Jeff Timmons (98 Degrees)

Give Me Just One Night…w/ Jeff Timmons!

 

Jeff joins Lance and Michael as he tracks his rise to fame and how 98 Degrees burst onto the scene! AND wait till you hear the sizzling details about what the band's doing next!

 

Plus, Lance and Michael reveal their emotional experience of meeting their twins’ egg donor!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is Frosted Tips with Lance Bass, the podcast. Hello
my Little Peanuts s It's me your host, Lance Bass.
This is Frosted Tips with Me. Lads, right here on
my heart, I have my co host with the Most.
I was hoping, yeah, host with the Most. Yeah, okay, Uh,

(00:25):
Turkey Turchin, Michael church In, Hello there. I'm so glad
that you're actually here because you know, when you listen
to the first couple episodes of this, you disappeared. I
was gone that. I was like, I swear, I swear
we're still together. Um. Everyone thought we were like divorcing
or something like. Um, and I do because a lot
of people out there have been asking, why do you
call us penis? I don't call you my literally literally

(00:48):
just said penis. I did, Yes, you literally said penis
when I opened up the show just now, And I
know I meant to yeah, Well, I'm saying, they're like,
why do you call us a little penis? It's little
pen huts um, and I have to say, I don't
even know where it came from. When I was doing
my show years ago, uh, they it was a live
show and then I've never done radio before except being

(01:12):
interviewed and they're like, okay, three to one go. I'm like, uh,
And the only thing I can think of was like, hello,
my little Peanuts, and it just stuck from that day
and so I just think it's a cute little term
of endearment for the listeners out there. I mean, who
who doesn't want to be a little peanut, you know,
like Charlie Brown and the peanut and the Peanuts. Oh
my god. This week was very exciting for us because, uh,

(01:34):
you know, for those of you that don't know, we
have fifteen month old baby twins, and we were super
excited that we finally got to meet our egg donors. Okay,
so a lot of the times you don't get to
meet your egg donor because it's uh, it's anonymous, and
and we didn't even know her name for three years now.

(01:56):
We had pictures of her, right, so, I mean we
knew exactly all her history and family history. Um he's
argentinean Argentinian. Uh, And so she wanted to meet us,
and so she came over to the house met the kids,
and it was so special. She's such a cool girl.
It's so cool, and she looks just like our son.

(02:17):
I mean, it is uncanny, and she was like, obviously
we knew what she looked like in the photos, and
we're like, oh wow, she's a beautiful girl. She's a lady.
Gorgeous I mean in person, even more gorgeous. Yeah. Yeah,
we have more embryos, you see, Babe. Don't you want

(02:37):
to have another one? Absolutely not at this moment. I'm
trying to convince him to have another baby. And I know, okay,
we can. We have a few more months to decide,
but I don't want a third guest. Jeff he has
a lot of knowledge on multiple It's very true. So
let's introduce her guests of the day. Jeffrey Brandon, timmo Alright,

(02:58):
pop singer, songwriter, producer from Kenton, Ohio, founding member of
the Grammy nominated pop group Eight Degrees. Um study psychology
at Kent State. See, I'm learning all kinds of no,
you did not, oh my gosh. Okay, well we're gonna
get into that. Decided to move to l A to
pursue a career in entertainment. Okay, let's just get into
this because I didn't know really the origin story of

(03:22):
nine Degrees and it started with you. Well, well, yeah,
I mean I mean just kind of on a whim too.
I mean, you know, I had been in singing all
my life, enquired and all that because I heard that
through the grape vine that you were in college or
something and you're trying to press some girls and you're
like singing, and that's how it all. It's really tacky
story people. You guys had this great story of being

(03:45):
you know, with with and all this stuff, and and
and we have a different story, and and it wasn't
exactly like I set out to do it. I had
some experience in quartets, but my where I'm from is
a small town that's all about football, right, and so
you know, I've always shied away from the arts and
and uh. And then one night we were at this
party and these girls would not talk. I was in
college and I had run into some kids that I

(04:06):
went to school at high school with, and you know,
these girls would not talk to us at all. And
I was like, well, why don't we sing him a song? Like,
let's sing an acapella song. So I picked three guys
out of that I was with, and we parted out
my girl and sang it to and then they talked
to us. This is like a movie. This is a movie.
This is just chop. It's like the most you know.

(04:26):
And so I was like, all right, well this is it.
I saw the reaction and then I just felt something
crazy about it. Literally, my mom thought I was crazy.
I was like a quarter, not even a semester away
from graduating with my psych degree, left a quarter semester
before a quarter. Yeah, And I called my parents that night.
Obviously there there were some drinks involved to make this decision,
and then I was like, Hey, this is it. I

(04:48):
called my mom. I'm like, I'm quitin school. I'm gonna
start a group. We're gonna go to l A. Because
you didn't have YouTube and snapchatting social media to break
or American Idol or anything, you had to go to
go to where the scene was at. And so she
was like, yeah, sure, honey, how much have you had
to drink? And I was like a lot, but this
is what I want to do. And then we, you know,
we could quit school and then drove to l A
a couple of weeks later to try to pursue it.

