Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Joey Fatone joins 98 Degrees to perform *NSYNC hit 'Bye Bye Bye'

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BY MADELINE RAYNOR


Boy band fans got a fun surprise Saturday when *NSYNCmember Joey Fatone joined 98 Degrees onstage at the West Palm Beach stop of the band’s My2K Tour for a rendition of *NSYNC’s iconic 2000 song “Bye Bye Bye.” 
The performance featured both the original “Bye Bye Bye” choreography and matching outfits, à la the early 2000s — in other words, it was a big day for boy bands covering other boy bands.
Fatone recently collaborated with 98 Degrees’ Jeff Timmons in Dead 7a Syfy film that also starred the Backstreet Boys’ Nick Carter, Howie Dorough, and A.J. McLean, along with *NSYNC’s Chris Kirkpatrick and the entirety of O-Town (save for Ashley Parker Angel, who is no longer with the band).
The My2K Tour also features O-Town, Dream, and Ryan Cabrera. Watch a clip of the performance below.

Saturday, July 16, 2016

Random My2K Videos
















98 Degrees "I Do" Tulsa (Video)

Watch 98 Degrees Perform A Cappella Medley on Billboard's Facebook Live

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Lauren Craddock


Prepping to kick off the My2k Tour this summer, 98 Degrees stopped by for a BillboardFacebook Live performance. The boy-banders performed an a cappella medley of their hits “The Hardest Thing,” “Invisible Man” and “Because of You” in the video.
During the Q&A session with BillboardJeff Timmons recalls the craziest party they ever crashed that resulted in their pop success. “That’s how we got signed. We crashed a party. We went to a Boyz II Men concert; we idolized Boyz II Men,” Timmons said. “We bought Boyz II Men tickets, we went backstage and sang on a radio-station party ... so we kind of crashed that party and that’s how we got discovered.”

As fans have grown up with the band, 98 Degrees is interested to see how their crowds come full-circle, bringing along a younger generation. The guys kick off the My2k Tour on July 8 in Park City, Kansas.  
Watch the full session and a cappella performance as Nick Lachey, Drew Lachey, Justin Jeffre and Jeff Timmons share what it’s like sharing a tour bus again and how drinking is their activity of choice.
https://www.facebook.com/Billboard/videos/10154312619299581/

98 Degrees bring back the '90s during TODAY performance

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BY ALLISON SADLIER


8 Degrees brought the heat – and the ’90s – to Thursday’s episode of the TODAY show.
The boyband reunites for their My2K tour this summer to help audiences relive the glorious ’90s and early 2000s. During their visit to TODAY, which included a performance and an interview, Nick Lachey, Drew Lachey, Jeff Timmons, and Justin Jeffre spoke about the tour: “[We’re] to reconnecting with all our fans,” Nick Lachey said.
The band decided they wanted to tour after their last outing three years ago. Drew Lachey assured fans that they fell right back into a familiar groove and the rehearsal “potty, toilet humor it’s still funny… It doesn’t matter how long you’re apart. You still fall back into the same roles.” 
And when they turned on the music, 98 Degrees obviously performed with choreographed mic-stand dancing included.
Check out the full clips below and the My2K tour starts July 8.
         

98 Degrees brings nostalgia to Brady Theater show

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By JERRY WOFFORD 
Drew Lachey talks about the band’s return



