divorce is tough.
It's like it's.
It's not easy for anybody and I think you know people are so quick to make assumptions and I'm just grateful that I have these guys and I have amazing family and friends.
People are going through so much and the fact that I could go perform and make people feel something and maybe distract them from what they're going through or their divorce, for the two hours they come see a concert.
It gave me so much purpose and that I could get it on the other side two-ish years later and be able to have relationship with my co-parent, Sophie.
And you realize you do everything you do for your kids like.
You like I'll do anything for them, and you know there's a lot to navigate through that.
These guys had my back, whether whether i wanted to talk about it or they knew i did not want to talk about it that day.
Um, you know they, they showed up for me in a major way and it says like, as of course i, that's the the main answer.
Yeah, Yeah.
So you guys are out on tour now.
You know you talked about.
You know you're playing music and maybe helping distract people from you know, whatever they might be going through, or just giving them a good time.
Are there any songs that people are responding to right now that you're like huh?
That surprises me.
Backwards.
Yeah, that's what I was going to say.
Backwards is just.
There's a song on the album that, you know, it's not on the single.
We weren't thinking it was going to be a single.
It might be.
Now we saw a video on tiktok of a fan angrily singing the lyrics of the song and it's kind of like done a thing, it started a trend and now there are like 5 000 plus individuals have used the audio doing the same kind of trend and we're like okay, like we didn't expect this one, but now we play it live, and the other day we played it live and You kind of know.
After 20 years, if you play a song and the crowd gets excited off the first lyric, you're like oh shit.
That's a familiar feeling of other songs we've had, like Sucker and Year 3000, where we're looking at each other and we're like this could be one.
You never know.
But that's definitely off the new album.
That one's kind of shocking us.
How much longer can we expect the Jonas Brothers to be the Jonas Brothers?
Forever?
That's a great question that we don't quite have the answer to.
But then you see people like Coldplay and Rolling Stones and still doing it, man.
Are you guys going to be 82 years old and bouncing around singing SOS?
God willing.
I don't know.
But it's hard to remove ourselves from being brothers.
I don't know.
That's right.
That's a misleading question.
That's an expensive lawyer.
Yeah.
I think we hope to do this for a long ass time.
It is 20 years, but we started pretty young.
So we feel like we're young enough to continue this.
And now we have more reason to do it.
Okay, last question.
What advice would you give your younger selves when you were like 12 15 17, you know, when this is just happening.
If you could go back and you could say young Nick, young Joe, young Kevin, what would you tell them?
I would tell myself it's okay to be a kid, you know, to keep that youthful spirit.
I felt a lot of pressure that I put on myself to just act older.
Also because I was projecting, I wanted to be perceived as more mature than I was, because I felt like that would make me feel like enough or something.
My parents did an amazing job of not letting us miss out on our childhoods, but I think I didn't do a good job of just being a kid.
Really?
So that's what I would say.
Joe, i would probably tell that silly, quiet kid it's okay to be yourself like you're.
One day people are going to celebrate you for being authentically you.
You don't have to try to fit in to a certain group in school and it's totally okay that the crush you had didn't call you back and had her sister break up with you.
It's going to be okay, kid.
I'd say one day you're going to get on stage and you can be wacky and silly and talk about things publicly that you like, you'll shock yourself and just go for it earlier.
And you are allergic to shellfish.
Kevin, bring us home.
Remember to be happy.
Remember to actually live in the moments, because It's how I'm kind of wired and I work against it every day.
I always think about the next thing before I'm even in the moment.
So I'm kind of missing it.
And I think I did that for so many years that I have like blank holes in my memory for this band.
There are things I see a photo and I go, I don't remember being there.
And I think I missed moments because I was too focused on what I was about to do.
And I think so just slow down, enjoy the time and celebrate the wins.
Celebrate it all.
For so long, I don't think we did.
And I think it's okay to be like, we did something great today.
Whatever it was and be happy.
I think you should be more worried, to be honest.
Okay.
All right.
Nick, Joe, Kevin, the Jonas Brothers, thank you for this conversation.
Thank you, Esquire.
I love this.
They've got a record you should check out.
They're on tour.
They're going to be on tour again.
Come into a city near you.
Go see them.
Thank you, guys.
Thanks so much, John.
Thanks, Esquire.
