If you didn't love the Jonas Brothers then, you probably do now

The former teen pop-kings are on tour for the first time in six years, buoyed by a hit album, ‘Happiness Begins,’ and hit single, ‘Sucker’

San Diego Union-Tribune

Oct. 17, 2019 8:49 AM PT

Breaking up has paid off big for former teen-pop kings the Jonas Brothers, who split up in 2013 and reunited in February.

Indeed, the siblings — Nick, 27, Joe, 30, and Kevin, 31 — are having quite the comeback, thanks largely to their six-year hiatus.

Released June 7, their comeback album, “Happiness Begins,” this month went platinum after reaching the 1 million mark for sales. It’s their first new album since 2010. That was two years after English comedian and actor poked fun of the trio while he was hosting the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards.

In August, the trio won the 2019 MTV Video Music Award for Best Pop Video for their single “Sucker” (which bears a striking resemblance to the Portugal. The Man mega-hit, “Feel It Now”).

August also saw JoBros, as they are fondly known by fans, win the 2019 Teen Choice Award for Artist of the Decade, an intriguing achievement for a group that was inactive for the past six years.

Their seven-month “Happiness Begins” tour, which opened Aug. 7 in Miami, includes a nearly sold-out show here tomorrow at Pechanga Arena San Diego. Bebe Rexha and Jordan McGraw are the opening acts.

One key to the Jonas Brothers’ success was articulated by Joe Jonas in a 2017 Union-Tribune interview. “I think, honestly, it’s just being able to dare to suck, as we learned early on with songwriting,” he said. “Being able to work out all the ideas and be collaborative, enjoy every moment — and practice and practice and practice. Do as many shows as you can, that’s my advice.”

The Jonas Brothers, with Bebe Rexha and Jordan McGraw

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday

Where: Pechanga Arena San Diego, 3500 Sports Arena Blvd., Midway District

Tickets: $44 to $524, plus service charges

Online: axs.com

Music

George Varga

San Diego Union-Tribune music critic George Varga began drumming in rock bands at 12 and writing professionally about music at 15. A Louisiana native who grew up mostly in Germany, Varga has earned three Pulitzer Prize nominations for his writing at the U-T and is a voting member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In addition to providing live coverage of the Grammy Awards and festivals from Coachella and KAABOO to the 1994 edition of Woodstock, he has interviewed everyone from Miles Davis, Britney Spears and (over a game of chess) Ray Charles to Willie Nelson, Kanye West and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis. A triple first prize-winner for criticism and arts writing at the 2022 San Diego Press Club awards and a double first prize-winner at the 2022 San Diego Society of Professional Journalists awards, Varga is also a contributing writer for Jazz Times magazine and has written for Billboard, Spin and other publications. After attending San Diego City College and San Diego State University, he created and taught the 2002 UC San Diego Extension course, “Jazz in a Post-Ken-Burns World.” Varga has written liner notes for more than a dozen albums, including by jazz sax greats James Moody and Michael Brecker, and contributed two chapters to the book, “Dylan: Disc By Disc.”