Today's Forecast: 98 Degrees!!

98 Degrees founding member Jeff Timmons discovered perfect harmony when he assembled the acapela group turned TRL superstars. But before their chart-topping bops and ballads, the boy band paid plenty of dues by becoming their own marketing machine. In this episode we learn about their days driving Winnebagos, industry hurdles they had to overcome, and fences they had to jump (literally) just to get noticed! How did it all change overnight? And how is it all coming “Full Circle” this year!! 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey Dude the Nineties Called with Christine Taylor and David Lasher.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Hey, everybody, welcome back to Hey Dude the Nineties Called podcast.
I am one of your co hosts.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
David him David, I'm Christine.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
Hi.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Christine Hi.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
David was happy everybody.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
I thought, I would love to talk about things that
were like entertainment that we're enjoying right now real quick,
because I know you and see a lot of theater.
Oh yeah, yeah, Jill and I went and we don't
see a lot of theater in La. I mean, although
I have in the last few weeks, but we saw
the MJ Musical at the Pantages.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
I you know, that's been here on Broadway for a
while and I just haven't seen it, but I've heard
amazing things about it.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
Listen.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
It's so uplifting. The guy who plays the main Michael Jackson,
is off the charts. I mean, you feel like you're
watching my and it goes through his childhood, motown, his
family and all this stuff. It was really like transformative.
It was so amazing to just see theater.

Speaker 1 (01:10):
I know, I feel like that when you live in
LA and a great show comes to the Pantago just
because I felt like any time a show came there,
it felt like Broadway was coming to LA and that
is and there's some other great theaters there too that
do you know, there's a great show. But so yeah,

(01:33):
that's we We love the theater. I love going to
the theater. In fact, Mark Summers, I just got an
invite that, you know, our our guest from a couple
of months ago, Mark Summers. The show he was telling
us about, the One Man Show is opening here off
broad in an off Broadway theater in a couple of weeks.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Mid fibers from doubledare Nickelodeon Amazing.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Written by Alex Brightman, who you know we spoke about
on the podcast. But he he reached out, you know,
because we had talked about it on the podcast and said,
I hope you can come. So we're going to definitely
try to see that. I'm going actually to see a
show tomorrow night, a new musical that a friend directed
and but Jason Robert Brown did the music for He

(02:20):
did the last five years for any musical theater and
earns out there. But anyway, it's a new musical called
The Connector and that is an off Broadway and then
I saw Ella and Ben and I went to see
an amazing musical that's closing this weekend, or probably by
the time this airs it will have closed. But it
was called Harmony, and it was just a beautiful, beautiful

(02:41):
musical about That's kind of a propos because our guest
today is a upa master harmonist. But yeah, but it was.
It was a true story about this group that formed
during the war and the Holocaust and how they they
made this big mark all across the all across the

(03:05):
US and in Europe, but then they had to split
up because of the war and they never saw each
other again. It was so moving, so heartfelt.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
But yeah, lots of the entertainers.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Can you can you change your whole attitude right now?
You know what I'm seeing tonight what Paullie Shore is
one man show stick with the dancing, the coledy.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
Yes, look at us.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
By the way, like our guests, you're going to see
Polly showing. I'm going to go see Marks show soon
like getting and that's amazing. I love it. So here's
my thing before because our guest, our amazing guest, is
patiently waiting for us. Yes, Jeff Timms is in the

(03:54):
waiting room. But I want to quickly go to our questions,
our nineties trivia questions, which I think this might be
the last one, David. It's just they're so bad. I
looked up some of them to try to see if
there is anything. First of all, our our instagram. Whoever
chimed back in? Do you remember the question?

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Who is System? Yeah? I looked yeah, now I know, now.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
Right, did you remember it?

Speaker 3 (04:21):
Ursula?

Speaker 2 (04:21):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (04:22):
Ursula?

Speaker 1 (04:22):
And whoever put two hundred and thirty six Friends episodes
was correct? Obviously people can look these up, but I
know I feel like I'm I'm you, and I might
not know some of these, but I think our fan base,
they're such hardcore nineties people, and I think it's like
I'm selling I'm selling our fan base short by giving

(04:43):
some ridiculous questions like that, like that was stupid. Of
course everybody's going to know that was You didn't know it,
but you can google it. But I just want to
say it was fun while it lasted, and I really
think there some of them are more eighties and whoever
made the box I think probably was not even born.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
We can ask, we can ask more difficult questions.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
You know, we can say, you.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
Know, well, we could come up with our own trivia.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
What was the highest grossing movie in the nineties both something.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Like yeah, yeah, well then people google it. Yeah, damn Google.
It's okay, not as fun as the cards, but anyway,
we have more important matters.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Let's discuss.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
Let's talk to this artist, Jeff Timmons from ninety eight degrees.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
Let's up.

Speaker 3 (05:33):
Jeff.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
Welcome, Jeff, what's up?

Speaker 3 (05:36):
Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
This is such an honor to have you.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
Yeah, thanks for being here.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
Man.

Speaker 4 (05:42):
You guys are still focusing on a little bit on
this era, so that makes you feel good.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
Yeah, I mean, come on, this is all of our eras, right,
it is.

Speaker 3 (05:55):
The better for us. It's everybody's era, that is.

Speaker 2 (05:58):
I listened to a med any of your songs with
my fourteen year old on the way to school today
and I'm singing I Do. I can't get it out
of my head. It's and Chelsea knew that you have
like a Christmas song that is so uplifting, And she's like,
I know that song.

Speaker 4 (06:14):
Oh, she knew that one so good. I thought she
were going to say she had you turned Drake on it, and.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
You know, she was so into it. It was a great
ride to school.

Speaker 3 (06:23):
Man.

Speaker 4 (06:24):
Oh, thanks, Man. I appreciate you guys doing this. It's
really cool. I mean, I definitely can feel we've been
we took a break and came back and definitely feel like.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
It's good timing for all this stuff. So I appreciate
you having me on.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
It's awesome. No, So we always love to kind of,
you know, go back to the beginning. It's always I mean,
we have some notes here, but I always just love
to hear you're an Ohio boy. I'm a Pennsylvania girl.
Nice David.

Speaker 3 (06:50):
Are you in LA where you located?

Speaker 2 (06:52):
No, I'm a New Yorker but I love it. I've
been out here for a long time. But yeah, I'm
still a New Yorker at heart and out here in LA.

Speaker 3 (07:01):
And you're in l A. Yeah?

Speaker 2 (07:02):
Sorry, yes, I mean, Steve, it's in LA.

Speaker 1 (07:04):
I'm in New York. Are you in l A?

Speaker 3 (07:06):
In Vegas? I live in Vegas now. I got out
of I got out of LA before everybody started coming
to Vegas.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
I was like, nobody's coming now, right, I might be.

Speaker 4 (07:17):
Going to the super Bowl maybe, I don't know. We
just got some tickets, but I'm thinking about giving them
away because I like watching it on TV. You know
that that sounds really arrogant, But we've we've been to
a few of them.

Speaker 3 (07:29):
It's awesome.

Speaker 4 (07:30):
Like I was able to take my dad to one.
He had always dreamed of going to one. So but uh,
but I heard it's the greatest stadium in the world. Well, this,
this stadium is out of control. So the coolest ones.
And I haven't been to the I think it's Sofa
which is the l A l A one, So it's
pretty cool, which is supposed to be incredible. But I
have been to the Cowboys facilities, which was amazing. But this,

(07:52):
this Vegas one, It's like, is this a stadium or
is it a shopping mall?

Speaker 3 (07:57):
I mean, it's it's crazy.

Speaker 2 (07:59):
I mean, and you can walk right from the Venetian
right into the Citium. You don't have to deal with
your car or anything.

Speaker 3 (08:05):
It's pretty cool.

