← Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist
Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist
Nick Jonas on New Solo Album and Reuniting with “Jonas Brothers”
00:38:56
Nick Jonas has been in the limelight since he was a teen idol, when he and his two older brothers formed the “Jonas Brothers” when he was just 13. Nick later set out on his own, with solo hits like “Jealous” and “Chains” before reuniting with his brothers once again. Nick sits down with Willie Geist to talk about the soulful music in his new album “Sunday Best” and the song that’s inspired by his wife Priyanka Chopra Jonas and their four year old daughter. He also talks about his early days with the Jonas Brothers, and how they all feel about being back together once again.
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- [00:00]
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Nick Jonas
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- [01:36]
Willie Geist
Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down Podcast. My thanks as always for clicking and listening along. Got another great one for you this week with one of the biggest stars in all of music. He is Nick Jonas and he's out with a new album called Sunday Best. By now you know the story of Nick Jonas, prodigy growing up in suburban New Jersey, right outside New York City. There's a famous moment that we get into where he's singing in a hair salon in Jersey while his mom gets her hair done. There's a woman sitting there who says, my son is on Broadway. Your son has an amazing voice. He should try out too. And before long he was on Broadway, had a record deal before he was a teenager, and then brings in his older brothers Kevin and Joe, and in 2005 they form the Jonas Brothers. Jonas Brothers, as you know, become one of the biggest acts in the world. They're teen idols, not just for their music, but for performing on the Disney Channel as well. As he calls it, the Disney faucet was turned on and just propelled them, the Jonas Brothers, to stardom. They'd actually been dropped by their label after their first album together didn't do so well. But once they stepped into the Disney machine, things took off and their self titled album debuted at number five on the Billboard 200. They got Grammy nominations for best new artists and became, like I said, one of the biggest acts in the world. Screaming fans wherever they went, all over the world. Then they announced a breakup, shocked the fans. 2013, they're going their separate ways. And Nick Jonas does the scary thing where you step out and say, can
- [03:10]
Interviewer
I do this on my own?
- [03:11]
Willie Geist
I look back, the brothers aren't behind me. The answer was resoundingly, yes. Had a ton of big hits, Jealous chains, levels. You know, all those hits that he spun off proved he could do it on his own Before a reunion in 2019 with the Jonas Brothers. But now he's out with another solo album called Sunday Best. You know, he's married to the actress Priyanka Chopra. They have a beautiful young daughter together. So there are themes on this album of family, of faith. And as he describes it, Sunday Best kind of takes him back to the church pews in New Jersey where he first learned to sing. His father was a minister in a church, so it kind of goes back in that direction. Has a soulful, almost gospel sound to it. Very, very cool album. So he and I got together at Tavern on the Green, you know, right in New York City, right in Central Park. A special place for him that's featured in some of the lyrics of the songs. When he was performing on Broadway a couple of years ago, that's where he and his family would come and just have their time together. So a special place for him. It's his fifth solo album. It's called Sunday Best. Great story of what it's like to just be a. A kid stepping into this incredible spotlight. How he handled it, how his brothers handled it. Then kind of a rupture in the relationship with his own brothers inside his family, and he decides to go solo and then repairing that and finding out that they're all better off for it. So just sit back, relax right now and enjoy a conversation with Nick Jonas on the Sunday Sit down podcast.
- [04:40]
Interviewer
Thanks for doing this, Nick.
- [04:41]
Nick Jonas
Happy to be here.
- [04:42]
Interviewer
I'm very happy to see another Jersey man sitting across the table.
- [04:44]
Nick Jonas
Love it. Jersey Pride.
- [04:45]
Interviewer
We've already been getting deep on some, some Bergen County Stuff we want bottles, pizza.
- [04:50]
Willie Geist
Delis.
- [04:51]
Interviewer
Delis, yeah, yeah.
- [04:52]
Nick Jonas
All the important things.
- [04:53]
Interviewer
We've covered all the topics. Exactly. We won't bore the national public with that conversation. Congratulations on Sunday. Best on the album.
- [05:01]
Nick Jonas
Thank you so much.