(05:09):
We had nothing going on, we had no in roads,
no connections, any of that stuff. We just, uh, we
moved out west and you know the other guys at
that point, yeah, I'd gone to school with them, but
I didn't know them as singers. They were all jocks,
they were all football players. But you know, I thought,
you know, there was a certain ring to the sound.
And it was a really kind of impulsive decision, but
it was it was there something about it that I

(05:29):
really kind of wanted to do. And the reaction was cool.
And my parents, you know, although very strict about school,
they were like, look, if you really are feeling this,
I mean, this is something you've always had a knack for.
You know, we're behind it. You can always go back
to school. And then you know, uh, they kind of
have you know, supported what I did. And and then
we got lucky. You know, those guys I was with
quit when we were in l a here. You know,

(05:51):
we had some three of them, There were three other guys.
We had some opportunities and we we end up we
would sing everywhere for food and money and acapella. You
guys know, we all started the say so we would
tell those guys now always stayed in touch with them.
You know, I always felt bad because they were very
talented guys, probably not obviously, not to the level of
you know, Nick and the crew that I ended up

(06:11):
being blessed to be with, but um, yeah, I mean
I write with them all the time, you know. I
I co produced a lot of music for them, and
they've done a lot of stuff on the production side
of things, and I always wanted to give back to
them because I felt bad although they made the decision
to quit. I mean, I just kind of felt bad
that here, you know, literally like minutes later almost that
you know, we ended up getting signed and basically they

(06:32):
took the ball to the five yard like, so that's
kind of what happened. Well, I mean I replaced someone
in then Sync. Uh. You know, they had a bass
singer that was friends with Joey, and he was like,
I just don't want to do this because it was,
you know, the kid market. He didn't want teenage market
after him. Um. And so yeah, we got signed like
just a few months later. Um, and he went back

(06:54):
to delivering pizzas. Oh my goodness, man. But I mean
I didn't know that. I didn't know that you replace
literally the market you want to get. Yeah, well we
know that now, right exactly. Who's listening right now? Tweens
and teens. That's the market we want. Everybody wants that.
I'm like, so the lesson is here, kids, Um quit school,
Um follow your dreams and just throw caution to the

(07:15):
wind and just do it. Just just kidding, No, go
to school, kids, stay in school. We don't encourage encourage that.
All right, So how did you end up meeting all
of the guys And do you remember that first moment
that y'all sang together for Port Haartney? Yeah, I mean
it was pretty interesting because I was, you know, I
got an odd job. I really wanted to do it
and stick with it, and I was out here by myself,

(07:37):
and so I was like, you know, I got a
job working security at all the clubs, and I actually
worked at Phil Collins's house that was being built in
Beverly Hills, uh and and did all these different things.
But I would you know, again, no social media back then.
So you're putting ads in newspapers and I'm auditioning people
when I'm off the clock, and I couldn't find anybody.
You would think in l A, you know, the mecca

(07:58):
of entertainment and people that are trying to make get
you'd you'd find somebody. I found nobody, and then I
ran into a guy. I went on a random audition
for a commercial for uh, just a random thing, and
then I'm beginning. The commercial was a Navy commercial and
and then the woman that got me that that that
gig it was actually my brother's roommate's age and he
wasn't there, so she said, will you go? And I

(08:18):
was like, I'm not I'm not an actor. But anyway,
she introduced me to a guy that went to school
with Nick, to high school with Nick and Drew and Justin,
and he was like, I got the perfect guy for you,
and he played me a tape. I didn't know what
Nick looked like, he had no pictures of him. I'm like,
whoever that guy is, get him on the phone. So
I called him, talked to him into coming out. And
I didn't see what Nick looked like until he got

(08:39):
to l a uh several months later, and then he
brought his brother out and and Justin joined after that.
So that's how it all got started. We sang backstage
with Boys the Men concert got discovered there. That's how
it happen. Yeah, we idolized Boys the Men, So yeah,
we snuffed backstage. Yeah, all of us did. Right. Um,
there was at that time, you didn't hear the word
boy band any There was no such word as well America.

(09:01):
There was nowhere Germany, you know they were over there.
It really was just you know, boys, de men and
like Shy and Joda see and then you had all
for one in there. But that there were no boy bands.
I mean think I think the closest thing to it
was maybe New Kids, but that was kind of a
generation before us. But we I mean, but our generation
just grew up on R and B soul. I mean

(09:22):
that's just what we lived. Um. It's uh. I loved
meeting you guys because we met over in Europe because
a lot of people, I don't even think realize y'all
came out before us and Backstrey Boys and came out
right at the same time as Backstreet. But you know,
a lot of people know this story, but some people don't.
We were signed to Motown. In Motown really wanted people
to think we were a black group. We were a group,

(09:43):
so they didn't put our picture on anything. So so
you know, we didn't shoot a music video at first.
We uh, we didn't have our picture on the cover
that was sent to sent to the radio stations, and
then we would show up to do radio shows at
R and B stations and they were like, what you
guys are you guys aren't I need degree? So know,
basically that didn't work right. We didn't fool the public
on that one. And so uh, you know, we had

(10:04):
a regroup and they brought a new president and and
and they sent this overseas. Unfortunately we got to meet
you guys there, and I remember seeing them and going,
please never let these guys come to the United States, like, like,
if they come to the United States, we're finished, right.
But I loved beat around you guys over there one
because it was familiar to have just Americans in the
room because we were there for you know, a couple

(10:25):
of years, and we went on some kind of tour
was maybe it was in England we did. We did
a couple I mean, I know there was one called
Smash Hits or pop it was one or both of those.
And that was where boy band it was like boy
Band Central never forget five was on this right now.
You remember something went down between you your groups where