Speaker 4 (08:06):
Yeah, you know, at first they thought it was going
to be it's a very weird place because the surf
is small delight that yeah, and traffic and all that
stuff was going to be crazy in parking, but they
managed to figure it out by partnering with hotels and
walkways and things of that nature, so it's not as
a track to get over there. But you know, there's
literally a part when I went there, you can walk

(08:27):
like you're behind this is this barrier and you're literally
on the field essentially in this bar area. It's pretty cutts.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
It is going to be a madhouse. And I hear
what you're saying. I've never been to the Super Bowl,
but my brother, because I'm a Pennsylvania girl, diehard Eagles fan,
and Ben last year got invited to the Super Bowl.
He brought my brother and as a die hard football fan.
And by the way, it was a heartbreaker, I mean,
but my brother just said it was so he almost

(08:58):
was like desensitized by the loss because of it's just
such an event that you're not really focused on the football.
You can't even watch the game in the way you'd
be watching at home. And my brother said he would
have been so much more shattered had he just been
at home watching the game. But that is the way
he said, he prefers it like as a true diehard
football fan, and he's like, you got to be home

(09:19):
to watch.

Speaker 4 (09:21):
A gigantic party with eighty thousand people, right, and.

Speaker 1 (09:25):
The who's who and all of it. It's just taking
he was I think he was. I think they were
sitting next to Billie Eilish, and my brother is like,
I couldn't focus on it.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
Oh yeah, I want to watch the game, right, You can't.
Can't watch the game in that environment.

Speaker 3 (09:39):
No doubt.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
All Right, So you're in Vegas and but but tell
us give us a little bit of your history. So
you grew up always loved music, Ohio.

Speaker 4 (10:01):
I grew up in the Midwest, and occasionally I get
sold in for calling Pennsylvania. Now it's a pennsfil part
of Pennsylvania, and it's called the East Coast. When you
mentioned Pennsylvania, you're not supposed to call it the Midwest.
But we're right in Pennsylvania.

Speaker 3 (10:14):
At some point.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yes, it's all there.

Speaker 4 (10:17):
Yeah, that's all as you know, being from that area.
And I'm not sure what part of New York you're from, David,
but if it's from upstate New York, it's all. Everything's
all football. Where I'm from, it's all football. The place
I grew up, they won state champion, the state championship
this year. The high school I went to it's all
about football.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
When you're in Ohio State is you know, probably the
greatest college football team in our lifetime.

Speaker 4 (10:41):
When you're saying that, that's amazing, I agree. But where
I grew up, it's all about football. So I played
football forever. I mean, no matter what, no matter how
big I was or small, or how good you played football.
And the arts are there, and you know they're you're
encouraged to do that. But it's not a school. And
you know, so Michael Folks say they had us back

(11:01):
in the day. Now it's you know, you play one
sport or you do one thing. We did everything. We
were in speech to debate and theater and community theater
and choir and football and wrestling, baseball, everything, and and
I was always drawn to the arts. I mean I
had fun with it. It came easy to me and I
liked it. But really I was dead set on my
heart was playing and playing football. But I kept getting

(11:23):
put in these groups and in forming groups and we
hold on.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
Let me just ask, did your football friends know that
you were singing? Also?

Speaker 3 (11:31):
Yeah they did, and it wasn't cool.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
It was never got Troy Bolton from that high school.

Speaker 3 (11:37):
But it's never.

Speaker 4 (11:38):
Cool, and you know, they were always rasping me about it.
But when we especially in college, uh, the guys would say, hey, man,
you listen, I heard you singeing.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
But then you know, it was it was in high.

Speaker 4 (11:49):
School with football players and also in college. But they
would come to my dorm room late at night.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
We'd be drinking and they'd be like, hey, what if
we all formed a group tonight? And you know, it
was like boo.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
Ball a capella right on the down low.

Speaker 4 (12:03):
Yes, But what's funny is you know I'd gone from
college small college of small college, trying to keep living
this football dream, and then finally I just went to
a big college and I was like, look, I just
probably should graduate at some point, which I still never did.
But started the group with some guys I went to
high school with that were football players at a party

(12:24):
and we were trying to impress some girls and saying
acapella to them, and it probably wasn't very good, but
we thought it was the most amazing thing ever. They
gave us attention, and then I started the group. I
dropped out of school and started the group, and we
started practicing and seeing locally, and then obviously you didn't
have this type of stuff where you could just put

(12:45):
slap stuff up on YouTube or on social media, on
Spotify and get famous.

Speaker 3 (12:50):
You had to go to La or New York.

Speaker 4 (12:52):
My folks had just gotten transferred to Northern California with
my dad's job, so we drove cross country, lived with
them in Northern California for a little bit, and sang
around all of the cities up there, dropped the hat
for money and for food, and then you know, they
kicked this out.

Speaker 3 (13:07):
They were like, you need to go to La.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
And we went to La and is this had you
met up with the Brothers some different guys. It was
some guys okay, And we were just about to get
signed to a label called Scotti Brothers, which at that
time had James Brown was the guy that was on
that label. And those guys got a little nervous and

(13:31):
went back to Ohio and never came back. And so
I started putting out for people in the newspapers because
you could past things on social media, and and started
auditioning people in between odd jobs and couldn't find anybody
in La, of all places.

Speaker 4 (13:48):
And got introduced to a guy that went to school
with Nick, and he played me a tape of Nick's
voice and sing, and I thought he was the most
amazing singer on the planet. And I was like, get
this guy on the phone, and I told him a
bunch of lives that I had all this stuff.

Speaker 3 (14:02):
In place, you know, it was going to happen. But
none of that stuff that I told happened.

Speaker 4 (14:09):
But we hit it off on the phone, and then
he drove to LA to join the group. And then
my brother felt bad for me, so he joined for
a little bit the guy that introduced me to Nick joint,
but it didn't work out with him either, and then
Nick brought Justin and his brother out and that's how
we formed in La, of all places.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
So and Nick was still in Ohio at that point
when you because he was also in ohioway, right, the
rest of the guys so crazy you had to go
to LA to find the rest of you go back
in Ohile.

Speaker 4 (14:41):
Yeah, I mean literally, I was auditioning people all the time.
I was like, that's where the talent is supposed to
be in LA, and I would meet these people and
it was either you know, they didn't want to practice,
or you know, they didn't really care about it, and
they wanted to be actors, or they weren't good, or they.

Speaker 3 (14:58):
Didn't have the right look.

Speaker 4 (15:00):
I'm never going to find anybody in LA And it
just was odd that I was introduced to these guys
and they were off am while right, well, it.

Speaker 2 (15:08):
Was Listen, the Midwest has some deep roots in amazing
musical talent, right. I mean, you're not far from Motown
in Detroit, and I see here that you were signed
by Motown.

Speaker 4 (15:18):
That's right, I mean that's who we wanted to be
signed by, too, I believe Wow. We modeled ourselves after
Boys and Men. Boys and Men was like a four
part harmony group and had all these great love songs
and R and B songs, and there wasn't anything like
them out at the time.

Speaker 3 (15:33):
There are more.

Speaker 4 (15:33):
There were more R and B groups like Joas, which
were kind of edgier and more R and B.

Speaker 3 (15:38):
But they were like a pop R and B.

Speaker 4 (15:41):
Four part group that just sounded great with the harmonies,
and we kind of wanted They were signed to Motown
and we were like, Motown's a legendary label.

Speaker 3 (15:48):
We want to be signed to them.

Speaker 4 (15:50):
And after a roundabout way, we ended up getting signed
to Motown.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
So it was sort of really like a dream for us.

Speaker 2 (15:56):
Seriously, just I just saw the MJ musical at the
Pantagious on Friday night. Have you guys seen it?

Speaker 3 (16:03):
I haven't seen it, but I heard it's incredible.

Speaker 2 (16:06):
Yeah, when they do the Jackson five part in Motown
and Berry Gordy, I mean, what kind of history to
have your first signing by that label and uh and
you guys were very into the harmonies, right, So how
did the writing process? How did you and Nick who
wrote the music, and what was the process, Like, we
didn't have any money.

Speaker 4 (16:25):
We all had odd jobs, and we didn't have instruments,
although everybody has some backgrounds and instruments, but their horns,
their drums or horns, nothing that you would not keyboard
or programming or anything you would make.

Speaker 3 (16:38):
And we didn't have any instruments with us.

Speaker 4 (16:41):
And we didn't have any way to record at that time,
so you know, we were saving up our money to
record or we would meet people and do demos. But
we sang acapella, so we took what we songs that
were out were old school do wop songs or at
that time, Michael Jackson had a song called if You
Were Not Alone which R.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
Kelly wrote, which is a oh yeah.

