Inside the Jonas Brothers ‘rift’

CEBU, Philippines - The mystery behind the Jonas Brothers “rift” that led to their canceled tour continues to get interesting.

Sources close to the group tell E! News that long before Nick, Joe and Kevin Jonas started their 2013 summer tour, there were discussions about how they wanted to resurface the band after a long absence from touring.

The core debate was over whether or not they would rebrand with an edgier look and sound to reflect that they were all now twentysomethings, or whether they would continue to extend the wholesome image. One idea focused on slightly changing their name, by dropping Brothers and simply going by Jonas. Along with their father, Kevin Jonas Sr., the collective decision was to continue going by Jonas Brothers.

The bigger conflict was deciding their style of music. According to sources, Nick continued to write and produce most of the songs on their album “V” which reflected what was a compromise between Joe, who wanted a new rock sound, and Nick, who wanted a development of their old sound with a jazzy feel.

But this caused a major problem because they ended up taking longer to finish the album, which contributed to them being unable to release it prior to their summer tour. This presented a commercial challenge, because they weren’t able to be on tour supporting the album, which was the original goal.

There also seems to be some personal issues that have developed. These, however, are very closely guarded. So much so that people who have worked with them for years are not aware of what they are. (FREEMAN)