The Keri Croft Show
The Keri Croft Show
From Ohio to Hollywood: Jeff Timmons on the Rise, the Grind, and the Glamour of 98 Degrees
I never thought my Bluffton, Ohio deli girl era would come full circle like this—but here we are.
This week on The Keri Croft Show, I’m joined by the one-and-only Jeff Timmons. From his humble Ohio roots to global fame, Jeff shares what life in a boy band was really like: the mental toll, the money misconceptions, the pressure to keep climbing even when you’ve already “made it.”
We talked about:
- Why 98 Degrees almost didn’t make it
- The truth about the “boy band wars” with *NSYNC and Backstreet Boys
- His dream boy band Chip 'n’ Dales lineup (yes, you read that right)
- The one thing that keeps him mentally and physically strong today
This episode is equal parts hilarious and heartfelt—and if you’ve ever chased a dream, been blindsided by success, or just needed a reminder to get right with your own mind, you’ll take something from it.
💥 And if you’re local...
Jeff is performing LIVE with the Columbus Symphony on June 13 at Columbus Commons for A Boy Band Symphony—an epic night of nostalgia you do not want to miss.
🎟 Grab your tickets now:
👉 https://columbussymphony.com/event/a-boy-band-symphony/
Hit play. This one’s got range.
Hey there you beautiful badass. Welcome to the Keri Croft Show. I'm your host, keri Croft, delivering you stories that get you pumped up and feeling like the unstoppable savage that you are. So grab your coffee, put on your game face and let's do this thing. Baby Ready to elevate your self-care game? Boscal Beauty Bar is a modern med spa offering everything from cosmetic injectables, lasers and microneedling to medical grade facials and skincare. Conveniently located in Clintonville, grandview, powell and Easton. Making self-care a priority has never been easier. Use code KROFT for $25 off your first visit. Summer's coming in hot, but is your skin summer ready? Fine lines, sun damage, melasma if these are cramping your vibe, the moxie laser at Donaldson will leave you glowing nervous about lasering your face. I tried Moxie and it was quick and gentle, perfect for first timers and all skin types, and my results 10 out of 10. And if you're a first timer at Donaldson, mention the Keri Croft Show for $100 off your Moxie treatment. Don't say I've never done anything for you.
Speaker 2:I like the vibe already.
Speaker 1:You know, all I'm trying to do is get myself to a cool status to be interviewing someone like you. I'm like I've got to up my cool game here.
Speaker 2:I don't know Everything I've seen. You look pretty cool. You've got a pretty cool hat on there. The atmosphere looks pretty cool in the background. You've got a cool jacket on. You've got the bling on.
Speaker 1:Do you really like my hat? I do. I made this hat. I'm going to send you one.
Speaker 2:It's pretty cool. My wife would rock that hat.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I'll send you one and I'll send her one, yeah, please do.
Speaker 2:She'd love that, but the thing is you have to. This is Kate.
Speaker 1:Hi Jeff, I'm Kate. Hi there, how are you Good, how are you? I just kind of do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do.
Speaker 2:I know the routine, I know how it goes.
Speaker 1:So I'm so excited about this, me too. I mean, you're the man, the myth, the legend. I don't know about all that and I'm just a little you know, I'll go with the flow. Just a little girl from Ohio over here, so we have that in common. Oh, baby, I know what.
Speaker 2:Now are you in Columbus, I'm in Columbus, I'm right in Grandview so I could throw a stone to Ohio Stadium. I love it. Are you from Columbus? I'm from Lima. Oh, lima, amazing. So I you know, I know Lima. My first college was Bluffton, which wasn't too far from from Lima, ohio.
Speaker 1:Dude, I used to work the deli counter in Bluffton. Really, oh, fuck, fuck. I used to light Bluffton up.
Speaker 2:It's a dry town, I remember that. So we literally had to, had to when we wanted to drink. We had to drive to Van Wert to to go get booze or whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dude, so yeah Lima, so Canton, I mean you're a we got, we got, definitely got that going on the Ohio roots, no doubt about it.
Speaker 2:I love my Ohio route.
Speaker 1:No matter where you roam, you know whether you become a pop star and you're living in LA. You have this, this really grounded sense of reality.
Speaker 2:Oh, there's no question about it. I mean, I don't. I think I don't know what I'd be like if I came from somewhere else. I think you know the way we were raised no-transcript LA to pursue this. That's what stood out in in LA. We were just regular guys, we kind of. It was the grunge era. We looked like bums. We were dressed in flannels and sweatpants and boots and singing pop music. It was people like. This is weird. This doesn't really fit with the scene here in Hollywood.
Speaker 1:But we like it. Yeah, you're. You guys are kind of like the white version of bone thugs in a way. You know, you got these, you got these.
