The Jonas Brothers’ ‘Hesitate’ Lyrics Are the Very Real ‘Love Letter’ Joe Wrote for Sophie Turner
@Alyssa Bailey
Back in April, months before the Jonas Brothers’ comeback album Happiness Beginswas slotted to come out, Nick Jonas gave away what track on the album his brother Joe Jonas wrote about his now-wife, then-fiancée Sophie Turner. Nick described the song “Hesitate” to Billboard as Joe’s “love letter” to Sophie. And it truly is a raw, intense look at their relationship and alludes to the way Joe really sought to help Sophie as she went through depression.
A key part of the song is its chorus lyrics: “I will take your pain / And put it on my heart / I won’t hesitate / Just tell me where to start / I thank the oceans for giving me you / You save me once, and now I’ll save you too / I won’t hesitate for you.” They’re especially poignant when you consider what Sophie and Joe have said about how Joe changed the way Sophie saw herself and how she had been struggling before she met him. (Sophie is British, while Joe is American, so she literally came across the ocean before they met.)
In an interview with The Sunday Times, Sophie spoke about how Joe really did make a big difference on her mental health. “I was going through this phase of being very mentally unwell,” she said. “He was, like, ‘I can’t be with you until you love yourself, I can’t see you love me more than you love yourself.’ That was something, him doing that. I think he kind of saved my life, in a way.”
She also spoke to Glamour UK about how Joe really put her before himself, like when he sings, “I will take your pain / And put it on my heart.”
“A lot of [my happiness now] is to do with being with a person I’ve fallen in love with, who loves me more than he loves himself, and who wants to see me find my own happiness,” she told the outlet. “That was probably the biggest thing that pushed me to find who I am—and find my happiness in things other than acting.”
Joe, meanwhile, credited Sophie with helping him repair his relationship with his brothers in the Harper’s Bazaar profile of them that came out on Thursday—just one example of the lyric “You save me once and now I’ll save you too” in the couple’s real life.
“It encouraged me to see she had such a great relationship with her brothers,” Joe said. “That was really a big thing for me to be able to look at, and say, ‘I gotta get my shit together.’”
With that context, the song’s lyrics via Genius to take in. You can stream it.
Kiss the tears right off your face
Won’t get scared, that’s the old, old, old me
I’ll be there time and place
Lay it on me, all you’re hold, hold, holding
Pre-Chorus
Time, time only heals if we work through it now
And I promise I’ll figure this out
Chorus
I will take your pain
And put it on my heart
I won’t hesitate
Just tell me where to start
I thank the oceans for giving me you
You save me once, and now I’ll save you too
I won’t hesitate for you
Verse 2:
Don’t you ever say goodbye
Cross my heart, and you can keep, keep, keep mine
If I could only read your mind
Then I could map out all the ways to make it right
Pre-Chorus:
Time, time only heals if we work through it now
And I promise we’ll figure this out
Chorus:
I will take your pain
And put it on my heart
I won’t hesitate
Just tell me where to start
I thank the oceans for giving me you
You save me once, and now I’ll save you too
I won’t hesitate for you
Bridge:
Pull me close and I’ll hold you tight
Don’t be scared ’cause I’m on your side
Know there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you
Pull me close and I’ll hold you tight
Don’t be scared ’cause I’m on your side
Know there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you
Chorus
I will take your pain
And put it on my heart
I won’t hesitate
Just tell me where to start
I thank the oceans for giving me you
You save me once, and I save you too
I won’t hesitate for you
