The Jonas Brothers performing during We Day celebrations at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on Sept. 20, 2013.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
There is bad blood among the music industry's most successful brother act: The Jonas Brothers have cancelled their upcoming concert tour and rumours of a breakup are imminent.
As reported by The Guardian, the Jonases cancelled their upcoming comeback tour a mere two days before it was due to begin. Giving the old music-industry excuse of "creative differences," the group pulled the plug on 19 North American concert gigs and the cancellation has already cast a dark shadow over the release of their next album.
Arguably the most popular musical-brother act since Hanson, the Jonas Brothers – Nick, 21, Joe, 24 and Kevin, 25 – are now apparently unable to be in the same room together, despite appearing at a We Day concert in Toronto earlier in September. "There is a deep rift within the band," conceded Jonas spokesperson Jesse Derris to People magazine.
According to most reports, a "big disagreement" broke out between the Jonas boys last weekend. The group were scheduled to kick off their comeback tour this Friday in Philadelphia and their fifth full-length studio album, titled V, still has no release date. Derris said the future of the band "remains to be seen."
TMZ reports that the three brothers are going in three different musical directions and are close to breaking up altogether. An unnamed source claims each brother has a different vision of where to take the band, ranging from pop to hard rock. As far as a breakup, the TMZ source says, "it could go either way."
All of which is a pretty long fall from a few years ago when the Jonas lads had their own highly rated program, Jonas L.A., on the Disney Channel and enjoyed a string of chart-topping singles, including Hold On and When You Look Me in the Eyes. The group is estimated to have sold more than 20-million records.
More recently, the Jonases released two singles from the forthcoming V, neither of which made any impact in Britain or North America. The first single peaked at No. 60 on the U.S. Billboard music chart.
The need for the Jonas brothers to take a break became apparent during a radio appearance in Minnesota earlier this week, when Kevin addressed the group's extended hiatus in 2012.
"This crazy world that looks like a lot of fun is also really stressful and crazy at times," he said. "[At the time] we were like, 'Let's not implode, let's just take some time off and really kind of focus on what we want to do' … we always have a heart for the band, but it's always important for us as well to take time as needed."
Pretty soon they could have all the time in the world.