Speaker 2:Is that even pop? I mean the bone thugs. They have their own unique style and certainly they're. You know, the bone thugs are my guys. I love those guys I did something with lazy bone on a track. It never came out, but I love the bone thugs.
Speaker 1:They're from cleveland, you know, yeah, I have listened to bone thugs since I was 15 and my light blue suzuki Sidekick with the white leather top, but you know they have, like that, the Ohio roots. They go out to LA with two left feet, they don't know what the fuck they're doing, but they had something so authentic that people wanted it and that's.
Speaker 2:That's the similarity there between the two of you. Yeah, I mean, and those guys are hard workers too, you know, and uh, you know they did, they got with easy and they had a unique style and delivery. That's still unique. There are people that have tried to mimic it, but there's really nobody like bone thugs.
Speaker 1:So you guys, are like these wide-eyed good old boys from ohio, like those early days of like integrating into hollywood and la, and it's such a scene, you know, like what did. What was that?
Speaker 2:like it was weird. I mean we, uh, you know, like what did what was that? Like it was weird, I mean we. You know what I really noticed when I first got to Hollywood my brother had just graduated from Ohio state. He went to Ohio state. I didn't he. He graduated from Ohio state. He was living with another guy that was an Ohio guy and they were struggling actors.
Speaker 2:And so when I, you know, when I first got to California, we were Northern California, my father had gotten transferred there. So when we made the trip cross country, we kind of camped out there until we made our way to LA for a couple of months. And then we went to LA and what I noticed, when we were getting into the scene and all these young actors were there and my brother was talking to some of them and his roommate Eric was a part of the scene I noticed that nobody was going on auditions. All these actors were there to be actors, but they weren't going on auditions. They were either going out to clubs, maxing out their parents' credit cards, partying all the time, or constantly just getting new headshots, or going to acting class, and I'm like you know, those are all great things, but don't you actually have to go audition for stuff at some point, you know.
Speaker 2:So I was like what I noticed was our, our work ethic was standing out there right away. So I'm like you know what, if we work hard enough and just keep going out there and singing, live one thing about us. We could sing acapella anywhere. So you know, if we just keep singing for people, people are going to we're going to get discovered and we're just going to be consistent and persistent and that's what happened. I mean, we started getting people's attention and they were like, oh, this is cool. You know, this is different. And again, at that time it was just grunge, just boys to men. There was a group called All For One, who we're dear friends with now. They were kind of coming out, but there was no backstreet or boy band or anything like that. So you know, for us to go out there and be a vocal group, uh, from ohio was kind of sticking out, so it was a little bit unique I was listening to an interview you were doing.
Speaker 1:I think you were talking to bradley, which we'll get to, um, but uh, you said you guys, when you first started, you like turned your back toward the crowd because you were that unsure.
Speaker 2:Nervous. We were nervous. So I mean, like you know, like I mentioned, the original group I started with were some guys that I went to high school with and just ran into at my fourth college. I was on my fourth college, I had been trying to play football and bouncing place to place and then, you know, I was like I'm not going to be able to play football, I'm just not good enough. So then I went to Kent state and literally wandered into this club by myself, cause I didn't know anybody, and ran into some guys I went to high school with and and then went to their apartment and hung out with them and I never went back. I had just gotten there. I never went back.
Speaker 2:No-transcript would go crazy, but we were so nervous we couldn't, we didn't want to face the crowd. We literally walk up on stage, grab the microphones, turn our backs to the crowd. Here, you know, you have people, you know of all ages, drinking and you know, are fearless, getting up and singing Sweet Caroline or, you know, suspicious Minds by Elvis, and here were four young guys, nervous to face even them. And you know, at first we turned our backs to the crowd. We were singing at this club called Bumpers and you know the owner kept coming up and guys, you guys are great. But you know, at some point you know you got to turn around and face the crowd so they can see you and eventually I don't know whether it was liquid courage or not you know, the more beers we had, the better we thought we sounded, that we ended up having that confidence, but it was a work in progress.
Speaker 2:I mean, certainly to your point, none of this was like just a snap in an overnight or we were some anomaly. It was four guys with the kind of a harebrained idea and thankfully, you know, I ended up connecting with Nick after those guys left, although they were talented too, and you know, and Nick had some experience and his brother and Justin had some experience in the performing arts space. But it wasn't like we just walked off the plane into Motown Records and signed a multi-million dollar record deal and the rest was history. It was a lot of grinding, a lot of ups and downs, mostly downs for a long, long time. But we wanted to do it. We had the drive and dedication and passion and self-belief and determination to do it.
Speaker 1:We just we had the drive and dedication and passion and self-belief and determination to do it. We should continue to do a better job of being open, and that's one of the things that I do on my show is just, I want people to feel seen, heard, less alone and understood what in whatever lane they're in. So maybe talk about that a little bit around when you're in the thick of that and you're just getting just kicked in the nuts left and right, like yeah, there's highs to it, right, there's girls throwing their underwear on stage or whatever the hell's going on your you know fame, but there's gotta be a lot of behind the scenes dark stuff happening. How did you handle all that?