- [05:02]
Interviewer
As we sit here right now, it is kind of album eve, although, as you point out, it's kind of album day at midnight. What is that feeling like for you when you've spent all this time written and created and crafted and made it what you want it to be, and now it sort of leaves the nest and people get to hear it? What does that feel like?
- [05:21]
Nick Jonas
You know, it's a bizarre feeling because you obviously don't put an album out every day, so on one hand you want to celebrate it, and it feels like an event, like a life event for me still. I think this is my fourth or fifth solo album. You know, we've got six or seven with the brothers, but every time it's an incredibly important moment in my life and sort of a pillar of experiences and, you know, life lived, which is so incredible to have an outlet like that that really sort of becomes that moment in time. But with that being said on top of just getting it out and being excited for people to hear it, there's some nerves and, you know, that feeling of, okay, I've been really sort of honest in this work, and I hope that. Not that people like it, but that they feel connection to it in their own way. And I feel a certain responsibility as a writer to write something that is true to my experiences but also could be true for anybody else's.
- [06:24]
Interviewer
I told you, I was listening to it this morning and yesterday a couple times through, and the word that I kept coming back to was soulful. It feels, and it has some roots in your church upbringing in choirs. I hear strings in there. How do you describe the sound on this album?
- [06:39]
Nick Jonas
The sound is definitely influenced by early days growing up singing in church. My dad, our. Our dad was a pastor at a church in Woff, New Jersey. And you know, that feeling of just those. Those early days singing in church on Sunday morning and what that. What that meant to all of us and our sound, but also as. As people. And then back in 2014 or 15, I did a. A gospel version of one of my songs, Jealous. And, you know, the reaction to that was. Was incredible. And it was kind of unexpected to see the people really responded to this sort of gospel soulful sound that I was doing. And I. I set out on this record making process to kind of lean more into that. And so I'm glad you picked up on that. And the sound and you know, musically it's there. I'd say some of the, the themes are, are more universal and, and just about kind of life experiences and relationships and, and, and tough times. But I love having that soulful kind of gospel element.
- [07:37]
Interviewer
I'm always interested talking to artists at your level who've had the success that you've had of the instinct to continue to feed the audience what they know you for. Like, let's give them more of what I know. They like to take a little more risk, a little more creative license and trust that your audience will come with you on that ride. Do you feel that at this point in your career you can say this is what I'm going to do and I trust my audience to join me. I don't have to recreate Jealous every time I sit down to write a song.
- [08:06]
Nick Jonas
Yeah, well, that would be an impossible mission. Sometimes, you know, lightning strikes and it's just a great moment you're able to capture. I think, you know, credit is, is completely due to our fans and their willingness and enthusiasm of kind of coming on this journey with us in the very different stages of that journey, both as the brothers and what I've been doing solo wise for the last couple years. And what I love seeing at the shows now is the sense that, you know, we've all grown up together. The fans that were there when we were teenagers making music and performing and singing about things that were relevant to us at that time are still there but now with their kids. And so there's this generational effect and the parents that used to bring them when they were teens still want to come. And I think, you know, we just try to write and perform stuff that everyone can enjoy that's there because it really has become like a family event. And I think for all of us as fathers, you know, it's such a meaningful thing to see that. And I hope that they connect with this new music in the same way they have with the stuff in the past.
- [09:12]
Interviewer
Think about songs like Aphrodite or Princesses. The theme of family is all over this album with your young daughter as well. What is it like to sit down and write a song to about your daughter, a sensation most of us will never have, and watch it become a hit? And what does that feel like?
- [09:31]
Nick Jonas
Well, I'd always sort of dreamed about the day I'd be able to do that. And you know, I've written a lot of songs about love. I don't know that I've ever written a love song quite as profound as this one of, you know, a dad's love for his little girl. And I don't know, it was really, I think, the freedom I felt with my collaborators to walk in and say, hey, this might sound like a weird title, but I want to write a song today called Princesses. And all of them saying, let's go, and helping me better articulate some of these ideas and these thoughts. So with that one in particular, JP Sachs was on that one with Jeff Giddey. And JP became a really important part of the kind of DNA of this record. He had posted this video a while back and was very vulnerable and kind of honest about something that was happening in his life and his career. And it really spoke to me and his willingness to be that transparent, his bravery, honestly. So we invited him out to come be a special guest for show in Toronto, which is his hometown. And afterwards I said, look, I can already tell we're gonna be fast friends and I'm doing a writing camp in New York in a couple weeks. I'd love for you to come. And he came out and we wrote, I don't know, 10, 15 songs in just like a four or five day stretch. And you know, that along with some of the other collaborators were really important to this record coming to life.
