The JoBros Revealed Nick's First Disney Love & More Secrets In 'Chasing Happiness'
The Jonas Brothers are baring it all in their new documentary Chasing Happiness. The film, which premiered June 4 on Amazon Prime, covers the brothers' rise to fame in excruciating detail. Fans of the band learn all about the brothers' ups and downs over the years and even what it was like for them to disband in 2013. Needless to say, they're unleashing all their best kept secrets in the new documentary and fans are loving every second of it. These 10 Jonas Brothers secrets revealed in the Chasing Happiness documentary will give you excellent insight into how this trio works and stays together.
Here's a look at all the juicy secrets the brothers revealed in the documentary:
1. Nick and Joe Hated Kevin's Reality Show Married To Jonas
In 2012 and 2013, Kevin and his wife Danielle Deleasa appeared in a reality show called Married To Jonas. The show aired on E! and gave a look at what life was like for the couple, but in Chasing Happiness, Nick and Joe admitted that they didn't like it.
“Our whole life was a closed-door meeting, and Kevin invited cameras into that meeting, finally. We felt like he was going to air out a lot of our sh*t that we didn’t want people to know about,” Joe says in the documentary, later adding, “We didn’t like the idea that the reality show could dictate who we were. To watch it every Sunday was not fun for us.”
Kevin agreed, “Joe and Nick didn’t want anything to do with it. They were kind of forced to do the show.”
I guess Kevin just felt like he needed to forge his own path and Nick and Joe had to go along with it!
2. The Brothers Had To Keep Their First Record Deal A Secret
In the documentary, Kevin revealed that he was so excited about the Jonas Brothers’ first record deal that he wanted to tell the world. But his dad’s job as a pastor kept him from saying anything.
“I was in high school at this point, and I was so excited,” Kevin said of that time in their careers. “But I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone that we were signed because my dad was a pastor of a church… We didn’t want my dad to lose his job potentially. We were signed to a secular label, and we weren’t making a Christian album.”
And Nick revealed that he though some took issue with the brothers singing about girls and love.
“I think there was some judgment on us for not being a Christian band,” he said. “Singing about girls started to become an issue… I realized our dream that we were chasing freaked a lot of people out in the church.”
Wow, it sounds like the brothers had a lot to grapple with those first few years of stardom.
3. Nick’s Diabetes Diagnosis Was A Life-Changing Moment For The Family
In 2005, Nick was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. But, according to his brothers, he was showing signs of an illness before his official diagnosis.
In Chasing Happiness, the brothers revealed that in the weeks prior to being diagnosed, Nick would urinate frequently and demand to stop for pizza and Diet Coke.
“I looked at him, and I could see every single bone in his body,” Kevin said.
Then, during an appointment with a doctor, Nick was told to go to the hospital and Joe just couldn’t handle it.
“I passed out in the hospital room because I couldn’t see him hooked up to all these wires,” Joe said. “It was a life-shifting moment for everybody.”
It sounds like this situation was a hard pill to swallow for everyone. Luckily, Nick is perfectly healthy now, and an advocate for for diabetes awareness.
4. The Brothers Didn’t Appreciate Being Made Fun Of For Their Purity Rings
As you probably already know, the brothers were well-known for their purity rings at the start of their careers. The rings were a vow the brothers had made to abstain from sex before marriage. But it didn’t quite work out as they planned. The band was frequently criticized and made fun of for their choice.
“They were saying Disney created a band who were these cookie-cutter boy band brothers and that everything was perfect and that they used Christianity and purity rings as a way to sell music to kids,” Joe said in Chasing Happiness. “I mean, they weren’t far off, that’s for sure.”
As the jokes continued, the brothers became even more mortified.
“It was embarrassing,” Nick admitted. “When I would go to a sporting event, and they would put me on the jumbotron or us, they would boo us. As a sports fanatic, I would be so hurt.”
Kevin then added, “It’s funny cause we never talked about the disappointment of those things.”
5. Kevin Was Bullied As a Kid
Kevin said that he was kind of an oddball growing up. He participated in gymnastics, pole vaulting, and magic, and because those weren't considered "normal" for boys to be into, other kids would make fun of him, and even more so because his family didn't have money. Kevin said that he became a target and kids would call him names like "gay," "f*g," and "p*sshead."
He revealed, "They would break me down. I remember coming home from school and, like, crying to my parents."
The hardest part of it all was that Kevin felt like he couldn't fit in anywhere and that he couldn't connect with other people.
Thankfully, Kevin found that through music.
6. Joe Was Originally The Only Brother Offered a Role on Camp Rock
The 2008 Disney Channel movie Camp Rock starred the Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato. In the film, Joe, Kevin, and Nick played a band called "Connect 3," with Joe playing the leading role of Shane alongside Lovato's Mitchie. The film further popularized the Jonas Brothers' music and helped launch the Demi Lovato's career.
While it's hard to imagine the film without all three Jonas Brothers, you'll be surprised to find out that Joe was originally the only brother offered a role in the film. At the time, the JoBros considered taking the offer, but ultimately decided that they couldn't split the band up.
Kevin said, "My dad called the president of Disney Channel and said, what if instead of just Joe it was a band?"
The rest was history.
7. Nick Started Writing About Love After He Met Miley Cyrus
In the documentary, Kevin talked about all the attention that he and his brothers received from girls when the band was blowing up. Kevin and Joe would be each others' wing men, but for Nick, he seemed to only have eyes on one girl: Miley Cyrus. In 2007, the Jonas Brothers starred in an episode of Hannah Montana, and that was where Nick met Miley Cyrus for the first time.
Kevin said, "I think that kid's head exploded," and added that meeting Miley "changed girls for Nick forever."
Nick said, "I started writing about love and I actually knew what it felt like."
You never forget your first love, and clearly, Miley Cyrus was Nick's.
8. Nick Regretted Doing a Second Season of Jonas
During a drinking game, Nick admitted that his biggest regret as a band was doing a second season of their Disney Channel show, Jonas.
"We shouldn't have done that. It really stunted our growth, you know? I feel like it was just a bad move," Nick said.
He explained that the group couldn't evolve because of the show, especially because they were becoming adults and the show targeted a much younger audience.
"It didn't feel like it was us anymore. It felt young," Joe said.
9. When Joe's Solo Album Didn't Do Well, He Felt Like a Failure
Following Nick launching his side project for Nick Jonas and the Administration, Joe began working on his solo album, Fastlife, which was released in 2011. Joe felt like the album was his opportunity to show the world that he didn't need his brothers to be successful, but unfortunately, it didn't work out as great as he thought.
Joe admitted, "The music didn't do as well as I anticipated."
He felt like a failure and that he couldn't do anything without Kevin or Nick. Joe said, "It was embarrassing."
10. Kevin Was Hurt When Joe and Nick Performed a Jonas Brothers Gig Without Him
In 2013, Joe and Nick were supposed to play individual sets at a radio show, but they ended up performing Jonas Brothers songs... without Kevin. Ouch.
"All the big hits, all the big moments, and I'm just not there," Kevin said.
It was the hardest moment of his life and all this time, he wondered why his brothers would backstab him like that.
During the drinking game, Joe revealed, "I think it's because we felt you were holding us back."
Because Kevin was starting a family, Joe felt like Kevin's priority wasn't music anymore and that he couldn't balance a family while having a music career. Joe realizes now that he was wrong and it took falling in love with Sophie Turner to realize that.
"It took me a long time to understand that," Joe said.
All in all, it sounds like there's quite a lot about the Jonas Brothers that fans didn't know about until now. There's a time for everything, I suppose!