Speaker 2:Like a guy from Ohio, well, it was hard because we didn't know what to expect. All you saw was that what's on TV. I think you know the only expose is you could, you could see is when, like people magazine, would do a deep dive into some drama with somebody, or you know, at that time, I think, bh1 started to have behind the music. So you go oh wow, billy Joel got robbed. Wow, that's crazy. There wasn't. Like. You know, you couldn't just Google up or go on social media and learn things behind the scenes like that. You just had to figure it out. It's going to get thrown to you. You have to learn the business. You know it's the music business, it's the entertainment business. It's a business. People are making money from it. It's competitive and everybody wants to do it. I mean, everybody wants to be in a band or an actor or be famous. I don't care, people will say that, but you know, secretly everybody has said well, I used to play guitar in this local band. Or, you know, I used to do community theater. So you don't know what to expect in a highly, highly competitive and cut throat business. Until you're in the thick of things, you're going oh okay, so I'm not making any money off of any records I sell. Oh, I got to pay back that limo you picked me up in, or those cool clothes you got me. Or you know that restaurant you bought us all those steaks. We pay back all that before we make anything off of our record. You don't learn that until you know you're. You're about a year into it, right? No one's going to tell you about it, right? They want you to grind and work and just get up on stage or get in the photos and perform. So you know, a lot of that can be overwhelming, especially when you're you're thrown into it so quickly.
Speaker 2:Although it wasn't an overnight success, the success did come overnight. We grinded for a while and then all of a sudden shot out of a cannon right Once we were on TRL and an MTV and embraced us, and television embraced us. You know, all of a sudden, you know we're, we're, we're the hottest thing since sliced bread. And you know all these people are coming at you and you have these opportunities and this person's supposed to be on your team. Oh well, you need a business manager, oh, and you need a lawyer, oh, and you need a manager. And then you need a PR firm. And then all of a sudden you have all these people on your payroll.
Speaker 2:Well, wait a second. We were just driving an RV around with our pictures on it, driving it ourselves, worried about gas money, singing for food, and now I take care of all these people, not to mention all the people that were there kind of staking claim and how they were a part of your success or certain friends or family. Hey man, you got an extra couple bucks. I'm like. Well, I know I'm supposed to be a millionaire. I haven't seen any paychecks yet. Maybe when I get off the road in six months it'll be sitting in a bank account with this new business manager that I have, you know. So I don't know.
Speaker 2:It just gets suddenly crazy. And then and it's so busy that there's no time to take a breath Literally like you get to a hotel and you go. Well, it's midnight now or one o'clock in the morning. Now I got to be up at three o'clock to start doing interviews with people overseas, and then we're going to get in the car or the plane and go to the next venue and do the in-store. So it was a grind. There's no time to really kind of wrap your head around it. You're depending on all this, these people, that on your newly assembled team to be taking care of things for you.
Speaker 2:But you know, when money starts to flow it starts to kind of cloud people's judgment and they may be not as qualified to do the things that they're supposed to do. So it was a bit overwhelming. And then you start to lose your identity in the process. You go, wait a second, I am from Ohio and I'm not really this major superstar, or am I? I wanted to do it, or am I supposed to talk like this? Or what are people expecting? So it's a lot for a young person. I mean, we weren't kids, we were in our early 20s, but it's. It's a lot for anybody at any age to to have to decipher. But ultimately, you know we had each corny be mindful and self-aware. But you know that took a little while for me to get to that point. But you know you get depressed and you start to wonder if you've made the right decision in your life and if it's real and people start to change around you that you've been around your whole life and you're not necessarily changing. They are because they expect you to. It was a, it was a whirlwind and it's still. It still is that way today. You know you still have people coming in and coming out of your life.
Speaker 2:You just you've been around so many people in so many different places. At this point you can kind of intuitively read a room oh, that's the guy that's the loudest, that's the guy that's the quietest, or the girl that's the quietest, so she's probably the smartest. This one needs to floss, this one wants to steal. You know you kind of get in a little bit of this. One wants to go home with you. This one's husband wants to go home with you. You know you start to you start to really start to assess the assess the room. Just by being around you don't really get smart. You've just kind of been around so many people. You can get a pace really quickly.
Speaker 1:Speaking of people wanting to go home with you. I'm fascinated with that component. So I know you're married happily now and you were married then got divorced, so you've been locked down for quite a while. But back when you were single, coming up and you have these groupies that are just I mean, you could have your pick of the lot, like any you know, and I know that probably makes it less attractive for you. So it's like, um, like my boy Tupac would say, like I don't want it if it's that easy. But how, how did that work? Like so you have like all these women's like swooning and you're like, oh, I think you're cute. Like what did the group? What was groupie life like?