Drew Lachey was surprised how quickly he and his bandmates in 98 Degrees found their sound again after several years apart.
Preparing for that tour in 2013, Lachey, his brother Nick, Justin Jeffre and Jeff Timmons soon found what sent their pop and R&B vocal creations to the top of the charts.
“It kind of awoke a sleeping giant, like, ‘Oh, we miss this! We enjoy performing together and making music together,’ ” Drew Lachey told the Tulsa World in a recent interview.
Lachey and 98 Degrees are bringing that music back to Tulsa on Saturday, with a heavy dose of pop nostalgia coming along on the MY2K tour, also featuring O-Town, Dream and Ryan Cabrera. The show is set for Brady Theater, with doors opening at 7 p.m.
Lachey talks about why they wanted to come back, the reception from fans and the possibility of new music while dealing with a changed music industry.
What was it about that tour three years ago that motivated this tour?
I think it was the fact it had been so long since we had performed together and getting back on stage together on the tour was kind of the catalyst. It kind of awoke a sleeping giant, like, “Oh, we miss this! We enjoy performing together and making music together.”
So that was kind of what spurred this on with the fact we realized now over the passage of time, we’ve learned to appreciate the opportunities we’ve been given and how much we enjoy performing together and working together.
How were you surprised by the reception?
It’s been very flattering and humbling. There’s no real way to put it other than we’re excited that our fans have missed us, and we’re excited to get back out in front of them. The last tour, it was electric with the connection with the audience. To have the fan base that, even after all these years, is excited to hear your music and see you perform, that’s a huge compliment.
What was it like getting back into that grove of touring and performing? Or was there a new groove you had to discover?
On the last tour, we had our families out with us, so that was definitely an adjustment to being young guys just out on the road together and being responsible for no one other than yourself. But on the MY2K tour, we’re going out on the road just the four of us and our band, then flying home on days off to see our families. So yeah, there are adjustments logistically and schedule-wise you have to make and compromises you have to make, but for the most part, just physically, skill-wise and practice-wise, it was kind of like riding a bike when we got back together. The sound came back, the harmonies came back. We’re fortunate we were able to recapture our sound again.
What set 98 Degrees apart from other vocal groups at the time?
I think it was our sound. Our vocal sound. It was always a little more harmony based than other groups. We modeled ourselves after groups like Boyz II Men or Four Tops, the Temptations, more vocal harmony groups were our inspiration. I think our vocal sounds and harmonies were our biggest difference.
And you guys were with Motown Records and you wrote most of your own music, so that added a few different layers there.
Sure, every group has their different strengths and different focuses and things that set them apart, but yeah I think being on Motown and having the R&B influence to our music and our vocals, it definitely was one of the things that made us different from the other groups. Not better, not worse, just different.
When you guys were putting together “2.0” in 2013, how was that process different from earlier albums? Do you see that process changing as you go forward?
The industry has definitely changed a lot in the last 20 years — the way people solicit songs, the way albums are put together, advances, publishing, every aspect of music has changed. So for us, going back into the studio, we kind of have to learn a new business model as we’re recording.
We’re definitely much more educated now as to the new music industry, but I think there is less of a focus on album sales and more about the connection to your fans, which is something we’re 100 percent supportive of, and that’s the way we prefer it. Our fans have been so supportive of us for decades. They’re the ones that have given us this opportunity to come back and supported us, so we love being able to get back out in front of them and make music.
In that way, you have kind of a 20-year head start of building that fan base.
Yeah, it’s great. We just have to catch up on the social media front and all that kind of fun stuff. I feel like my grandparents a lot of times. But slowly but surely we’re getting there.

98 Degrees, O-Town, Dream reunite this summer for most hilariously named tour

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By: 
MY2K (13 of 17)

Somewhere, the past versions of everyone who loved Nick Lachey in the ’90s are losing their minds, because 98 Degrees is hitting the road! That’s right folks, you heard it here first (maybe): Lachey’s band has joined nostalgic forces with O-Town, Dream, and Ryan Cabrera, and the whole gang is traveling the country on a summer-long tour.
The best part? They’re calling it the My2K tour.
One more time: They’re calling it the My2k tour.
This name is brilliant because it’s a mashup of the ownership fans felt for these bands, relics of the early aughts, and of the early aughts themselves. My 2k. My 2000. And, to boot, it’s a play on Y2K, that thing where everyone thought that, upon entering a new millennium, our computers would spontaneously combust due to some glitchy bug having to do with dates and times. It seemed highly likely, as the year 2000 approached, that we would all have to retreat to bunkers, subsist off the cans of Spam we had carefully stockpiled, and live in a post-apocalyptic wasteland until aliens rescued us or something.
But back to the tour. Because, if you can believe it, it gets even better: The tagline is “I know what you’re doing this summer,” which is a play on the movie I Know What You Did Last Summer, which came out in 1997.
True to form, the bands appear to be sticking with the looks that made them famous in the first place. Here are the members of 98 Degrees rocking camouflage-print bottoms (which I think — nay, Ihope — are cargo pants) and vests without shirts on underneath on the opening night of MY2K in Park City, KS.

