A duet with Kelsea Ballerini at the 2016 ACM Awards really struck an off chord with Nick Jonas -- literally and figuratively.
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The 30-year-old recently appeared on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast alongside his brothers, Kevin and Joe, and took some time to share about the eye-opening performance from seven years ago.
"Kelsea and I had a couple performances together, and this was one of them,” he said of their “Peter Pan” duet at the award show. “I come out for my thing. I rehearsed it a million times. I'm feeling really confident about it — not even really thinking about it like it's a thing that's going to be problematic.”
He continued, “I started off, it was fine and as I walked towards her, I just went completely blank and I hit a wrong note and blacked out basically and clocked that it was wrong and I couldn't stop."
Still unsure of exactly what happened in those moments, Jonas says the experience stuck with him and ultimately lead him into therapy to work on his perfectionism.
"Till this day and hours after unpacking it, I can't really figure out exactly what happened, but I was rushed to a car and rushed to a plane right after it,” he said. "I looked at my manager and said, 'I think that was bad.' I was, like, in shock kinda. It was a really traumatic moment that shaped the pressure I put on myself to be perfect and to always be on."
Jonas has since been able to move on and redeem himself as a duet partner for Ballerini. The pair took the stage together each night of the Jonas Brothers’ 2021 Remember This Tour to sing Nick’s single, “Close,” as Ballerini served as the opening act.
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