(10:46):
someone was trying to beat someone's ass. Well, I don't
know what happened. Explain it. I mean, look, you so
when you're younger, you're pretty dumb andt I still have
teenagers in my older middle age. But when we were there,
there was, if you remember, was like a new up
and comer competition during that tour, and it was us
in five as to be the new up and coming. Yeah. So,

(11:10):
and then Jimmy Ray was one of those. Yeah, that's
what we opened up for Jenna. That was our first
opening act in Los Angeles with Jimmy Ray at the
Santa Munka Pier. I love it good times. He was
like a rockabilly. Do you remember that about me? And
that's what he did. We went from the Janet Jackson

(11:32):
Velvet Rope Tour to opening up for Jimmy Ray. You know,
it happens. You gotta start somewhere. That's still pretty awesome. Yeah,
I mean it's great, but I did. I I just
always we got along with you all so well, and
I just remember that, but like, ah, these guys are awesome.
We just loved it. You guys had a good vibe
and we're cool to hang out with and and we

(11:53):
were so you know, I had so much respect for
your talent. I mean, a lot of those boy bands,
you know, we wanted to be considered because we were
on Motown. This aren't the vocal group. And of course
we bristled back against you know, being kind of monickered
this this new boy band. But you guys were a
vocal group. And you guys could also dance too, And
so you know, some of those other groups, they weren't
performing live and they were you could tell they were assembled,

(12:16):
and they weren't nearly too definitely a formula, no question
about it. But you guys were a killer, I mean obviously, right,
and so we you know, we were excited to see
it from because you were from the States and up
and coming and going through the same experience as we were, right,
and uh, we just kind of had a connection there
with you guys. We didn't really connect with the backstreet
boys that often, you know, but because they were already

(12:36):
off to the races at that time. Um, but you
guys were always fantastic. And what I love about is
none of you guys have changed, you know, we you know,
every time we run into you and do stuff with
you still has that sort of kinship and good vibe
to it, so it's it's pretty he don't even answer.
He didn't change he was you were saying, you know,

(12:58):
because Motown and they wouldn't put picture is anywhere. The
only country that happened to us was France. Like France
was weird back in the day because they would only
pay play you know, English music, So it's really hard
to break that market. And so I guess the record
label purposely didn't put our pictures out. And so when
we went there for the first time, you know, when
fans come to the hotel and their face when they

(13:20):
saw no way so confused. But again, there was no
social media that you couldn't there was no googling. Uh,
you just didn't know what some of these bands looked like.
But I will never forget that. It was so funny,
and we never went back to France, and it was
and really a lot of those spots overseas in Europe
and now now it's a lot different. You've got to
break right away. Even in the United States, you know,

(13:41):
they used to artists developed, so if you didn't break
right away, you'd get another shot. But in Europe, you know,
if you didn't break right away, that was it. We
didn't eat. We didn't. We never broke hereup. We went
over there a couple of times. Every time we had
a different staff and by the third time they're like,
if you guys aren't aren't breaking? Now you're not breaking.
It's so weird how that works. Uh, it is different
back in the day because you did have to go

(14:02):
to every radio station, so I know it was hard
to you know, get some time to go to France,
go to England. England was hard for us because we
just didn't go that much and I thought we could
do much better there and we had you know, we'd
had top tens whatever, but it wasn't like America or Germany. Germany,
you guys crushed. I mean, Germany was just our I
mean that was our home and for two years it

(14:23):
just we were doing so well there that no one
wanted us to go anywhere else. So it was in Germany,
Austro Switzerland, um our number, our first number one was
in Australia. Never went we never touched down and all
that's amazing at all. But then when we came to
America and got signed in America and then just things
just went out of control. We never went back anywhere.

(14:43):
That never well you didn't need to, well, I mean,
but we wanted to. And that's what sucks, because you
want to go back to the ones that started you.
But the label never wanted to take us out of
the country. And again, it was that time where because
you have to go to every station in this country
is so huge, you're just constantly on the road going
to every little city around the countries. And so this

(15:04):
we had no time. And then when one album cycles done,
they're ready to get in the studio and then you
go do the radio circuit again. Right, you visit all stags.
Did you think that your group was handled right by
the label? Did you all have a lot of opinions?
You think they worked you a little hard because I know,
looking back, I would do things differently and say, look,
give us just some time. Well, look, everybody hates the label, right,

(15:27):
I mean, that's sort of the that's sort of the
artist's label relationship throughout the tenure of you, your career
and everybody's career. But you know, with us, it was
especially weird because they didn't market us the right way first, right,
So the second time around, you know, they really pushed us,
and you know, we did that whole circuit for years
and years and years. I mean, I think at one point,
you know, you do the radio shows and then you
go on your own tour. But for us, it was

(15:49):
radio shows for about three years straight and then we
would pepper in a small tour. But really, you know,
I think that the labels also barred our artists, as
we know later, right, you go do the radio show
for this ad for another another artist and on the label,
And we didn't know that until many years later. And
plus we had we were getting compared to you guys,
and you guys were bigger than than than us, and

(16:11):
we're selling more records and had more presents out there
within the media. So you know, you you're always afraid that, Okay,
we're getting compared to these guys. So we gotta keep working,
gotta keep grinding, and we'll do whatever it takes, you know,
to stay relevant and and all that stuff and keep
our fan base growing. But then there's always some the
chance that somebody is right behind you too. So I
think if if to your point, I would love to

(16:32):
change some stuff, and it would be not the work
ethic and all that, maybe a little less busy work
but to enjoy the moment, you know what I mean.
As we get older, we're like, man, we're pretty lucky
to do this and be hanging out here on on
your podcast and doing a radio show with you guys,
you know talking pushing close to thirty years later. Um,
and that's a blessing and it's fun. And now we
have fun on stage all the time because we were

