August 27, 2017 • 22 mins
On the special LIVE episode, Elvis Duran had another revealing conversation with Nick Jonas, who talks about how you can’t be selfish with your art.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Sometimes as an artist, it's just as much about what
you want to say, but also what you want to
give the world, and you know you can't be selfish
with your art. There was a year and a half,
two years of time where I was thinking, all right,
at twenty one, I'm gonna be washed up. This is
I Heart Radio is label to Fires with Zico Coconut Water,
where we rip off labels to reveal the sides of
(00:23):
your favorite artists and celebrities you didn't know. We get
to know the real then. Label to Fires was created
with our friends at Zico Coconut Water, who encourage you
to read the label to see what's inside Zico. What's
inside is everything. The podcast is officially on How you doing?
You're good? All right? Good, welcome, Welcome to my Heart
Radio and thanks to Zico. This is labeled to Fires.
(00:46):
Labeled to Fires, Well, it's all in the name, you
know what. We sometimes put labels on people and things
and they aren't always accurate. This is an opportunity for
us to go beyond the labels and ask people, hey,
what label could be on you? And let's make it
evaporate if you want, or let's strengthen it if you want.
We've had some incredible guests. We've had Commie Caballo, We've
(01:07):
had Charlie Pooth, Miley Cyrus, Dammi Lavado, and today we're
ending it with our only audience podcast, and we're glad
you're here. So we can't have a discussion with one
of our best friends in the music industry and in
movies as well, Nick Jonas. Come on out, Nick, Hello, Nick,
(01:31):
thank you very much for coming out that good huh. So,
As I was explaining to Nick earlier, this is what
you wear when you get dressed in the dark. You
look great, but it's a good look wearing shoes with
no socks. I kind of do that a lot because
I just don't have a foot problem, no socks at all,
(01:53):
but I have band aids because all right, well, thanks
for coming. Thank you, Zico. I'm so happy you're here
for many reasons. You have so much to talk about,
and even though we have a little bit of time,
I want to cover as much as we can. We
could talk movies, we could talk family, we could talk music,
talk everything. We can talk about diabetes, diabetes, we can
talk about everything. Let's start with music. I know you
(02:13):
have a body of work on the way, and that's
as much as we're going to talk about that. What
happens is basically, you know, you make the record, you
have to create a process and then management team and
I Heart Radio and others get involved to help you
set it up properly. So it's not that I don't
want to talk about, but I think I want to
save some of the rollout for the plan that we have,
but I will talk about the creative process for this
(02:34):
and how it's been just completely different to previous work
that I've done. The key for me was that I
did a film last year and then rolled right into
season three of Kingdom and TV show that I've been
doing the last couple of years, and I realized, you know,
between tour to film projects, I really didn't have much
time to just live life. And I think it's really
important as an artist to go and live and see
the world and travel and be around great people, eat
(02:56):
too much of times, drink too much many times, and
then get inspired to right And that's kind of what
I did. When you look at your last album, the
messaging in there to me was relationship, love found, love lost.
So there's a label sort of right there. But yeah,
now with the new body of work, is it about
what you just said about traveling, about living your life
and has it been in a good life? What are
(03:16):
we gonna hear as far as your music reflection? Yeah,
you know this body of work, and I'll start with
just the single which is gonna be out next month,
which I'm very excited about. It does touch on relationships
and love at times, but it's also about so much more.
To me. I think it's about capturing the optimistic mind
friend that I'm in at this point in my life,
and some of the joy that I've experienced, both with
friends and also in relationships, but really just being young
(03:38):
and free and seeing the world and enjoying life, which
is very different tone of the last stuff, which was
specifically about one chapter of my life. And when we
talked about defying labels, you know, I think the key
is to acknowledge you know where you've been and also
have an eye towards where you're going at the beginning
stages of the creative process, and it was a through
line through everything, and it wasn't until one night I
was actually out at this magazine launch in l A
(04:01):
and it was a party, and it was a bunch
of people I didn't really know very well, had just
come from this great trip with a bunch of friends,
and I was just discouraged, you know. And so I
when the car turned on country radio and listen to
some of my favorite country music, which I think has
the best storytelling and some of the best melodies. And
regardless of what your taste is in music, I think
you can appreciate the storytelling and that aspect of it.
And so that's another area where there's no genres anymore.
(04:23):
There's no reason to have to specify what you're into
your taste of music. And so I drew a lot
of inspiration from that, and it kind of started me
on the journey to writing the new stuff. But it
took a low point of being discouraged to see some
hope in some announcement all right, I'm good now, I'm
ready to go and make this record. He said something
really interesting about how the walls are coming down as
far as different genres of music. So how could someone
(04:43):
in the hip hop world actually learn something from the
country world on top of what you were just saying
and the storytelling And what is it about country music
that kind of makes them the most obvious when it
comes to being able to tell a really great story.
It may be hard to see right away, but there
are a lot of similarities between hip hop and some
of the greatest story tellers and hip hop and I
love Common I love Eminem obviously, and Jay of course,
(05:05):
and Kanye tell amazing stories in the music, and Chance
has done an amazing job of really telling his life
stories and in the same way. You know, I went
to Garth Brooks show out in l A recently and
have the time of my life and realized an hour
into the show, not only was I having a great
time and arm in arm with my brothers singing songs
we grew up listening to, I realized that his songs
became a part of the fabric of my life in
(05:26):
a way that only true artistry and great storytelling can do.
