Chapter One: Rising to the Top
What do you get when you mix four talented singers with heart-melting harmonies, healthy good looks, and intense dedication to their dreams? The answer is Nick Lachey, 25, a well-mannered Midwestern boy and a second tenor full of sweet soul; Jeff Timmons, 26, a warm and friendly first tenor who loves to laugh; Drew Lachey, 23, a baritone brimming with ideas and energy; and Justin Jeffre, 26, a laidback, good-natured guy with a booming bass. They are the vocal group 98°, which is currently burning up the Billboard charts with its own special soulful blend of pop and R&B.
Four years ago this Ohio born-and-bred quartet packed up and moved to Los Angeles with little more than a few dollars and a dream. They took on odd jobs, from dishwashing to security to delivering Chinese food, and sang wherever they could get noticed.
Their persistence paid off when they grabbed the attention of a hotshot manager after working their way backstage at a Boyz II Men concert. Less than six months after being discovered, the guys snagged a record deal with famous recording label Motown Records.
Their careers quickly heated up. With two scorching albums under their belts -- the latest, 98° And Rising, certified platinum -- there was nowhere to go but the top for this awesome foursome. But as the guys will tell you, getting there wasn't always easy.
Get up close and personal with the four down-to-earth, gifted, all American guys behind it all. Turn the page and discover why 98° is raising body temperatures all over the globe. Find out how they got together, why they are not like other vocal groups, how they feel about fame and their fans, and what is going on in their love lives. Here is their story in their own words, in the only official biography of the hottest group in the music scene today: 98°.
It wasn't easy putting together the burning hot vocal group 98°. Just ask Jeff Timmons, the man who started it all. "With a lot of coaxing I finally convinced some friends of mine to come out to L.A. and form a band with me," he says. But these particular friends were not current bandmates Drew Lachey, Nick Lachey, and Justin Jeffre. "I didn't know Drew, Nick, or Justin from Ohio at all. They were recommended to me by a friend after the original guys quit," Jeff explains. "I never really let the burning desire to form a vocal group die, even after my friends quit. I placed ads in the papers, and interviewed maybe two dozen people, and had them sing for me. But I wasn't having any luck. It was through my brother's roommate's manager that the first good connection was made. She introduced me to this guy Jon, who had gone to school with Nick, Justin, and Drew."
Jeff continues, "Jon and I started singing together. One day he said, 'I know this guy, Nick. He's good-looking and has a lot of talent.' At that point I wasn't ready to give up, so I called him and when I talked to him he seemed really cool.
I heard him sing 'In the Still of the Night' on the phone and he wanted to hear us sing, too, so we sang a Boyz II Men song. That convinced Nick. I feel like fate guided us together in a weird way."
That was 1995. Although he was wary at first, Nick trusted his friend Jon's judgment and drove across the country to L.A. Nick was out there only a few weeks when he suggested they bring in his pal, Justin Jeffre from Cincinnati, as a bass.
Even though he was studying history and political science at the University of Cincinnati, Justin was waiting for this type of opportunity. In a flash he too left the Midwest for Tinseltown.
Nick, Jon, Jeff, and Justin worked odd jobs during the day and sang wherever and whenever they could as a group called Just Us. Because of their persistence, they were able to land a gig, one of their first, in Dodger Stadium singing the national anthem, even though they were unknowns. Their determination to get backstage at a Boyz II Men concert caused them to hit the jackpot. While there, they caught the attention of their current manager, Paris D'Jon, who has worked with pop sensations Montell Jordan, Foxy Brown, LL Cool J, and C&C Music Factory.
"When we first moved out we were trying to save our money, and Boyz II Men tickets were expensive," Justin remembers. "Nick and Jeff didn't want to go because it was expensive and there was a big football game on, so Jon and I had to convince them to go. Once we got there we tried to go backstage and sing, and there was this girl who was listening to us. It turned out that she worked for a local radio station that was hosting the concert. She made us sing in front of a crowd and said,
'If you can impress this crowd we will put you on the radio.' The crowd liked it and Paris heard us."
"I was walking backstage and I heard these voices harmonizing," Paris recalls. "I was very impressed, and I started talking to them. They told me they were trying to meet Boyz II Men, and I told them that was not going to happen, because Boyz II Men were getting ready to jump in the van. But I did tell them that I liked their sound and that I was really interested, and I signed them a couple of months later."
"There weren't any groups out at that time that had that type of sound, except for Boyz II Men," Paris points out. "This was the first white group that really sounded pop, and I thought there was a great marketing opportunity there."
Paris hooked the foursome up with a gig at L.A.'s House of Blues to open for Montell Jordan. But right before the gig, Jon decided that his heart was really in acting, and he quit the group. The guys were stuck. They had an important show coming up in a few weeks and they needed a baritone.
Nick came to the rescue. He called his younger brother, Drew, who was living in Brooklyn and working as an EMT. Even though Drew enjoyed life on the East Coast, he had always felt he was a performer at heart. At his brother's request, he quit his job, packed his bags, and drove out West.
Drew proved to be the perfect addition to the group. "I think our voices really blend well and have a distinct, smooth sound that's R&B with some funk and soul," Nick says. "That's not something you often get when you put four people together."
"We had a good chemistry with our personalities and vocal styles," Justin says. "But chemistry in personalities is even more important than vocal chemistry. The day that Drew joined the group it was like we knew it was something special and very unique."
Although the sound fit, the guys weren't particularly happy with the name Just Us. Adding a new member gave them the perfect opportunity to change it. "Deciding on the name was a group thing," Drew explains. "We had a bunch of names that we really didn't like, like Next Issue and Inertia. Somehow 98° got thrown out there, and we kind of liked it because of the whole body temperature thing and we were singing a lot of love songs. We felt that 98° created an atmosphere of heat and passion and romance that's appropriate to our sound. You have to admit, whether you love or hate it, you remember it."
So now they had the lineup, the name, the manager, and the sound. All they needed was a record label. "From there, Paris helped us get a demo together," Jeff explains.
"When I put the demo together," recalls Paris, "I hired Jimmy 'Professor Funk' Russell to produce it for me -- he was a bass player for Montell. He went into the studio every night with the guys. At the same time the guys were rehearsing with a choreographer, Kim Morrow, in her living room, during the day, and recording at night. Once the demo was done, I went to Montell and said I wanted to do two more songs. I then got a guy named Sean 'Mystro' Mathers, a DJ out of D.C., to do the last two songs. Montell produced those last two songs with him. It was a big collaboration. Then we pac