- [10:49]
Interviewer
Do Priyanka and your daughter listen to the songs before they come out? In other words, look at this gift I've made for you.
- [10:57]
Nick Jonas
Yeah, they actually came to the studio, which is great, and did a little listening session. And I actually have some photos from that day that some of our friends and other writers took and. And our daughter even got on the microphone. She's very excited to get on the microphone and sing her own song. She was like, that's cool, dad, but I'm gonna.
- [11:16]
Interviewer
She's already doing it, huh?
- [11:17]
Nick Jonas
Yeah, she's. She's got it.
- [11:19]
Interviewer
I wonder where she gets it. A young who knows star. Does your daughter have a sense of what you do or she's still too young? I mean, she's very young. Like, does she. Not what you do, but like, does she get. She.
- [11:32]
Nick Jonas
I think she gets it to whatever degree she gets it, if that makes sense. She knows I go, you know, to the theater when I was doing the Broadway show here, or to the show, to the concert and that, you know, I sang with my brothers, the Donut Brothers, but someone was like, why did she call you that? It's like, because she can't fully pronounce Jonas yet. So it's Donut.
- [11:55]
Interviewer
That's amazing.
- [11:56]
Nick Jonas
This is very, very marketable idea. But yeah, she writes, she comes to the show and she only lasts about five or six songs because it's kind of late. But then she goes about her business.
- [12:07]
Interviewer
There's a connection on the album, too. You were just telling me before to where we're sitting right now, you have a personal connection to Tavern on the Green. It's meaningful to you. How does that show up in the record?
- [12:19]
Nick Jonas
So when I was doing Last five Years on Broadway, I would walk daily through the park or meet my wife and daughter here between shows or before performance a lot of times because it's kind of convenient to the theater and to where our apartment was. And it became just a beautiful little kind of moment in time for us as a family to go from traveling all over the place and Priyanka being in a different country shooting, me being on tour and multi being with one of us to just being together most days. And this place just kind of became a really important part of that story. And so as I was writing one of the songs on the album, there's a lyric that says walk into the tavern a few blocks down the road. We could get there faster if we took a car. So we don't just kind of talking about that time together, not being in a rush to get anywhere, just coming to the tavern and sitting and having a meal and being kind of a family for just those little moments was. Was precious.
- [13:25]
Interviewer
That exactly or got me as a father too, because I get it. You want to take the long way because that's time with them. You know, what's the rush to get where we're going? Let's enjoy this journey together. It's. It's beautiful.
- [13:36]
Willie Geist
Hey guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Nick Jonas right after the break.
- [13:44]
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- [14:14]
Interviewer
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Nick Jonas
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Interviewer
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Nick Jonas
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Willie Geist
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Nick Jonas
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- [15:01]
Willie Geist
Welcome back. Now more of my conversation with Nick Jonas.
- [15:06]
Interviewer
Your brothers write with you on at least one of the songs. Is that fun to, like, get back and mix it up with them doing the thing you guys do so well?
- [15:15]
Nick Jonas
What was funny is that this writing camp that I was telling you about, we were all there in different rooms in the studio. So it was this real sense that we were doing our kind of own individual things. Joe was writing for his group, D and C E, which is his other band, and Kevin was writing some stuff for himself and his music that he's making now on his own, and I was writing my stuff. So we kind of were supporting each other, but with a wall between us and listening through the wall to see what the other was doing. But I think as we spend, you know, more and more time together on tour and, you know, even just the fact that we're family, of course, we love to spend time together. Having these individual musical outlets is a really good thing for us. It keeps us kind of sane. And you never want to start to become sort of one thing, one person, right? Because we're three individual artists, and we're, I think, at the point now where we know the brothers will always be the thing. But the rest of these projects just sort of feed that. That bigger, bigger mothership.