Uninsured Prayers, for instance, which is I think one of
the best songs of all time. My grandfather used to
call and send me that on the phone. You know.
So I'm at the show and I'm just having fun,
and all of a sudden I get hit with this
real emotion, this real impact of art and someone giving
you their life stories. It's powerful and that's the gift,
(05:46):
and that's what I want to do for people listen
to my music, which is a shift I'm trying to make.
It's about just giving and supplying, not just the fans,
but the world was something that they can make a
part of the fabric of their life. So do breakups
always make the best songs? Or breakups actually the most
too obvious place to go to write a song? And
almost yea way sometimes I think so. I think that
(06:07):
I'm drawn to darker chords musically and melodies that are darker.
But for some reason this time it's like really bright
and really positive and you can hear that. You can
hear it. I mean, have you sat down by yourself
with your last album and what you've completed for the
new one, You can actually sonically detect the difference and
you actually stopping like hyper analyze yourself through your own
(06:29):
your music. Yeah, definitely. I was intentional with that as well,
with the way I was writing it. I wanted it
to be specifically about this thing. But I had a
really interesting conversation with David Massey, who you know, he's
the head of the label that I'm on. Also he's
the guy that signed me when I was eleven years old.
Ten years later almost he signed me again, and now
we're four years into our journey together again and it's great.
(06:49):
But we were talking about just growth and where I
wanted to go and this change I wanted to make creatively,
and I acknowledge the fact that the last record was
way more about my journey was like what I was
going through. He said, you know, it's important to recognize
that sometimes as an artist, it's just as much about
what you want to say, but also what you want
to give the world. Can't be selfish with your art.
Sounds like that's some good point. By the way, this
(07:10):
is just a side note. I think is really funny.
Funny is not the right word. It's I think it's
really amazing. My friend is a great sort of like
genius producer guy. And for fun he did a remix
of close, my song close, but done in classic eighties fashion,
Michael Bolton style, and I want to play it for
you guys who know it's hard this but it's amazing.
(07:30):
So it's right off your iPhone. It's right off my
iPhone if I can find it. I had to send
it to Joe three times because he was like, this
is the best thing I've ever heard, so best as
in train Wreck or best as it actually it's like
actually amazing, excellent on the side of the road, or
hold on me, pull it up. Here we go. I
gotta send it to toflow to actually after this, but
this goes to you know, talking about breaking genres and
(07:52):
everything's okay. You know, close is like an art house
pop song and now it's going to be If you
have to label what is it now? I would say
it's classic eighties. There's a sax solo. Okay, I'll don't
do so just at I'll damn my, damn, damn sol
(08:21):
coplex to that. Its almos shocking. It's almost like Richard Marks,
remember him. I'm you're not to schedule to try to
social body, Yeah, any won't. They won't. They won't be careful.
Body guess that you will call me because if we
(08:42):
watch the master Space, Space was just the one little
persons to get there. You yeah, and they applaud. That's
(09:11):
my best performance of that song. Thanks to Zico Coconut Water.
I'm now going to take a Zico Coconut Water break.
We created this game with Zico. It's called the What's
inside game? You answer the first thing that pops into
your head. All right, okay, all right, the last thing
(09:31):
you googled myself? What are you looking for when you
google yourself? This is not unusual, by the way, a
lot of people google themselves. I know, I have a
day of interviews, right and if there's something out there
that I'm not aware of, Someone's like, did you, And
I'm like, I don't know, did I? You can tell me? Yeah.
Your favorite person to follow on social media angry Joe Jonas.
(09:54):
Is that a real it's a real account. Yeah. It's
basically really close up pictures of his face looking really mad,
and then just every day they post a bunch of
these pictures and they do stories now too, which really
be better because Joe has those big, bushy, evil eyebrows
and right now he's got this food man chew mustache
and so he looks extra angry. But there's this one,
my favorite, and it's so sun burned on his face
(10:16):
and I think it was in Coachella and he's like,
it's just red and he's so angry. It's great. If
you could only do one thing for the rest of
your life one thing. One thing probably played golf. So
beyond golfing and drinking tequila and smoking cigars and seeing
in acting, do you have any weird hobbies or interests you.
I'm sure I've got some weird interests. I don't have
(10:38):
a hobby besides golf, and but I'm I'm learning to
collect anything. Do you hoard anything? Is there something you
just can't throw away? No, I'm okay with everything disappearing, right,
that's my thing. Yeah, I'm starting to really get into art.
So I just went to this great talk about Monet
and still life. It's opening my mind up. I think
it's a good thing. And also visualizing. I'm really getting
(11:01):
into that talk about that. I visualized how this would
go before we sat down. I didn't visualize the shoes
or that I would do performance of the eighties version
of Close, but everything else is what I thought of me.
How about awareness? Are you into always making sure you're
aware of like what you're walking by and what's going
on in your surroundings. I think I am. I've recently
had two episodes on airplanes that have been really frightening.
(11:23):
So if one of these is what's your biggest fear,
it's that flying. Flying You're guilty pleasure. I have no
guilty pleasures. I'm fine with anything that I like being.