Speaker 2:It was crazy, as you can imagine. And look, and originally you go. You know we were trying, we were, we sang to impress, of course you're a young guy. At college we were singing to impress the girls at first. You know you want to impress girls, you want to have an you know, some sort of a connection with with the girls, right, that's every guy at that age loves women, right, and they want to meet girls. And so when that part comes, you're like yeah, wow, this is crazy.
Speaker 2:But it's about 30 seconds in and you're right, it gets really boring and overwhelming and predictable and too easy. And it also you know lots of sound corny. But you know you grow up and you know you buy your, you're trying to, you're trying to swoon girls or you're trying to enamor girls with with. You know you buy your girlfriend flowers or gifts or you know you write them poems or write them songs or you try to. You know people would have been in executive positions that are in relationships or girlfriends that are yelling at their husbands who are at home watching their kid while they're out at girls night out trying to get with you or try to get in your hotel room. It's pretty disappointing, you know not to sound corny, but you're like, man, this is kind of you get. You get to peek behind the curtain of what it's really like and you almost wish you didn't have that opportunity. It sounds really crazy and any guy will be like, oh, shut up, man. That must have been amazing.
Speaker 2:Of course it was for, like, like I said, about 30 seconds and then, by the way, you're busy, you got a job. You're actually trying to connect with someone. You know at that point, someone real. Connect with someone. You know, at that point, someone real. So none of this stuff is real to you. You know it's not real because you know two months before that we were at, you know, calabasas, cantina in Northern, you know, in outside of LA, and none of those girls would talk to us because we weren't famous, weren't rich, didn't have any money, weren't dressed the right way. And then you know you walk in there, oh my God, they shut the place down and give you a private table and give you bottle service and surround you by the most beautiful people in there. You'd have to be an idiot to not really to be absorbed into that and think it's real.
Speaker 1:Well, and that's the thing it's like. That's where I feel like a lot of people probably struggle with mental health and maybe turn to addiction of some sort, because that life would feel, you know, while it seems so glamorous, it would just feel so fake. You're like wait, none of these people would even be around me if I didn't hit all these boxes Like where's Ohio, where's where's the real shit happening Like that. That balance of that had to be wild and continue to be wild for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is, and it's just you know you, ultimately, at the end of the day, you can have. I have a wonderful family, my wife is amazing, but you're in this journey pretty much by yourself. You know what I mean. I'm on the road a lot right, and they get. I'm very fortunate we're in a position I don't have to be on the road like I used to and they join me all the time, which is great.
Speaker 2:But this is an experience even with the group. You're an individual and everybody in their lives experience their own life with themselves. So, you know, trying to get an understanding of the reality of it and humanity, and if you're a thinker and a lot of entertainers are deep thinkers and overthinkers and obsessive thinkers for whatever reason, you know you want to find some meaning into it at some point. Of course, there are amazing perks. I wouldn't trade anything I've gotten to do and continue to get to do, I think, things that maybe less than 1% of the people get to do I'm about to go to the Philippines again and go to perform it for 20,000 people in a different country or a tour of the world and see exotic places, and they treat you like a king there and you know you get to see these beautiful things and get to experience wonderful things, but ultimately you want to share a connection with somebody at the end of the day, right, and so this stuff is cool, but it's also a job, right. It's also certainly blown out of proportion.
Speaker 2:The, the, the high highs of it and the glamor is is, uh, is certainly, you know, looked upon and people covet that and they want to be like like that until you get it and then you go okay, now, okay, what's next, you know, and there, and then when you're at the top, there is no really the next one.
Speaker 2:You've got to like, keep incrementally, try to stay there, and it's a difficult sort of thing, but so really it's important to to really get to know yourself. You need to make friends with your mind and a lot of people, when you're talking about addiction or you're talking about substance abuse or alcoholism, and a lot of people are trying to escape from themselves, not just the scene they don't want to be friends with their brain. So you know you ultimately have to become confident enough that you accept yourself for who you are, you make friends with your mind and you can get away and stay, keep your truth the whole entire time and if you can do that, you can be put into any situation and then come out of it unscathed, because you know you're going to be you when you come out of it, no matter what happens in that situation.
Speaker 1:So you look like you're pretty fit. You're holding it down over there. What's your? Give me your like daily, weekly vibe here. What are you doing to like look so good?
Speaker 2:Well, look, I've tried to stay in shape for a long time. It kind of started with just playing sports in high school and college and then we, just a lot of people we were talking about this the other day doing an interview in New York we're on a press run and they're like well, what made you guys decide to be the muscular boy band? I mean it's can you imagine like we, we, we all just walked in the room. We're like, well, we can't dance. We kind of all have a little bit of muscle. Maybe we should just lift more. None of us thought consciously did that. We were all just athletic guys. And then, you know, once they were you know the labels or the teen magazine photographers they were like, oh, put this tank top on or take your shirt off. You know, it wasn't like we made that decision.