(16:54):
It's like icing on the cake, right, But back then
I would have liked to have taken a deep breath
and go, man, this is pretty pretty awesome. But we
were always like man, grind, grind, grind, you know that
goes It's twenty five years later, you're still working with
the guys. What is next for nine eight degrees? And
when we see Nick come in and do something every
once in a while, yeah, I mean I think we've
well that's the plan. I mean before pandemic, pre pandemic,

(17:15):
I mean we were doing a lot of shows, sixty
some shows a year and a pretty healthy amount. And
you know, look, he he obviously hosts a lot of
shows and his Mr host he has like he's like
Ryan Seacrest has every job and takes every job for me.
He does give me one show, Just give me one show. Well,
we're all happy, you know, we're all happy for him
that he has those opportunities and he sort of formulated

(17:36):
those with his hard work and his success. But um,
you know, we love when he's with us and and
we have a blast. Right, So when pandemic happened, he
started focusing on, you know, what he could do, and
a lot was the hosting stuff that took up a
primary primarily most of his time. And then Vanessa got
a part on a show n C I s Hawaii.
I think it is what it is must suck to

(17:57):
live in Hawaii. Well, they had to move, so and
he's a big family, so he didn't want to be
away from his kids, you know, juggling that her shooting
schedule and there's together and some of the stuff they do,
so he's not able to do as much. So to
your point, and to get to a long, a long
winded answer over with, you know, hopefully this year, you know,
in the fall, we're gonna be able to do some shows.
We plan on doing a tour you know, fall end

(18:19):
the summer, in the fall when their schedules lightening up
a bit. But you know, in the meantime, we're all
we're all keeping busy, which is we're fortunate enough to
do so when I think of none of degrees, it
also brings like I think Christmas because I think you'll
do Christmas so well. I love thank youll seeing Christmas songs.
Do you all plan on doing another album? You know,
there's some there's some talk about us doing new music.
We've we've recorded some songs that we're pretty happy with

(18:41):
and then you know, I got approached by a label
recently that wants us to do another one. I mean
the first one, and I'm glad you recognize that, and
and thanks for the thanks for the kudos on it.
We're proud of. I think that's the first Christmas albums
the album we're all most proud of. Right, Um, it
did really well. It sounds great, and you know, for
us and you guys that are a harmony based group,
you don't get to really showcase that on a lot

(19:01):
on so you just kind of just do the hooks,
some backgrounds here and there. You know. That's why I
love the Christmas apposde one. I just love Christmas. But
we got to go back to our roots, you know,
and we were just a cappella groups. And as a
bass singer, that's all you know, that's all I lived for.
And you get the showcase your voice on that and
pop songs. You don't really that group, he doesn't get

(19:22):
a chance. And you spend hours in the studio, right,
like hours doing these bass parts, three different types of
bass parts, and then they mix it in and just
cover it up and like what did I do that
basine with a big bassline? Oh my god? Like why
did I? Why did I spend all those time? Because
it was fun, that's why. So you did a show

(19:55):
with my boy Chris kop Patrick v h One, I
forget what my god, every but he figure out what
it was if they even saw it. So I have
a lot of shows, you know, boy band fan at
that time. Yeah, that you were the age, Yeah sure,
because I like, yeah, I loved I mean, I would
love back to boards and I love them sink and
then that was kind of it. Especially liked what separated

(20:18):
ninety degrees was that you didn't wear shirts. That's right.
Really you didn't need to dance because you know, you
could make your chest dance. Well. First of all, first
of all, we couldn't if we tried, I mean other
than Drew. Other than Drew, We the rest of us
have two left feet. We just we couldn't dance. But
uh yeah, I mean we uh you know. The show

(20:39):
was called Mission Man Band. It was on H one
in social experiment, putting different members of groups together, see
what happens. It was you Chris kop, Patrick Um, Rich
Cronin rest in Peace, um and then uh calling me
back Brian, which who was going through a lot at
that time, ton A ton it was. It was interesting
for all of us. I was going through a pretty

(21:00):
bad divorce at that time too, and and so it
was a rough time for all of us, you know.
And and it's posts you know, having the success of
our bands, right, and it's when they you know, it
wasn't like now that it's come back around and a
nostalgia play with our fans and all that stuff. It
was when we were deemed uncool anymore. And so I
think the show came into an awkward time. You know,

(21:21):
now it would probably they do it well. It took
him a couple of years convinced because I knew they
were going to set us up to be whack. I
knew it. I knew it it's but but you know,
at the time, vach One had a platform called Urge,
which was their version of like iTunes, right, so you
know what I kept going back and doing. I was
I was like, all right, look, I'll do it, but

(21:42):
but my song has to get played on Urge. You
gotta really push it on Urge, and uh, you know,
they had the Top twenty countdown. I was like, you
gotta put my music video in the top five and
they're like, well, we can't promise you that that's pay
all up, but we'll do our best way. So I
was like, Okay, I'm gonna put that, put out, this
record in this this show is gonna make it and
and oddly I never finished the album right, really never

(22:04):
put it out. And then the show made us worse
look worse than I than I expected. But honestly, I
wouldn't trade the experience for anything, because it really it
took took me really far out of my comfort zone,
and all of us that were involved that we're going
through all these different things personally and professionally at the time,
we kind of had this bond. So that's why I
think that show made Chris and I close of course