It's my authentic self, all right. What are you most
proud of as of today? Recently, it's two things. As
a part of Beyond Type One, which is the foundation
that I co founded, we sponsored nineteen bicyclists to ride
(11:47):
across the United States. Now, living with type one diabetes
is really tough because it's an autoimmune disease, which means
that for me, from the difference between type one type
two is that I produced very little insulin, which is
the thing that keeps your blood sugar where it's supposed
to be, and so eating becomes difficult, exercising you run
the risk of dropping low, going into a really difficult situation.
The fact that these nineteen bicyclists did this over the
(12:09):
course of two months was unbelievable, and all the doctors said,
you can't do it, it's not possible. We believed him,
We sponsored him, and I got to be with them
the day before they finished in Napa Valley. We had
some wine to toast them. They only had like a
twenty mile ride. The next day, which would kill me,
but they were fine, and this mother and his daughter
rode together, and just the pride in their eyes, I
think was something that made me really proud. And then
(12:30):
the second thing was I love my parents, and my
father just had a journey with calling cancer and he's
cancer free now or on the tail end of it,
and all is good. But being here with him as
he went into to have his tumor removed was a
really special thing and really important. I had a lot
of things on the schedule, but I said, I'm gonna
be here with you and walked through this with you
in the family, and it was I think a moment
of pride for all of us to say, all right,
(12:52):
all that we've been through, you know, with the brothers
and dad being a manager at one time, to be
able to be there with him, be a unit as
a family is something at we should be really proud of.
Years ago, you did have to try to I'm assuming
break out of the boy band I'm from a boy band,
my brother's act thing, which was extremely successful, so that
a lot of music made a lot of fans. Was
(13:12):
that easy to crack out of or did you find
it was surprisingly tough? It was not easy, and there
was a lot of doors kind of slimmed in my face,
both in the acting side and the music side before
things started to click, because the tail under the Brothers
really was just not working, like something wasn't right, and
we were also out of saying so it was just tough.
But then I've kind of put my head down, just
(13:32):
went to work. I worked with some new collaborators, I
found some projects that would push me in the acting side,
and it started to break through. But there was a
year and a half two years a time where I
was thinking, all right, at twenty one, I'm gonna be
washed up. It's disappointing. That's not what I thought my
life was going to be. And that hard work and
finding the right people to team up with was the key.
So shaking a label like that successfully must be very gratifying,
(13:53):
and I'm sure you're just spinning. Especially you can't just
stay out of being labeled anything. Yeah. I was having
this conversation with someone the other day, and I think
it applies to everybody here in your life, and we'll
all experience it at some point. But they described who
we become as like a big marble slab right, and
each word of positive reinforcement or discouragement of pain hurt
all that chips away, and make sure what you're going
(14:15):
to become until you are that person. And I said,
that's a good point. But I think you can also evolve,
you can also shift, and you can be in control
of where you're going and how you're labeled. And for me,
that means not being labeled and being free to do
what I want creatively and also as a person as
a man now to make my own choices and be
proud to just be unapologetic with who I am. And
(14:35):
I think that that freedom, once you get to that place,
I think it's amazing and I hope all of you
experience it in the way that I am at the moment.
But you still have a long way to go, still
have a long way to go. I'm only twenty four
really next month. Good thoughts of thanks to Zeco Coconut
Water who believe what's inside is everything. Well, you said,
(14:58):
you're at a party. I know it was kind of
an industry part anything, but we just out at a party.
You're invited to a party. Do you ever go to
gathering with strangers? Maybe a few people you know, yes,
is it an uncomfortable place for you to go? It
depends on what kind of party it is. I prefer
like a backyard hang with good company, good conversation, maybe
some beard pong. Simple. I'm a simple guy. I don't
(15:19):
necessarily love to go out and do really clubby party,
but I can enjoy that with the right people too.
So it just depends on the environment. New people that
doesn't bother them. I like meeting new people. Okay, let's
move on to TV. Of course, Kingdom forty episodes of Kingdom,
and he played the part of Nate. Of course, it
wrapped up. It's done. It's all done in the world
of TV. That's a very long running series. I mean
it did very well. In hindsight, you look back at
(15:41):
your character Nate, do you actually learn something from the
character afterwards? You really really go, wait a minute, that
was kind of cool. What I especially a character like Nates.
For those of you that don't know, Kingdom was a
show about a family of m m A fighters, So
I got kind of immersed into the world of mixed
martial arts and trained for a couple of years doing
the show. I played a character who really struggle with
his identity and grew up in this really macho environment.
(16:03):
His dad was a fighter, his brother's a fighter, and
he didn't feel like it could be authentic to himself.
Which is a really crazy journey to have to go
on and to tell that story. You know, I just
wanted to do with justice and I know that this
is something so many people can relate to, and that
was the part that I think I took away. If
we're talking about now, but it's done, how do I feel?
The way the show wrapped up was that my character
finally comes out to his father and is really rejected
(16:25):
in a way, and the father is just stunned and
he doesn't really know how to process it. And because
there's such a rage and violence within these men because
they're fighters, they get physical with each other and becomes
an altercation, and then my character gets shot by an
overzealous security guy at the club that we're at. So
a little heavy and definitely really emotional. After three or
(16:45):
four years with my cast mates and growing together and
that amazing ride we went on together, the important thing
is to take away that we got to tell a
great story. I think every character I've played, even down
to things like screen Queens, which is just a really
fun role. Over All, the show is a great experience.