- [16:18]
Interviewer
I love that idea. You guys are just hanging out in different studios, hopping together.
- [16:22]
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- [16:22]
Nick Jonas
We'd go listen after one of the songs was finished and give notes or feedback. And Ben finished the day up on the roof of this place. They had a little grill, and we just sit up there and grill and have a beer and it was kind of perfect.
- [16:34]
Interviewer
Sounds perfect. Sounds perfect. Kind of takes you back to. To those woff days across the river. I don't know, 45 minutes, something like that. From where we're sitting right now.
- [16:43]
Nick Jonas
Yeah.
- [16:44]
Interviewer
You've talked a lot about growing up there, and your father being a minister and singing in church, and that music and song just came naturally. It was like what you did in your family. There's a story that I'm wondering if. Is it just like Jonas lore about the hair salon where you're six years old and you start singing while your mom's getting her hair done? Is that a true story?
- [17:06]
Nick Jonas
You know, I always kind of thought it was. It was weird because I. I do remember it very clearly, but I was like, that's kind of a weird situation that I would just be singing in a hair salon.
- [17:15]
Interviewer
Right.
- [17:15]
Nick Jonas
No one was asking me to, but. But now, you know, as a dad, like, my daughter sings all the time, so it makes. Makes more sense. But I was basically in the hair salon with my mom. She was getting her hair done, and I was just hanging out, kind of playing Game Boy or something, singing. And the woman next to my mother was like, hey, my son is on Broadway right now in Les Mis. And your son could do it. You should take him to see this manager, Shirley Grant, who was sort of a legendary kid performer manager in New Jersey. And her office, the walls were lined with headshots of all the famous kid actors that she had worked with. And we walked in, me, my brothers, my parents, and, you know, auditioned for her. And I sang a bunch of pop music songs. Cause I didn't know any musical theater songs. And she was like, it's a good start, but go back and learn, you know, these songs. A song from Oliver, Christmas Carol, the musical Anna Gets Gone. So I went and studied for six months and then came back and auditioned again. Then she started sending me in on auditions. And I did Broadway shows as a kid for a while. Then eventually the sort of longer winded version of his story. Eventually I recorded a song for a benefit city that the Broadway community put on every year for equity fights AIDS. And I was 11 years old. They let me record an original song. And our family friend said, hey, I know somebody that works at Sony Music. And he was like, do you mind if I show it to him? My dad said, sure. We didn't know who this person was. It could have been a big exec or a junior employee, who knows, Ended up being a very important person in the building. The head of, I think, international affairs or something. And they brought me in and signed me. And that was kind of how this whole thing happened. But started at the hair salon in
- [19:05]
Interviewer
Jersey, and at that point, was it in the air that you guys were performers or that you might want to pursue some kind of life in performance, or was this just totally like this spontaneous moment that changed your life in the hair salon?
- [19:18]
Nick Jonas
I always wanted to perform and write songs and sing and act and all this stuff. And the brothers warmed up to it. Joe, I think once he saw how much fun I was having on Broadway as a kid, he was like, I want to do that. And then he did a show, Baz Luhrmann's production of La Boheme. And then Kevin got into, you know, playing guitar. And eventually, as I was working on this, my first solo record at like 11 or 12 years old, I wrote a song with the brothers called Please Be Mine, Our Little Bedroom in Wyckoff. And that was the start to all of it. And, you know, it was years before anyone would care and a lot of, you know, time and money spent trying to make it happen. But thankfully, stars aligned.
- [20:03]
Interviewer
I've heard you say about your Broadway experience at such a young age, when you were like 9 years old during Annie get yout Gun with Reba and all that, which is like, you learned how to be a professional. Like, it was unusual that the 9 year old is playing with the adults and all that, but you learned, like, this is how you show up for work, you're on time, all those things. So at that point, did you feel the foundation building of, like, oh, this is definitely what I want to do in some form. This is who I want to be someday?
