Nick Jonas told a New York gala audience that when the Jonas Brothers got back together in 2019, Bob Iger “was among the first to reach out.” He said that one call from Disney’s then boss set off another decade-defining run with the company.
The 34-year-old singer took the stage on Tuesday, October 27, at the PAC NYC Icons of Culture Gala, where the former Walt Disney Company chief executive was the guest of honor. Jonas used a night off from the band’s Burning Up Tour All Over Again to be there.
From Chip to Disney Legend
He opened with a photo. On the screen behind him was a child in costume as the teacup from Beauty and the Beast.
“When I first worked for Disney, I was just little Chip. Literally, I played Chip in the Broadway production of Beauty and the Beast when I was 9 years old.”
“Yep, that cutie right there is me,” he added, before describing a boy who “had no idea” he would soon be recording an album for Disney. Jonas credited Iger with helping turn him and his brothers Kevin and Joe into “bonafide Disney Channel stars.”
Then came the part that got the headlines. The brothers split in October 2013 and stayed apart for six years. When they returned with the single “Sucker” on March 1, 2019, Jonas said, Iger was quick to call.
“That conversation led to two more movies, original music at parks around the world and another chapter in a story that I still can’t believe I get to live,” Jonas said. He did not name the films in his speech.
He closed on a coincidence of timing. In August, the three brothers and Iger were inducted as Disney Legends in the same class. “The kid who played Chip and the man who believed in him inducted together,” Jonas said. “Bob, I can’t think of anyone I’d rather share this honor with.”
The Jonas-Disney timeline
Laid end to end, the relationship Jonas described runs for about two decades:
- Childhood: Nick plays Chip in Beauty and the Beast on Broadway at age 9.
- February 2007: After Columbia Records drops them, the brothers sign with Hollywood Records, a label Disney owns.
- 2008 to 2010: They star in the Disney Channel movies Camp Rock and Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam, plus their own series, Jonas.
- October 29, 2013: The band breaks up.
- March 1, 2019: “Sucker” arrives and debuts at No. 1 on the main US singles chart, the group’s first chart-topper there. Jonas says Iger reached out around this reunion.
- August 2026: Kevin, Joe and Nick are named Disney Legends at the D23 fan event at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, presented by Vanessa Hudgens. Iger is in the same class.
- October 27, 2026: Nick pays tribute to Iger at the New York gala.
Nick has now worked with Disney under more than one chief executive. Iger, who stepped away from the company in March, ran Disney for more than 20 years and bought Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm and 21st Century Fox on his watch, and Disney+ launched under him too. His successor, Josh D’Amaro, presented Iger’s own Disney Legends award in August and called him “one of the most consequential business leaders of our time.”
A family of Legends
The August ceremony leaned on the same Disney roots Nick revisited this week. Joe Jonas told that crowd his first word was “Gaston,” after endless viewings of Beauty and the Beast. Nick thanked fans “for letting us be a part of your childhood.”
The honor is not handed out often. Disney began naming Legends in 1987, with actor Fred MacMurray first, and the 2026 class brought the total to 329 people. The brothers joined a group that also included Anne Hathaway, Dwayne Johnson and Lin-Manuel Miranda.
At the New York gala, Nick introduced a medley of songs from Frozen, Aladdin and The Greatest Showman, the last of which is due to open on London’s West End in April.
He then went back to the road. The Burning Up Tour All Over Again, which opened in August with three sold-out nights at Madison Square Garden, ends with a hometown show in Newark, New Jersey, on December 22.
Further reading
Image: jenniferlinneaphotography, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
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