Um you take something a way and you grow as
a person who affords who you become. And I was
honored to play Nate. I think it's it's one of
(17:05):
those roles kind of once in a lifetime, and I
hope that it was helpful to some people. And feeling
like the importance of being authentic to yourself is so
real and being patient with that journey as well, whatever
is right for you, you know. So now you're moving
on to Jumanji. Yes, it seems like it's gonna be
a lot of fun. We filmed it last year Hawaii,
which was amazing, so we did three months out there
and then a month in Atlanta. The Rock and Kevin
(17:27):
Hart and Jack Black and Karen Gillen. Myself, I can't
really say too much about my character or else. So
many pictures are could be really mad at me, but
I can say I've seen it and the movie is amazing.
It's very, very funny and action packed and it kind
of hits every audience. So I think it's good for
people that love the original. It's a new Jumanji adventure.
It's now a video game console, and these four teenagers
pick avatars and become the avatars in the game. They
(17:48):
get sucked in. Instead of this time the world coming
out like it did the first one, you get sucked
into the game and it's just great. Comes out right
before Christmas to go check it out. So music and acting,
is it just because well I had an opportunity, I
did it. I fell in love with it as far
as the acting goes, Or is it you actually I'm
just trying to chase top and camp Rock one and two,
which would be very difficult. I mean, are you trying
(18:12):
to defy any later why we didn't get the Academy
Award for that? Do you not want to be labeled
as just a singer or just an artist? Definitely not.
I mean I I want to be an entertainer. I was.
I was really lucky at an early age to start
here on Broadway where I got to do all three acting, singing, dancing.
At some point along the journey, I kind of had
(18:32):
to decide between acting and singing. But then camp Rock
came around we got to do both. I think that's
when I kind of rediscovered that I do want to
do that as well, and theater being so important to
me and just trying to grow find great roles, and
there's been some really great opportunity as well. It feels
like there's a real momentum over there on the acting
side of things. So I'm just trying to ride the wave.
You're talking earlier about how you're a young guy, you're
just living your life and loving traveling this and that.
(18:55):
Do you think that you have enough normalcy time in
your life to actually get out there and explore what
the world's all about, Because I mean, you're working constantly.
You are working a lot. I really prioritize travel and
time off. This year after Kingdom, I took almost a
month off and it was just hanging out. Went to
Europe and met some great creative people during fashion week
(19:17):
over there, and then just had some time in Italy,
which was really amazing, back to my Italian roots. Any
days that I'm working, I try to at the end
of the night working a great meal with good people
and good conversation. If I can't, and it's Game of
Thrones or House of Cards, and that's good enough to
Because you're a big foodie. I love food. Do you
ever rattle the pants. Do you ever find yourself in
the kitchen shopping and cooking? Are you? Actually don't? I
(19:38):
don't even know the reference. I'm so bad in the kitchen.
So you'd rather just put up with someone else's cooking,
you don't, do you? Yeah? Do you ever explore that
it's another side of you? You could have a cookie?
Could I do want to learn how to cook? I
could have a cooking show. Actually that'd be fun. Actually,
maybe it's just me inviting people to my house to
cook and I just talked to him the whole time.
Do you have the itch to be a dad? Like
(19:58):
hanging out with with Kevin's kids, that's the whole thing.
Do you find yourself going? Okay, not now? But I
could definitely see myself in this role. Yes, absolutely. I
mean I have two beautiful nieces. I'm the godfather to
one of them. What does that mean? It means that
we're a pin stripe suit at the christening? And I
was like, hey, listen, Valentina, Now they didn't I actually
(20:22):
did wear a pin stripe suit. Did you a cigar
at the christening? No? No, I did not, No I didn't.
I'm a good godfather because that's all about looking way
down the line. What I was gonna say was that
I held my nieces and it's safe. You all kind
of makes sense. My brother Kevin is the happiest man
in the world, and he loves his wife and his
(20:42):
beautiful girls, has an amazing marriage, and he's a great father.
And I think that's it's one of those things where
he got married young kids, fairly young in today's world.
But he said to me, is I think it's the
best choice I ever made. I think this is an
amazing thing for me, and I think it's not right
now for me, but at some point in the future,
I'd love to be a father. There you go next week.
(21:03):
Don't scare me like that. I wouldn't finally describe the
real you. Kind of I think it kind of did not.
It's a new revelation. But the real me is See,
if you have to put it into three words, three
words driven. I'm very funny, obviously, and I would like
to be seen as a compassionate and generous person. But
(21:24):
I'm not going to say it about myself because it
sounds kind of does the opposite. Fact. I'm very compassionate,
I'm very generous, excellent. Well, I just want to stop
down and thank Zico for giving us an opportunity to
to That's why I love doing Label to Fires, and
that's why I'm so glad that we ended this series
with Zico and Labeled Fires with Nick Jonas. Thank you
for having me, Thank you, Thank you for listening to
(21:55):
season one of Label to Fires. In case you missed
any of our episodes, make sure you check out ourtist
like Miley Cyrus, Comita Cavello, Charlie Pooth, and Damilovado and
find out how they found ways to be true to
themselves and be unapologetically real every day. And as our
friends at Zico Coconut Water remind us, who you are
on the inside matters. What's inside is everything. If you
(22:17):
like what you've heard, joined the conversation on Twitter with
hashtag Label Defiers Audiation
Sometimes as an artist, it's just as much about what
you want to say, but also what you want to
give the world, and you know you can't be selfish
with your art. There was a year and a half,
two years of time where I was thinking, all right,
at twenty one, I'm gonna be washed up. This is
I Heart Radio is label to Fires with Zico Coconut Water,
where we rip off labels to reveal the sides of
(00:23):
your favorite artists and celebrities you didn't know. We get
to know the real then. Label to Fires was created
with our friends at Zico Coconut Water, who encourage you
to read the label to see what's inside Zico. What's
inside is everything. The podcast is officially on How you doing?