The '90s-'00s are making a comeback. Nick Lachey and Dave Holmes explain why

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You would race to your living room, drop to your knees and find salvation in your daily dose of Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys, 'N Sync and 98 Degrees, dreaming you, too, were a screaming tween in a studio overlooking Times Square. Your church was MTV's Total Request Live. And church was something you never, ever missed.
"People used to come home from school and plop down in front of the TV and religiously watch TRL," said Nick Lachey, the eternally hunky TRL idol and breakout star of 98 Degrees. "It was a moment in time that I think a lot of people have a lot of fond memories of. It's a fun trip to take down memory lane because it was a great time for a lot of people, bands included."
Evidently. Because in case you haven't been paying attention, theTRL era is back in a big way.
Here in 2016, we find ourselves awash in nostalgia for the decade stretching roughly from 1995 to 2005: O.J. Simpson, Independence Day, Pokémon Go, revivals of boy bands like 98 Degrees and O-Town, whose "MY2K Tour" hits Tampa on Friday. Lest we forget, it was 2004 when NBC first launched a little reality TV competition called The Apprentice, starring Donald Trump.
This decade isn't quite the '90s, and it isn't quite the aughts. Call it the Naughties: our final free days before the War on Terror and the dawn of social media, when it seemed we all could get away with anything.
"It just seemed like happier times," said Lachey, 42. "Music was in a happier place, the world seemed to be in a happier place. It's a fun era to go back and relive for a night."
•••
The Naughties craze fits right in with the long-held maxim that cultural nostalgia operates on a 20-year cycle.
"It seems like the nostalgia gene doesn't really manifest itself until your early 30s, and then you become crazy nostalgic for what happened when you were 13," said Dave Holmes, the ex-MTV personality who finished second to Jesse Camp on TRL's "Wanna Be a VJ" competition in 1998. "That's what's happening now. Millennials are hitting their early 30s, the world is literally on fire all around us, and we want to harken back to what we perceive as a more innocent time."
In some ways, it was. The terror of 9/11 changed that — "Leading up to that, it was almost a carefree kind of world," Lachey said — but so did the advent of a new digital universe. MySpace debuted in 2003, Facebook in 2004, Twitter in 2006, the iPhone in 2007. Can you even imagine life without them now?
"It was a time where when you wanted to interact to people, you had to do it face to face," said Holmes, author of the new Party of One: A Memoir in 21 Songs (Crown Archetype, $26). When he returned to New York for the book launch, "literally everybody was eyes down, swiping," he said. "There were moments when I looked around and it was like everybody, young and old, was in their own little world."
Especially in its early days, Total Request Live was one of the last safe places teens could go to engage with the day's pop culture live, in person, all at once.
"You could all sit in front of the same thing and experience it together," Holmes said.
And it takes time to put the importance of that experience into context. Take the O.J. Simpson trial, which arguably kick-started this decade of Naughties nostalgia. The "trial of the century" was the subject of the two best things on TV this year: the FX miniseries The People vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story and the ESPN documentary O.J.: Made in America. Both capitalized on nostalgia, sure, but also offered fresh, eye-opening takes on a ubiquitous cultural experience we all thought we knew.
"At the time of the O.J. trial, we all knew that it was significant," Holmes said. "We were all glued to it. But I don't know that we could necessarily verbalize why. You need a couple decades of distance to get the full picture."
•••
For Lachey, a boy band revival always seemed inevitable. 98 Degrees went on hiatus in 2003 but reformed in 2013 for a tour with New Kids on the Block and Boyz II Men.
"We've been very lucky and fortunate to have some really diehard, passionate fans who've stuck with us from the very, very early days," he said. "That was a big part of the reason that we felt good about getting back together."
It doesn't hurt that there's a surprisingly direct line between the pop music of that era and the pop music of today. Beyoncé, formerly of Destiny's Child, is one of the biggest stars on earth. So is Justin Timberlake, formerly of 'N Sync. Swedish pop maestro Max Martin co-wrote not only Britney Spears'Baby One More Time and the Backstreet Boys' I Want It That Way, but also Taylor Swift's Bad Blood and the Weeknd's Can't Feel My Face.
"Talent is talent," Lachey said. "If you're talented the way those guys are, you find a way to evolve and stay relevant."
At shows these days, Lachey mostly sees fans in their early 30s, who would have been teens or younger in the heyday of Total Request Live.
"A lot of them have grown up with us and now have their own families," he said. "You look out in the audience, and you see some familiar faces from years and years ago, and they're there with their own kids now. It's a very cool passing of the torch."
TRL may be long gone, the music industry in shambles. But for those who grew up worshipping their boy-band idols, the MY2K Tour might still feel a little like church.
"This is a time for people to go back and relive a time when it seemed a little lighter," Lachey said. "It seemed like there was a little less stress and a little less ugliness in the world. Whether that's true or not, maybe it's just my perception, but it sure felt like it. That's why people are excited to go back and revisit that moment in time."