Speaker 4 (17:00):
Turned that into an acappella song. So we would just
sing everywhere acapella, and we would pull up wherever.

Speaker 3 (17:06):
You know, outside of the Tonight Show singing acappella.

Speaker 1 (17:08):
Your own little barbershop quartet. You guys would just and
the voices are impeccable, like you hadn't be turning heads
like that is not easy to do, and it's just
like listening to you guys that is. It is such
a unique gift, and to do that with no music
is just spectacular. So I imagine like you people were like,

(17:30):
who are these guys? And you all look pretty good too.

Speaker 2 (17:34):
Let's just they are.

Speaker 4 (17:38):
Across the board all the compliments. We were flattered by
that and appreciative of that.

Speaker 3 (17:43):
But yeah, well we were at that era.

Speaker 4 (17:45):
It was like ninety four ninety five, you were coming
out of grunge.

Speaker 3 (17:49):
So imagine we're kicking it around La and.

Speaker 4 (17:52):
Everybody's everybody's borrowed the Seattle vibe. It's flannels into the
long hair for the guys grunge. Look, and here we
are like hey us, let's say us were to sing
you a pop.

Speaker 3 (18:04):
Song on acapella.

Speaker 4 (18:05):
So it was kind of a fish out of water thing,
but I think it made us stand out. Well, you know,
everybody was trying to be in these runge bands and
bands and doing the Whiskey and the Roxy and all
these popular local bars and clubs that are renowned for
discovering new artists.

Speaker 3 (18:19):
We would show up singing pop songs acapella.

Speaker 4 (18:22):
So people were like, wow, that's kind of different and cool,
and especially when you're in the scene and people are drinking,
they think it sounds probably better than it does and
so better. But yeah, it ended up working out for us.
So it was wait, it was Backstreet?

Speaker 2 (18:36):
Who were any of the I don't want to say
boy bands because it's not boy bands, but was Backstreet?
Had they broken before you guys does it?

Speaker 4 (18:45):
It was interesting because before my first group quit, we
had been talking to a manager that was managing Michael Jackson.

Speaker 3 (18:51):
This person that were her name was.

Speaker 4 (18:53):
Anice Parker, and she was working for a Gallant and Morie,
which managed Michael Jackson, and she saw my original route.

Speaker 3 (18:58):
She wanted to kind of manage us.

Speaker 4 (19:00):
And she took us Cities Producers And that's the first
time I had even.

Speaker 3 (19:04):
Heard the name Battery Boys.

Speaker 4 (19:05):
These guys said, Oh, they're kind of like the Backscreet Boys,
and I was like, who's that, Like, there's another place.
But they hadn't come out until several years later since then,
so that was.

Speaker 3 (19:17):
The only time I had heard of them. And then
you know, after we.

Speaker 4 (19:20):
All got signed, we came out in the US right
about the same time we were on Motown. They were
a jive and so, you know, but they had a
sort of different prest machine behind them, you know, not
that they're not talented. And I know you said you're
kind of hesitant to call the boy band. Now that
we're in our forty, late forties and fifties, we love

(19:41):
the term.

Speaker 3 (19:41):
You you can still call this boy band if.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
You want, because you started. I think you started the genre, right.
I mean you're talking about in the in the mid nineties,
everyone was into grunge and very hard dark music. And
you guys come out singing a cappella because you can't
afford instruments. I mean, what a cool freaking story man,
And then on your backs, yeah, Backtree Boys in Sync,

(20:05):
all these all these uh, these amazing artists came.

Speaker 3 (20:08):
Yeah, it was a cool time, you know, we were
part of.

Speaker 4 (20:10):
It was a renaissance in music, and so you know,
it was they called it kind of a pop explosion
because at that time radio had it was the most
successful radio I remember Rick d saying, this is the
most successful when you had TRL emerging. All the boy
bands Britney Christina, Jessica Simpson, Mandy, you know, Sugar Ray,

(20:31):
all these bands that don't really consider them pop bands,
but they were all part of.

Speaker 3 (20:34):
That TRL era. That was a very successful time in music.

Speaker 4 (20:38):
People were consuming music, buying CDs, you know, and so
it was interesting to see all that happened to come
out of the dark, all R and B, all grunge,
and then all of a sudden it suit the pop
over basically the course of three years.

Speaker 3 (20:52):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (20:53):
That's so that's such a I mean, that's such a
fascinating story to me that that you and like you said,
it was sort of like the right places. We were
in the right places at the right time, at a
time where there was this sort of you know, musical renaissance.
And we had Lance bass on a while back, and

(21:13):
it just sounds like they're like they had to go
to Germany to get to get some notoriety and to
get heard and listen to and so it let me
ask you just because and I'm sure you guys have
talked about this, but did you guys all connect at
some point like any like? Was there competition within the bands?

(21:36):
I mean, I'm I'm curious, like, did you all know
each other?

Speaker 3 (21:39):
No?

Speaker 4 (21:40):
We didn't, so we I think it was right before
we got signed. So the way we got discovered is
we actually scrounched up our money for Boysterman tickets and
they were performing outside of LA and we went to
the show and we suck.

Speaker 3 (21:55):
We sang getting backstage.

Speaker 4 (21:57):
So we were sitting the a capella to get backstage,
just like they with New Edition or Belvidebo or whoever
it was. And of course the security guys like you know,
people know the story. People try this in every city,
Like you're not getting back. Well, someone from the radio
there from the beat was the radio station, saw us
and said, oh, come backstage and sing on the radio.
So we went backstage sang on the radio and we

(22:19):
could see boys men up there.

Speaker 3 (22:20):
Doing our sound check and we're like, oh man, they're
going to see us and discover us.

Speaker 4 (22:24):
And we sang and it went over well, and the
guys from the radio said hey, after the show, come
backstage again and we're going to introduce you to Boys
to Bed.

Speaker 3 (22:32):
So we went and watched a concert and then we realized, oh,
you need a limited or credential to get backstage, which
they didn't.

Speaker 4 (22:39):
Give us, So we jumped the fence and went back
there and met Montel Jordan was opening.

Speaker 3 (22:46):
That show from this is how We do It if
you remember that song.

Speaker 4 (22:50):
Sure Angel was there and he ended up kind of
bringing us into the fold and we did a demo
and what he did as it challenged us is he said,
all right, look, Montell's doing the Washington State Bear and Palla,
if you guys drive all the way off there from
LA and sing the national anthem, will consider managing you

(23:11):
and giving you a shot. So of course we piled
in the car and drove up there just to sing
the National Anthem. And that was one of the Backstreet
Boys's first US appearance. So we saw them for the
first time there and they weren't huge yet, and I
think their song was kind of about to come out

(23:32):
or had come out and wasn't doing well, and that's
like right before they went to Germany. But they still
had like this little fan base of all these girls
that were kind of clamoring around. Man, we need to
do whatever those guys are doing. But that's the first
time we met them.

Speaker 2 (23:47):
So I mean, this is stuff you only do when
you're young. I mean, this is all here is.

Speaker 1 (23:53):
I was gonna say, jumping fences to.

Speaker 2 (23:56):
Boys to men backstage door and singing a cappella and
then getting recognized because you crushed it, and then and
then they invite you back and you and they didn't
give you a laminate. You have to jump the fence
to go. I mean, this is the talk about self starting.
I mean, this is an incredible story.

Speaker 4 (24:13):
Well it's kind of well, ignorance is split right, you
don't know, you don't write, you know, you got nothing
to lose, nothing to lose. Now if I kind of
often wonder, wow, if I knew everything about the business now,
we would have never tried any exactly making it. There's
no way we're getting back there. The curiously going to
kick us out. You need to laminate, you know, But

(24:33):
when you're young, you just we were like, we wouldn't.
We were that confident that we would try it. We
wanted to try everything to get discovered, to get seen,
So you're exactly right, Like it is kind of a
it's almost sounds like it's a fictitious story, and I
tell people that's not that didn't happen.

Speaker 1 (24:49):
I'm like, well, you're embellishing, You're.

Speaker 4 (24:54):
It's even more outlandish that probably wouldn't believe. But yeah,
it's been.

Speaker 3 (24:58):
It was an interesting journey and it definitely I mean
not to sound like a woo woo weird old guy,
but I definitely there has to be some.

