A Chat with
s n o m m i T f Jef of 98 Degrees
Sam: Hey guys, it’s DJ Sam Mac. I’m here with Kevin, and we have a special guest here. We’re so excited! It’s Jeff Timmons from 98 Degrees. Welcome Jeff and thank you for taking some time out of your day to hang out with us. Jeff: Of Course! I’m honored to be with you today. Thanks a lot for reaching out, and I’m glad we could connect. Kevin: Who would you say is your biggest musical influence and why? Jeff: 98 Degrees collectively have a ton of influences, and it’s really hard to pinpoint one because we come from a very diverse background. We grew up in an era where you had classic rock, and you had Michael Jackson, and Prince, but I think, quartet wise, for us, our biggest influence collectively would be Boyz II Men. It was an honor for us to be on the road with them and, of course, the New Kids on the Block back in 2013. Sam: I saw that show, and you guys were awesome! Jeff: Thanks! Kevin: That was an amazing tour! Jeff: It was like a dream come true for us. We were honored to be a part of that! Sam: Where were you the first time you heard your song on the radio? Jeff: As we get older, it’s hard to recollect things, and you start to have creative memories, but this one is pretty clear. I was in LA, and I was parking a car and going into a swanky hotel - the kind that future stars stayed in - and as I was pulling up for it to be valeted, I heard “Invisible Man” come on the radio on Kiss FM for the first time. I cranked it up. The valet didn’t know what was going on. He was like, “What are you doing? Get out of the car so I can park it!” I was like, “I can’t! This is us on the radio!” That’s a very fond memory for me. Sam: I’m going to go off script a little bit, but I was a big TRL fan back in the day. I was in college, and I put my schedule around TRL. I was actually outside a couple of times, and one of the times I was outside, you guys were there. Jeff: We love that support! When we first came out with “Invisible Man”, TRL wasn’t out yet, and our record label, Motown, had this idea that they wanted people to think we were an urban black group. That didn’t work, and here we were thinking our career was over, and we were going to have to regroup, and then TRL came on. It was like, “Look, you can put us on TV, and fans show up. It’s a really novel idea.” What TRL did for us and MTV in general, I can’t put into words. They really embraced us over at MTV. They had us do everything, and the imagery with that, and the support we got from fans like you - there was really nothing like it in the world. In fact, I’m trying to create a show like that to come back right now in Las Vegas. Not an everyday thing, necessarily, because the media has changed, and people can see things in different ways, but maybe a once-a-week kind of thing. Sam: Times have obviously changed since you guys first started. What advice would you give to up and comers? Jeff: I’m here in Clearwater working with a really new cool artist that I believe in. Her name is Vara. I think that people are so enamored with social media, Spotify and Spotify playlists, and those things are extraordinarily valuable and give you great exposure, but I think that some of the old traditional stuff like going and performing live for
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