Brad Paisley Brings out Jonas Brothers for ‘Lovebug,’ and Fans Have Lots to Say

Brad Paisley brought the Jonas Brothers to Nashville for a special performance during his new ABC special, and fans were mostly pleased with the surprise. The country music superstar hosted and executive produced the new one-hour special, Brad Paisley Thinks He’s Special, highlighting Nashville and featuring hilarious skits and unbelievable performances.

Paisley introduced the Jonas Brothers — Joe Jonas, Nick Jonas and Kevin Jonas — several times during the special, first in a moment with fellow guest Kelsea Ballerini. The musicians also participated in a hilarious sketch during the show and performed with Paisley near the end of the show when they collaborated for a special rendition of their hit song “Lovebug.”

The special performance captured the attention of country and pop fans alike, who were delighted to see the collaboration between the two beloved acts.

“BRAD PAISLEY AND THE JONAS BROTHERS PERFORMING LOVE BUG I JUST DIED,” one fan wrote on Twitter.

“The @jonasbrothers singing Lovebug on ‘Brad Paisley Thinks He’s Special‘ on abc, love it,” another user commented, adding a heart eyes emoji and a clapping emoji.

“The Jonas Brothers singing with Brad Paisley is everything I didn’t know I needed [stay eyes emoji],” another user commented.

Other viewers were puzzled by the choice to have the pop band come on the show, with some saying they wished they had kept the show country.

“I never thought I would see the Jonas Brothers singing ‘Love Bug’ (sic) with Brad Paisley, but here we are #BradPaisleyThinksHesSpecial,” one viewer commented.

“I might be only person watching this Brad Paisley special more impressed by Dan Tyminski playing guitar in his band than the Jonas Brothers appearance,” another user wrote.

Ahead of the premiere, Paisley opened up to Billboard about wanting to deliver special performances to viewers they would otherwise not see.

“[I hope they see] how much fun it is to be able to take some friends of mine, like the Jonas Brothers, and do a performance you’ll never see anywhere else,” said Paisley. We do ‘Lovebug,’ and then they mash-up and go into ‘She’s Everything,’ one of my songs. I played a little bit of ‘Ticks,’ and it’s a very organic and stripped-down performance. To be able to offer that to the world in the middle of all this noise is really fun. We’re all trying to create, but it’s fun to have this platform where we were able to do fun stuff and be able to see if people will latch on and grab it.”

He also said he was happy to have acts that went beyond the country genre during the special.

“I play the rock guitar solo on ‘Lovebug’ with those [the Jonas Brothers],” he added. “And then I play acoustic guitar bluegrass-y with Kelsea on her song, and then I jam out at Tootsies with Hootie & the Blowfish. This was a fantasy for me. One of the things I said to Kelsea was, ‘I’m such a big fan. I just want to be your backup guitar player on this show for a minute,’ and I got to do that. So it’s fantasy camp for me.”