Speaker 4 (25:05):
Faith faith involved with all that stuff, because the odds
on all of that clicking like that and then it
turning into what it did.

Speaker 3 (25:13):
Probably minisule.

Speaker 1 (25:24):
Was the bond instant with the with the four of you.
Was it just when you all started kind of get
when you got together and just did a click and
it was sort of that magical Or did you butt
heads a little bit on what you all wanted to do.
I mean, you're all so young, and I'm sure you're
all opinionated and and like, you know, driven, So did

(25:48):
you find that you were able to sort of collaborate
together easily?

Speaker 4 (25:52):
Well it's a little bit of both, right, Yeah, from
a different part of Ohio with different friends and they
knew each other, so they had their whole little dynamic.
So it was really kind of about me trying to
adapt into what they did. And I thought I knew
everything because I had a goop already out there and
I've already done this and that, even even though I
did nothing. But so there was that kind of dynamic

(26:12):
of and we're all type as. I mean, we're all
like super high strong Justin he's chill, he's laid back.

Speaker 3 (26:19):
But the three of us were all like go getters type.

Speaker 4 (26:21):
A's, you know, really want to be successful, take the
lead on everything, meaning being moving forward, not necessary the folks.

Speaker 3 (26:28):
But yeah, so it was a little bit of both.

Speaker 4 (26:30):
There was a dynamic of a learning curve on how
to you know, get along and adapt to everybody's personalities.
But also we sounded good together right away. We all
had a common goal. We all blue collar guys, hard workers,
and knew that we had to go get it, So
you didn't have much of a choice, like we're going
to figure out how to get along and like each other.
And then obviously the weirdness and dynamic of this odd journey.

Speaker 3 (26:52):
Started happening to right a way that only we could
relate to.

Speaker 4 (26:55):
So there was a kind of a bond there as well.

Speaker 2 (26:57):
You know, yeah, I want to go back to that,
because what you're talking about the nineties and that pop
musical renaissance and that we had. Carson Daley, a good
friend of ours, was on here talking about the TRL
days and just about how how magical that time was,

(27:18):
you know, on Broadway and who came through those doors
to promote their work. Just tell what was that like
being at the top of the charts and of your
fame at that time. I know it's it probably seems
like a long time ago, but my god, not many
people have lived through that.

Speaker 4 (27:36):
It seems it's a great question and it seems like
it was a long time ago, but it also.

Speaker 3 (27:40):
Seems like it was yesterday, right.

Speaker 4 (27:42):
Put myself there and the feelings and the physiology and
what that felt like and instantly come back into your body, right,
because it was such a surreal experience. And for us,
you know, when we were signed to Bottown, as much
as he wanted to be signed there, they didn't really
know how to market us right away, so they didn't
put our imagery or pictures on any wanted our markets
market us as an urban group. So we had a

(28:04):
year of going out and working our record where we
didn't really have a marketing push behind us, and it
felt like we were failing.

Speaker 3 (28:11):
Our record wasn't.

Speaker 4 (28:12):
Selling even though we had a hit on the radio.
And then we saw TRL come out, Backstreet Voices on there,
and then Insignia's on there. At the same time, we're
kind of out there, you know, grinding and actually you know,
we're calling radio stations and requesting our own song.

Speaker 3 (28:27):
We're walking into record source, moving past all.

Speaker 4 (28:29):
The big displays of Backstreet Boys finding our one album
and buying it ourselves. So we had this like short
window of about a year where we were doing all
this grassroom stuff and covetying that kind of stuff. And
then the second we put our music video on there.
Literally it felt like the second we put our video
on there, it's doing a couple of things with Nickelodeon

(28:51):
and Disney. Literally the next day we were like we
couldn't go anywhere.

Speaker 3 (28:55):
So it was like it was.

Speaker 1 (28:57):
It was that overnight, that overnight, and it really after
that first year of kind of going, man, well, we
are going to make it.

Speaker 4 (29:04):
We're handing out blers of ourselves before our shows with
radio stations I mean.

Speaker 3 (29:08):
We did it all.

Speaker 4 (29:09):
We're walking around the malls, like trying to get recognized,
you know, like U.

Speaker 3 (29:15):
Do you know me?

Speaker 4 (29:15):
You want to picture like you know that song right,
and the're like, yeah, you guys right, that's as us.
After all that, you really sort of definitely appreciate having
those vehicles at your disclosed will be a part of.

Speaker 3 (29:30):
That, you know, game changing stuff like TRL and being.

Speaker 4 (29:34):
Part of that sort of embraced by that, your peers with,
you know, all these superstars. And then of course we
ended up having a lot of success during that era
and it was great to be associated with that, and
we were we were appreciative.

Speaker 3 (29:46):
Of all of it.

Speaker 1 (29:48):
And how old were all of you at that point?

Speaker 5 (29:50):
We our early twenties, I mean a lot of we're
in our twenties, you know, but you know, you know, guys,
they're they're they're leading developing, so we might as well
have been fifteen year olds.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
And I was going to say that is babies, total babies.
And you're just at the top of your game.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
But you're also calling radio stations, requesting your own songs,
buying your old albums like going to the I mean,
you guys worked it.

Speaker 3 (30:15):
You worked it hard. Yeah, we had to.

Speaker 4 (30:17):
I mean we knew it well, we're signed out, like
we may not get another chance like the Rabie. So
you know, we didn't have the best team around us,
and a lot of artists don't we really it was
pretty much all of us and kind of trying to
get a crash course on the business and also you
know be you know, go out there and perform and
then you know, obviously jealous a family. So it was

(30:41):
a lot to go through. But we were going to
make the best of it either way, and we got
a shot. I mean that they ended up changing the
president of the label. He ended up although Andre Herrol
signed us and we're appreciated of that. They brought in
a new guy that was more of a marketing guy,
a movie guy, and he's like, oh, okay, so here's
what we did. We actually put them on a music
video and put them on TV. Oh, we have the

(31:03):
album cover, let's put their pictures on it so people
can see what they look like, you know, and let's
market it. And he got behind it and really kind
of then then we started getting that machine and so
we're like, wow, this is this is what we wanted,
and so it all. It started to come together very quickly.
It was really a nice experience.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
And well, you guys just mobbed everywhere you went, like
did you go through TRL, did you go on there?

Speaker 4 (31:26):
Oh my gosh, yeah, I mean it was crazy right
throve up here. We had wrapped the Winnebago with our
pictures on it and drove to Canada to try to
get discovered and.

Speaker 3 (31:35):
Are you serious?

Speaker 2 (31:36):
And now were wrapped with your own photos on it.

Speaker 4 (31:40):
We had our had our covers of our music on
the sides, and we would pull hand out our own
T shirts. And you had to fill out mailing cards
with your mailing address on it, not an email like
mailing address, and we were doing all that stuff and
then like less than.

Speaker 3 (31:55):
A year later, you know, we're rolling up.

Speaker 4 (31:58):
Into Times swearing it so blocked off and we're like
what is this and they're like this is for your
appearance today, like get we have to take you in
the back way and all that stuff. And it was
something that we loved and certainly got used to really quickly.

Speaker 3 (32:12):
We were like, oh this is right.

Speaker 4 (32:13):
I mean, you know, it was a good it was
a good, good way to ride at that point.

Speaker 2 (32:18):
Was there a feeling of like our hard work paid off,
like a pride in that you had self, you created
that whatever whatever success you had.

Speaker 4 (32:27):
You know, looking back, I wish we would have felt
that way a little bit more.

Speaker 3 (32:30):
But we were always going all right. We were just
so driven at that point. We're like, okay, we're here,
now what's next and that.

Speaker 4 (32:36):
And people often ask us if you could change one
thing about what you did in your experience, and there
were tough, very tough times, and you know this is
this sort of roller goes to ride, uh and and
you would go, oh, I want to change that.

Speaker 3 (32:48):
We wouldn't change any of that.

Speaker 4 (32:50):
We would probably change is we would have sat back,
go wow, like let's enjoy this, you know, enjoy the moment.

Speaker 3 (32:55):
We didn't do enough of that back.

Speaker 4 (32:56):
Then, so I'd like to say, yeah, we man, we're
high five and we made it.

Speaker 3 (33:01):
We're like, okay, like make sure we look good, make
sure we sound good.