You're good? All right? Good, welcome, Welcome to my Heart
Radio and thanks to Zico. This is labeled to Fires.
(00:46):
Labeled to Fires, Well, it's all in the name, you
know what. We sometimes put labels on people and things
and they aren't always accurate. This is an opportunity for
us to go beyond the labels and ask people, hey,
what label could be on you? And let's make it
evaporate if you want, or let's strengthen it if you want.
We've had some incredible guests. We've had Commie Caballo, We've
(01:07):
had Charlie Pooth, Miley Cyrus, Dammi Lavado, and today we're
ending it with our only audience podcast, and we're glad
you're here. So we can't have a discussion with one
of our best friends in the music industry and in
movies as well, Nick Jonas. Come on out, Nick, Hello, Nick,
(01:31):
thank you very much for coming out that good huh. So,
As I was explaining to Nick earlier, this is what
you wear when you get dressed in the dark. You
look great, but it's a good look wearing shoes with
no socks. I kind of do that a lot because
I just don't have a foot problem, no socks at all,
(01:53):
but I have band aids because all right, well, thanks
for coming. Thank you, Zico. I'm so happy you're here
for many reasons. You have so much to talk about,
and even though we have a little bit of time,
I want to cover as much as we can. We
could talk movies, we could talk family, we could talk music,
talk everything. We can talk about diabetes, diabetes, we can
talk about everything. Let's start with music. I know you
(02:13):
have a body of work on the way, and that's
as much as we're going to talk about that. What
happens is basically, you know, you make the record, you
have to create a process and then management team and
I Heart Radio and others get involved to help you
set it up properly. So it's not that I don't
want to talk about, but I think I want to
save some of the rollout for the plan that we have,
but I will talk about the creative process for this
(02:34):
and how it's been just completely different to previous work
that I've done. The key for me was that I
did a film last year and then rolled right into
season three of Kingdom and TV show that I've been
doing the last couple of years, and I realized, you know,
between tour to film projects, I really didn't have much
time to just live life. And I think it's really
important as an artist to go and live and see
the world and travel and be around great people, eat
(02:56):
too much of times, drink too much many times, and
then get inspired to right And that's kind of what
I did. When you look at your last album, the
messaging in there to me was relationship, love found, love lost.
So there's a label sort of right there. But yeah,
now with the new body of work, is it about
what you just said about traveling, about living your life
and has it been in a good life? What are
(03:16):
we gonna hear as far as your music reflection? Yeah,
you know this body of work, and I'll start with
just the single which is gonna be out next month,
which I'm very excited about. It does touch on relationships
and love at times, but it's also about so much more.
To me. I think it's about capturing the optimistic mind
friend that I'm in at this point in my life,
and some of the joy that I've experienced, both with
friends and also in relationships, but really just being young
(03:38):
and free and seeing the world and enjoying life, which
is very different tone of the last stuff, which was
specifically about one chapter of my life. And when we
talked about defying labels, you know, I think the key
is to acknowledge you know where you've been and also
have an eye towards where you're going at the beginning
stages of the creative process, and it was a through
line through everything, and it wasn't until one night I
was actually out at this magazine launch in l A
(04:01):
and it was a party, and it was a bunch
of people I didn't really know very well, had just
come from this great trip with a bunch of friends,
and I was just discouraged, you know. And so I
when the car turned on country radio and listen to
some of my favorite country music, which I think has
the best storytelling and some of the best melodies. And
regardless of what your taste is in music, I think
you can appreciate the storytelling and that aspect of it.
And so that's another area where there's no genres anymore.
(04:23):
There's no reason to have to specify what you're into
your taste of music. And so I drew a lot
of inspiration from that, and it kind of started me
on the journey to writing the new stuff. But it
took a low point of being discouraged to see some
hope in some announcement all right, I'm good now, I'm
ready to go and make this record. He said something
really interesting about how the walls are coming down as
far as different genres of music. So how could someone
(04:43):
in the hip hop world actually learn something from the
country world on top of what you were just saying
and the storytelling And what is it about country music
that kind of makes them the most obvious when it
comes to being able to tell a really great story.
It may be hard to see right away, but there
are a lot of similarities between hip hop and some
of the greatest story tellers and hip hop and I
love Common I love Eminem obviously, and Jay of course,
(05:05):
and Kanye tell amazing stories in the music, and Chance
has done an amazing job of really telling his life
stories and in the same way. You know, I went
to Garth Brooks show out in l A recently and
have the time of my life and realized an hour
into the show, not only was I having a great
time and arm in arm with my brothers singing songs
we grew up listening to, I realized that his songs
became a part of the fabric of my life in
(05:26):
a way that only true artistry and great storytelling can do.
