BURNIN' UP

Jonas Brothers Lift Lid on Price Family Paid for Their Music

The brothers’ first album caused a major rift in their hometown church.

The Jonas Brothers have said child stardom had a devastating effect on their family. Reflecting on the band’s upcoming 20th anniversary, Nick Jonas told People that their 2006 debut album, It’s About Time, cost their father his livelihood. “Our father also lost his job effectively because we weren’t making solely Christian music, and he was a pastor,” said Nick, 33. “Our shift to singing about love and romance and heartbreak caused that to happen.” Nick and his brothers—Joe, 36, Kevin, 38, and non-band member Frankie, 25, often nicknamed the bonus Jonas—were raised in Wyckoff, New Jersey, where their father, Kevin Sr., was a minister with the Assemblies of God Pentecostal church. His firing put “a lot of pressure” on the brothers to find success as teenagers, said Nick. “Financially, we were in a really vulnerable position, and we’d spent all this money that we kind of didn’t have,” added the youngest band member. “It was bad. We either had to succeed or we had to shift.” It’s About Time was a commercial flop, and the brothers were dropped by their record label. However, Kevin Sr.’s unemployment allowed the family to relocate to Los Angeles, where the band quickly signed with a new label. Their second album, Jonas Brothers, debuted at #5 on the Billboard Top 100 the following year, and remains their best-selling album to date.