The Jonas Brothers Said Their Purity Rings Were "Embarrassing"

Remember when the Jonas Brothers first became famous, and all anyone could talk about where their purity rings? Well, even if you don't, the Jonas Brothers’ quotes about their purity rings in their new documentary, Chasing Happiness, proves they sure do, and they've got thoughts on the matter, to say the least. According to the brothers, the whole purity ring thing started when they were kids growing up in church. But they quickly came to the realization that the whole chastity thing wasn't actually for them.

"In the Church, it was encouraged that we go through this program. It was, like, wait for the right person or wait for marriage. All the kids that I grew up with were doing it so I was like, 'Oh, this is cool.' Probably by 15 I was like, ‘What?! What is this?’" Joe admitted. "And that was not who we were, it was just something that we did when we were young kids. But we wore the rings through the first bit of the band starting to explode. At that point, it was already too late because it was in the media."

The purity rings became such a media sensation that the brothers even felt as though the rings were overshadowing their success. "We had all this success and that’s the only thing we could hear or focus on, was things that people were saying about us," Kevin said.

Nick even went so far as to say being the butt of a nation-wide joke as a result of the rings was "embarrassing." "It was embarrassing to be aware of this joke in real life with people," Nick added. "When I would go to a sporting event, they would put me on the jumbotron, or us, or whatever, they would boo us. As a sports fanatic, I would be so hurt because I was like, 'I am one of you. I’m just like you.'"

The men would have probably moved past the purity ring thing earlier if it wasn't for their Disney Channel show, Jonas. The men agreed that returning for season two of the series stunted their growth as a band and forced them to continue the "cookie cutter" image Disney had created for them by harping on their oaths of chastity.

"We shouldn’t have done that. It really stunted our growth, you know?" Nick said. "I feel like it was just a bad move. Like, it was just not the time. Literally, we couldn’t evolve because of it."

"The show was not good," Joe agreed enthusiastically. "It didn’t feel like it was us anymore. It felt young and we’re becoming adults.”

"It was not on brand for us, with the band we were becoming, the songs we were writing," Kevin added. "… I think that affected the perception of the band that we were a joke. They’re not real. They’re robots."

The joke got so out of hand that South Park even did an episode on the brothers. "They were saying Disney created a band who were these cookie-cutter boy band brothers. That everything was perfect and they used Christianity and purity rings as a way to sell music to kids," Joe said of the episode. "I mean, they weren’t far off that’s for sure."

Oof.