Speaker 4 (33:04):
You know, say what the interviews, Let's perform the right way,
let's gee it back to the fans, and then let's
still do the next thing.

Speaker 3 (33:10):
So you know, we were pretty we would going wow,
this is school.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
But it was like all right, now you were so
in it you were like, okay, and what's next, what's next?
And also probably I think you know, I think David
and I you as young actors that during that period
of time too, it's like you knew that if you
had an opportunity, it was like you needed to take it.
You you know what I mean, you really wanted to

(33:33):
just sort of push push, write it right. And and
that's what's so interesting when you said, it's like you
didn't necessarily have the right team around you at the beginning,
and as newcomers, like how would you know? You just
got to go with who believes in you at the time.
And then but as you're seeing some other bands around
you and seeing what like the access to other people

(33:55):
were getting and how they were blowing up, and then
what a difference it makes, right when you have the
right it's packaged right, you've got the right people marketing
you the right way, it just clicks all of those things.

Speaker 3 (34:07):
And so we had had seen some of the.

Speaker 4 (34:10):
Other guys have those things and not again actually instinct
the groups we were getting compared to but enormously talented,
but they also had this support system of this massive
team that did all this stuff and.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
These machines, right, the marketing machines.

Speaker 4 (34:26):
And so despite you know, look, everybody has that machine
that you have to do the certain things and have
a certain amount in the sales to spend at radio
in marketing back in the day. And that's every group,
and whether it's pop or not, I mean, you have
to have that push behind you. You could be the
coolest indie rock group on the planet, but still the
major labels behind rest assured they're playing the game, in

(34:48):
the marketing game. And so for us it was like, okay,
we need to compete with who we're getting compared to now,
and we need to kind of coordinate those things. And eventually,
you look, when you went by Osmosis Osmosis, you're.

Speaker 3 (35:00):
Starting to bring money back into the label. They're gonna
they're gonna perk.

Speaker 4 (35:04):
Up and go all right, this is where we need to
get behind. And certainly they did that after that.

Speaker 2 (35:10):
So was it a grind because Lance Bass was on
and yes, Christine said, and he talked about I don't
know how many years of you know, write record, rehearse,
tour and then right back into it, and they like
literally justin I think the band broke up because after
five years, Justin was like, I need time off, I

(35:32):
can't do this, and then he never came back.

Speaker 3 (35:34):
That's what happened. That's exactly right. And we all we
were in that same era. So we while our.

Speaker 4 (35:40):
Experience getting there was different, very different, and our teams
were different, and the dynamic within other groups, the experience well,
and it's pretty much the same. I mean, you go, go, go,
and you don't stop until and you know how music
is cycnical.

Speaker 2 (35:55):
It's right, you don't want to stop because god, you
know they might forget us.

Speaker 3 (35:59):
You can't stopped.

Speaker 4 (36:00):
So we did the same thing from the second we
recorded our first record till probably late two thousand and one,
early two thousand and ten. That was just ninety seven
two thousand that five years, six years straight of grinding.
And look, it's a blessing to be in that position, right.
Plus at the same time you're physically and emotionally and

(36:21):
spiritually exhausted from just never stopping, right, and the grind
you discovered along the way. It's a business, right you
got oh man, you know where's your money going and
who's taking what? And when are you going to start
finally seeing some of that? And all this stuff, so
you know, there was a stretch there. I think I
looked back in the day at one of our calendars.

(36:41):
I had some of our old tour books and things
and that we get set by the label, and I
think we had a total of seven days off total
in the years of ninety seven and ninety eight or
ninety eight ninety nine or ninety nine two thousand. I
forget one of those two years of seven days off total, Like,
so it's three one year and for the next I'm like,

(37:03):
there are no noticed. But it was just you know,
it's faster acting. It's certainly anybody would go, well, I
would to live I had a chance, and you would.

Speaker 3 (37:11):
But it was hard, you know, it was. It was
so it was hard too.

Speaker 1 (37:14):
I mean, that is a lot, that is and it's
also it's it's a lot, and it's all of you together,
Like you had said, it's sort of like you're eating, sleeping,
breathing each other. Right, You're you're in hotels together, you're
on tour buses. To like there is a point like
we all like, I'm sure they're your family, but you
need a break, like I need.

Speaker 4 (37:37):
To I having lunch with somebody the other day, they're like,
what's it like like going to working in your friends?
I go, it's like going to work with your friends
and your family, and you're taking your people that you
work with home too, So you know, it's like all
those things. You get to go home after work, you.

Speaker 3 (37:54):
Get to work to get away.

Speaker 4 (37:55):
From your family, you can hang out with your friends
and then go back to.

Speaker 3 (37:59):
Your family or go to work. But having all three
of those things into one place where you never like
literally you know.

Speaker 4 (38:05):
And we roomed together forever, like the before the budgets
got bigger, and we were all in the same hotel
room to.

Speaker 3 (38:14):
Two of us sleeping on the queen's.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
Size bed and a little cot in the middle.

Speaker 3 (38:19):
So you know, you like, go to the bathroom and
you walk up.

Speaker 1 (38:22):
There they are they that when are you never not here?

Speaker 3 (38:26):
They are? You know.

Speaker 4 (38:28):
It's like so yeah, I can understand. And we felt
exhausted too. I mean we were like nine to eleven happens?
What got us off the road? We were in New
York for this Michael Jackson special on the tenth, and
then the next day nine to eleven happened, And.

Speaker 3 (38:41):
We had a couple of tour days left and nobody
knew what was going to happen.

Speaker 4 (38:44):
We all went our separate ways and went home, got
out of New York and went home to our families.

Speaker 3 (38:48):
And we never came back.

Speaker 4 (38:50):
We all got into our families or different career choices
and we didn't come back for eleven years after that.
So that's how we kind of went different directions.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (38:58):
So it was one of those moments where it was like, oh,
we're just the world is going crazy. We're all going
to just go off, take a breath, and then well
and then it was it was really eleven years.

Speaker 4 (39:11):
We all went different directions. I mean, I had a
little baby and one on the way, so I just
was like, all right, the world is nobody knew what
was going to happen in the world.

Speaker 2 (39:21):
So you were you were in New York ready to
perform on nine to eleven.

Speaker 1 (39:26):
The day before we performed that night.

Speaker 4 (39:29):
The night before, Michael Jackson had this special twenty fifth
anniversary special that was on BH one with everybody on it.

Speaker 3 (39:35):
Us Bessie Child, we had Houston Usher, you know, we
were all on that. And then the very next day
was was was not a lesh you know, so oh
my goodness.

Speaker 2 (39:46):
Yeah, My wife was at JFK that morning.

Speaker 3 (39:49):
I remember it.

Speaker 2 (39:52):
Wasn't easy to get out of New York either, right,
I mean, and to be there.

Speaker 4 (39:56):
Yeah, my mom was there to see the show. I
invited her and her friend, so they were there.

Speaker 3 (40:02):
I didn't know. I woke up the hotel room.

Speaker 4 (40:06):
Phone ring, but it was my sister who's She's like,
are you okay? Turn on the news, And I turned
on the news and then you know, see the footage
there and everything was dead.

Speaker 3 (40:15):
Your wife was at the airport day. You couldn't get out.
People couldn't get there. I know that Nick and Nick.

Speaker 4 (40:22):
And Drew had gone to the airport and they had
to carry their luggage. They dropped them off. They had
to carry their luggage in the terminal. I didn't know
whether my mom got out, and then we ended up.
Our tour bus came back after he had dropped us off,
came back, picked this up, and a couple of us
took our tour bus back.

Speaker 3 (40:39):
I had went across country.

Speaker 2 (40:41):
On our tour bus, toady, because you couldn't fly out
of New York for days.

Speaker 4 (40:45):
And you were also afraid, like you didn't know, you know,
on a plane. After that or what was going to happen.

Speaker 3 (40:50):
So it was weird.

Speaker 1 (40:51):
Oh man, man, so you were you went into family mode,
you went into dalla, I'm now I've got a baby
be at home, another one on the way. I'm going
to be stay at home dad. And it was it
that you were all sort of like keeping in touch
here and there or just like, hey, I think let's
take a breather, and like, let's.

Speaker 3 (41:12):
Just we had talked about like needing a break.