(22:26):
rich And and Brian, who had been going through things,
uh quite quite a treacherous time, had some people lean on.
So it was a great experience, believe it or not,
even though the show was short lived, and really what
I wanted them to do was film what was going
on after the cameras went off. At Chris's house, there
was a party the whole time. It was wild. It
was I'm pretty sure still has parties, but you would

(22:49):
have some epic parties at his house in Orlando. But
instead they kind of had it curated to like get
us booed when we go out and perform. And you know,
I remember from the show, it's just one scene with
Chris Kirkpatrick, like they asked him to like sing, and
he just was so insecure to say, well, of course.
I mean but we all were so insecure at that
time because yeah, and it's you know, like with us,

(23:12):
it was you know, j C justin like the three
of us. They never with throw us a ball, and
you know, it was just all about them. And I think,
you know, we're good singers. I'm not a great singer,
but I'm good great man. You know, I can I
guess sing um so when you you know, when the
band you know is over and you're kind of like, okay,
what do I do? Yeah, you have this insecuritive like,

(23:33):
well I'm not good enough. Yeah, I mean, well, look,
I I wanted to do that, but I've like being
you know, getting on stage makes me nervous. In the studio,
I love, um, but I've always wanted to be behind
the scenes, you know. I love producing other people and
putting you know, different things together and being created with
folks and maybe providing people an opportunity because I've been fortunate.

(23:55):
So that was always something that I wanted to do.
So I immediately started writing, ghostwriting because you know, none
of us can write songs, right boy man, we can't
produce to me there, So I started ghost writing, producing stuff,
producing music for TV. And I was at the time,
I was a young dad. I had two young kids,
so I wanted to kind of create my life so
I could be with them. As you guys can relate
now with your beautiful kids that we saw the other night.

(24:16):
So well, let's talk about your family. You have five kids? Um? Okay,
how wait, what are the ages now? So it goes
twenty four. Take a swig of this right now. Well, yeah,
it's coffee. We're drinking coffees, but usually it untails heavier substances.
But yeah, I mean and then and then sixteen, then eleven.

(24:38):
So we both had two kids from a previous marriage
and then we have one together. So when the first halp,
when we first got together, we took our time. I
had dated in years. I got a divorce, and I
had dated in years and just hung out with girls.
And then it was like, I'm not getting, you know, married,
but how do you date? I mean, you're Jeff Timmins, right,
and you haven't dated in a while. You got married young,
you're still young, and now you're in this world of

(25:01):
online dating, and even the online I got divorced pretty quickly,
so the online stuff wasn't even developed. So so I mean,
where do you go to meet anybody? And then what
do you say? Like, you know and so, and I
just wanted to be a dad, you know, and so
I didn't I didn't really kind of ever bring anybody
around my kids. And then I met my wife, who
was amazing, and we just hit it off and she

(25:24):
was cool and she had a life of her own.
And you know, when I met her. She didn't really honestly,
she didn't know who I was. I mean literally, she
was like her friends and she's like, I don't care.
I mean whatever, right, which which was you know, you
feel like wow really, but also wow really it's kind
of cool that, you know, and then we just kind
of yeah, who was Prince Harry. I've never heard of

(25:45):
this Prince Harry guy? About him? Oh my goodness at
the President of the United States. What is the best
thing about being a dad? Oh? My gosh, everything. I mean, look, look,
it's it's uh, you know, we we lead a weird lifestyle, right,
and it brings you that back down to earth and
and just the things you get to see with your kids.

(26:06):
They're all different, they all have their personalities, and you
have twins in that they're probably a lot different personality wise, right, Um, So,
so you know, getting to see them develop and have
developed their own personalities and what they like to do,
and and just you know, take pride and trying to
get them to be as good as they can and
try as hard as they can and love them as
much as you can unconditionally, and that's all you can

(26:26):
that's all you can really do. And that's the purest
thing we've got, right, We've got our parents and siblings,
and but having children, that part of it's a lot different.
And so you know, and then you know, we go
back and do this and it's crazy and it's weird,
and and then you go home and you're just dad,
you know. So my kids, my youngest ones, that we
had this long hiatus, all they knew me is is
was that I didn't see me in any other way,

(26:47):
which was really cool. Yeah, we you know, did a
tribute concert for Eron Carter and raise awareness for children's
mental health UM, which was a beautiful event. And I'm
so glad that you joined us. UM. That was the
first time I brought my kids to my venue. UM.
And you were saying, it's like, oh what you always
wondering what your kids are going to gravitate to, right,

(27:07):
So I was so interesting how they were going to
take all this world in because one their COVID baby,
so they haven't seen that many people before. UM, but
just seeing their personalities and watching you guys on stage, Uh,
my daughter probably couldn't care less, Like she was just
kind of like curled up with me, like going on.
But my boy I think got bit by the entertainment,

(27:28):
but he was an awe and putting him on stage
and putting a microphone in his hand for the first time,
It's like he knew what he was doing. I'm like,
oh lord, it was like sucking on the speakers, like
as you're all were thinking, like blaring. I'm pretty serious
deaf now, but but he was like hugging the speakers
the whole time. And people tell me all the time
it's like, well, do you would you mind if your

(27:49):
kids go into entertainment, And honestly, I would say, I mean,
of course not, but I would not encourage it. Um.
I don't look be a producer, writer, a drummer, sure,
but being a front man or being known. I just
don't want that pressure all my kids And they can
be and do whatever they want, but I'm definitely gonna like,
don't you like the piano? That's I share your sentiments.

