Nick, Joe and Kevin Jonas have just done what every singer, musician and band wants to do. Be on the cover of the Rolling Stone. It’s a milestone in a successful career, one that a minuscule number of artists ever achieve. And they are all under 21. What do they want the world to know? That they’re a real band. Disney’s been great to them, but they want to be seen for the musicians they are. A tween’s dream, they are truly a drug for a young girl’s brain. Sayeth the Stone:
Big Rob escorts Nick, Kevin and Joe to their places. Suddenly, the lights go dark, triggering a roar in the 20,000-seat Cricket Wireless Pavilion that can only be described as primal. And it is, in a way. The neuropsychiatrist Dr. Louann Brizendine, author of the bestseller The Female Brain, says the release of dopamine in a screaming teenage girl’s brain upon seeing her pop idols is like “injecting heroin.” Being with other screaming girls, she says, only makes the effect wilder.
“There’s a thing in biology we call synchrony,” Brizendine says. “Basically, one girl affects another affects another, and it becomes a domino effect building up to that level of hysteria. They are getting all these brain hits of dopamine, and also oxytocin, which is a love-and-bonding hormone. Teenage girls have so much estrogen, which just catapults the level of dopamine and oxytocin in the brain, creating this sort of ecstatic rush in themselves and others. It truly is a state of ecstatic love.”
It’s nearing 8:00 on a sweltering night in Phoenix, and as the temperature mercifully dips below 100 degrees, a trillion swelling hormones have collected at the Cricket Wireless Pavilion to experience the Jonas Brothers. Among the undersize pilgrims in attendance are Jordan and Jackie, a pair of blond preteens from nearby Scottsdale. Moments ago, they met the Jonas Brothers in person at a “meet and greet” photo op, and now they stand red-cheeked, quivering and sobbing uncontrollably, as if they’ve been told that Disneyland just burned down, with the world’s supply of kittens and baby pandas trapped inside.
“Omigodomigodomigod,” Jordan says, holding her arms aloft and shaking her palms in the air.
“I got tingles in my body all over the place, because I. Just. Met. Nick. Jonas,” Jackie says.
“I’ve wanted to meet them for, like, my whole entire life,” Jordan says.
How old are you?
“Ten.”
It’s like this everywhere.
The interview is great, and you can read the online version here at Rollingstone.com
The issue hits the stands July 25th.