- [20:29]
Nick Jonas
Yeah. I definitely loved the structure of having a job, you know, and took a lot of pride in that. I, I would, like, go into work each day and even stayed back in New Jersey and New York to do shows when my family had booked a cruise ship. So I stayed with friends, but I wanted to keep working. And I think those early days really set the foundation of a stage for the work ethic that it takes to do this. It's a tough gig at times, traveling as much as. As you kind of have to to make it happen. And, you know, I think that that early, those early Broadway experiences also were great training wheels for what would then become our work with Disney and other things, as me and the brothers got into doing film and TV and understanding what it meant to take something seriously and know that there was a ton of people who would love to be in that position doing what you're doing. So take it seriously.
- [21:26]
Interviewer
That ability to grind, I figure served you pretty well because when you guys get together and put out that first album and it doesn't do huge business. You kind of get dropped right from the label and you almost had to reset in some ways and go, okay, how do we get where we want to go? It didn't take that long. It turns out it was like a year later your big first album comes out. But what were those earlyish days with the brothers like when you're like, oh, we're going to have to figure out how to make this happen. Nobody's going to hand it to us.
- [21:55]
Nick Jonas
Well, it was honestly kind of desperation. Our, Our, you know, father basically lost his, his job when we left church and, and we were living in this house that a. A family friend was. Was letting us live in for, for very, very little on the lease. And, and you know, we were, we were maxed out on credit cards from self funding our, our career. And you know, it was, it was a, a tough moment. It needed to happen because the alternative was a difficult reality to face. So what we did in that period, just after we were dropped from that first label to when we signed with our next label out in California, just went down to the basement and started writing songs. And our parents are really encouraging of that outlet because it was the only thing sort of keeping us hopeful. That and the fact that we were playing some shows and the fans were small and mighty. We would say it was small venues and a really passionate sort of core base, but it hadn't reached mass level yet. But going down there and writing music, telling our stories about things that were relevant to us at that time. Songs like SOS and Hold on, that now when we play those 20 years later, I think have even more significance and more relevance to us because it marks a chapter in our life that really was about survival. And you know, I'm really, really happy that we got that phone call pretty soon after and you know, Disney and Hollywood Records saying, we know what to do with these three teenagers. We're gonna turn on the faucet and market this the right way. And it sort of worked out after that. Another reminder of how important it is to have good teammates and good partners and collaborators.
- [23:46]
Interviewer
The famed Disney Faucet, when it goes on it's fire hose, different level. So. So from there, Nick, how do you explain. Because it really was, if you look at the calendar, it was like a year later you get draft from your label and then you put out the next album one year later and it, you know, flies up the Billboard charts. You're getting these huge crowds. So I'm trying to sort out what happened in that year that went from, well, maybe this isn't going to work out. We're in the basement trying to sort it out to, oh, this thing has exploded. Yeah.
- [24:17]
Nick Jonas
So we, we had a song that was out called year 3000 and you know, it hadn't really worked per se, but the minute we signed with Hollywood Records, which is under the Disney umbrella, the first thing they, they did, which was incredible, is they said, you know, we're gonna, we're gonna start to market this the way that we know how. So with the Disney Channel and other avenues that were part of a Disney family. And while that was happening, we went in and made our first album under that label. It's our self titled album. And all the songs that were on that were written in that basement, that little house in Jersey we were living in. And the thing that blew my mind is I expected to have to sort of fight to have our voices heard. I thought maybe they'd say, no, you gotta work with these producers and these writers and we're sort of mandate what this becomes. Instead, John Lynn, rest in peace. He was our A and R guy and one of the executives at the label, and he just said, who do you want to work with? We said, John Fields, because we were obsessed with Switchfoot and he had produced that record and he said, cool, I'll call him right now. He called him up and a couple hours later, I think we, we had John Fields on to produce our album.
- [25:25]
Interviewer
Wow.
- [25:26]
Nick Jonas
And they empowered us to really believe in ourselves and to follow our creative instincts and even said things at times like, you know, who better to speak to this audience than people who are their peers? And I think that's why we have such a deep and meaningful connection with our fans, is because singing about first heartbreak, first love, you know, all the things an angsty teenager feels at times became a real connection point with people with the fans. And, you know, I think it was that combined with the power of having a great teammate in Disney and their ability to market that just sort of made things blow up. And, you know, it was a fascinating kind of nine months where it went from maybe 600 people at a show to 6,000, and then after that it was 12,000 and then 50, and it just kept growing. And, you know, I still feel like it's all kind of a blur, but what a wonderful blur it was.