(28:13):
I mean, that's that's the way I was with my kids.
I never really pushed it on them. In fact, like
my oldest ones didn't see it. They knew a little
bit about it, but you know, I was like, if
they what if they you know, people would always ask
us that question, right, what if they wanted to be
an entertainment And I have the same answer. It's so difficult.
All jobs are difficult. This one is especially tough, especially
if you don't have thick skin, right what it does

(28:33):
to you inside and emotionally and and you know with
your insecurities that everybody has, and especially with kids. And
that's why I'm so glad we did this benefit concert
because it's all about you know, children's mental health, and
you put I mean even I mean I was sixteen.
I got I was a kid, but even like Aaron
was starting at seven eight years old, what does that
do to you? You nor psyche, especially being a soul artist.

(28:56):
I always said I loved being in a group because
it was never about me. Um. I love being with
a group of people on stage having a good old time.
But people like Aaron and Brittany and Michael Jackson, it's
just always yes, yes, yes. We were in our twenties.
I mean we weren't even teenagers, and it gave you,
it gave you an identity crisis, you know, and being

(29:17):
in a group. So I can't imagine, you know, or
with all the social media too, right, Like, how is it.
What is it like being justin Bieber. I mean we
had it crazy, you know, it couldn't get out of
our tour bus and in the hotels without social media,
you know, noing, noing, everything you do at all times.
I don't know how these guys handle it. You know,
phones on your camera, everything you do is documented. And

(29:40):
that's what I was talking to. Uh, my friend, do
you remember Pantara Sarah? Okay, so she's a big club
promoter here, I mean the biggest in l A from
the late nineties, and now you know she's retired from
that world. But I mean she was the one, and
she was always and then it was just fun saver cameras, right,
I mean that's what you had to look out for.
But her places always no cameras. Last that was what

(30:02):
was great about her. She had was her was Dublin's
her thing. Yeah yeah, yeah, every hot spot. But it
was so great because our generation. You know, when I
was first coming to Los Angeles, you don't have to
worry about anything. No one took pictures, no one talked
about you. There was no TMZ out there waiting for you.
You could just be who you wanted to be. Now,

(30:24):
I don't see anyone really going out in the younger
generation that's known because I think they're all just scared
to leave their house, which is totally understandable. You know,
it's crazy. Now, that's sad. It's very sad looking back.
What is your absolute favorite moment in your career? Oh man,
that's such a tough question, as you know, give me.
I haven't done so many cool been a part of

(30:45):
so many cool things. I mean, look, I think you
know doing a song with Mariah Carey was Stevie wonder
We did a song with Stevie Wonder, right and Marian
Joe and or you know, we got to sing at
the White House. We we got the perform from Michael
Jackson on that aniversary special and we idolized Michael. Which
song did y'all do with? We did Man in the
Mirror with Usher and Luther vandros So it's like it's

(31:07):
quite I mean, I talked about nerves like super don't
sing at all really next to those guys, and I
was such a great night. And sadly, I think you
know that was oh eleven, happened little next days after
the next day. Yeah, um, so I don't even know
if people even saw that special, I mean did, I guess,

(31:28):
But it was such a wonderful night because we had
just gotten done with the VM as we go right
into this Michael Jackson thirtieth anniversary. Every artist was there.
You didn't know who was going to perform at all.
Michael goes up and performs a whole concert that none
of us knew it was going to happen. It was
a cool night. Totally get why people cry because literally
had a tear going down. I'm like, why am I cry?

(31:50):
Like what is this? What is he doing to me?
But man, what what? What a night? And we got
to do Jackson five. I forget what so long we
did with them, but just to be able to say, wow,
we're the last to sing with the Jackson five, that's
pretty crazy. That's that's a moment. That is a moment.
All let's take a little break here. When we come back,
we have more Jeff Timmins. Alright, Jeff, we want to

(32:26):
uh go over a little pop culture with you. But
first I have a little questionnaire from August. Oh my goodness,
and I want to see if your answers match them today.
Let's do it. Okay, So here we go. What is
your girl type Jeff Tippins. Probably I probably said a
sense of humor. Yeah, yes, relaxed with a cool sense

(32:49):
of relaxed with a cool sense of people surprised I
put cool in there. I'm so maybe that's why I
put cool in there, because um, this is bet you
never you. Is there something someone didn't know about you? Oh?
My gosh, probably a lot. Uh. I don't know that
I played football. Well, we were just talking about this

(33:10):
guy Michael Jackson. Yes that I like Michael Jackson. I
guess in fifth grade I bought Michael Jackson's thriller own
record and tape and tried to dance like Michael. That failed.
That's right, Like I had the jacket and everything. Yeah,
I know. I just ran into Corey uh at the

(33:31):
Funco Pops. You have to go see this Funco pop store.
Have you seen it? Yeah? Tracy, Tracy told me about that,
and I was at me. I was at a meeting.
I couldn't go. I was gonna try to meet up it.
I've been twice now. It's like your Disney World and
I'm such a Funco collect turned out. Well, you guys
have a funk o dog we do. We have a
couple of funco's many inventory left, though I felt, look,

(33:55):
I felt like Joey Vatne. You know, if you if
you offer him, if you first swag, Joey's gonna take everything.
But with the Fonco because you know, they do a
little show where they bring in you know, like Danny
DeVito and Freddie Prince Jr. And you know and people
that have funcos and they the creator of Fonco sits
with you and you build your own Funco as he's

(34:16):
interviewing you for thirty minutes. Really fun. And then afterwards
I'm like, Okay, just go through the store and just
take whatever you want. And so I'm there like in
Star Wars, like okay, I'll take a little Princess Leana here.
And then Tracey's like, no, take that, take that, and
they just kept loading me up with everything. I walked
out with hundreds of our entire guest bedroom is fun

(34:36):
It's bad. It's bad. It is bad. Um And I
felt so guilty. And then they're like, well, you're definitely
the king of taking the fun I took the most
of any celebrity that's been in there, but they made
me do it and I have kids and we made
a great funco Christmas tree this year. It really works.
Fans were really upset that I took him out of
the boxes. But yeah, especially the BTS. There's a big TS.

