Kevin Jonas Recalls ‘Losing Almost All’ of His Money After the Jonas Brothers Broke Up

Kevin Jonas recently got candid about a topic that’s usually taboo: money.

While appearing with brothers Joe and Nick on the Wednesday (July 9) episode of School of Greatness, the guitarist opened up about struggling with his finances after the Jonas Brothers went their separate ways in 2013. The band would eventually reunite six years later, but during the siblings’ professional time apart, Kevin says he lost money as a result of some “bad business deals.”

“I’ve seen it both ways,” the oldest Jo Bro told podcast host Lewis Howes during a discussion on wealth. “I’ve seen the beginning of the success, to financial success — not knowing what money really was and understanding it — to not having [it], to losing almost all of it.”

When asked whether he’d really lost most of his funds, Kevin clarified, “most of it, down to the one 10 percent left.”

“About nine years ago, I invested in a bunch of property and doing other things, and I was building at the time,” he added. “Sadly, it wasn’t the right partnership. I’ve learned a lot of lessons in that. Thankfully … we had a second shot and bite at the apple with the band coming back together.”

The Jonas Brothers first started making music together as teenagers, earning fame thanks to their projects with Disney Channel and Billboard 200-topping albums A Little Bit Longer and Lines, Vines and Trying Times. When disagreements over the band’s direction and general burnout started to divide the brothers — something they opened up about in their 2019 Billboard cover story — they disbanded around 2013.

As Kevin mentioned, a second chance rolled around six years later, when the trio decided to give band life another shot after each pursuing solo projects. Their reunion was an immediate success, with single “Sucker” becoming their first-ever No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in March 2019.

But before they could get back together, Joe says they each had to figure out how to check their egos at the door. “There was too much under the rug,” he said on the podcast. “We had to trust each other more with being like, ‘Actually, you are good in this band, you are talented.'”

And despite some fans labeling him as the band’s “frontman” early on, Joe also said that each of the brothers had to come to the following realization: “We could all share the spotlight, we could all share the studio, we could all share the songwriting, we could all share the money.”

Watch the Jonas Brothers’ full in interview on School of Greatness above.