98 Degrees: My2K Tour *Wake up Texas*

SOURCE

Fans of ‘90s and early 2000s music — and the popular boy bands of that time — are flocking to stadiums. Drawing in the crowds: singing sensations 98 Degrees.
The group chats with Fox’s Michelle Pollino about the My2K Tour and their fanbase. 
The My2K Tour is off and running, featuring pop stars from the ‘90s and 2000s, including Ryan Cabrera, Dream, O-Town and headliners 98 Degrees.
“I think our fans have grown up with us, and their fans of, obviously, that era, and our music and the music of that era. Obviously, we enjoy still performing the songs, and so it’s an opportunity for all of us to enjoy each other’s company again,” Nick Lachey said.
The four friends from Ohio first got together in 1997 and scored eight Top 40 singles on the way to selling more than 10 million records.
“We were literally like, living in a dump of an apartment in North Hollywood, and struggling to make it, and it just kind-of takes you back in, reminds you of how far we’ve come,” Drew Lachey said. “So, to get back together and have these memories and these opportunities to perform together — you can’t take that for granted.”
“We’ve worked hard to chase a dream, but in the end, it’s really about the people that gravitated to and identified it with our music, and the same people who come out today and support us,” Nick said.
While the guys are all friends, they say we should ask again after they share a bus on this tour.
“You can come talk to us after we’ve been on the bus for six weeks and somebody didn’t wash their feet for the night. I mean, it’s gonna be a whole different conversation,” Drew said. “But there’s a bond that we’ve developed and that we shared for the last 20 years. There really aren’t any secrets. We all know where the bodies are buried. It’s kind-of just a community between the four of us, so for the last 10, 13, whatever years, that’s kind-of been missing. So, now we can [have the] opportunity to go back, and we can, all that makeup on even tighter.”