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Speaker 2:You know, but I've tried to stay in shape since then. You know, early on I was suffering from some mental health problems and it was based on my diet. I went to see a psychiatrist right when we got signed and I've talked about this quite a bit. For some reason I was depressed we were about to come out with an album. It was probably the pressure of it and pressure from the label and certainly wasn't healthy with the way I was eating and I got on the Atkins diet, which is a low carb diet. I immediately lost whatever fat I had and and my had some mental clarity there and I've just stayed on a diet or a variation of it. So I'm on the keto diet, so it's mostly what I eat.
Speaker 2:But I also I like to get up very early in the morning. I like to be regimented with my stuff and I get up early in the morning 536 o'clock, you know, depending and I'll do some cardio in the morning, get a workout in, and that just sets the day mentally for me. Physically that's a, that's a side effect of it. Right, it gets my, gets my chemicals in my brain, kind of set for the day and and I start then and then I'll maybe do some cardio at night before I go to bed, just to just to kind of unwind a little bit. I do, I meditate a little bit, you know, 20 minutes a night, uh, before I go to bed or early in the morning, just to kind of get your brain, you know, get the chaos out of the way early so you can be set and focused for the day. And all that stuff results in you looking a lot better and feeling a lot better.
Speaker 1:Where's your? Do you have like a space where you meditate, like a, like a separate room, or what's your meditation? Well, you see this room here.
Speaker 2:I have a cool house, but this is where I do everything. I do my music, I do my meditating in here. I do interviews, because they don't let me in the rest of the I'm not allowed to. My family doesn't allow me out of this room. If I meander into the hallway, my kids and my wife are like oh, what are you doing? Get back into, go back into your hole. So I've learned to do everything in this room. This is where I get it all done.
Speaker 1:I love that. So you're I mean, you are keeping busy. So you guys, just you released a new album too, and you're doing this boy band, symphony, which we I need to hear more about this. I love, I love that concept Well thanks for bringing that up.
Speaker 2:I appreciate you giving it the plug. Yeah, it's our first album a long time. It's called full circle. We, we did our, we pulled the taylor swift and did our re-record so we could own our material. So the songs sound nearly exactly like they did when we recorded them, which was a challenge. But we went in there and really dissected, dissected them and and really wanted to. You know, we knew that the fans like them that way, so we wanted them to sound just like that. And then we have five new ones which are really, really great. We're we're proud of and you know we were fortunate.
Speaker 2:Last week it debuted number one on the pop charts on iTunes. You know, I don't know. You know those charts fluctuate, but to be even after all these years, that's our first number one album. We've had number two, number three. We've never had a number one album. So we're proud of that and that's out now.
Speaker 2:And then, yeah, the boy band symphony thing is something that I really wanted to do for a while. I did a boy band Christmas tour a couple of years ago and then arranged with a friend of mine who is a conductor at a symphony oh, holy night with an orchestra and got with Eric Estrada who was on that tour Eric's from O-Town and we were like man, maybe we should do a whole tour with an orchestra with all the boy band songs and see what they sound like. So we connected with Chris, who's a dear friend of mine, chris from NSYNC, kirkpatrick from NSYNC and we've been doing this boy band symphony thing and it's been really really well received. I mean, those songs with an orchestra and the orchestras we've been performing with sound, it sounds amazing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that. That's so great. So, speaking of him, you guys being good friends, what was the when you guys were all at your peak, like when you guys first hit the scene? So backstreet boys were like the thing. And then you guys pop up and they're like, oh shit, got some west side story shit going on. Like how did you, how did the backstreet boys 98 degrees and in sync Boys, 98 Degrees and NSYNC How'd you guys handle like being this trifecta of like hot testosterone boy band Awesome?
Speaker 2:I well, thank you, I guess, but anyway you just got your social clip.
Speaker 2:I love it. I love it though. So we, we started off like I said. We were like we wanted to be like boys to men. There were no boy bands. The only boy band we kind of heard of was back in the day, was new kids and was new edition, and those groups were put together and we were like and you know what they get knocked for, being assembled and manufactured. So we didn't want to be associated with anything like that. We wanted to be a vocal group that was inspired by, you know, four-part harmony, like boys to men and and all that stuff and groups like that.
Speaker 2:So when we came onto the scene we came onto the scene at the same time Backstreet was breaking and we didn't consider ourselves in the same genre at all. The difference was their label put them on stuff and our label took us off stuff. They wanted people to think we were an urban group, so they didn't promote us. They want people people to think we were a black group, and so what happened with that is, you know, urban radio. People in that, in the, in that genre. They thought they didn't like that. The label was trying to fool us. They thought we were trying to pull a fast one. Here we were just doing what, what, what, uh, what. The label told us go, go, show up and sing right. And so that didn't work. And meanwhile we watched Backstreet Boys just skyrocket through the atmosphere. We were literally going into music stores and seeing these displays that pretty much were an entire storefront of the Backstreet Boys, and then we'd have to go fishing through the bins and find our CD one if it was there and buy it ourselves. You know, and and and we were wondering what was going on with all that and and.