- [26:28]
Willie Geist
Stick around for more of my conversation with Nick Jonas. Right after a quick break, the day
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- [26:59]
Nick Jonas
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- [27:35]
Interviewer
Why have I asked my electrician I found on Angie.com to bury my pet
- [27:38]
Nick Jonas
hamster Nibbles in our yard for me?
- [27:40]
Interviewer
Because I was so moved by how carefully he buried my electrical wires, I
- [27:44]
Nick Jonas
knew I could trust him to bury
- [27:46]
Interviewer
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Nick Jonas
Hey, sorry about your pet, but I just wire stuff.
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Nick Jonas
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- [28:06]
Willie Geist
welcome back now to the rest of my conversation with Nick Jonas.
- [28:12]
Interviewer
I don't know how at your age, cause at that point you're 14, 15, something like that. Yeah, I have a 16 year old boy. How you were able to keep your head if you did or have any perspective on anything, when all of a sudden, like you say, the space of a few months, there are football stadiums of people screaming for you and you're as famous as someone can be. How do you manage that? As any person. But how did you manage it as a teenager?
- [28:40]
Nick Jonas
Gotta give all the credit to our parents, you know, they did an amazing job and I think we all turned out relatively normal for the most part. It's them, it's, you know, our team's been the same forever. You know, the faces haven't changed and I think that says a lot about the culture with the sort of Jonas family in general. Is that it's more common that someone leaves for a chapter and then comes back and is a part of this team in a meaningful way. And I love that about it. And all of those people, whether it was band members that then went into management or management that's been there from day one, they all sort of were responsible for helping us become the people we've become. And also we checked each other a lot of the time too, which was a. A very important thing at times.
- [29:32]
Interviewer
Yeah. I've interviewed guys from One Direction, sort of asked a version of that, and they're like, we had each other, that's why. And you just form this bubble and you're almost not even aware of how big it is until you go out on the stage and you go, oh, right, there are 60, 000 people here. But having those, having your brothers with you must have been a. A blanket of security at least, anyway, a place to go.
- [29:53]
Nick Jonas
Absolutely, yeah. And we had, you know, things that were important. Never rules, but ways in which we would navigate different parts of this sort of crazy journey. And one of those, which I recently just actually shared with another group that asked, what's your advice for a group? And how to stay like, you know, to not get mad at all that. And I was like, you know, you just gotta find time each week to just do something for you guys where it's not work related.
- [30:25]
Interviewer
Yeah.
- [30:26]
Nick Jonas
And actually someone gave us that advice and it was great advice just to be like, hey, whether it's a meal or a hike or, you know, going to see a game, like whatever it is, right. It can. It can become all about the work all the time. And just taking a second to sit down and not talk about that is it keeps the relationship intact.
- [30:44]
Interviewer
So with all that said, how difficult was it for you to step out on your own and say, I love you guys, I'm going to go try this thing by myself. Was that hard to separate from them? Number one, but number two, to walk out on stage and look back and go, oh, they're not here anymore. This is. It's all me.
- [31:01]
Nick Jonas
Yeah. I think in some ways now that we're, I don't know, 13, 14 years removed from that chapter of our journey, I think it was probably more about me needing as a person even less as an artist and creator, meaning to sort of find my identity and, you know, being clumped into a group, it's hard to know who you are and to feel like you have a voice of your own. And the creative part of that was just Sort of, like, connected to it. It wasn't the driving force, even though then I probably would have said it was, you know, because that's an easier thing to digest. But to say, hey, I need to not be a brother right now. I need to just be my own person. And we've had a lot of time to unpack that and kind of heal. And one of the things I think we all say is that it was important for all of us, whether we knew it or not, to take that step away from this thing we were doing together for 12 years and just say, okay, who are we and what's important to us? And eventually the answer became, well, I'm a brother who needs his brothers and who also has the freedom to be an individual in that. And each of us found that, which I think is why it made sense to come back and why it was better than before. And, you know, why there's no risk of that happening again? Because some of those tough conversations were long overdue and were finally had.
