Meet the new Voice coach
In August 2007, Joe Jonas and siblings Kevin and Nick made their acting debut on Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana and, in an instant, the Jonas Brothers became global teen sensations. Now 28, Joe has found success with a second family—pop band DNCE, who scored a Top 10 ARIA hit in 2016 with “Cake by the Ocean”. The middle Jonas brother tells WHO’S Cynthia Wang about creating yet a third family with Delta Goodrem, Kelly Rowland and Boy George when he joins them as a coach on The Voice.
How are you liking Australia?
I love it here. It’s incredible. The people, the food—it’s really fantastic. I’ve been here on vacation and touring but to actually spend quality time here and get to know the city better, I feel like this is a dream gig.
You have often lived life on the road. Do you ever feel like you’re settled?
This is the most settled I’ve been in probably years. And that’s just because, by choice, I love playing, travelling and seeing new cities. The band, DNCE, that I’m in now, we tour a lot—more than I ever did even with my brothers—so it keeps us quite busy.
Have you been giving them pangs of envy with your Australia posts?
They get a little annoyed when they’re in cold weather, like our bass player Cole, who is in New York right now. The never-ending winter! So they’re very excited to come out here and have a few days off.
How have you found working alongside the coaches here?
We’re really close at this point. They all seem to like so many different kinds of music and it’s encouraging. You talk to somebody like Kelly, and Kelly knows, like, every rock band ever and I’m always so impressed with her knowledge, and it’s cool to see that she really loves that kind of music. George as well. George is a big Marilyn Manson fan. You really wouldn’t expect that, but yet it kind of makes sense. Even Delta, you know, she’s so eclectic with what she can do in her musicality, so I’m always learning from them.
Delta dated your brother Nick in 2012. Was it helpful knowing her?
It was very helpful. Delta’s a good friend and I feel like we have this brother-sister fun, playful kind of game that we do while we’re here, and we can poke at each other and you don’t feel like they’re getting too offended or whatever.
What’s something about Delta that you know now that you didn’t know earlier?
Delta has a karaoke set-up in her apartment. She has a grand piano and then a microphone with, like, reverb always ready. I’m sure she’s rehearsing, but also, anytime there’s a song playing, typically she goes over there and starts singing and performing. It’s pretty awesome. I think it’s like that little kid Delta always was. She still lives that, and that’s a beautiful thing.
Has she guided you when artists perform Australian songs you may not know?
The local songs, I’m like, “Who’s this?” And, of course, Delta is right there, so I get to ask her, and then I’m going on Spotify and pulling up this new favourite artist. Dean Lewis is this guy with a song called “Waves” that I’ve heard recently and I just fell in love with his voice.
Congratulations on your engagement to Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner.
Thank you very much. Are you looking forward to marriage? I’m looking forward to it, yes. You know, we’re taking our sweet time, and it’s difficult to plan anything, really, for me, so I have a lot of people’s help. But she’s going to try to come out here when we get to the live shows. She’s very jealous of what the lifestyle’s like, and she’s always with an eye roll like, “What are you doing now?” [ Laughs] Because she knows it’s got to be epic!
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