Nick Jonas on why he stripped at gay clubs

Nick Jonas sure caused a bit of a stir last month when he took his shirt off at a few different New York City gay clubs and revealed his set of killer abs.

‘I was in New York celebrating the release of the new music and I went to a couple of gay clubs and… (Laughs) They kind of made me do it, so I had to!’ he tells PrideSource Magazine.

When it was pointed out that it was he himself taking that shirt off Jonas said: ‘It was a few drinks in at that point. All bets were off.’

So how was it for this straight guy to be shirtless in front of all those gay men?

‘I love my gay fans, so it was just a lot of love, and there wasn’t a whole lot of hitting on me and flirting,’ he says. ‘A little bit, which was actually kind of fun. (Laughs) It was a pretty new environment for me, so I was just trying to take it all in and have a good time.’

The appearances are part of a concerted effort to court gay fans ahead of the 11 November release of his self-titled solo album.

‘When I was setting up this record and meeting with the team about it, I told them that I really wanted to make an effort to embrace that part of my audience,’ he says. ‘I’ve known for a long time that it is a great part of the audience, and I just never felt like we made all the effort we could to embrace them. It’s been really fun and really incredible.’

Of those cynics who say he is just trying to bait the gays to sell albums Jonas says: ‘Clearly my heart is in the right place, and more than anything, if they just looked at my life and my gay friends and the authentic nature of where my heart is, they’d just see that they’re kind of ignorant.’