Speaker 4 (41:15):
I remember distinctly we had that collaboration with Joe and
Mariah Carey and uh and we had been offered to
do per format like on the A M A's or something,
and we were all like, we need to make we
need a break. I can you imagine passing up something
like that.

Speaker 1 (41:33):
Oh my gosh, crazy right.

Speaker 4 (41:35):
To pass something like that. But we were just like,
that's supposed to be during our break.

Speaker 3 (41:39):
We're going to go home. And then this just sort
of accelerated those events on September eleventh just accelerated that,
and then we just we didn't really keep in touch
right away. We kind of just everybody just went into
their own thing. It's weird, like, oh yeah, di mention
changed overnight you know.

Speaker 2 (41:57):
I mean Lance says the same thing about in Sync,
that we're going to take a few months off.

Speaker 3 (42:01):
And then it just kept going.

Speaker 2 (42:11):
That Mariah carry collaboration, that song's amazing. What was it like,
you know, collaborating with her?

Speaker 3 (42:18):
Well, I mean that's like a dream.

Speaker 4 (42:20):
I mean when her visional Luve came out, she's like
of all time the bust are right.

Speaker 3 (42:26):
So when they approached us about doing it, we were
all like, yeah, let's do it. We were having trouble.

Speaker 2 (42:31):
Well, Mariah approached you guys, Yeah sick is that wow?

Speaker 3 (42:36):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (42:36):
I mean it was pretty weird. And I remember we
couldn't say yes yet. So I was going on with
the scheduling or something, and I remember her showing up
at one of our rehearsals. We were rehearsing for a
live show at S I R Studios in New York
and uh, and she showed up there to like go, hey,
you guys need.

Speaker 1 (42:53):
To do to woo your because it seemed like you
were playing hard to get or something, even though you
weren't right.

Speaker 3 (43:02):
What the elevators were certainly. And then Joe too.

Speaker 4 (43:05):
Joe is a we're all huge fan of Joe who's
like amazing R and VR, so of course it's like
the answer is yes, But we were trying to figure
out logistics with our schedules already booked for the next year,
so we were rehearsal. I just remember being in the
walking into the elevator to go. She's in there and
we're all we all getting the elevator of one.

Speaker 3 (43:25):
I didn't even know what.

Speaker 4 (43:26):
To say or do, and she's like, you guys, now,
come on, guys, you guys are going to do this, right.
I think by the time it went one floor up,
we had all said, well, of course we are.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
If Mariah shows up, yes, you say yes. I imagine
Mariah's used to immediate yeses since I've heard a show up.
But that speaks volumes to how much she what a
fan she was, Yes, I mean it was.

Speaker 4 (43:52):
Super cool and I think, you know, look, she's a
very very smart businesswoman as well, and at that time
we were a hoto on TRL and some of those
other things, and certainly I hope she liked our vocals,
but I think, you know, part of it was the
fact that we were, you know, in the mix with
everything publicly at that time. But yeah, it was a
great experience. It's just like another dream. That collaborating with

(44:15):
Stevie Wonder totally like a dream. I mean you're sitting
there going, wow, this is crazy, Like.

Speaker 1 (44:19):
You know, we're Ohio boys, what are we doing here?

Speaker 2 (44:25):
It was definitely part of her respecting your talent, your vocals,
and part no one says no to Mariah. I'm going there,
I'm going to get a yes.

Speaker 4 (44:35):
No question, You're exactly right, and so she got the yes.
I mean, we certainly shouldn't say no to that.

Speaker 2 (44:39):
It's a great song man.

Speaker 3 (44:41):
Yes, we're proud to be part of that.

Speaker 2 (44:45):
So let's I mean, you guys have a new album and.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
Tell us how things started to kind of come back together,
Like how after that decade plus, you know of sort
of living life and most some having babies and getting there,
all of it happening kind of along the way.

Speaker 4 (45:05):
Yes, I think that it was, you know, we we
we had missed doing it finally. It took about ten
years for us to miss doing it together right, and
we had all done stuff on our own.

Speaker 3 (45:16):
I you know, looked at some performance.

Speaker 4 (45:17):
I liked being a lot behind the scenes because I
had kids at the time, so so sort of crafted,
but still what did stuff on my own, but nothing
like performing with the group. You know, it's great to
have adulation and attention on your own, but it's fun
being in the group because the focus for me on
somebody else. Right, you can be put up part of
Sound Cool. And we all kind of missed it. I
think I reached out to the guys. It's like, hey,
maybe we should, you know, get back together and do something.

(45:40):
And we all justin and I started talking about it.
The guys seemed open to it, but the opportunity had
to be right.

Speaker 3 (45:46):
And you know, there was this thing.

Speaker 4 (45:49):
Called Mixtape Festival in Pennsylvania at Hersheet Park every year,
which was this big festival that had a bunch of amazing.

Speaker 3 (45:55):
People on it.

Speaker 4 (45:56):
And the year they asked us to do it, it
had a backsheet on there and I think One Direction
and ll cool J and Kelly Clarkson and.

Speaker 3 (46:05):
You know, it was new.

Speaker 4 (46:07):
It was a star studded show and we didn't have
to do a full show. It would be like twenty
thirty minutes. And so we said, hey, look here's what
we'll do. We'll get together, we'll shore up our show
and if the crowd's good and they accept us, maybe
we'll think about keep us doing it beyond that, and
if they don't, well we'll look, you know, no harm,
no foul. We showed up and it was like a
cool reunion thing. But we went there and people went nuts,

(46:30):
and so we're like, okay, let's keep going, let's keep going.
Yet you know, it was kind of a no brainer
once you get back in front of the crowd and
people were so excited about it, especially since a lot
of those mostly female band base of ours are now
adults and it brings back a nostalgia to them, and
that excitement was unmatched over the course of the few

(46:52):
years before that anything we had been done doing individually.

Speaker 3 (46:54):
So we kind of caught the bug after that.

Speaker 1 (46:58):
Yeah, it's like the muscle memory back, like oh, we
love doing this break But and also when you've got
that kind of fan base who has you know, you know,
stayed with you and now they're back, and like, there
is nothing like that nostalgia when you go you know,
we we can We always talk about this with our

(47:19):
musician guests, is like music is transformative at periods of
your life where you can can you can hear a
song on the radio and it will take you immediately back.
You can smell what the food was cooking at that,
you know what I mean, it is what was going
on in that Yes, and it is like you you

(47:40):
nailed it. I mean, when you've got a fan base
like that and it just brings back this period of time,
how amazing. That's so awesome. So then it was just
back on what was.

Speaker 4 (47:51):
About that to what you were just talking about was
obviously you think that it's cool that they're out there
to see us, But what was interesting for us to
watch is over the course of the next few years
after that is the relationships that people made with each other,
right and as much as they're there to see us,
they're there to experience it together and with their friends
and all that stuff. So it's a cultural thing which

(48:11):
is really really cool, kind of touching upon the nostalgia
of it, which is cool to be a part of
that outside of the music part. And now we've continued
on for the last ten years. We've done a couple
of Christmas tours, had lines, some amphitheater tours, and we
put out.

Speaker 3 (48:24):
Some music here and there.

Speaker 4 (48:25):
But we're a bit disenfranchised with the music business because
the whole.

Speaker 3 (48:29):
Model We've never really made money off the music.

Speaker 4 (48:33):
The music was always a driver for everything else that
touring and the brand and things of that nature. But
the way the business had sort of created, you know,
changed with the paradigm and the business model of it,
and folks that don't really the labels don't.

Speaker 3 (48:48):
Really promote you anymore.

Speaker 4 (48:50):
We got a little disenfranchised and a lot of legacy
acts groups that you'll have long are afraid to put
new music out because it's not embraced by radio and
you know, the big machines out behind it. Plus you know,
it's evolved up to where you can do it yourself, right,
you can. We're going to re record all of our hits.
I mean, Taylor Swift did it, and we had been
talking about doing it for years and having ownership of

(49:10):
our songs, and we can reach the same amount of
people that a label can, right because we have our
fan base engaged and excited, and so we're doing new music.
We've got a great partners that's sort of helping us
with the we have ownership of our stuff and also
creating some new stuff and it's going out to the
proper channels, and we have ways that we can get it.

