The Jonas Brothers played San Francisco this week.  We did not attend (tickets started at $92).  But my three daughters have chatted up everyone at their school, everyone at summer camp, and everyone under age 14 within a 10-mile radius, I believe: they just cannot get over the fact that I actually interviewed Nick Jonas back in Spring of 2007.

Never mind that the interview was over the phone.  And never mind that this was before the Disney Channel and the cover of People magazine and the movie Camp Rock, etc., etc. I had no idea how BIG those boys would get.

Love them or not, the beautiful thing about Nick’s diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes is how incredibly open he’s been about it.  I think it would take most of us much longer than a year — especially as a teenager — to be prepared to talk about our illness on national and international TV, all over YouTube, and on newsstands everywhere.

After diagnosis, it didn’t take long at all for Nick to start on the OmniPod, and start talking about how that system has helped him.  Click HERE to read the customer story I interviewed him for.

I remember Nick being a typically reticent then-14-year-old during our interview.  In other words, it took a lot of prodding to get him to talk.  But eventually his diagnosis story rolled out, quite eloquently:

“The whole story is that we were touring for the whole summer.  We hit the road on a school tour in October-November of 2005. and I and started to notice substantial weight loss, I was drinking lot of water, and going to the restroom all time. My attitude was really bad. When the tour ended, I felt terrible.”

“Turns out my sugar was over 700. It was a crazy moment hearing that. I ended up in the hospital for three days… The day I got out of the hospital, I was doing a show with my brothers, so I was right back out there.”

Nothing like being age 14 or 15 for the powers of bouncing back, ay?

Anyway, as you may have heard (OMG, don’t you know?), Nick has composed a new song inspired by his diabetes.  Watch that video HERE.

You can also read an interview with his mother Denise in the July edition of Diabetes Forecast. His mom sounds like a pretty cool lady, and since there’s a strong mother behind every famous kid: hats off to her, I say.  Hats off to cool mothers everywhere, in fact!  Right, kids?

Friday, July 18th, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (5)