- [32:32]
Interviewer
There had to be a little bit of trepidation, a little bit of fear about was our success, about our thing, and am I going to succeed when I step out there? And therefore, so gratifying when instantly your audience said, yeah, we're with you. We like what you're doing. That had to feel great, because it was probably scary.
- [32:49]
Nick Jonas
It was very scary. And it was. It was compounded with, you know, a desire to get into acting as well.
- [32:55]
Interviewer
Yes.
- [32:55]
Nick Jonas
Something that I had done when I was young in the Broadway days, but then to come back and do it as an adult was a totally different thing, because I was met with a lot of closed doors, people saying, I don't want a Jonas Brother for this role. There was, at that time, somewhat of a stigma around it, because I think people related our work and our name with things that were of less quality than they would like. And it was exciting to dig in and start to say, okay, what are some shots I can take that feel unattainable at this moment and challenge myself in that way, both in the acting side, but also on the music side. And when things started to connect with things like Jealous and Chains and those early solo songs, I was relieved because I was like, oh, I can do this. But I was always sort of missing that feeling of the magic that came with the brothers. And, you know, now I think I'm so often fed that thing because we tour almost every year and get to be in front of our fans, and it directly inspires me to go and do solo Stuff and then to come back and play those solo songs on the brothers stage. Cause that is a full sort of 360, you know, 1 8, whatever, like turn on all of it. Because that would not have happened before.
- [34:20]
Interviewer
Right, right. Well, I mean, I'm sure, yeah. Because when you break up, when you break up, there's no guarantee that it's going to work out in the end. But to get back together as you did and go on this tour and everybody gets something, right? You have the songs you did together and they have all their individual work too. That's just got to be amazing that your audience, as I say, is still with you. I mean, they're still feeling. You just got off tour a couple of weeks ago to sold out venues all over the place. And as you say, they've kind of grown with you, right?
- [34:50]
Nick Jonas
Yeah, it's. It's, I think, more gratifying at this stage than ever, you know, to look out and see, you know, that multi generational effect and to see young people who weren't even alive when we began making music, who were introduced to us because of their parents and how cool is that? I mean, it's like they're indoctrinating their kids into the Jonas Brothers thing.
- [35:15]
Interviewer
But there is like, my kids know Nick Jonas and then they go through his music. Oh, he was in a band before that because. Just because of their age alone.
- [35:23]
Nick Jonas
So funny.
- [35:23]
Interviewer
And they think it's cool that, oh, his brothers play with him, you know, and you get the. It's a different view of, of the Jonas Brothers.
- [35:30]
Nick Jonas
Absolutely. And I think, you know, that the TikTok element of it all now too.
- [35:35]
Interviewer
And.
- [35:35]
Nick Jonas
Yeah, and the fun that we're able to have with things like that, you know, as we continue to push ourselves musically and kind of deliver records that reach the standard that we have for ourselves, but also not taking ourselves too seriously. You know, the Christmas movie that we put out on Disney this last year, it was always a dream of ours to do a Christmas movie. And this was back in the day with Disney. But for that to come full circle and to say, hey, maybe it's even better timing now that we're dads, we're adults, to do this and tell this story and just have fun with it. We chased validation for a long time from certain establishments that we felt like would make us feel like enough. Then at some point we just started saying what makes us happy and what's going to make our fans happy. And people at home want to be with the people they love and enjoying either an album or a movie, whatever. And that's kind of our driving force now, which feels a lot more attainable and sustainable.
- [36:41]
Interviewer
Twenty years into this ride or so, do you guys take time to say, can you believe where we ended up? From that basement, we were writing songs out of desperation. Can you believe that we're selling out football stadiums and the people sing all these words we wrote in the basement back to us? Do you guys allow yourselves those moments?