(35:00):
It was probably like, yeah, collector thing, and you know
they were in my Christmas tree. Oh my gosh, how
dare you take them out of their box. I'm like,
I'm not trying to resell these, I just I want
to enjoy them. Oh. One thing, I don't know if
I've ever told you this story when I because when
I lived in Russia to train the whole cosmonaut thing,
it was such a stressful time and never had a

(35:23):
day off, hardly had any hours off, but there was
when I did have an hour or two off. I
would always be invited by the NASA astronauts in their homes.
You know, the cosmonauts had crappy apartments and like it
was just didn't even have air condition or whatever. But
then of course the NASA Americans they had wonderful homes
with like at it, you know, like two story beautiful homes.

(35:45):
So they would invite me sometimes to come have a
beer with them. And they built this little makeshift bar
in their basement and called Sheep's Bar, and it was
just really makeshift, but they had a jukebox and they
had maybe eight or nine songs on there, and one
of the songs was no Cha we made it. And
I swear to god, I listened to that song hundreds

(36:07):
of times. Hundreds of times that someone likes that song.
That song, Oh my god, that's probably we know. You've
made it to a Russian cosmonauts slash Nasa like seven
songs that they played and you guys are huge at
Russian Russia were top seven on the Russian jukebox. What

(36:28):
with Me? You remember one? Because I literally just we
just kept playing it over and it's funny story. So
I just it was like a piece of home with me.
It's interesting because we almost didn't record that song. There
were a couple of days was it well, because it
was at that time it was kind of that Latin
explosion Ricky Martin, and so we thought, wow, people are
going to think we're trying to bite the you know,

(36:50):
whatever is going on. So but we did it anyway.
I mean, it turned out like such a good song
that we just had to do it. It was a
fun one to do so. I love that. All right.
Back to your August nineteen questionnaire, Um, who would you
do a duet with? Probably, said Christina new Mariah. No,
it's a boy oh, Brian McKnight close Joe No, baby face,

(37:17):
baby face Yeah, Oh my gosh, that's funny. Yeah, what
he was on fire but back then. And then your
last your favorite song probably once week Day Boys Man
close clothes water when dry. Nope, Um, it's so hard
to say any boys the Man song pretty much hard
to say, if I mean, come on, that's one of

(37:38):
the first ones, right, yes, and that's every single guy group. Yeah,
that is probably the first acapella they ever did. It's
a great good And then your favorite Degree song was
Invisible Man, which that was your first, right, Yeah, that
was our first one. That was my favorite one out

(37:59):
of all but um, gosh, oh man, I don't know
still still oh my gosh, yeah that one. All right.
We've had some fan questions for you, Jeff um, which
band member of Degrees or in the nineties boy banders

(38:20):
would you want to see on Dancing with the Stars next?
This is from Christina or out of any any of them? Well, look,
j C was a pretty good dancing. He's amazing. Man,
would he would crush it on that he would Oh
my god, he would never do it. Yeah, he will
do it, but leave my backyard anything. But yes, that

(38:42):
man can dance. He can dance. I mean, oh you
guys could, but he I thought I remember him being,
you know, probably one of the best ones. Yeah, yeah,
I remember because I didn't really say I like the
Mickey mouse Club but before Justin and j C joined it,
so I was like early Mickey mouse Club. But I
do remember after I joined the man, I was watching
clips of him on that show and he was He's amazing.

(39:04):
He's amazing, it's incredible. He is good. What's an underrated
song you wish ninety eight degrees performed more? This is
from Radium. There's a song we have called Stay the
Night that it's in the tradition of a boy band
pop song, but they didn't put it out for some reason.
But yeah, that we get a lot of requests for

(39:24):
that one, so I like that one. There's another one
that's kind of sad called Yesterday's Letter that we used
to perform. We don't perform it. We only perform you know.
Now it's just just to hit it and your legends.
You have to just get the legendaries. We can tell them,
that's right, we can tell them what we want. Uh.
Do you ever regret your ninety eight degrees tattoo? This
is from Disney Girl? Well look for a while I
did so. So when when ninety degrees was not popular

(39:49):
for a while, I was getting, you know, harassing me,
like guys in Guitar Center there like did you get this? No?
I got it. And look it was before he even
knew we were gonna become popular. So I just like,
you know, at that time, you just get your your
tats and your band, right, Um, But yeah, I got it.
And then Nick had one that he had in his son,

(40:10):
a smaller one, and then as soon as we felt
it was falling off a little bit, he filled it in.
But but I wore long sleeve shirts for a long time,
and my wife was like, she's like, you gotta own it,
you gotta own it. And then you know, I just like, yeah, wait,
how did y'all come up with nine eight degrees? Well
we were called just us when we started, right, and