Uninsured Prayers, for instance, which is I think one of
the best songs of all time. My grandfather used to
call and send me that on the phone. You know.
So I'm at the show and I'm just having fun,
and all of a sudden I get hit with this
real emotion, this real impact of art and someone giving
you their life stories. It's powerful and that's the gift,
(05:46):
and that's what I want to do for people listen
to my music, which is a shift I'm trying to make.
It's about just giving and supplying, not just the fans,
but the world was something that they can make a
part of the fabric of their life. So do breakups
always make the best songs? Or breakups actually the most
too obvious place to go to write a song? And
almost yea way sometimes I think so. I think that
(06:07):
I'm drawn to darker chords musically and melodies that are darker.
But for some reason this time it's like really bright
and really positive and you can hear that. You can
hear it. I mean, have you sat down by yourself
with your last album and what you've completed for the
new one, You can actually sonically detect the difference and
you actually stopping like hyper analyze yourself through your own
(06:29):
your music. Yeah, definitely. I was intentional with that as well,
with the way I was writing it. I wanted it
to be specifically about this thing. But I had a
really interesting conversation with David Massey, who you know, he's
the head of the label that I'm on. Also he's
the guy that signed me when I was eleven years old.
Ten years later almost he signed me again, and now
we're four years into our journey together again and it's great.
(06:49):
But we were talking about just growth and where I
wanted to go and this change I wanted to make creatively,
and I acknowledge the fact that the last record was
way more about my journey was like what I was
going through. He said, you know, it's important to recognize
that sometimes as an artist, it's just as much about
what you want to say, but also what you want
to give the world. Can't be selfish with your art.
Sounds like that's some good point. By the way, this
(07:10):
is just a side note. I think is really funny.
Funny is not the right word. It's I think it's
really amazing. My friend is a great sort of like
genius producer guy. And for fun he did a remix
of close, my song close, but done in classic eighties fashion,
Michael Bolton style, and I want to play it for
you guys who know it's hard this but it's amazing.
(07:30):
So it's right off your iPhone. It's right off my
iPhone if I can find it. I had to send
it to Joe three times because he was like, this
is the best thing I've ever heard, so best as
in train Wreck or best as it actually it's like
actually amazing, excellent on the side of the road, or
hold on me, pull it up. Here we go. I
gotta send it to toflow to actually after this, but
this goes to you know, talking about breaking genres and
(07:52):
everything's okay. You know, close is like an art house
pop song and now it's going to be If you
have to label what is it now? I would say
it's classic eighties. There's a sax solo. Okay, I'll don't
do so just at I'll damn my, damn, damn sol
(08:21):
coplex to that. Its almos shocking. It's almost like Richard Marks,
remember him. I'm you're not to schedule to try to
social body, Yeah, any won't. They won't. They won't be careful.
Body guess that you will call me because if we
(08:42):
watch the master Space, Space was just the one little
persons to get there. You yeah, and they applaud. That's
(09:11):
my best performance of that song. Thanks to Zico Coconut Water.
I'm now going to take a Zico Coconut Water break.
We created this game with Zico. It's called the What's
inside game? You answer the first thing that pops into
your head. All right, okay, all right, the last thing
(09:31):
you googled myself? What are you looking for when you
google yourself? This is not unusual, by the way, a
lot of people google themselves. I know, I have a
day of interviews, right and if there's something out there
that I'm not aware of, Someone's like, did you, And
I'm like, I don't know, did I? You can tell me? Yeah.
Your favorite person to follow on social media angry Joe Jonas.
(09:54):
Is that a real it's a real account. Yeah. It's
basically really close up pictures of his face looking really mad,
and then just every day they post a bunch of
these pictures and they do stories now too, which really
be better because Joe has those big, bushy, evil eyebrows
and right now he's got this food man chew mustache
and so he looks extra angry. But there's this one,
my favorite, and it's so sun burned on his face
(10:16):
and I think it was in Coachella and he's like,
it's just red and he's so angry. It's great. If
you could only do one thing for the rest of
your life one thing. One thing probably played golf. So
beyond golfing and drinking tequila and smoking cigars and seeing
in acting, do you have any weird hobbies or interests you.
I'm sure I've got some weird interests. I don't have
(10:38):
a hobby besides golf, and but I'm I'm learning to
collect anything. Do you hoard anything? Is there something you
just can't throw away? No, I'm okay with everything disappearing, right,
that's my thing. Yeah, I'm starting to really get into art.
So I just went to this great talk about Monet
and still life. It's opening my mind up. I think
it's a good thing. And also visualizing. I'm really getting
(11:01):
into that talk about that. I visualized how this would
go before we sat down. I didn't visualize the shoes
or that I would do performance of the eighties version
of Close, but everything else is what I thought of me.
How about awareness? Are you into always making sure you're
aware of like what you're walking by and what's going
on in your surroundings. I think I am. I've recently
had two episodes on airplanes that have been really frightening.
(11:23):
So if one of these is what's your biggest fear,
it's that flying. Flying You're guilty pleasure. I have no
guilty pleasures. I'm fine with anything that I like being.