- [37:02]
Nick Jonas
We do. Yeah. I think the start of his last tour at MetLife Stadium carried a lot of significance for us, given that we. We lived 15, 20 minutes away from there, and we would drive past it on our way into the city every time we'd be going in to write a song here with whoever and, you know, to look out and see that sea of people in our home state, in our hometown stadium was incredible. And we took a moment after the show and just kind of looked at each other and said, how did we get here? And how does it keep leveling up and getting bigger and more exciting and, honestly, more fun? And the answer is, I don't know. But I'm glad it did, and I'm glad I've gotten to do all this with these two guys who I absolutely adore, and our youngest brother, Franklin, who came and supported us on the tour as our opening act. To see him shine and now be involved in the story and the way that he is is so incredible.
- [38:15]
Interviewer
From the hair salon to MetLife. That's a hell of a ride.
- [38:18]
Nick Jonas
That's wild. Yeah, it's crazy.
- [38:21]
Interviewer
You, given everything I've just described, you're still only 33 years old. Like, you've had all this life and career. So as you look at the next chapter or future chapters, you've acted, you've done Broadway, even movies, tv, obviously all the music. Do you have visions of other things that you want to do with all this Runway you still have in front of you?
- [38:44]
Nick Jonas
I do. I've got a lot of things I want to do, and I definitely feel like I'm still very much at the start of my journey, which is frightening and also, you know, encouraging. And, you know, there's things like a musical that I've been toying with for a while and trying to kind of sink my teeth in and finish it. That's something I want to see happen. You know, there's a bunch of film and TV projects that I've been developing for kind of years and learning about that process, it's really tough to get anything made. And so when something does get made. It's so exciting, and it seems like one of them actually will this year. So that'll be cool for me and my creative partner to kind of be on a set of something that we helped develop. And in addition to that, musically, I just want to keep chasing kind of truth and giving people a window into my life and my journey as a person. I've lived a very public life for more of my life than I haven't now, and I don't really have the ability to. To be completely anonymous or to write music from some angle that isn't reflective of what people can already see. And so I get excited at the prospect of collaborating with people who help me articulate my lived experience in a way that everyone can connect with. You don't have to have been in that hair salon or at MetLife to know what it's like to want to get back in touch with your inner child or to miss the simplicity of going to Blockbuster and having a hot pizza box on your lap while your dad's driving. The safety of that, knowing that you're in a place where everyone knows your name. These are all themes on the album and things that became incredibly important for me to speak about because I think it's. It's honestly what connects me to my community and my craft.
- [41:05]
Interviewer
Congratulations on the album. I'm glad you came on Sunday today to talk about Sunday Best. I think it's fitting the title itself. Sunday Best means what to you.
- [41:14]
Nick Jonas
Sunday Best was one of the first lyrics I wrote for the album was back when I was young, my faith was on fire in my Sunday Best sing with my chest while the band played again, full revival. And it was literally the first line I wrote with a friend of mine named Paris Carney and Tommy English and Ryan Daly. And I was like, I want to set the stage for what it was like sitting in that first pew in my suit, singing as loud as I could, watching the band play, the choir sing and all that, because it really. It had a big impression on who I became as a person and a musician. And my faith has changed and evolved, and my belief is still very strong. And I'm a person of great faith and have a connection to my God that I think is always within the music that I make. Now. This record is not a religious record by any means, but it'd be impossible to ignore that some of those roots are in there. And it was important for me to. To lean back into some of that because it. It really shaped who I became.
- [42:23]
Interviewer
Spiritual, soulful. It's all. Absolutely feels that way. Thank you.
- [42:26]
Nick Jonas
Thanks for having me.
- [42:27]
Interviewer
Great. Congratulations, man. Thanks so much.
- [42:29]
Nick Jonas
Thank you.
- [42:29]
Interviewer
Thank you.
- [42:35]
Willie Geist
My big thanks to Nick for a great conversation there at Tavern on the Green. His new album, Sunday Best is out now. And my big thanks to to all of you for listening again this week. If you want to hear more of my conversations with our guests every week, be sure to click follow so you never miss an episode. And don't forget to tune into Sunday TODAY every weekend on NBC to see these interviews with your own two eyes. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you right back here next week on the Sunday Sit down podcast.
- [43:12]
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- [43:22]
Nick Jonas
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