Meet Nemesis, just your typical gay identical twin ex-Jehovah's Witnesses-turned-pop stars

Every successful set of celebu-twins has a certain quality that transcends the mere novelty of physical parity. The Double Mints were incredibly busty while the Olsens' good-girls-gone-bad act makes for great tabloid fodder. It's a fact not lost on Jacob and Joshua Miller, the twins behind Nemesis—a bubblegum pop band with a debut album, Rise Up (Curb), about to drop. They're former Jehovah's Witnesses and are both unambiguously gay. (Take that, Nelson brothers!) It's a combination that the folks at LOGO just couldn't pass up—Nemesis: Rising, a reality-TV show that features the brothers, is currently airing on the network. The show follows the Millers as they come out to their conservative family, film videos with gratuitous ab-muscle shots, and, more than anything, bicker. Just days before an appearance on TRL cemented their place in the mainstream, Radar caught up with the duo for a conversation about faith, crystal meth, and finding your brother in bed with your best friend.

RADAR: So, you're entering the grand musical tradition of twin rockers.
JOSH: I don't think any of them have been very successful.

Come on. Nelson?
JACOB: Who?!

You don't know Nelson? The greatest twin hair band there ever was.
JACOB: Oh yeah, so great they only had one hit song.

What about Tegan and Sara? The Veronicas?
JACOB: I know of Nelson, and I've heard Evan and Jaron.

From the Dawson's Creek soundtrack?
JOSH: Yes, the Jewish twins.

And you're the gay Jehovah's Witness twins. Do you think of Rise Up as a gay record?
JOSH: I refuse to aim for our demographic. I refuse. My biggest fear is that straight girls or women would say. "Well, They're not interested in us, so I'm not interested in them."
JACOB: But right now, all we're getting press on is the fact that we're gay. It's just so gay, gay, gay.

But you have to admit, with gay identical twins in a band, that's kind of the draw.

JACOB: Oh, I get it. And we did the TV series about that because we knew that we could generate good PR.

JOSH: And what's even more interesting to people than the gay thing is the Jehovah's Witness thing. Maybe because America is still a Puritan country.

How did you two come out to each other?
JACOB: I started working at the airport in Nashville, and and this boy who worked there was my first gay friend, and he had a crush on me.
JOSH: Awww.
JACOB: And I ended up falling in love with him. He kissed me one day at his house and I totally freaked out and was like, 'Why did you do that?' But I couldn't stop thinking about it. So we started dating. Joshua could tell that something was going on because I was not coming home at night. He flipped out about it, so we sat down and I told him I was seeing a man.
JOSH: At that time, I was still praying to God to forgive me for masturbating. When I found out Jacob was doing all these sinful things, I freaked out, I cried, I told him I was going to take him to the elders and have him disfellowshipped.

Disfellowshipped? That sounds scary.
JOSH: It is scary. No one from the Jehovah's Witness faith can speak to you anymore.

Did you know that you were also gay at the time, Josh?
JACOB: Well, I know that he found himself pretty quick, because it was about three months later that I caught him in bed with one of my best friends!
JOSH: It was longer than three months.
JACOB: Not much longer.

And that's the first time you knew about each other? What about gaydar?
JOSH: Well, being a Jehovah's Witness you don't think in those terms. And growing up in Montana is a huge part of it. I went into a video store when I was 16 and rented the few gay videos they had. I mean, I found gay porn sexy and fascinating, but I didn't know anything else about it.

That was your introduction to sin?
JOSH: Oh yes. And it's just gotten worse and worse.
JACOB: I met my current boyfriend at an after-hours club in Nashville at 4 a.m.—we were both high as kites!

What's the party drug of choice in Nashville?
JACOB: Well, at the time it was meth and ecstacy.

I have to ask: Which one of you is rocking a dye job?
JOSH: Jacob.
JACOB: We're naturally Joshua.

Did you do it so people could tell you apart?
JACOB: No, when we were 16 years old in Montana we did a hair show, and the salon colored my hair blond.

Back up. You performed in a hair show, and you didn't have any idea you were gay?

JOSH: Touché, baby! Touché.

JACOB: Not only did we perform in the show, we choreographed it. We had our own dance studio in Montana called JJM Dance.

I'm mystified by how even with tap shoes on you still didn't know.
JOSH: Have you been to Montana?

I saw Brokeback Mountain....
JACOB: You need to go to Montana, honey.

How long did it take you guys to make it in the music business?
JOSH: We were trying before we left home. We did all the fairs and the True Value/Jimmy Dean Country Showdown—the grand prize was $50,000 and a recording contract. We got pretty far in that but didn't win. We had graduated from high school and Jacob thought it was time to move to Nashville. But we were fighting fear, religion, and our parents.
JACOB: And I said, "I'm going now, and you can either come or stay."

So it sounds as though you two got signed pretty quickly after moving to Nashville.
JACOB: Well, it happened like lightning. I got a job as a teller at a bank, and a coworker was married to the manager for Mark Chestnutt. He thought we had amazing voices and spent $300 for us to record a pop demo. Through that we ended up with Mike Curb, who signed us over lunch.
JOSH: All very quick and strange.

You were a teller? I thought you were working at an airport.
JACOB: I quit the bank because I got hired by Delta to be a ticket agent.
JOSH: And at the same time, I was a ticket agent for Southwest Airlines; we were right down the hall from each other.

Why are gay men so attracted to the airline industry?
JOSH: Actually, here's the thing: Most of the people who work in the airline industry are gay and are flight attendants.
JACOB: That's bullshit.

You think it's with the stewards that you find more of a scene?
JACOB: Exactly. My first, Joey, was a flight attendant.
JOSH: No, he was a ticket agent!
JACOB: Um, nooo, he was a flight attendant.
JOSH: Not when you met him.
JACOB: Well, I think I would remember.
JOSH: Fine.

I've seen your press photos, and they're ... they're a little sexy.

JOSH: I know what you're getting at. It is funny, like in the pictures that were taken of us for the Advocate we're actually sitting on a couch, and I'm leaning up against Jacob's shirtless shoulder, and the way they cropped the picture, it looks like we're in bed. It looks like we just finished a nice, um, session.

JACOB: Photographers are always trying to push the limits. To them, it's hot to get twins to touch each other.

No doubt. I've just seen your message boards, and a lot of people wonder what's going on between you two.
JOSH: It's insane. And some say, "I wonder if they're having sex?" And people are like, "Of course they're having sex!" Come on, people, we're brothers!

After your performance at the Human Rights Coalition gala in Washington, D.C., I assume you are both up on all the hot-button gay issues.
JACOB: I'm up on Lance Bass—he was at our party in D.C. He's a total sweetheart.

So what do you think of Mark Foley?
JACOB: Nightmare! What a shame that a gay man gets thrust into the spotlight because he's trying to molest children. That's terrible PR.
JOSH: It's like he just came out to try to, I don't know, to injure the Democratic Party or something.... Jacob, why are you rolling your eyes at me right now?
JACOB: Stop talking.
JOSH: It's like you're so overwhelmed that I would be talking at all.
JACOB: He has no idea what he's saying. God, just sit there and be quiet.

What about gay marriage?
JACOB: Nah, I'm not into the whole marriage thing. So many straight couples get married and their relationships fall apart. It makes me nervous.

Are you looking to be activists?
JACOB: Activism for me is just the fact that I said I was gay out loud. I don't think I need to do anything more than that.

So, will you be joining the gay mafia?
JOSH: I'm keeping my eyes open all the time for who the bosses are. I can't wait to meet them.

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