Like many artists, Nick Jonas was discovered in an unconventional location: “I found myself in a hair salon with my mom, singing, as I did,” he recalls in Rolling Stone‘s new episode of Journeys, estimating he was five or six years old at the time. “Someone heard me and said to my mom, ‘you should take your son to see this manager.'”
If you’ve ever wanted to see footage of a pint-size Nick Jonas performing onstage in Les Misérables as the adorable street urchin Gavroche or singing the Christmas song that landed him a record deal at age 11 or busting out “So Long, Farewell” from The Sound of Music in rare home-movie footage, this is your chance. In our mini documentary, Jonas retraces the steps of his career, from his earliest Broadway performances to his time rewriting boy-band history in the Jonas Brothers to his new, self-titled solo LP (his first since he was 13 years old), which blends R&B, soul and pop in unexpected ways.
“When I think back on the Jonas Brothers years, a lot of it feels like a blur,” he admits. “The first Top Five album, then a Number One album. . . performing at the White House. . . performing with Stevie Wonder.” Reflecting on those earlier days now, Jonas has a fresh perspective now: “I feel like we hadn’t quite developed in the way we should have to have that level of success. I think the hype of that may have surpassed our expectations at times.”
The trio’s split hasn’t divided the Brothers, and Jonas says they’re a stronger unit now than ever before: “We definitely made the right decision.” After a month or two, he got the itch to start working on solo music, and just a year after the group disbanded, “my life’s in a totally different place.”
