Joe Jonas has some pretty eye-catching things to say in this week’s issue of New York magazine. In an insightful essay penned by the middle bro entitled “Joe Jonas: My Life as a Jonas Brother,” he speaks his truth on everything from his relationships, to experimenting with drugs, and his struggles with the band and his Disney darling image.
Here are some of the boy band bombshells from the story:
Disney: “Disney is great at creating fame…[but] being a part of a company like that comes with certain expectations. Not overtly, but there was a subtle vibe. We were working with Disney in 2007 when the Vanessa Hudgens nude-photo scandal happened. We heard that she had to be in the Disney offices for a whole day because they were trying to figure out how to keep her on lockdown.”
Promise Rings: “The topic that dominated news coverage of us for a long time was the whole promise-ring thing. We couldn’t escape it…Because of our age, because of Disney, because of those rings; there were so many things throughout our career that we had to sugarcoat. If a lyric was slightly sexual, someone at the record company would tell us we had to change it.”
Bye-Bye Rings: “I lost my virginity when I was 20. I did other stuff before then, but I was sexually active at 20. I’m glad I waited for the right person, because you look back and you go, ‘That girl was bats–t crazy. I’m glad I didn’t go there.”
Demi Drama: “One relationship that meant a lot to fans was the one I had with Demi Lovato, who I’ve known for years…I really got to know her and got to see the ins and outs of what she was struggling with, like drug abuse. I felt I needed to take care of her, but at the same time I was living a lie, because I wasn’t happy but felt like I had to stay in it for her, because she needed help. I couldn’t express any of that, of course, because I had a brand to protect.”
Experimenting with Weed: “The first time I smoked weed was with Demi and Miley [Cyrus]. I must have been 17 or 18. They kept saying, ‘Try it! Try it!’ so I gave it a shot, and it was all right. I don’t even smoke weed that often anymore.”
Breaking Up the Band: “[It] was going on for a lot longer than a lot of people thought. We hit a place where we just weren’t jelling on the same things, and we didn’t want to become a band that was worried about the fact that people didn’t understand how cool we were. The whole situation was breaking us up as a family, and we ultimately felt like we were holding each other back.”
For more of what Joe has to say, read the whole story.