He’s only human.
Nick Jonas has revealed that his infamous performance with Kelsea Ballerini at the 2016 Academy of Country Music Awards landed him in therapy.
The “Close” hitmaker joined the country star onstage for a rendition of her 2015 song “Peter Pan.”
But just moments after starting the duet off “fine,” Jonas recalled his “tragic” off-key guitar solo that seemingly marred the performance.
“A really tragic guitar solo debacle …happened on live TV,” the 30-year-old singer said on the “Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard” podcast.
Jonas is seen during the Jonas Brothers’ performance for the Citi Concert Series at the ‘Today’ show on May 12, 2023 in New York City.GC Images
Kelsea Ballerini performs at Little Caesars Arena on Feb. 21, 2019 in Detroit, Michigan. Getty Images“I come out for my thing. I rehearsed it a million times. I’m feeling really confident about it — not even really thinking about it like it’s a thing that’s going to be problematic.”
“I started off, it was fine and as I walked towards her, I just went completely blank and I hit a wrong note and blacked out basically and clocked that it was wrong and I couldn’t stop,” he added.
At the time, Jonas poked fun at himself and laughed along with the torrent of jokes on social media, writing, “Yes, I screwed up the solo thanks to a huge brain fart. We’re all human and s–t happens sometimes, but whoever made this is a genius.”
Jonas recalls speaking with his manager after the show and realizing it was a bad performance.Kevin Winter/ACM2016
Ballerini and Nick Jonas at the 51st Academy of Country Music Awards at MGM Grand Garden Arena on April 3, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada, prior to performing on stage. Rick Diamond/ACM2016Looking back on the mishap years later, Jonas told Shepard, “In retrospect, I can kind of laugh about how big I thought it was. But it did travel more than I wish it would have, and it did cause me to go to therapy.”
“Until this day and hours after unpacking it, I can’t really figure out exactly what happened, but I was rushed to a car and rushed to a plane right after it.”
“And I looked at my manager and said, ‘I think that was bad.’ I was like in shock kinda. Like it was a really traumatic moment that shaped the pressure I put on myself to be perfect and to always be on.”
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While he admitted that the blunder ultimately led him to seek therapy, he still called it “the worst moment.”
It seems as though the JoBro’s onstage mishap didn’t affect his reputation, as Ballerini joined the Jonas Brothers on their 2021 tour titled, “Remember This Tour.”
During the gigs, Ballerini and Jonas both performed his hit 2016 collab with Tove Lo, “Close.”