98 Degrees: My2K Tour *Wake up Texas*

SOURCE

Fans of ‘90s and early 2000s music — and the popular boy bands of that time — are flocking to stadiums. Drawing in the crowds: singing sensations 98 Degrees.
The group chats with Fox’s Michelle Pollino about the My2K Tour and their fanbase. 
The My2K Tour is off and running, featuring pop stars from the ‘90s and 2000s, including Ryan Cabrera, Dream, O-Town and headliners 98 Degrees.
“I think our fans have grown up with us, and their fans of, obviously, that era, and our music and the music of that era. Obviously, we enjoy still performing the songs, and so it’s an opportunity for all of us to enjoy each other’s company again,” Nick Lachey said.
The four friends from Ohio first got together in 1997 and scored eight Top 40 singles on the way to selling more than 10 million records.
“We were literally like, living in a dump of an apartment in North Hollywood, and struggling to make it, and it just kind-of takes you back in, reminds you of how far we’ve come,” Drew Lachey said. “So, to get back together and have these memories and these opportunities to perform together — you can’t take that for granted.”
“We’ve worked hard to chase a dream, but in the end, it’s really about the people that gravitated to and identified it with our music, and the same people who come out today and support us,” Nick said.
While the guys are all friends, they say we should ask again after they share a bus on this tour.
“You can come talk to us after we’ve been on the bus for six weeks and somebody didn’t wash their feet for the night. I mean, it’s gonna be a whole different conversation,” Drew said. “But there’s a bond that we’ve developed and that we shared for the last 20 years. There really aren’t any secrets. We all know where the bodies are buried. It’s kind-of just a community between the four of us, so for the last 10, 13, whatever years, that’s kind-of been missing. So, now we can [have the] opportunity to go back, and we can, all that makeup on even tighter.”

Popular boy band 98 Degrees headlines 'My2k Tour'

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By 

For many millennials, the late 1990s and early 2000s represent a golden age of pop culture.

Facts

Want to go?

Who: 98 Degrees with Ryan Cabrera, Dream and O-Town (My2K tour)

When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday

Where: Bon Secours Wellness Arena, 650 N. Academy St., Greenville

Tickets: $78, $52.50 and $32.50

Info: 800-745-3000 or www.bonsecourswellnessarena.com
It was an era that brought them mix CDs, MTV's “Total Request Live,” the digital pet Tamagotchi, the World Wide Web, their first cellphone, and, of course, lots of unforgettable music.
The then-popular vocal group, 98 Degrees, will give audiences a chance to relive that time when it headlines the “My2k Tour,” which makes a stop Wednesday at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville.
“I just think it was a great era,” said Jeff Timmons, a founding member of 98 Degrees. “It was before 9/11 and certainly before all the terrible, horrific things that are going on right now in the world.
“It was an innocent time and there like a pop explosion. I mean, we were out at the same time as Britney (Spears) and Christina (Aguilera), as well as Backstreet (Boys) and N'Sync; those guys were all selling millions and millions of records.
“Pop was really in the mainstream and everybody was thriving from it. … It just was a really great era, and I think that certainly this tour sparks that nostalgia, and that's our goal behind the whole thing.”
Joining the Grammy-nominated 98 Degrees on the “My2k Tour” are platinum-selling singer-songwriter Ryan Cabrera, popular girl group Dream and successful boy band O-Town.
Along with Timmons, 98 Degrees features Justin Jeffre as well as brothers Nick Lachey and Drew Lachey.
“We're going to come with a lot of energy and, of course, sing all the hits, and we'll throw a few surprises in there,” Timmons said. “People always come away from our shows pretty surprised — given the fact that we're balladeers — by the amount of energy and excitement that we hopefully infuse into the show.”
Unlike most so-called boy bands of the era, 98 Degrees formed independently before being signed to Motown Records, which released its debut album in 1997.
“We weren't prefabricated. We definitely paid our dues together,” Timmons said. “We would drop the hat for money, and we would sing for food.

BON SECOURS WELLNESS ARENA

Popular boy band 98 Degrees headlines 'My2k Tour'


