The Clean Teen Machine

Two years ago, we were in a big red passenger van with a trailer hitched to the back with all our gear," Nick says. It is the afternoon of the Phoenix concert, and the Jonas Brothers are flying to the show in a chartered Gulfstream G4 with espresso-color leather chairs.

"Big Bertha," Joe says. "It had a dent in it, and we'd flip the seats around and call it —"

"The Players Lounge," Nick says, smiling.

Kevin reaches over and shows me a small display screen attached to the wall. "The amazing thing about this plane? It has cameras all over." He flips a channel. "That's the wing." He flips again. "That's another." Flip. "That's underneath."

In the back of the plane sit the Jonas parents, Kevin Sr. and Denise, as well as McIntyre, Big Rob and the boys' personal assistant, Felicia Culotta, who, like Big Rob, used to work the bubblegum trenches for Britney Spears. As we talk, a pretty flight attendant delivers lunch: chicken fingers from KFC.

"We once played this show in Jersey," Nick says, munching on a chicken finger. "It was, seriously, the most horrible little rock club in the world. It fit maybe 50 people. When we got there, the guy said there was a heavy-metal band the night before that blew out the PA system, so they'd have to take the monitors and spin them around."

"It was out of control," says Kevin. "And our crowds were interesting."

Interesting?

"Curious," Nick says.

Joe laughs. "It was like when you perform in third grade or your little sister has a ballet. They'd all go like this — " he puts down his chicken finger and does a slow clap. "It was like that."

"It had potential," Nick says. "Like it could be crazy. But it wasn't there yet."

Despite their closeness, the Jonases aren't exactly alike. Kevin, the oldest, is the extrovert, chatting up bus drivers and security guards, crouching on his knees to greet little kids at shows. Middle child Joe, who resembles a prettier version of the actor Peter Gallagher, is the quieter Jonas, with a wild alter ego revealed onstage, where he swivels his hips and twirls a mike stand like a lightsaber. "I'm really inspired by Mick Jagger and Freddie Mercury — the big frontmen," he says. "I heard Jagger does an hour on a treadmill before every show."

Nick, by contrast, is the Jonas Brothers' boss — the spokesman, the best musician, the chief songwriter. It might seem odd for Joe and Kevin to take their lead from their kid brother, but the Jonases don't see it that way. "Nicholas has always been older than he was," their father tells me. Despite his heartthrob status, Nick has more Eddie Vedder in him than he does Shaun Cassidy. He says his favorite songs are Elvis Costello's "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea" and Johnny Cash's "Give My Love to Rose."

Nick says he'd like to do a Jonas-Cash tribute album. "We could call it, Jonas Brothers Pay Tribute to the Man in Black," he says.

Naturally, the Jonases have started to become tabloid targets, and they seem amused by the gossip about their dating life. Lately, Joe's been fending off the rumor — and by fending off, I mean totally enjoying — that he's dating country-music chanteuse Taylor Swift, who was spotted in the crowd at the Dallas concert and who will appear in the band's upcoming 3-D movie. Kevin's been photographed boating in Miami with a brown-haired knockout named Danielle.