Joe Jonas: New Solo Album Is 'Very Personal'

Joe Jonas at the MTV Video Music Awards

Steve Granitz/WireImage

After six years as a member of the Jonas Brothers, middle brother Joe is striking out on his own. In addition to a solo tour with Jay Sean and JoJo and October dates in Europe opening for Britney Spears, he's got his first album, Fast Life, coming out October 11th. "About a year and a half ago I sat down with my brothers and said, 'Listen, guys, I want to create something a little bit different than what we’ve been doing,'" he tells Rolling Stone. "The music I like, it’s just very kind of urban, hip-hop, dance stuff, electronic stuff."

Fast Life isn't just a showcase for his varied musical tastes – he also calls it a very personal work. "I wanted to be able to create something that spoke volumes about what I’ve gone through the past few years," he says.

That led to revealing moments lyrically, which made Jonas nervous at first. "'I’m Sorry' was the number one song that was really a lot to put on the table. It was a really personal song about something I was going through in a relationship," he says. "To put it all out there and just be that vulnerable is not always easy, but I was really happy with the outcome."

Jonas is looking forward to taking the material on the road, where he promises he will be previewing more of Fast Life, including the songs "Kleptomaniac" and "All This Time," but he's particularly excited about opening for Spears. "Britney is an incredible artist and she’s been doing it for so long now, to be able to get on the road with her will be a lot of fun," he says. Are the two friends? "I don’t necessarily know her that well, but I obviously know her music very well and I’ve met her a couple of times. She’s very sweet."

But yes, the Jonas Brothers will go on. "With my brothers we’re definitely gonna create more music down the line. Right now we’re just focusing on our individual stuff," he says. "But we’ll definitely be doing it soon."

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Song Stories

“Piano Man”

Billy Joel | 1973

Billy Joel’s first hit, “Piano Man,” was – ironically – an autobiographical lament about how his first album wasn’t a hit. When Cold Spring Harbor didn’t take off, Joel briefly became a lounge pianist in Los Angeles, and this song, about that experience, expressed his frustrations and fears at the time: “And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar/And say, ‘Man, what are you doing here?’” “It was all right,” Joel said later, about the gig. “I got free drinks and union scale, which was the first steady money I’d made in a long time.”

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