It's my authentic self, all right. What are you most
proud of as of today? Recently, it's two things. As
a part of Beyond Type One, which is the foundation
that I co founded, we sponsored nineteen bicyclists to ride
(11:47):
across the United States. Now, living with type one diabetes
is really tough because it's an autoimmune disease, which means
that for me, from the difference between type one type
two is that I produced very little insulin, which is
the thing that keeps your blood sugar where it's supposed
to be, and so eating becomes difficult, exercising you run
the risk of dropping low, going into a really difficult situation.
The fact that these nineteen bicyclists did this over the
(12:09):
course of two months was unbelievable, and all the doctors said,
you can't do it, it's not possible. We believed him,
We sponsored him, and I got to be with them
the day before they finished in Napa Valley. We had
some wine to toast them. They only had like a
twenty mile ride. The next day, which would kill me,
but they were fine, and this mother and his daughter
rode together, and just the pride in their eyes, I
think was something that made me really proud. And then
(12:30):
the second thing was I love my parents, and my
father just had a journey with calling cancer and he's
cancer free now or on the tail end of it,
and all is good. But being here with him as
he went into to have his tumor removed was a
really special thing and really important. I had a lot
of things on the schedule, but I said, I'm gonna
be here with you and walked through this with you
in the family, and it was I think a moment
of pride for all of us to say, all right,
(12:52):
all that we've been through, you know, with the brothers
and dad being a manager at one time, to be
able to be there with him, be a unit as
a family is something at we should be really proud of.
Years ago, you did have to try to I'm assuming
break out of the boy band I'm from a boy band,
my brother's act thing, which was extremely successful, so that
a lot of music made a lot of fans. Was
(13:12):
that easy to crack out of or did you find
it was surprisingly tough? It was not easy, and there
was a lot of doors kind of slimmed in my face,
both in the acting side and the music side before
things started to click, because the tail under the Brothers
really was just not working, like something wasn't right, and
we were also out of saying so it was just tough.
But then I've kind of put my head down, just
(13:32):
went to work. I worked with some new collaborators, I
found some projects that would push me in the acting side,
and it started to break through. But there was a
year and a half two years a time where I
was thinking, all right, at twenty one, I'm gonna be
washed up. It's disappointing. That's not what I thought my
life was going to be. And that hard work and
finding the right people to team up with was the key.
So shaking a label like that successfully must be very gratifying,
(13:53):
and I'm sure you're just spinning. Especially you can't just
stay out of being labeled anything. Yeah. I was having
this conversation with someone the other day, and I think
it applies to everybody here in your life, and we'll
all experience it at some point. But they described who
we become as like a big marble slab right, and
each word of positive reinforcement or discouragement of pain hurt
all that chips away, and make sure what you're going
(14:15):
to become until you are that person. And I said,
that's a good point. But I think you can also evolve,
you can also shift, and you can be in control
of where you're going and how you're labeled. And for me,
that means not being labeled and being free to do
what I want creatively and also as a person as
a man now to make my own choices and be
proud to just be unapologetic with who I am. And
(14:35):
I think that that freedom, once you get to that place,
I think it's amazing and I hope all of you
experience it in the way that I am at the moment.
But you still have a long way to go, still
have a long way to go. I'm only twenty four
really next month. Good thoughts of thanks to Zeco Coconut
Water who believe what's inside is everything. Well, you said,
(14:58):
you're at a party. I know it was kind of
an industry part anything, but we just out at a party.
You're invited to a party. Do you ever go to
gathering with strangers? Maybe a few people you know, yes,
is it an uncomfortable place for you to go? It
depends on what kind of party it is. I prefer
like a backyard hang with good company, good conversation, maybe
some beard pong. Simple. I'm a simple guy. I don't
(15:19):
necessarily love to go out and do really clubby party,
but I can enjoy that with the right people too.
So it just depends on the environment. New people that
doesn't bother them. I like meeting new people. Okay, let's
move on to TV. Of course, Kingdom forty episodes of Kingdom,
and he played the part of Nate. Of course, it
wrapped up. It's done. It's all done in the world
of TV. That's a very long running series. I mean
it did very well. In hindsight, you look back at
(15:41):
your character Nate, do you actually learn something from the
character afterwards? You really really go, wait a minute, that
was kind of cool. What I especially a character like Nates.
For those of you that don't know, Kingdom was a
show about a family of m m A fighters, So
I got kind of immersed into the world of mixed
martial arts and trained for a couple of years doing
the show. I played a character who really struggle with
his identity and grew up in this really macho environment.
(16:03):
His dad was a fighter, his brother's a fighter, and
he didn't feel like it could be authentic to himself.
Which is a really crazy journey to have to go
on and to tell that story. You know, I just
wanted to do with justice and I know that this
is something so many people can relate to, and that
was the part that I think I took away. If
we're talking about now, but it's done, how do I feel?
The way the show wrapped up was that my character
finally comes out to his father and is really rejected
(16:25):
in a way, and the father is just stunned and
he doesn't really know how to process it. And because
there's such a rage and violence within these men because
they're fighters, they get physical with each other and becomes
an altercation, and then my character gets shot by an
overzealous security guy at the club that we're at. So
a little heavy and definitely really emotional. After three or
(16:45):
four years with my cast mates and growing together and
that amazing ride we went on together, the important thing
is to take away that we got to tell a
great story. I think every character I've played, even down
to things like screen Queens, which is just a really
fun role. Over All, the show is a great experience.
