When it came time for the Jonas Brothers to map out their upcoming tour, they knew there was only one plan of attack: go big or go home.
That’s how the trio ended up booking Yankee Stadium as the first two stops on their “ambitious” new run of dates called The Tour, which they promise will cover their entire history as a band.
“We said, let’s make it really easy on ourselves and we should do the first show at one of the biggest venues we’re playing on this tour,” Joe jokes to PEOPLE during a recent sit-down in New York City. “[But] I think we built a beautiful show for people to come see.”
Joe, 33, Nick, 31, and Kevin Jonas, 35, have plenty to pull from. They’ve teased that The Tour will include material from five different albums, including their most recent, The Album, which came out in May, and previous hits like 2019’s Happiness Begins and 2008’s A Little Bit Longer.
“It’s our most ambitious show we’ve ever put on, in the sense that building out five albums in one night was a challenge that I don’t think we fully understood after we’d already put it on sale,” says Nick. “[But] it’s amazing to just go back and look at the road that brought us to this moment now.”
Combing through such a massive catalog in order to put together a setlist was no easy task. Kevin says he and his siblings eased into the process by looking at tracklists from each record—but arranging them in a way that flowed best was “the hard part.”
Still, revisiting blasts from the past made for some fun surprises.
“The first self-titled album has some jams on it,” says Joe. “We performed a dress rehearsal with about 200 fans, and it was really nice to see the reactions to some of the medleys, or, we call them mosaics, that we put together of certain songs that it would be difficult to play the entire song—we kind of blend them together. Seeing the reactions and how they responded, that was some of my favorite stuff.”
For Nick, who recorded the group’s earliest albums when he was still a teenager, it’s also been fun to revisit the songs of his youth with an older, more mature voice.
“Going through voice changes while making these albums added an unnecessary level of grit to some of the vocal delivery,” he says. “I think as we’ve settled into our adult voices, it’s fun to sing them in a more mature and thoughtful vocal delivery.”
This go-round is also special for Nick as it’s the first time that he’s able to bring his family along for the ride. He and wife Priyanka Chopra welcomed daughter Malti Marie in January 2022, and she got to see dad in action for the first time during a recent soundcheck at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
“She loves music, so it’s fun to have her there,” he says. “This is the first time [I’m] touring as a father, and it’s a crazy new adventure every day. I think it’s the greatest part of still getting to do this with them now, is to see that the second generation of Jonases are going to experience it and make it fresh for all of us in a whole new way. It’s going to be amazing.”
That new generation includes Kevin’s daughters Valentina, 6, and Alena, 9, with wife Danielle, plus Joe’s daughter Willa, 3, and a baby girl born last July to him and wife Sophie Turner. The group’s new song “Little Bird,” which features on The Album, is an ode to their little girls.
“Even just the dress rehearsal, it’s the first time we’ve seen how it’s affecting people in their own lives and what their connection is to it,” Nick says of the song. “Obviously for us it’s about our specific journey in parenting, but I think the song is really meant to be an anthem for every person who is a parent, is a child or has a connection with somebody that they look up to and what that relationship looks like.”
With 90 dates ahead of them, the brothers Jonas already have plans as to how they’ll spend their downtime. In addition to golf—both in real life and virtually on Xbox—the trio are big fans of a dice game called pass the pigs.
“I have it in my pocket, actually. We literally take this with us everywhere we go,” Joe says, as Kevin jokingly offers to end the interview and start up a round.
Adds Nick: “This show is a lot physically, so where in the past we used to go and play golf or play a softball game and do all these physical activities before the gig, 30+ now I think we’re just going to probably be chilling in the AC reading a book or playing video games.”
For now, though, the pigs will have to wait, as the “Sucker” singers have some shows to play. When all is said and done, they’ll have done 90 performances in 20 countries—and they wouldn’t have it any other way.
“If you’re an OG superfan or if you’re more into the new stuff, I think you’re going to be pleasantly surprised and have a great time,” says Joe. “There’s something for everybody.”
The Tour kicks off Saturday at Yankee Stadium.
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