Jeff Timmons

A Chat with Jeff Timmons 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 people, doing some grass roots stuff, actually letting people see it in person and get the vibe out with you and become a fan. Press the flesh, and campaign for your music in real time. It’s also important because it sets you apart from a streaming service. I’m not disparaging those who see the value in those things. Certainly, I wish we would have had them at our disposal back in the day because we would have been even more successful, I think. There’s just something to be said about the real grassroots promotion, grinding away, growing your fan base in an organic way, and really working hard. I think hard work is something that is a little bit lost on the generation now because you have everything at your disposal and quickly. I think hard work, dedication, self-belief, and faith are very important key elements to usher your way to success.

Sam: I think it’s great that you say that! I think that’s one of the things that’s different between like back in the late 90s and early 2000s, and even when the New Kids on the Block came out. It took hard work. They were out in the streets, and it wasn’t easy for you guys.

Jeff: No, none of it was easy. There are still a lot of circumstances today with all the different versions of technology and the existing vehicles out there to promote yourself. There are still obstacles to being a recording artist, and getting out there because there’s more to choose from. They have their own set of circumstances. It’s not easy. You’ve got to work at it really hard. To be the best and be at the top of your game, you’ve got to work harder than anyone else. And you need a little luck in the process as well.

Kevin: You’ve come a long way since the beginning of your career, both group and solo wise. You’ve performed with many other artists. Who would you like to collaborate with in the future?

Jeff: There’s so many young talented artists, and definitely artists from our generation that we admire, like Christina, Britney, even Backstreet, NSYNC – all the people we’ve been compared to - Brian McKnight and all the classic folks. We’d love to work with Stevie Wonder again, but there are so many talented artists now like Bruno Mars, I’m amazed by. I’m a huge fan of the Weeknd. Taylor Swift is a genius. Ariana Grande has a beautiful voice, and she is dropdead gorgeous. I could go on and on. There’s so much talent out there, that certainly I could see us fitting in with some music.

Sam: By the time this airs, Free Britney Day with be over, but can you tell us about that? We are totally going to get involved in that.

Jeff: I appreciate you asking me because I just got off of an interview right before this. I interviewed Lisa McCauley who has been an advocate. She’s on the legal side of things as a legal advocate. She’s been plastered all over the Free Britney blogs and has been really instrumental outside of all the support from the fans. She’s been very vocal, from a legal standpoint and an expertise standpoint. We all experience these kinds of things, not nearly as much as what’s going on with Britney, but in an incremental way from family, friends, and who knows. The people closest to you try to take from your hard work, but what has happened to her has been tragic. The Free Britney Block, that I had the honor of hosting, is going to draw attention to not only conservatorship with regards to Britney, but guardianship, with regards to elderly. There’s a movie on Netflix that won a Golden Globe, I think it’s called ‘I Care About You’ - that sort of makes a mockery in a fictional way about these guardianships that are egregious and ruin people’s lives; so, the conservatorships will definitely have to become competent with regards to these laws. If there is a silver lining, people will have to start paying attention to what are some tremendous cracks, loopholes, and negligence in the American court system.

Kevin: While we are on the topic of the Free Britney movement, it’s reported that Miley Cyrus, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, Paris Hilton, and Mariah Carey are all trying to come together and create this campaign, which I think is pretty awesome, as well.

Jeff: I’ve heard about that too, and I think it’s amazing! It shows a solidarity, and it’s a competitive landscape in the entertainment business. The media likes to pit people against each other, genres against one another, rivalries against one another, but ultimately, we’re all human beings, and we all experience journeys that those who aren’t in the business can’t even imagine. There’s that experience and roller coaster ride that they have all experienced in their own lives as well, so it’s very inspiring to see them all come together. I think Pink might be a part of that as well. Regardless of if it’s one, five, or ten artists coming together to show their support for Britney, I think it’s a beautiful thing.

Kevin: It really is because no one deserves to go through what she’s going through, and like you said, we’re not in the entertainment industry like that, so we have no clue what’s really happening. We just know what we’re hearing.

Jeff: Even entertainment industry or not, nobody in any walk of life deserves to be treated like that and have their rights to live and make decisions taken from them like what’s happened with her. It’s absolutely a crime. I asked at one point during the interview, even if people are negligent and they’re not conspirators, they didn’t conspire to do this collectively. Are people going to be held accountable legally? She had a very interesting take on that, and she said there very well could be some repercussions legally for how gross incompetence has led the ship with this. Not to be too political but having gone through things personally with the court system myself, it’s very important for me that these things be addressed for people, so they don’t have to go through torturous events like this.

Kevin: Whether you were directly or indirectly involved, you’re still an accessory to the crime.

Jeff: I think that very well may be the case. I’m not an expert. That’s why I was trying to ask the questions of a legal expert, but it seems like if you’re going to choose a line of work that peoples’ lives depend on, you should know the rules. Do what they call in the legal system your fiduciary duty to do the right thing.

Kevin: I do agree. Your fans have grown with you over the years. How has that impacted you and your career?

Jeff: This is a very cliche thing to say, but we wouldn’t be anything without our fans. You can put the music you want out there, but if you don’t have fans supporting your project, and spreading the word about your brand, and getting excited about your music, you don’t have a career. I was talking to someone earlier, and never did I think we would have the career and selling these many records for this long. For us to be almost 50 years old, getting up on stage, acting like little kids, singing love songs, goofing around, having drinks, and enjoying ourselves singing music. That’s like a dream come true. That doesn’t happen without people supporting your music. It’s easy when people cater to you or look after you in a certain way and treat you a certain way that’s not really realistic. It can be easy to fall into that hype and believe it. For us, collectively in the group, I think a lot of it has to do with our upbringing and being from Ohio, and being blue-collar guys. We’ve never taken that for granted. We appreciate every moment that we have to do this dream job for a living, and respect, appreciate and revere our fans.