Published: Thursday, July 14, 2016 at 6:15 a.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, July 13, 2016 at 10:59 a.m.
Page 2 of 3
“Fortunately, though, we didn't have to struggle too long before we ended up sneaking backstage at a Boyz II Men concert and getting discovered there and ultimately signed.”
A native of Canton, Ohio, Timmons formed 98 Degrees not long after he moved to Southern California.
“When we were singing for money at Fisherman's Wharf (in San Francisco) or Santa Monica Pier or wherever, our catalogue was Boyz II Men and Take 6 but also groups like the Four Tops, the Stylistics, the Four Seasons, the Platters, the Drifters and the Coasters,” Timmons said. “All of those were in our arsenal as far as our vocal repertoire, and we even did 'Let It Be Me' (made popular) by the Everly Brothers, a capella, so we were definitely influenced by a lot of artists.”
The group made its major breakthrough with its 1998 sophomore album, “98 Degrees and Rising,” which featured such hit singles as “Because of You,” “I Do” and “The Hardest Thing” as well as a duet with Stevie Wonder on “True to Your Heart.”
In 2000, 98 Degrees and R&B singer Joe were featured on Mariah Carey's chart-topping single, “Thank God I Found You,” which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.
“When someone says, 'it's like a dream come true,' it's not a cliché,” Timmons said. “… There's never a time when you take it for granted. I mean, we were always very appreciative, and we feel blessed and feel fortunate and lucky to still be doing it nearly 20 years later.”
During its heyday, 98 Degrees even got to perform for two U.S. presidents — Bill Clinton and George W. Bush — at the White House.
Of the first experience, Timmons said, “I flew my mom into D.C. (98 Degrees) actually performed 'Christmas in Washington,' and we did something a capella. And I think that's the most nervous I've ever been in my entire life.
“I'm sitting there — we were about to perform this very intricate a capella piece (before) Christina (Aguilera) and (after) Jewel, in front of the president of the United States and on national TV — and I was super nervous. I don't know how we got through it, but we did.”
Despite all of the fame and attention 98 Degrees has received over the years, Timmons said his greatest joy is simply being on stage and vocally harmonizing with his bandmates.
It's my favorite part,” he said. “There's something pretty amazing about being able to connect on a sonic level with other folks, and we've always had a natural knack together, vocally. That's why, on the majority of the records we've put out, we've had at least one a capella song on there.
“It's not that we wanted to show off our wares and our tools, it's just something that we felt was very special to us that we wanted to share with our fans.”

Monday, July 11, 2016

Love of singing hasn't changed for 98 Degrees

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BY ED CONDRAN

98 Degrees will kick off its national tour on Friday, July 8, at Hartman Arena in Park City.

It’s evident that time is marching on. There is already nostalgia for the 1990s. The Summerland tour, headlined by ’90s alt-rockers Everclear, is an annual event. Then there’s the “I Love the ’90s” jaunt, which features Vanilla Ice and Salt-N-Pepa.
Those acts are from the early part of the decade. And then there are groups, such as 98 Degrees, that formed during the end of the Clinton era. It’s been 20 years since 98 Degrees came together. The act, which splintered in 2003, re-formed in 2012 and will perform Friday, July 8, at Hartman Arena.
“It was so good to get back,” vocalist Jeff Timmons said of the reunion. “We’re more mature than we were. We appreciate everything much more now.”
The soulful R&B act, with four Ohio-based singers who put it all together in Los Angeles, became stars with their second album, 1998’s “98 Degrees and Rising,” which went platinum four times. The mellow and romantic “Because of You” was a monster hit for 98 Degrees.
“It’s one of those well-written songs that stands up to the test of time,” Timmons said.
The band, made up of four good-looking guys singing well-crafted songs in the vein of Boyz 2 Men and Take That, had a formula that worked. Young girls lost it at shows back in the day when the quartet — Timmons, brothers Nick and Drew Lachey and Justin Jeffre — hit the stage.
“We love singing together,” Timmons said. “We loved singing back in the early days and we love it now. That’s one thing that hasn’t changed since we formed this group. We honestly love singing. That’s great, but what’s amazing is that we still have an audience. The fans didn’t forget us.”
The 98 Degrees faithful still support the act. It can be easy to forget that the band was successful during its relatively short first act. 98 Degrees sold more than 10 million albums and has eight top-40 hits to its credit.
“It’s not easy to have hits,” Timmons said. “We appreciate it. We still sing those songs.”
98 Degrees reunited for a one-off show in Hershey, Pa., four years ago. “Who knew how that was going to turn out?” Timmons said. “But you have to take some chances.”
That outing led to an album (“2.0”) and a slot on “The Package” tour in 2013. Now the band is out on the My2K tour and singing such familiar tunes as “Give Me Just One Night (Una Noche),” “Because of You” and “Heat It Up.”
“I think it’s a good time to sing the type of songs we sing,” Timmons said. “The timing is good.”
Timmons is correct. When 98 Degrees broke up, love songs were not exactly in. However, all is cyclical in the music industry. Over recent years, love songs have come back. Just look at Adele, who has sold over 40 million copies of her albums “21” and “25.” Both are filled with love songs.
“If anybody is about love songs, it’s us,” Timmons said. “The thing is that anybody can relate to love songs. Love is what keeps everyone going.”




Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/entertainment/article88104492.html#storylink=cpy

Your Favorite ‘90s Band Is Reuniting For A Summer Tour

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Karli Bendlin


What do you get when you combine a mild-fever-inducing performance, four old friends, and a few late ‘90s throwbacks? Nope, not your dad’s a capella group. It’s a98 Degrees tour!
Nick and Drew Lachey, Justin Jeffre, and Jeff Timmons are back to steal the hearts of teens and their mothers with this summer’s My2K tour alongside fellow performers O-Town, Dream and Ryan Cabrera. The band stopped by Huffpost Liveto talk about their hiatus, life on the road, and what it’s like to have a 20-year career. 
It’s been 20 years since they recorded their first single, “Invisible Man.”
“I can remember June of ‘96, we were in New York, staying at the Crowne Plaza, recording ‘Invisible Man,’ our very first single. So it’s literally 20 years, right now, that that was all happening and the fact that we’re able to still be doing this 20 years later is a real tribute and testament to our fans and their loyalty,” said Nick.
They’re still excited to share a tour bus again after all this time. 
“Last tour, we had separate buses because we had our families with us. This time, we’re consolidating everything, getting on the grind and going for it,” said Timmons. 
While it’s rough to be away from their families ― Nick, Drew, and Timmons each have two children ― they say that trips home and “lots of FaceTime” keep them from missing out.
“We definitely cry ourselves to sleep at night,” joked Drew. “When you do bring a family into it, and kids, you have to find that balance where you can still be a present father and husband and still also be out there giving your fans what they need as well.” 
he name “98 Degrees” has a few different meanings. 
“It’s body temperature and it’s the mood we want our music to create. We sing a lot of love songs,” said Drew, adding that they chose it by process of elimination from a list of some “terrible, terrible names.”
They didn’t start out like most boy bands.
Unlike many pop groups, the band didn’t meet on a talent show and wasn’t created by a producer.
“We always take a lot of pride in the fact that we weren’t put together, we didn’t audition for some Svengali who made it all happen. We met each other through mutual friends and we kind of did that traditional struggle, moved to LA and we would just sing for anybody who would listen,” said Nick. 
They used to sing for fast food.
“We would sing at Taco Bell for tacos and Fat Burger for burgers. We were in the grind, we were in the struggle,” said Nick. 
They’ve all managed to avoid the almost inevitable “dad bod.” 
“The road’s actually one of the easiest times to stay in shape, because you’re in those outside venues and you’re literally sweating, it’s an hour workout every night,” said Drew, adding that beer is the group’s downfall. 
“If not for beer, we’d all be 120 pounds,” said Nick. 
Despite knowing music was their passion, they were headed for a variety of careers if they didn’t make it in the industry. 
Nick studied sports medicine, Drew drove an ambulance,  and Jeffre studied history while Timmons contemplated a few different career options, from law to medicine. 
“I would’ve played in the NFL, most likely,” joked Timmons.
The guys love a good Netflix binge. 
From “Narcos” to “House of Cards,” the band finds time in their schedule to catch up on their favorites. 
“Currently, definitely ‘Game of Thrones,’” said Jeffre on his favorite show, “Emilia Clarke is something I look forward to seeing on my TV screen.”
Catch 98 Degrees this summer when their tour kicks off on July 8.