Nick Jonas had to give up control of his life in order to regain his freedom.
The 23-year-old singer has built the foundations of a strong solo career since parting ways from his sibling group Jonas Brothers in 2013. He has three solo albums to his name, with latest offering Last Year Was Complicated released on 10 June (16) and acting roles under his belt, though he admits it required a bit of a leap to get to where he is today.
"I think the biggest thing was I had to give up control first and kind of say, all right, I was gripping it all too tightly; let me just take a step back and work with some new people, get creative and not be afraid to just go there," he told harpersbazaar.com, as he spoke about feeling free in his profession.
"So the biggest piece of that was opening up and being willing to explore new things, and then in return I wrote some music that I'm really proud of, that really connected, and found some great projects that I could evolve in."
Nick has a few collaborations on his new release, including a song called Good Girls with Big Sean and a track called Bacon with Ty Dolla $ign.
However, the star's dreams of the perfect partnership died earlier this year (16) when the world lost a musical icon.
"Well, Prince was," Nick sighed when asked who he would like to join forces with. "It was a big dream of mine to work with him. Obviously it's not possible now and I'm sad to have lost him. Kanye (West), it's a dream to work with him, and even Drake is one I'd love to work with," he added.