Um you take something a way and you grow as
a person who affords who you become. And I was
honored to play Nate. I think it's it's one of
(17:05):
those roles kind of once in a lifetime, and I
hope that it was helpful to some people. And feeling
like the importance of being authentic to yourself is so
real and being patient with that journey as well, whatever
is right for you, you know. So now you're moving
on to Jumanji. Yes, it seems like it's gonna be
a lot of fun. We filmed it last year Hawaii,
which was amazing, so we did three months out there
and then a month in Atlanta. The Rock and Kevin
(17:27):
Hart and Jack Black and Karen Gillen. Myself, I can't
really say too much about my character or else. So
many pictures are could be really mad at me, but
I can say I've seen it and the movie is amazing.
It's very, very funny and action packed and it kind
of hits every audience. So I think it's good for
people that love the original. It's a new Jumanji adventure.
It's now a video game console, and these four teenagers
pick avatars and become the avatars in the game. They
(17:48):
get sucked in. Instead of this time the world coming
out like it did the first one, you get sucked
into the game and it's just great. Comes out right
before Christmas to go check it out. So music and acting,
is it just because well I had an opportunity, I
did it. I fell in love with it as far
as the acting goes, Or is it you actually I'm
just trying to chase top and camp Rock one and two,
which would be very difficult. I mean, are you trying
(18:12):
to defy any later why we didn't get the Academy
Award for that? Do you not want to be labeled
as just a singer or just an artist? Definitely not.
I mean I I want to be an entertainer. I was.
I was really lucky at an early age to start
here on Broadway where I got to do all three acting, singing, dancing.
At some point along the journey, I kind of had
(18:32):
to decide between acting and singing. But then camp Rock
came around we got to do both. I think that's
when I kind of rediscovered that I do want to
do that as well, and theater being so important to
me and just trying to grow find great roles, and
there's been some really great opportunity as well. It feels
like there's a real momentum over there on the acting
side of things. So I'm just trying to ride the wave.
You're talking earlier about how you're a young guy, you're
just living your life and loving traveling this and that.
(18:55):
Do you think that you have enough normalcy time in
your life to actually get out there and explore what
the world's all about, Because I mean, you're working constantly.
You are working a lot. I really prioritize travel and
time off. This year after Kingdom, I took almost a
month off and it was just hanging out. Went to
Europe and met some great creative people during fashion week
(19:17):
over there, and then just had some time in Italy,
which was really amazing, back to my Italian roots. Any
days that I'm working, I try to at the end
of the night working a great meal with good people
and good conversation. If I can't, and it's Game of
Thrones or House of Cards, and that's good enough to
Because you're a big foodie. I love food. Do you
ever rattle the pants. Do you ever find yourself in
the kitchen shopping and cooking? Are you? Actually don't? I
(19:38):
don't even know the reference. I'm so bad in the kitchen.
So you'd rather just put up with someone else's cooking,
you don't, do you? Yeah? Do you ever explore that
it's another side of you? You could have a cookie?
Could I do want to learn how to cook? I
could have a cooking show. Actually that'd be fun. Actually,
maybe it's just me inviting people to my house to
cook and I just talked to him the whole time.
Do you have the itch to be a dad? Like
(19:58):
hanging out with with Kevin's kids, that's the whole thing.
Do you find yourself going? Okay, not now? But I
could definitely see myself in this role. Yes, absolutely. I
mean I have two beautiful nieces. I'm the godfather to
one of them. What does that mean? It means that
we're a pin stripe suit at the christening? And I
was like, hey, listen, Valentina, Now they didn't I actually
(20:22):
did wear a pin stripe suit. Did you a cigar
at the christening? No? No, I did not, No I didn't.
I'm a good godfather because that's all about looking way
down the line. What I was gonna say was that
I held my nieces and it's safe. You all kind
of makes sense. My brother Kevin is the happiest man
in the world, and he loves his wife and his
(20:42):
beautiful girls, has an amazing marriage, and he's a great father.
And I think that's it's one of those things where
he got married young kids, fairly young in today's world.
But he said to me, is I think it's the
best choice I ever made. I think this is an
amazing thing for me, and I think it's not right
now for me, but at some point in the future,
I'd love to be a father. There you go next week.
(21:03):
Don't scare me like that. I wouldn't finally describe the
real you. Kind of I think it kind of did not.
It's a new revelation. But the real me is See,
if you have to put it into three words, three
words driven. I'm very funny, obviously, and I would like
to be seen as a compassionate and generous person. But
(21:24):
I'm not going to say it about myself because it
sounds kind of does the opposite. Fact. I'm very compassionate,
I'm very generous, excellent. Well, I just want to stop
down and thank Zico for giving us an opportunity to
to That's why I love doing Label to Fires, and
that's why I'm so glad that we ended this series
with Zico and Labeled Fires with Nick Jonas. Thank you
for having me, Thank you, Thank you for listening to
(21:55):
season one of Label to Fires. In case you missed
any of our episodes, make sure you check out ourtist
like Miley Cyrus, Comita Cavello, Charlie Pooth, and Damilovado and
find out how they found ways to be true to
themselves and be unapologetically real every day. And as our
friends at Zico Coconut Water remind us, who you are
on the inside matters. What's inside is everything. If you
(22:17):
like what you've heard, joined the conversation on Twitter with
hashtag Label Defiers Audiation
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