Nick Jonas Reveals A ‘Tragic’ Duet With Kelsea Ballerini Put Him ‘In Therapy’
The singer was referring to a particular award show performance and said he hit ‘a wrong note,’ during a podcast interview.
Nick Jonas, 30, spoke out about a performance he wasn’t happy with, during a joint interview with his brothers, Kevin Jonas, and Joe Jonas, on the latest episode of the Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard podcast. The singer talked about his duet performance of “Peter Pan” with Kelsea Ballerini at the 2016 Academy of Country Music Awards and admitted he thought it was his “worst moment” on stage because of a note he missed, which can be seen below. He mentioned the incident after a discussion about how he forgot words during a Cole Porter tribute.
“Then there was another time during a really tragic guitar solo debacle that happened on live TV,” said Nick. “In retrospect, I can kind of laugh about how big I thought it was. But it did travel more than I wish it would have, and it did cause me to go to therapy.”
The performance received mixed reviews online and some reposted the moment Nick was referring to with comments of criticism. It all happened when he was about to release his second solo album, Last Year Was Complicated. Kelsea released her debut album, The First Time, which featured “Peter Pan,” the year before.
“Kelsea and I had a couple performances together, and this was one of them,” Nick continued. “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.”
“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,” he continued. “Til 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. 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.”
Before their duet at the 2016 ACMs, Nick and Kelsea performed duets of his song, “Close” in 2021, when she opened for the Jonas Brothers‘ Remember This Tour.