Jonas Brothers: The Clean Teen Machine

As modern pop-music controversies go, worrying about being seen as a “Christian band” is a nice problem to have. Disney has already suffered growing pains with Miley Cyrus, whose image took a hit after Vanity Fair published a bare-shouldered Annie Leibovitz portrait that, depending on whom you talked to, was elegant art or proof that we’re on a slip-slide to the apocalypse. While Disney’s Iger feels that Mileygate was overcooked —”A gross overreaction,” he says — he acknowledges the challenges of having image-conscious Disney invested in the unpredictable rock business. “It’s tricky,” Iger says. “There are no guarantees when it comes to artists aging and behavior that changes with aging. The key is to put it into perspective.”

The Jonases admit they feel that pressure. “I think we’ve always tried to live our lives to some standards,” Nick says. “The good thing is that we have each other. On the road, Joe and I share a room, so we’ll have conversations where we’re in our beds and talk until 2:00 in the morning. We just have that relationship where we’re really able to talk about anything.”

As for Miley’s troubles, Nick gets protective. “She’s our friend,” he says. “And we’ll always have her back.” In the end, it really (and scarily) is up to the kids themselves. Total control and supervision of a teen idol is a laugh — go ask Lynne Spears. There’s always a tension between business demands and adolescent rebellion.

I think of this when I meet Demi Lovato, the Jonases’ 15-year-old co-star in Camp Rock, who is opening up for the boys on this tour. An auburn-haired spitfire from Dallas, Lovato onstage comes off more like a preternatural Pat Benatar than a cutesy pop queen.

I’d heard Lovato was a metal fan, and backstage, as she prepares for her one-song cameo in the Jonas Brothers‘ show, she confesses her affection for the headbangers. “I had an ex-boyfriend who was a total metalhead,” she explains. When asked, she ticks off some of her favorite metal bands: Glendale, Arizona’s Job for a Cowboy (sample lyric: “Nauseated/She chokes on her own vomit emitted from her distended and desiccated throat”) and Norway’s Dimmu Borgir (classic album: Death Cult Armageddon).

“I don’t want kids to listen to Job for a Cowboy,” Lovato says cautiously. “But there is a certain uniqueness to metal music. When someone comes over to a mike and screams — I can’t do that. I listen to pop music and I’m like, ‘OK, I get it’ — that doesn’t fascinate me. What fascinates me is metal.” For a second, Lovato looks nervous, as if she’s said a terrible thing that will soon have her waiting tables at a Dallas-area Applebee’s. She wonders if she should have mentioned the bands at all. “I think [Disney Channel president] Gary Marsh would kill me.”

Maybe. But I think it makes her sound 15, and totally awesome.