Joe Jonas opens up about weed, sex and growing up Disney

Joe Jonas smoked pot with Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato when he was 17 or 18. He got caught drinking around the same time, 16 or 17. And a while after taking off that well-documented purity ring, he lost his virginity at age 20.

Those are just some of the dishy revelations in the middle Jonas’ first-person piece, as told to New York magazine — oh, we forgot the one where he fell down a flight of stairs while celebrating his 21st birthday. His handlers were afraid there would be pictures of that one, the 24-year-old said.

The fear of something getting out is something that pops up throughout the memoir.

Turns out Jonas was a lot more tuned in to what was going on with Demi Lovato than many were at the time of her meltdown in 2010. The two had been friends forever, he said, and dated for about a month.

“I really got to know her and got to see the ins and outs of what she was struggling with, like drug abuse,” Jonas said. “I felt like I needed to take care of her, but at the same time I was living a lie, because I wasn’t happy but felt like I had to stay in it for her, because she needed help. I couldn’t express any of that, of course, because I had a brand to protect.

“It was an insane situation to be in.”

Note the one line tucked in there, the one that shows how conscious Jonas was of being a Disney kid with an image to uphold.

“We didn’t want to disappoint anyone — our parents, our fans, our employers — so we put incredible pressure on ourselves, the kind of pressure that no teenager should be under,” Jonas said.

“We were just kids. That’s the reality. We were frightened little kids. So you got all this responsibility that’s foisted upon you and you’re expected to be perfect. I went through media training, and I hated it. They’d teach you how to change the subject, whenever you were asked an uncomfortable question ... “

And he noted that the very nature of what makes a kid a Disney kid could be why so many of them have broken out of that mold with a vengeance.

“Being a part of the Disney thing for so long will make you not want to be this perfect little puppet forever,” Jonas said. “Eventually, I hit a limit and thought, ‘Screw all this, I’m just going to show people who I am.’ I think that happened to a lot of us. Disney kids are spunky in some way, and I think that’s why Disney hires them. ‘Look, he jumped up on the table!’ Five, six, 10 years later, they’re like, ‘Oh! What do we do?’ Come on, guys. You did this to yourselves.”

ALSO:

Paul Walker death: Celebrities react, investigation continues

Barbara Walters’ ‘Most Fascinating People’ of 2013 announced

Michael Jordan and wife Yvette Prieto expecting first child together

Follow Christie D’Zurilla on Twitter and Google+. Follow the Ministry of Gossip on Twitter @LATcelebs and on Facebook facebook.com/ministryofgossip.