Speaker 2:Then, you know, ultimately our first album was not a success and we just went up into Canada and and started doing renegade promotion and then went to Europe and started promoting there in Southeast Asia, and we met in sync there, and and we became fast friends with those guys and we also were like man, if these guys come into the States, it's a wrap. I mean, these guys are amazing, they sing, they dance, and, you know, backstreet Boys also super talented, but we hadn't considered ourselves in that genre, and so both of those guys actually exploded before us in the US, both of those groups, and you know, we we ended up getting a new label head at Motown, george Jackson came in. He was amazing to us. They pretty much gutted the entire roster. They fired Andre Harrell, who was president of Motown, who signed us, and George just kept us and he was like, well, look, we have our own version of Backstreet and NSYNC. Maybe we should put them on television and put them on teen magazines. And so once that happened, you know, we were considered this trifecta, although we resisted it. We were like no, they dance and we were trying to be too cool.
Speaker 2:But as far as the groups are concerned, we always had a mutual respect for everybody. We would do stuff at the same radio shows as those guys. Ultimately we're on some of the same, you know, big packages and bills as those guys and we loved them. I mean, we were, we were friends with all those guys. The media wanted to sort of pit everybody against each other, but you know, ultimately, you know, we, we, we became very, very good friends and now we, we all kind of mix and match and do different projects together. I've done stuff with Chris and AJ and now Chris and Eric and we've toured together with O-Town and we were supposed to do a big show with Backstreet in Oklahoma City but there was like a big hurricane or no, there was like a tornado or something like that which canceled the show. But we all have a ton of respect for each other.
Speaker 1:Hypothetical, okay, and I don't want to hear a bunch of like don't give me a bunch of run around and try to be political.
Speaker 2:I got you.
Speaker 1:I'm going to you have a little van, little sprinter van we're going to give you. You get to travel across country, okay, non-stop. You can stop to like, pee and get some snacks at the Speedway or something, but you can only bring three other people with you. You can only pick one from 98 degrees. Oh so you have. You have to choose the most perfect road trip right now with members from either backstreet boys in sync, 98 degrees, you have 20 seconds.
Speaker 2:I can't just pick one of my members from my group. You're gonna get me in trouble well, there has to be okay.
Speaker 1:But okay, how about this? Like is one better with directions? Is one more laid back? Like it doesn't mean cause, I'm going to ask you another hypothetical. You may include somebody else in on that one, all right, so? I can only. I have three people to pick from Yep. And you have to choose from the other groups too.
Speaker 2:Okay, what would make the best?
Speaker 1:well-rounded experience.
Speaker 2:I would take AJ from from backstreet, cause I've worked with him before. He's a ton of fun, although Nick's really cool too, but AJ I spent more time with, so I'll take AJ from Backstreet he's awesome. And then I take Chris from NSYNC. Love the guys like one of my best friends in the world, so that part's easy. Choosing one from my group is really tough. I mean, my goodness. I mean uh, you know Nick's best with directions, drew's best with organization and Justin's the most laid back. So I probably Justin and I were always rooming together and always got stuck together on stuff. So I'll take Justin with me because I know him the most.
Speaker 1:You're going to start an empire, okay. Okay, you're going to start some fucking amazing hybrid. You're going to go into AI and be like hybrid. You're going to like go into AI and be like AI. What's this amazing empire? I can start spit it out. You can only pick two people from any of those three. I don't care if you pick zero from your band. You can pick all of them from your band. Who would be if you had to put a flag in the ground? Who would you start an empire with today?
Speaker 2:And I have to pick someone from my group. I can only pick two.
Speaker 1:No, no, you can pick whomever is going to get you to the promised land An empire.
Speaker 2:Wow, as far as boy band guys go, that's a tough one I would take to start an empire. I'll take Nick along with me on that, one from my group and hmm.
Speaker 1:Situation yeah, dude.
Speaker 2:He's been very successful outside of the group Genius, so I'll take him with me, and then I probably would take, you know, howie. I'll take Howie from Backstreet.
Speaker 1:Howie's supposed to be a big entrepreneur in the real estate space and a good businessman, so I'll take Howie and Nick from my group your previous interaction with them that they have offered you guys too much money to say no to actually be the Chippendales, and there can only be four of you Are you talking from the boy?
Speaker 1:bands, but you guys are the Chippendale, you are the guys with the ties and the banana hammocks. So it's you and three other guys and you can pick up any three who who's gonna make this the most successful?
