Joe Jonas Reveals He ‘Wasn’t So Quick to Forgive’ Nick Jonas When the Jonas Brothers Got Back Together
When the Jonas Brothers broke up, fans were devastated, but eventually, the brothers came back together, reuniting at Nick Jonas’ suggestion. Turns out, Joe Jonas wasn’t entirely on board with the reunion, admitting he “wasn’t so quick to forgive” Nick, who wanted the band to split to begin with.
Behind the Jonas Brothers’ “tough conversation”
Back in 2013, the Jonas Brothers announced they were breaking up — it wasn’t an easy decision and definitely created some tension between the brothers.
In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning in June, Joe admitted that the idea of a split hit him hard, explaining, “I checked out in my mind that — that was it. There’s going to be no more brothers ever.”
Nick shared that he had some huge concerns, explaining, “And I feared that, you know, we — they would never speak to me again.” He continued: “And I think a lot of people lost the appetite for what we were putting into the world. So, you know, we were putting up shows that weren’t selling. We were making music that I don’t think we were all super proud of, and it wasn’t connected.”
Nick knew what had to be done. He shared: “So I had a very tough conversation with them where I laid it out for them. I said, ‘You know, I feel like the Jonas Brothers should be no more, and we should go on individual journeys.’ And it didn’t go so well.”
Joe had some big feelings
In their Amazon Prime documentary, Chasing Happiness, the brothers shed more light on that difficult situation and Joe was pretty hurt, to say the least.
Joe explained how he perceived Nick’s conversation about breaking up, sharing: “It was not, ‘My heart’s not in it, and I want to be real with you as band members and brothers.’ It was, ‘The band is over. I want to go do stuff without you guys and I’ve made up my mind.’”
Joe added, “I felt betrayed, I felt lied to, I felt angry, numb. What hurt the most was that it came from Nick because he is my best friend. I thought that me, Kevin and Nick were going to do this forever, and that it was us against the world.”
They found their way back together
While it might have been initially uncomfortable to leave the band behind, the brothers eventually found their way back to making music together again.
Nick shared of the split: “We definitely were supposed to go through all of what we went through to get to this point. I think it was, it was kind of, I guess you could say destiny, whatever it may be, but yeah, we got a do-over, and I think this time around we’re going to do it right.”
Joe revealed he wasn’t ready to forgive Nick
During an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the host asked the trio about their reunion and Joe shared that it was hard for him to forgive Nick after breaking up the band.
Nick admitted that, “By the end, it got really rough” between them. He added, “I think all families go through their own version of our story and if not, you’re the lucky ones. You’ve got to find your dynamic as siblings within your adult relationship.” That, combined with “working together every single day” made things complicated.
“When that decision came to end it, I think that the next step was just in discovering who we are as family and actually building a relationship outside of our work and our creative life. What we found is that we actually really like each other,” he added.
Nick shared, “It took some convincing. Joe was the last to come on board.”
When DeGeneres asked, “Why is that?,” Joe admitted, “I wasn’t so quick to forgive Nick just yet but we worked through it.” He called their time on stage “so special and so fun,” adding, “there’s a magic that happens when we get up there and perform together… it felt like the right timing.”
