Chris' Birthday Bash 2024, Jeff Timmons of 98 Degrees

Jeff Timmons, founding member of 90's iconic Pop Group, 98 Degrees, calls Chris during the Birthday Bash 2024 show. Listen in!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Jeff Timmans ninety eight degrees, thankyou for calling the birthday bast shows.
It's so much fun. Jeff,tell me what's going on. What are
you up to? How was yourholidays? I have so many questions.
Well, first of all, happybirthday, man, I'm so excited to
be a part of this with you. Holidays were great. It was a
nice break. You know, wewere on tour. Ninety degrees was on

(00:20):
tour this year for a little bit. We did a little fifteen city run
to celebrate our twenty fifth anniversary,which got postponed because of COVID, so
we finally got to celebrate that withsome fans and did this nice New Year's
Eve special for you know here inVegas. It was great and went very
well. But it was nice toget get home with the family, kick
back, relax and you just justhave some downtime. So, you know,

(00:42):
it was pretty nice. How aboutyourself. I stayed in bed.
I just did in fill while onChristmas Day, so unfortunately that was out
New Year's probably for the first timewith my mom, my stepdad, and
my sisters and my niece, andit was the first time we've ever been
together that I can remember anyway,So that was a lot of fun.
And then it was just kind oflike I was sludging around the house for
the last two weeks of the year, and I'm like, can I just

(01:03):
cancel? I mean, you know, but I don't at the last minute.
I try to be a hermit andstay closed in and by myself and
secluded. But you know, ultimatelythat's what the holidays are about. So
hopefully you've got the house cleaned up. You got to celebrate that time with
your family. I know, aswe get older, you know, going
out on New Year's Eve isn't asthrilling or is exciting, Especially in the

(01:26):
entertainment business. You're always pretty muchhaving it having a party in our business
and in the mix. So Ihope you got to enjoy your family.
Well I did, thank you.What's the most memorable New Year's Eve that
you've spent as far as your careergoes? Well, gosh, I mean,
that's a great question. We've beenfortunate enough to be a part of
a bunch of them, but probablythe one that sticks out the most is
the is the my two K,the Millennium, Millennial one, the Y

(01:51):
two K one. You know,everything was supposed to shut down, computers
were supposed to implode, and theworld was coming to an end. We
celebrated nineteen ninety nine definitely, youknow, aging myself here, but nineteen
ninety nine going into two thousand inNew York City on MTV, performing with
you know, great folks like GreenDay and some other people, and it
was a it was a blast.And of course, as we know,

(02:14):
the world did not come to anend, the computers did not crash,
and all was good in the world. But you know, it was a
great time and and that was probablythe most memorable for for me. So
we you know, to spend timewith MTV. You know, back in
the day it was TRL and youknow, the Bear Mountain and you know,
Beach House, we did all thatstuff. But to do to ring

(02:35):
in the new millennium, you knowin Times Square. Times Square, New
York is already a blast and crazy, but you know, to celebrate that
turn of the century there with MTVit was surreal. I mean, it
was so much fun. And toperform live that night it was really really
cool. I mean, I don'tthink there's any place else we've been fortunate
enough to do. Dick Clark's NewYear's Rock and even a million times and

(02:58):
and that was always great. Butto be with MTV, who is sort
of our home, to celebrate thatnew millennium and turn of the century,
it was a blast. Oh that'sso cool. Well, so twenty twenty
four is here, Jeff, what'sgoing on? I know I ask you
this every year. I know thatthings are exciting for you guys right now

(03:19):
and obviously coming out of last yearand doing the holiday stuff and everything else,
But what do we look forward tothis year? Because I'm excited and
I really hope that you guys comesomewhere nearby because I want to be able
to go to a show. Well, I think we're planning on it,
Chris. I mean, I knowthat we're doing new music for the first
time in a long time and feelinggood about it. You know, we

(03:39):
have an album coming out, it'scalled Full Circle. We started pre orders
for that, so you can goto our website and our socials and find
the link to pre order the album. We're signing some you know, memorabilia,
you know we're there are some collector'sitems like vinyl and CDs. Of
course, you get the digital downloadwith that, but you know that we're
coming out with that. That'll besome time in April or May when it's

(04:00):
released. But you know, we'redoing a lot of cool stuff. I
mean, the industry has changed.And while we were disenfranchised with doing the
music before because you don't own anyof it, right, you know,
the labels own everything. But nowyou have the ability to own your own
stuff. We're re recording. We'rekind of taking that Taylor Swift route which
has been around for a while,rerecording your masters. We wanted to do
that for a while so we can, you know, have ownership of it

(04:24):
and do our own takes on itand have control of our art. So
we have. We're recording a newsong the new album. It's called full
Circle, you know, because ourcareers come full circle. We've were back
to where we started two to ourselves, our music, our fans are all
there, you know, the celebrationof our career. We are able to
share that with our fans. Sowe're working on that new music and of

(04:45):
course we're going to tour. We'regoing to do some really cool stuff coming
up in the spring and in thesummertime hopefully be out there and then look
for us to do something really hugein twenty twenty five. But you know,
we're back in full the fact.I mean, the fans are out
there more than ever, and Ithink that you know, you know,
they've been back and sharing that nostalgiawith us for the last ten years that
we've been back. But I thinkafter InSync came back together and did that