Speaker 2:make the right I, I for chippendales. I would take aj again because he can dance and he's a great performer. I would take nick, because he's still jacked from my group. I'll take nick, he's in good shape. Gotta have gotta have muscles a little bit. And then, you know, for comic relief, uh, because he's got a ton of personality, I would bring Joey Fatone in. That would be my, my dream team of of the uh, the boy band version of Chippendales, this, this, by the way, these guys are all just going to love me after this interview.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, the truth is what it is. Don't hate the player, hate the game guys, they don't care. Okay, back to Boyz II Men. What is your if you had to pick your favorite and don't overthink this, but like the favorite Boyz II Men song that comes to mind right now, because I've got mine and it's now playing on repeat in my head.
Speaker 2:Man man, I love so many so I'll probably say Unbended Knee, but it can change at any time. I mean I love all their songs.
Speaker 1:I'm a massive Boyz II Men fan. But, when they go 10, 9, 8,.
Speaker 2:Uh, ah, so we did a medley. That's what got us signed, so we did a Boyz II Men medley. And it started with that countdown and we did a little bit of uh, and then did I'll make love to you.
Speaker 1:End of the road. That's what we did. That's how we got signed, you know, and I was just watching, um, I stumbled upon your, your little uh. What did you guys? You were singing god, it's the michael. Oh, she's out of my life. Oh, yeah, we love that. No, I love like that is one of my all. I mean, that's that song probably is my favorite Michael Jackson song. That maybe like human nature. But wow, what are you guys sounded like little angels.
Speaker 2:Thank you, I appreciate it. You know we, I love Mike, we all love Michael Jackson too. I have a big, huge Michael Jackson fan and we, we, we did that song and it was on our demo tape. It was originally on our demo tapes and it was arranged by this guy named Devin Bierre who went to school with the other guys. This guy just came. We wanted to do it. We wanted to put something different and unique on the demo tape, because it was a tape. Remember tapes? You know what a tape is A tape? It goes into a cassette. It's called a cassette.
Speaker 1:All right, the pencil remember the pencil you've like.
Speaker 2:that's what we had to do after we listened to the demo too much we had to fix it, wind the tape back in. But that was on our demo and devin did a great arrangement and they loved it. We sang that one live too what a song.
Speaker 1:And it cuts like a knife, like I keep singing it. Let me hear the end. It's so. She's out of my life so good, I remember being like God. How old was I? I was young, but I remember it brought me to tears when I was like a little kid.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean he cries at the end he sounds like he's crying.
Speaker 1:It's so crazy. It's the best I wasn't about to cry on the demo. I don't think.
Speaker 2:I cried when I was trying to learn the arrangement. I was like damn, we're never going to get this shit. It's too hard.
Speaker 1:Are you a crier?
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, I'm an emotional guy, of course. Yeah, I'm not afraid of that. I'm not afraid of emotion. I mean, I'm a person that likes to be alive. So how'd you get hooked up with Bradley? He wanted me. He was working with Braun Studios, so he was talking about me doing some music supervision for that. Long story short, he hit me up out of the blue. He's like you gotta, you gotta meet my guy, brad Leah, and do his podcast. So I went in and met Brad and did that.
Speaker 1:Oh, you met him All right.
Speaker 2:He's a, he's a, he's a character with him.
Speaker 1:He has no idea who I am, okay, but but somehow, some way I was getting served up his content and he is the only I I am. I never comment. I am not somebody to ever, and if I ever comment, it's positive. Yeah, he pissed me off for the last time. I'm like this guy with women, and so I remember one day I was like you fucking son of a bitch, and I sent it it and I was like God, this guy gets to me. Well then, when I was researching for you, I'm like wait, this is the guy. So I start watching this interview because I'm like I didn't realize that Brad Lee was just doing. Maybe this was like a one-off because of your relationship, but I just have one question for you. Sure, go ahead. Did he have an extra?
Speaker 2:chair there and microphone for his ego. I thought he was great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know, in the beginning I didn't know what to expect, honestly, because you know, a lot of times I don't really like. I'm the opposite. If I'm having a meeting with somebody for business, I will Google, stalk them, learn everything about them, right? So I have a background on the person I'm meeting. I want to know that. No, let them know that, I know them.
Speaker 2:But when it comes to the podcast, I don't like to look at what people do in advance so the questions can be answered more naturally and I don't want to be prepared for it. So with him I didn't prepare for it at all and I went in. Really he had a really nice place and in the beginning there it was all about how you touched upon the groupies. He was really trying to get me into this groupie thing, which is kind of the low-hanging fruit which is, like I said, it's actually boring to talk about. You want me to go into my entire Rolodex and resume of groupies. It's going to get pretty redundant, right. So he was really kind of angling on that.