Speaker 3 (49:33):
To our fans, you know.

Speaker 4 (49:34):
And also radio has always been there for us, which
is amazing, and so we have great relationships with radio,
and you know they're going to help us, you know,
get the song out there and get behind it as well.
So we called the album Full Circle because it's kind
of full circle. We're doing the music we.

Speaker 3 (49:48):
Want to do again.

Speaker 4 (49:49):
We're sort of in vogue again with regards to our
fan base. You know, we came out and it seems
as all the nostalge has been back to the last
particularly post COVID really bad. Like folks really want to
go out and be a part of their their youth
and and it's really nice to be out there and
engaging with them. We came out and we were on

(50:11):
a magazine covered during our last tour, and then Instant
came out and then ticket sales started exploding everywhere, and
it feels like the timing is really really now for
all of us.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
So nineties nostalgia, man, that's why we do this show.

Speaker 1 (50:23):
Yeah, how does it feel now to do the touring,
you know, as a as a dad and like at
this stage, are you are? Are you like a little
more exhausted?

Speaker 3 (50:34):
I keep up with it. You know, we try to ourselves.

Speaker 4 (50:38):
You know, we're not a crazy dancing you know. Over
our shows are energetic and we try to do it.
We try to keep them eye energy. We sing a
lot of love songs, but we try to intersperse a
lot of things that people know and fun stuff that
it gets that excited. We do a TRL medlead that
people love where we cover songs from the TRL era
and they love that. It's much, if not more than
our own originals.

Speaker 3 (51:00):
That's great.

Speaker 4 (51:01):
Shows are still high energy, and you know, we get
to bring our kids on the road and that's really fun.

Speaker 3 (51:07):
But to me, I think the difference is we're better performers.

Speaker 4 (51:11):
We've been doing it longer individually and as a group,
so naturally you're going to get better and more comfortable
on stage.

Speaker 3 (51:16):
It takes a long time to.

Speaker 4 (51:17):
Figure out, and then I think we're The main thing
is we're having more fun than ever.

Speaker 3 (51:22):
Like there's no urgency.

Speaker 2 (51:23):
Really, it's more fun now than it was in your twenties.

Speaker 4 (51:27):
Absolutely exponentially. I mean, we can lose our fans are there.
We're getting to do this a thing we love, We're
getting to embrace it with our fans.

Speaker 3 (51:37):
Nowadays, many years later and.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
Without that pressure like you talked about like we got
to keep grinding, we got to stay relevant, right, you
don't have that now, no pressure.

Speaker 4 (51:46):
I mean, if people are by, the tickets will stop torn, right.
I mean that's as simple as that. We all have
other things we're into. We've all had successful ventures on
our own. So it's life doesn't depend on ninety eight degrees,
you know, selling every take most of them, right, so
almost all of them. You don't need to sell out
or you know, do this city you haven't been there
in a long time.

Speaker 3 (52:06):
You don't. You got to go do Madison Square Garden.

Speaker 4 (52:08):
But you can go do Lovers and Friends, which is
going to have you know, ten thousand people at it.

Speaker 3 (52:12):
Right. So it's to me, it's like we're lucky.

Speaker 4 (52:16):
We're so lucky that we've had this well circle moment,
no pun intendity, that we can go back and now
enjoy all the stuff, you know, and have the same
reaction and excitement and not have it. It's a real blessing.
I mean, none of us to take it for granted.
It's really cool.

Speaker 1 (52:34):
I feel like that is the greatest gift of aging
and life experience is that you do get to It's
exactly what you said you couldn't do in your twenties
because you were you were going busting like what's next?
Oh this is cool, but what what's next?

Speaker 3 (52:51):
What's next?

Speaker 1 (52:51):
And now like with you've lived life, you have that
exp and now you're just in it in such a
different way and almost like entirely for it, right like
you are. You're not letting it happen to you. You're
like in it and taking it all in and like
you said, not taking a second of it for granted.
I mean that is the coolest. I think that's like

(53:12):
the best thing about aging for me.

Speaker 4 (53:16):
Yeah, me in my twenties, I couldn't have written it better.
Obviously you would go, oh, I don't want to have
any bad times, right, and I don't want to go
through that. That was a terrible that stretch of five
years of struggling.

Speaker 3 (53:29):
You know, without this, and that was hell, right.

Speaker 4 (53:32):
But I think that the way it's buttoned up, it's
just such a it's such a blessing or a gift.

Speaker 3 (53:38):
You know, It's a thing that you couldn't.

Speaker 4 (53:40):
You couldn't write better, and certainly again wouldn't trade any
of those bad things, because there was out of all
those really hard moments, there was growth right that probably
wouldn't have existed if it was just you know, cherries
on top the whole whole ride. So the experience for
all four of us, even though we've had different ten
years in that interval, everybody is so gracious and appreciative

(54:05):
and excited to still be doing it, and in a
way that you probably again couldn't have prognosticated from what
was going on when we started this thing and as
we were going through it the first time around.

Speaker 2 (54:19):
That's so cool.

Speaker 1 (54:20):
How about your kids. Do you have any musicians in
the family, any performers?

Speaker 3 (54:26):
Well, well, they alto different things.

Speaker 4 (54:28):
So I'm remarried, so my wife and I we each
had two kids from our previous relationships and we have
one together.

Speaker 3 (54:34):
So originally it was like the Brady bus when we
all got.

Speaker 4 (54:36):
Together, and they all different things, and we're lucky that
they're all really great, well rounded kids and respectle kids,
and they sell at different things.

Speaker 3 (54:44):
But the youngest one is the one that's the entertainer.

Speaker 4 (54:46):
I never pushed it on anybody, and knowing business was like,
I hope they don't get into it. But if they
do all this last one that just turned twelve. She's
into everything, the cheering, the singing and recording, and you know,
you know she's got she's got that bugs.

Speaker 1 (55:04):
It's it's in the jeans, it's in the blood.

Speaker 3 (55:06):
Well she's got.

Speaker 4 (55:07):
More talent than I, so she got that from her
well side. But yeah, it's it's definitely something that's funny
to watch them. Like, Oh no, I thought we I
thought we were unscathed with all these kids trying to
get into entertainment, but then she is.

Speaker 3 (55:20):
She's like, you wants the baby.

Speaker 1 (55:22):
It's the baby, so it's going to give you the
gray hair.

Speaker 2 (55:25):
Yeah, the apples don't fall far man, there's no way
around it.

Speaker 3 (55:29):
I guess. So, I guess.

Speaker 2 (55:30):
So I have one business question. I got to just
go back to this. But you talked about Taylor Swift
rerecording her music. If your music is owned by a
label and you re record it, you can then own
the new masters.

Speaker 3 (55:44):
You own the new masters. That's the thing.

Speaker 4 (55:45):
So you try so freaking cool you think everybody would
be doing it right, But.

Speaker 2 (55:50):
Yeah, just re record your music and then own it.

Speaker 4 (55:53):
Unless they had some some sort of favorable deal with
their existing label, I can assure you ninety nine percent
of people don't, right. So it's that original recording that
people got used to.

Speaker 3 (56:03):
So the goal is to make it. You want to
make it.

Speaker 4 (56:05):
Sound as much like the original pos right, because that's
what people fell in love with and you made it ahead.

Speaker 3 (56:12):
So if you have something that's comfortable, you own it.
You can own it. So in our case, we have
a partner with it and we kind.

Speaker 4 (56:19):
Of cow own it, but they help administrate it for
safe licensing or things that, you know, which means for
people listening if it's on commercial.

Speaker 3 (56:27):
Traditionally, we really wouldn't have gotten paid for that, right.

Speaker 4 (56:30):
We would watch our song be on a downy commercial
and go, damn, you know, whoever is really making money
the way.

Speaker 2 (56:37):
Whoever owns the catalog is making the money.

Speaker 3 (56:39):
Yeah, so this gives you an opportunity to do it.

Speaker 4 (56:41):
We had talked about it for a long time, but
again we're like, how are we going to get it
out there? You know how we going to But now
you know, so people like Taylor Swift that's really shown
you and paid the way and say, hey, look you
here's how you do it. You just record it and
then hopefully the powers that be that play the old
records like the Ihearts of the World that are amazing
to us, will say, hey, we're going to opt to
play the new version and it won't be as ricived.