(05:09):
thing for Trol, it just sparkeda whole new frenzy for all of us,
us on Backstreet and them, Andit's just so exciting for us.
It feels like you know, wedid when we were first starting in our
career, which is it's been along time since we've had that feeling.
Oh that's incredible. I love it. Well, you know we're right there
with you guys because us, thefans were, We're like, how many

(05:30):
years have you been hearing? Whenare you going to have new music?
How many times have I asked youover the course of our friendship in god,
the last twenty years have I askednew music? Is there new music?
I can't wait? When is itcoming out? But so this is
exciting that you guys are doing that, and you know, the Jeff,
the thing that I really think iscool. And you've noticed this obviously being

(05:53):
in the industry. Records albums arelike a hot commodity again. And I'm
just waiting, did you see that? Who was it? I think it
was Yamaha just came out with anew five disc CD changer. No,
I haven't seen that. I mean, but what's interesting is I was talking
to our label, who were partnerswith now they don't just own everything,

(06:15):
we're partners with the label. They'relike, you, guys need to put
it out CDs, you need toput out vinyl. We're like, what
you know, nobody does, Butno, You're right. Everybody's into it
again, even the millennials and genzers are collectors of music and that era
of music and CDs, and soI can't wait to check out the disc
changer. And now, you know, folks are like, well, I

(06:36):
got to go out and buy aCD player, and I'm like, well,
you get the digital download. Youdon't have to buy a record player.
It's kind of just a collector.They're like, no, no,
we want to listen to the CDs. We want to have the artwork and
the inserts and all that nostalgic stuffthat makes you kind of become a part
of the music and the artists thatdisappeared. With the digital version of all

(07:00):
that stuff, people are craving thatstuff and it's so refreshing. Oh I
want I want the music stories tocome back into the moss, and I
want the you know I love.I'm very much the hard copy person.
I've got to have hard copies,and so of everything that ninety eight degrees
has done or any of my otherfavorite bands, I've got to have those

(07:20):
hard copies. And there's just somethingabout it. I mean, I know
people will say, ah, thesound of a record is just unlike any
other, and it is. It'sgot its own sound. I think the
sound of Cassette if you go backand listen to Cassette, which I'm pretty
sure that Cassette's never going to comeback, but you go back and listen
to it, and they all havetheir own unique sounds. And CDs obviously

(07:42):
with the crystal clear digital quality ofand even the digital downloads, so there's
so many options. That's fantastic.But I just miss going in buying the
full CD of something and being ableto have that in my hands and listen
to whenever I want. There's somethingso nostalgic about it that it's just it's

(08:03):
not the same any other way,at least in my opinion, and I
think a lot of people share thatopinion. And you know, as we've
seen this, this business transition intodigital, you know, we never expected
it to go back that way,yea, And so now it's interesting for
us. We're like, wow,okay, we need to you know,

(08:24):
put the album liner credits in there, and the lyrics in there, more
photos for the booklet that goes inthere. All the stuff that was a
really big, intricate, integral partof you know, a project before is
there again. And what's interesting aboutthis project is we we as people can
sign up to get the album andthe pre order on our website. It

(08:46):
takes you to this place called ninetyeight Degrees Dead, where you can get
all these digital assets like behind thescenes footage and never see seen before photos
and sign stuff, and you cancan have tangible print those out and have
versions of it, uh that thatwere you know, part of part of
our lives and part of our careers. And it's you know, it's all

(09:09):
for the it's all included for theprice of a regular album sale. Just
to give people a bonus of stuff, so you have the ability to do
both. You can do the nostalgicstuff or you can package stuff up digitally.
It's so it's so much fun forus. And like I said,
we're re energized with where the businesssits right now, and it's exciting to
be able to do this for aliving and continue on, uh after so

(09:31):
many years. It's great. Ilove it well. I look forward to
I look forward to the lineup ofshows I like I said, I And
hey, you know, if youwant, send some stuff my way and
we'll use that for giveaways too.Oh my gosh, that's very generous of
you. Will of course send yousome stuff, Chris, and and hopefully

(09:52):
we'll make our way through through yourtown there and you know, we'll celebrate
your birthday in person. You know, I'll make you get out of the
house. You won't have to doanything crazy, You'll just have to hang
out for a little bit. Hey, I'm I'm pretty good with that.
Actually would be pretty damn cool.So so what else? What else?
Big? I mean, anything specificthroughout this year, because you've got a

(10:13):
lot going on. I mean,let's talk about your family. I mean
you're planning anything big with your family, with everything else that's going on in
your world right now. Well,all of my kids we have, you
know, they all have different thingsthat they're doing. They're all different ages.
You know, three of our kidsare older and out of the house
and doing their own thing, andwe still have two at home, and
they're also different, and it's hardto kind of corral everybody in one place

(10:33):
at one time. I'm actually headedto La to do some stuff, to
film some stuff tomorrow, and I'mhaving dinner tonight with my mom and my
oldest daughter and my brother, andthen you know, I'll be in Texas
pretty soon for my daughter's cheerleading convention, which in competition where one of my
other sons is there. So they'reall over the place, so kind of