Speaker 2:But after about 20 minutes of that we started to talk about a little more in-depth stuff. His show is called Dropping Bombs. So if you ultimately give him a kernel of knowledge or something that's profound, he'll hit the dropping bomb sound. So he started doing that. We were getting into a little more things that were in-depth, but it didn't start that way. I actually found him an interesting guy and I enjoyed the podcast. But you know, look, we've encountered every type of person. You know people are trying to get us on gotcha stuff still and you know we know how to handle that and I know that's people's gimmicks and stuff like that. But I found him to believe it or not, not, to dispel your preconceived ideas about him, I ended up enjoying the podcast.
Speaker 1:I'm going to know. My goal is to be in like a street fight somehow with him in some way. He's a pretty big guy.
Speaker 2:He's in shape too. Yeah, he's in pretty good shape. That doesn't mean you can fight, though you look like you're a pretty big scrapper over there, especially with that savage hat on. You can't wear a savage hat without being sad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he needs to keep his head on a swivel around me. Keep his head on yeah, but.
Speaker 2:I, I do see his. You know I follow him now, so I I see his his content, the cartoons and all the stuff about women. It actually cracks me up. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:And I also am not I'm not some hardcore feminist Like can't take it. I mean, I find a lot of things like the whole be a man stuff, like I think some of that shit him. On the other hand, he tips it a little bit over to like the male chauvinist side where it's a little too real, and so that's where I was like I started trolling his ass. Well, look, you know cause that's, that's a.
Speaker 2:that's a niche. Now, it's always been a niche, but because, because of the all the me too stuff and it and how far left everything went that there are these guys that are trying to identify themselves as masculine and so they look at these guys who are way on the other side of it and they, they kind of identify with that, or at least they're trying to identify with that, as opposed to them kind of just figuring out who they are. You know that that's why he's got a massive following. It's like that andrew tate, the tate brothers stuff, I mean the, that's the same kind of, and I don't want to insult him by saying he's that hyper masculine, because I didn't get that from him, but his content is not worry about.
Speaker 1:Let's not worry about hurting that guy's feelings. He's fine, he's fine being honest about it so let me, let me, um, you're coming to columbus on the 14th of june. How, how long do you guys stay around like? How long are you here?
Speaker 2:well, we're coming in a day early because we're doing some local press there. Traditionally we come in, do the show because all three of us have pretty crazy schedules. So we're going in a day early doing some local media there promoting the show, and then we have the show the next day and then we're out. But you know, chris, chris's girl, chris's wife, is from there, so he's a bit. She's a big Ohio State, so I don't know whether he's he's sticking around or not. I know that my wife is talking about coming in with a couple of my kids, so I don't know how long I'm going to stay. I don't. My schedule is not that.
Speaker 1:I think I might have something after that but I was really hoping to get you guys in here because the studio is so cool and it's such a great, especially to do like social clips and promo and all that, and I just didn't know if you guys had any time to stop by here. Yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2:I'll talk to. I'll put the the um. I'll let them know that you want us there. I'll put it in the group email.
Speaker 1:See what they say I mean, I've got a really good community here. I feel like it'd be worth your time and I just think it'd be cool and fun and there's nothing like this in the Midwest. Truly, this is more of something you would see in the big city, so it's cool when I have people like you. Stop in.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, we would love it. Yeah, I mean, if they don't have us too crazy booked already, I'm sure the guys we're gonna be there.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it'll be fun. It's right, it's like right in grandview, in a really cool spot, I'm gonna send you, I'm gonna send you two hats um okay, shoot.
Speaker 2:Okay las vegas, nevada, you're in vegas, yeah, yeah, I don't live in la hell, no do you like vega living in?
Speaker 1:vegas, I love it, love it even in the summer, when it gets real hot. What do you do?
Speaker 2:uh, you know, going in an air-cond, go in a restaurant, stay in my house, go in the pool.
Speaker 1:It's not like.
Speaker 2:I'm crawling in a desert.
Speaker 1:Well, no, but isn't it kind of like winter here, where you really are? It's like really hard to be outside. No, it's not.
Speaker 2:Look, I'm from Ohio, the heat there at 80 degrees, with the humidity, is 50 times worse than the dry heat here. I remember playing football in that heat in the past two days. It was crazy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I love it here. I don't leave my house, I don't go down to the Strip.
Speaker 2:I don't do any of that shit. I stay in my house.
Speaker 1:Well, I figure, yeah, you wouldn't go down to the Strip unless you had to. I would think, no, well, I've really enjoyed this conversation, thank you.
Speaker 2:You were great. I appreciate you taking the time. You got a great vibe and certainly we'll talk to the guys see if we can come back in there when we're in town.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, just send me a DM or something. It would be really cool. If not, no worries, but I would love to see you in person.
Speaker 2:Well Continued success. Yes, thanks, gary. Yeah, you too.
Speaker 1:Okay, stay in touch. Hopefully we'll see you in a couple weeks. I would love it. I would love it. Thanks, okay, bye, three, two, one.