Speaker 3 (57:03):
It sounds close enough to the original, you.

Speaker 2 (57:06):
Know, maybe it's a little better, or maybe it's you're
you know, more more relevant to today.

Speaker 3 (57:11):
You hope it would.

Speaker 4 (57:12):
Sound better, and we were like, can we make sure
we make it sound better? But you know, we don't
don't stray too much from the original, because that was
my line, because obviously the production is going to sound better, right,
you have better to the production, and we hope we're
better singers. So we we've tried to do it in
a respectful way that sort of pays homage to the

(57:33):
original while you know, make it sound a little bit better.

Speaker 1 (57:36):
Have you found that when you've gone back that you're
and now you're and you're doing it now with with
you know, the experience and like you said, better voices,
all of it, you know, more knowledge that you're sort
of like, oh, why did we do that?

Speaker 4 (57:54):
It's almost everything. It's more why did we do that?
We're glad we did, right, It's it's like this whole thing,
and you're like wow, especially like wardrobe choices.

Speaker 2 (58:03):
Wow, oh boy, oh boy, don't yeah, for sure, you
both know.

Speaker 3 (58:09):
I mean, you have podcasts that were boltves around the nineties.
It looked like I was wearing a tent. Sometimes the
clothes are so big pants.

Speaker 1 (58:19):
Yeah, some of some of the you know, men's fashion,
because I always think of the women's and what those.
But when I think of especially in the music industry,
where you had to kind of be flashy and you know,
sort of a little bit larger than life, and and
this for you in your case was literally larger, like
giant like.

Speaker 4 (58:41):
Some of them small like shirts. We all had an
Excel double XL, you know, basically swimming in these clothes. Now,
what I've noticed is very interesting the female especially the
female cells.

Speaker 3 (58:54):
They're all back like those that's what I mean.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
Yes, oh yeah, those high waisted.

Speaker 1 (58:58):
Mind the bag baggy Jian's high wasted. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (59:03):
And my son, and my youngest son is wearing he
got like cargo pants for Christmas and he got like
this knit large, extra large sweater.

Speaker 3 (59:12):
I'm likeme on, I'm like, do you think that's cool?

Speaker 5 (59:14):
Now?

Speaker 3 (59:14):
And he's like, man, this is this.

Speaker 4 (59:16):
Is I'm like, I got a garage full of that.
I was gonna I was gonna throw them out that
you can have and we won't be having to spend
on all these clothes.

Speaker 3 (59:26):
Do that.

Speaker 2 (59:27):
I gotta say. The first single is called got You?
Is that the one you're releasing?

Speaker 3 (59:31):
It's called I Got You?

Speaker 4 (59:32):
You know, I know we originally released the press releases
got You, but it's called I Got You.

Speaker 3 (59:37):
I Got You.

Speaker 4 (59:39):
On New Year's Eve, we did this big New Year's
Eve special and you know, the album's available for pre
order now.

Speaker 3 (59:44):
We're gonna release it probably sometime in April.

Speaker 4 (59:47):
And and after we get some of these singles out there,
people can be familiar with them and we're doing really
these cool different things where you know, you can can
get a signed version of the of the vinyl album
or the eed album. What's interesting is people are like,
I don't have a CD player and I don't have
a record player.

Speaker 3 (01:00:05):
No, you don't have to.

Speaker 4 (01:00:06):
Do You can still buy the irregular version of the album,
but also what do you do buy the commemorative sign version.
You do get the digital prison, you don't have to
go buy a record player.

Speaker 1 (01:00:16):
And then you have the signed Then it's.

Speaker 4 (01:00:19):
Yes, but people are buying them like crazy, and you know,
we're going to release I Got You pretty pretty soon
and we you know, we've got a lot of stuff
that we're about to do overseas as.

Speaker 3 (01:00:28):
Well, and just engage all the.

Speaker 4 (01:00:30):
Fans overseas well, because we had a really great fan
base overseas, especially in Southeast Asia and Canada, South parts
of Europe. So again, it's it is a full circle.

Speaker 3 (01:00:39):
Moment for us.

Speaker 4 (01:00:39):
Not to be corny, but it really, I mean, it
was interesting. We're like, what do we call this album?
And Justin's like full serve.

Speaker 2 (01:00:44):
Everything we're doing is just like perfect perfect.

Speaker 3 (01:00:48):
Yeah, thanks for asking about that.

Speaker 4 (01:00:49):
Yeah, we're we're actually really excited about this and uh
and and thrill. We've got some really great originals as well.
I feel like we're doing justice to the to the
old songs too.

Speaker 1 (01:01:00):
It's terrific.

Speaker 2 (01:01:01):
I can't wait. Yeah, people are excited for this man,
and we're excited for you guys.

Speaker 1 (01:01:06):
Yeah, thank you so much for talking to us. It
was so cool steating to hear your story and.

Speaker 4 (01:01:12):
I appreciate you let me take the trip down memory
late on the podcast. I'm thrilled that you guys are
having this much success with it, and I can just
see that it's a skyrocket because again, folks really love
this era, and thank you for giving us this form
to discuss what we're doing and talk about the old days.

Speaker 3 (01:01:27):
I appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
Oh love it can.

Speaker 2 (01:01:31):
Thank you both.

Speaker 3 (01:01:32):
Continue.

Speaker 2 (01:01:33):
Thank you so much, Buddy Bye. What a nice dude.

Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
Right, that was awesome. It's so funny because when I
think I know so much, I think probably and of
course this was Jeff's interview, but I felt like when
I first got to know about ninety eight degrees was
when Nick Leche and Jessica Simpson had that reality show, right,
And that was when I was like, who is that like?

(01:01:59):
Because we were a little older, Like I wasn't the
exact fan base even for In Sync and Backstreet Boys.
I was like that little bit older. And then I
started to get to know the music. But I so
that was how I first heard about ninety eight degrees.
So I sort of knew the Lachey brothers a little
bit more. But Jeff was like, he's the sort of
mastermind bend it, like.

Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
Was the founding member of the band. He cast Nick
and his brother.

Speaker 1 (01:02:26):
Yeah, amazing story. And I just I'm always such a
sucker for the you know, just how decades later you
come back and just the deep appreciation and love, but
just love for what you're doing, love for the fans,
love for each other. Like it's a fascinating story that

(01:02:46):
they sort of broke up, like on September eleventh. That
was like the day that they just didn't see each
other after that because their.

Speaker 2 (01:02:56):
Tour obviously ended. There were no more performances and they
all went their separate ways.

Speaker 1 (01:02:59):
It was like they performed the night before and then
it happened, and that was it for them for eleven years.
So but that was great.

Speaker 2 (01:03:08):
And he's enjoying it now more than he did back then,
which is so cool. Right, Yeah, there's not all the pressure.
I got to keep going, We got to keep grinding
and are they going to appreciate us. It's just like
he's loving it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:22):
Yeah, and he's He's the first person, not that I'm
you know, not that we've interviewed tons and tons of musicians.
I know, I know we've interviewed a bunch, but that's
the first time I've heard another musician take the tailor
swift model and they're actually doing it, that's why. And
he even said it, He's like, I don't know why
everyone's not doing it.

Speaker 2 (01:03:43):
Christine, I had I had to back that up because
I can't believe if you go re record your vocals,
re record your master tracks, then it's just you owned them.

Speaker 1 (01:03:54):
You own it. It's just about, like he was saying,
getting getting the stations to play it, getting it as
good because they know what people are going to listen to.
But I think your fan base, like the way Taylor
Swift's fan base came out, and like, of course her
fan base is you know, on present right, is.

Speaker 2 (01:04:11):
Another example of Taylor Swift taking power back to the
artists from the corporations, right way to do it, and
she's leading the way she's listen. I love her. She's amazing,
so cool, so cool.

Speaker 1 (01:04:24):
All right, Well that was great. We've got a great
episode next week that I will say nothing more about,
but we need to come back listen.

Speaker 2 (01:04:38):
Thanks for listening, everybody. I hope you enjoyed that interview
and you all have a great week. Bye see you
next week.

Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
Thanks for listening. Make sure to subscribe and give us
five stars

Speaker 2 (01:04:49):
And please follow us on Instagram at Hey dude the nineties,
called see you next time.