Nick Jonas Says His 2016 ACM Awards Performance Sent Him to Therapy: ‘It Was a Really Traumatic Moment’

Nick Jonas looked back on his off-key performance at the 2016 Academy of Country Music Awards on Monday’s episode (May 22) of Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard.

Appearing on the podcast with Kevin and Joe Jonas, the youngest member of the Jonas Brothers reflected on the viral moment his guitar solo went terribly awry during Kelsea Ballerini’s performance of her hit single “Peter Pan.”

“Then there was another time during a really tragic guitar solo debacle that happened on live TV,” he told host Dax Shepard. “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.

“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,” the singer 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.”

The awards show moment took place right in the middle of the JoBros’ years-long break before they reunited in 2019 but Nick explained that it played into the expectations he’s had for performances ever since. “Til this day and hours after unpacking it, I can’t really figure out exactly what happened,” he said, “but I was rushed to a car and rushed to a plane right after it and I looked at my manager and said, ‘I think that was bad.’ I was, like, in shock kinda. Like it was a really traumatic moment that shaped the pressure I put on myself to be perfect and to always be on.”

Listen to the Jonas Brothers’ full chat with Shepard on Armchair Expert below.