Sam: As the fans are adults, it’s a lot more fun for us too because as I was saying to another fan, we don’t have to ask permission. We can just go.

Jeff: That’s what we love about it. We do like to think we’re the coolest guys on the planet with the best music, but we do also know that there’s a bond with the fans that equals, if not surpasses their love for the music and the group. We all know that you all like to get together and go through the experience together as much as you like to see us up on stage. I never thought in a million years when I was a young guy, and we were putting this together, that would even be something that had an effect, but to see people create long term relationships and friendships that last decades because we sang, “Invisible Man” or “Una Noche”. That’s pretty profound, I think.

Sam: We’re all coming out of this pandemic in the next year. How has that affected your career as a group and as a solo artist?

Jeff: I think, as a group, we were pretty excited about what we had going on, so we toured with New Kids and Boys II Men, which was a big tour, and then we did a couple big tours on our own, where we headlined. We did a Christmas tour where we were away from our families, and we started wondering how we could construct this so we could be with our families during the week and tour on the weekends. So, we started doing it that way. I guess you get spoiled by the fact that you can be a house dad and a husband during the week, then on the weekend you can go be a rockstar or a popstar on stage. I think that we didn’t take it for granted, but we got pretty comfortable with that. The pandemic turned the world on its ear and changed everything, so that it disrupted everybody’s lives. What it did was put things into perspective for us. What if we never get to do music together again? So now we’re doing new music, which I have been hoping for a long time. We’re doing new music, doing remixes, shooting music videos again, and just enjoying and relishing in the moment even more than we had in the past. As terrible as the pandemic is, and how it destroyed people’s lives, killed people, made people sick, and disrupted the economy of the world. There are positives. There was a silver lining in it, and that you look at what you really care about, and don’t take things for granted. Even if you don’t consciously take things for granted, sometimes, you subconsciously do, and I think it has made people more aware of the order of importance of things in your life.

Sam: That is for sure. When I listen to commercial radio, I’m finally hearing about live shows now and it’s nice. It’s exciting!

Jeff: A year ago it was like, “What if we can never do live shows ever again?” So, people are in a frenzy to get back out there in the excitement. I can’t wait until August 21st when we come together and do our first show in Syracuse at the New York State Fair, which is going to be a great thing. I can’t wait to see what the energy’s going to be like with that audience, and not only that, but we’re also going to have to relax a little bit on stage cause we’re going to be jumping around like jack rabbits up there with excitement, and we’re going to have to calm ourselves down. That’s how pent up and excited everybody is.

Kevin: Speaking of upcoming shows, I don’t remember the date right off the top of my head, but I saw where you all are coming to Georgia. I want to say it’s in October to one of the fairs there.

Jeff: I think you could be right, but I’ve got to look at the schedule because it keeps on changing. If we get a chance to do the Georgia State Fair, we’ve got some of the best fans all over the place, but that is a really great fan base for us. There was a station called Star 94, that played us for many years, and some other great people and great stations. There’s a friend of mine named Adam Bomb that’s a big DJ that’s always been very supportive and had a ton of success. So, if we have the opportunity to play there, I’ll be jumping for joy. I also think we’re going to do something in Atlantic City, but I don’t want to confirm anything because I’m always getting in trouble.

Sam: Do you have a most memorable performance?

Jeff: There are so many really great highlights. It’s really tough to pinpoint one of them. Performing at Michael Jackson’s special for his anniversary with Usher and Luther - that’s sort of surreal. Performing with Mariah doing, “Thank God I Found You” on stage in Minneapolis, where we shot the video, was pretty incredible. The list goes on and on. It’s been a wild ride. You close your eyes and ask yourself if this is real or not. Then you blink and it’s 25 years later. We are fortunate and blessed to have so many memorable moments that anybody would die for one opportunity.

Sam: What message would you like to give to your fans?

Jeff: We love our fans. We feel blessed, fortunate, and absolutely dedicated to making sure we do good stuff for our fans, whether it be on stage or new music. We certainly appreciate and revere our fans, and the opportunity they have given us to do this for a living, and to provide for our families. We owe everything to our fans and how generous they have been with their dedication to us and their time.

Sam: Before we let you go, we have a game we like to play here at NK Airplay called, “Fast Five”.

Jeff: Let’s do it!

Sam: Browns or Bengals?

Jeff: Browns for sure!

Sam: Small venue or large arena?

Jeff: Large arena, when you’re really crushing it, but there’s nothing like an intimate venue. I’ll choose small venue.

Sam: TLC or Salt-N-Pepa?

Jeff: I’ll go with TLC; although, I love Salt-N-Pepa too.

Sam: Singing in the shower or singing in the car?

Jeff: I like to rock it in the shower because there’s an echo. There’s a natural reverb in there.

Sam: Last one, recording in the studio or singing live?

Jeff: 100% recording in the studio. I know that’s a weird answer, but I get nervous before a live performance.

Sam: Thank you so much, Jeff. We really appreciate it

Jeff: We’re thankful for you. I appreciate the questions and the energy. You guys are great, and it’s nice to see you all again. Let me know if you need anything. Thanks for your time!