(40:31):
then the label was like that's that name sucks. You
need to come up with something better, and we made
this long list of names, I mean like all of us.
They were probably like two hundred names, and they were
all bad. We had Verse four, you know, next issue,
next issue, very like Quintessential boy Band. Yeah, could you
imagine if they were called Verse four today's world, the

(40:52):
games will be like we couldn't. We literally could not
find one. That's stuck and it's to you know, look,
we say yeah because we were saying love songs and
it's a hot and we you know, of course had
our story, but really we couldn't come up with the name.
And our manager at the time had a you know,
attractive girlfriend and she was from New York and she
had a bunch of hot friends and they were like,

(41:13):
why don't you guys call yourselves degrees? And so we went, okay, cool,
that was easy. That's kind of great because the name
really does make a break, and it really can't our
original name what wasn't going to be anything because Louke
Proman was like, I got the name Kismut Kismut kismet Um.
That was definitely vetoed. And then Justin's mom was just like,

(41:37):
you know, heard everyone saying and she was like, well,
you are very in sync, and I'm like, yep, that's it,
And then who thought of using the the initials and
all that was that after the fact that you guys
kind of I was wondering if the new nickname because
the guy replaced with Jason, so I was an end.
But I'm Land, so I have nothing you know in there,
and so they started trying to call me Lanston Lanson

(42:00):
to make it, which was kind of like a fun
joke for a while, and like and still still some
people that I worked with back then call me that.
You still call you funny, but like after it was
gonna be either London or just to make it work London,
I'm like, okay, And then thank god that just fizzled out,
Like okay, that's that's what Paris Hilton really wanted to

(42:21):
name her daughter. I was gonna say, that's really crazy,
simple life and show London. I was the name London.
I'm gonna name my daughter London, all right. Ao. Alexis
asked what was it like working with Stevie Wonder on
the song Fromulan. It was amazing. I mean, you know
how these things go. You're not always in the studio

(42:42):
with them, so here we thought, you know, oh man,
we're gonna be in the studio with Stevie. Said no,
we didn't get to be in the studio with him,
but we did shoot the video with him, and we
were so excited and he couldn't have been cooler. Right,
you never know what to expect because we worked with
some other people and you know, he disappointed, but he
was incredible, you know. And the older you get, you
know a lot of times you just don't sound the

(43:02):
same anymore. You know. It's just that's what happens with
your vocal cords. Um, Stevie sounds still kills. He still kills,
I mean, and he probably doesn't even warm up or anything.
I don't know. He had a trailer on the on
the video to shoot site and he had like a
whole studio in there and invited us in and saying
a bunch of songs for us, and we're like just tripping.
We're like look at each other, like wow, this is great.

(43:25):
It was cool. And that's what's so fun. I mean,
because I'm just always a fan. That's why I have
pop culture shows like I just love I pretty much
con found some love for everyone out there. Um, and
being able to kind of rub elbows with the people
that you love and you're trying to be cool, Like, yeah,
I mean I don't even try to be cool. I
gave up on it a long time ago. And and
you're exactly right, like, you know, although we get to

(43:47):
travel on some of these circles, were blessed it, right,
we're still fans, right, That's why you got into music
in the first place, right, because your fans and you know,
but uh, yeah, that's We've had some pretty cool, cool
experiences like that. I love it. I love it well, Jeff.
It has been rate catching up with you likewise, Um,
what what is next for you personally? And uh, how
can everyone stay in touch with you? Yeah, I'm all
on all the socials. Thanks again for having me again.

(44:09):
Congrats on the on the babies and they're gorgeous. It
was great to see them in person, and and thanks
for you know, having me to be a part of
Aaron's event. Um, yeah, I'm on all the socials and
you know, look, there's a lot of there are a
lot of cool things. I'm working on a lot of
stuff behind the scenes. I'm in town. Are creating this
really cool label with some pretty cool partners. We're gonna
be announcing that that that label and Adventure on February nights,
so look out for that with some great artists and

(44:31):
doing some TV stuff, documentaries coming out that I'm working on.
So just trying to trying to keep busy, always working
on music. So you've always been so creative, Well, I try.
It's great your passion. You can tell your passion and
I love that. Thanks again, happy to do it, love it,
and uh, I appreciate you guys. Congrats on the show too.
Thank you very much. Alright, Turkey Turching, That's all I

(44:52):
have for everyone. Is there anything else you would like
to tell everyone before we let everyone go? Oh god?
What can I tell? Oh? I was looking at the
charts and you know we aren't the number one. Yes,
I did get Since that, I was like, this is
three weeks in a row number one in music. That's
incredible because they're like sixty thousand plus podcasts the trust.

(45:15):
That's incredible. I mean, I've had like three different types
of shows and we never cracked the top fifty. I
don't think. But thanks to Heart, they really know how
to number of people know we're here. So thank you
for listening who was on the next show? I don't
think we know yet. We never know. Oh maybe No,
we don't know, but it is a surprise. But follow

(45:36):
us on our socials Frosted Tips with Lance um, and
we will be telling you who's coming up next because
we love your questions so d M s. We like
talking to you there, Um Jeff, once again, thank you
so much for being to appreciate everyone. Be good to
each other out there, don't drink and drive, and we
will see you next week on Frosted Tips with Me. Lance. Hey,

(45:57):
thanks for listening. Follow us on Instagram at frost the
Tips with Lance and Michael Urson Art and at Lance
Bass for all your pop culture needs, and make sure
to write us a review and leave us five stars
six as you can see you next time.