(10:54):
getting everybody in one place is tough, but it's always nice to see them.
But yeah, nothing really crazy.I mean, my kids, you
know, they all travel with usand go to the shows in different cities
at different times, so they're alwayswith us at one point or another,
so you know, it's pretty mucha vacation for them. They're lucky enough
to do that. All the time. We're talking about doing some pretty cool
stuff overseas as well, and it'sjust it's a pretty it's a pretty packed

(11:18):
schedule coming up, and all thoseannouncements will come out pretty soon we when
we formalize everything. Do you haveany I know, when I was talking
to Carney, we were talking aboutLola and how Lola's, you know,
been doing a lot of singing withher mom and Wendy and are you're and
I'd asked her, I said,Okay, it's got to be Jeans,

(11:39):
right, because so many children ofso many great artists end up doing things
with them or doing things on theirown, but they have that musical talent,
whether it's singing or whether it's playingan instrument. Do any of your
children fall in in that category?Well, you know, I've never really
pushed the business. You on yourside, how difficult? Oh yeah,

(12:01):
businesses, but specifically the entertainment businessis a roller coaster ride. It's a
tough business, yeah, and verycut throat. So I've never pushed any
of my kids to be in theentertainment business, although if they chose to,
I would support of course. Well, my youngest daughter has the bugs,
so she's the one that really likesit, and I'm like, are
you sure you want to record andshe's like, yeah, I want to

(12:22):
record this, or I want toget up on stage and I want to
be in show choir and I wantto be a cheerleader. Like she really
has sort of that bug. Andyou're right, it's got to be in
the genes because you know, Icertainly, you know, although I do
it for a living, it's notsomething that I have forced my kids to
be a part of and I kindof just am their dad when I'm at
home. So she really loves tobe an entertainer and loves to be you

(12:45):
know, on the stage and inthe spotlight. So yeah, she's got
that bug, and she likes tosing. She's got a natural talent for
it. So it's kind of funto watch that involve given the fact that
the other kids really weren't into it, and that's totally fine with me.
Oh yeah, well, well,I mean, you know, as a
parent, I mean I'm not obviouslythe six cats they don't count. I
mean, I've tried to teach himto do things and they're just like,

(13:07):
yeah, success, Yeah that's right. But you know, for I love
seeing parents who obviously are have alot of talent, and while they are
encouraging to their children, they're notbecause sometimes you see that, especially in
the entertainment industry, you see peoplethat are just like, Yeah, no,

(13:28):
this is the path I want youto take, and this is the
path I'm steering you in. AndI don't think it's so fair because you
know, I mean, everybody's gottheir own imaginations and their own talents and
skills and abilities, and the lastthing I would think you would want to
do would be to push somebody,especially your flesh and blood, into something
that you know how difficult the industryis. Yeah, I mean I would

(13:52):
never do that. It's certainly beinga young guy when I started this stuff,
and you're you know, ignorance isbliss, right. You don't know
what goes into it, how difficultit is, and the ups and downs
and the business portion. Right.You get into it because you want to
be famous, or you want tosing songs or whatever reasons, right,
the sniff this stuff, right,or you love music, but you don't
know that. Oh man, it'sa very tough business. It's very competitive.

(14:15):
You have to watch your back,you have to make sure you assemble
a team you can trust those thingsare very difficult, and knowing that the
path you have to really really loveit to want to stay in it and
put your heart and soul into it. So yeah, I wouldn't direct any
of my kids there, But likeI said, I support whatever whatever they
want to do, whether it's entertainment, whether it's whatever. You know,

(14:37):
I could care less as long asthere being productive, good people and fulfilling
what they want to do as aperson and growing. So yeah, I
mean, the business isn't one thatI would direct any of my kids,
certainly not discourage them that it wasin their heart and they had a passion
and drive and dedication to it.I'm talking to my friend Jeff Timmins from

(14:58):
ninety degrees. Jeff, tell peoplewhere they can go get because you've got
this album that's coming out. Wherecan they go pre order it? All
right, Jeff April, You've gota new album out. Where can listeners
go and pre order this? Yeah? Just go to our socials, you
know, Instagram it's at ninety eightdegrees. Facebook, it's official ninety eight
degrees. You know. Our websitehas everything ninety eight degrees dot com.

(15:22):
You can get all the information thereabout where we're appearing, what we're doing.
We've got a big charity function thatwe're about to announce pretty soon.
It's pretty cool that i'd love forpeople to be a part of. And
Man, I totally appreciate you havingme on and taking time. It's almost
like it's my birthday. You're pluggingall the stuff that we're doing and and
certainly the focus should be on you. Man. It's so great to see

(15:43):
you having so much success throughout theyears and continuing to do what you do
and just thankful for you. Man. The feeling is mutual, Jeff.
We understand each other, we understandthe industry that we're both and we couldn't
do it without that back and forth. So I equally appreciate you, my
friend. Thank you, Chris.I hope to see you soon. Man,
thanks again for having me on.Happy Birthday.