Image credit: Instagram @jefftimmons
Jeff Timmons is a singer, songwriter, producer, and one of the founding members of the boy band “98 Degrees”. He joins Chris Van Vliet from his home in Las Vegas, NV with some powerful knowledge and life-changing tactics. He talks about how he formed 98 Degrees, deciding on a whim to move from Ohio to Los Angeles, how important it is to dream big, writing down his goals every day, how he met Nick Lachey, Drew Lachey, and Justin Jeffre, what being a dad has meant to him, why 98 Degrees broke up, how they got back together and more!
On his new workout routine:
“It’s obviously changed during COVID. I was going to a gym but now I have moved everything into the house. As with most things, after COVID you’re going to adopt some of those behaviours and keep them. I get up really really early, I’m doing stuff with folks in Europe and japan so I’m up most of the night. But there’s usually a window between 4 and 7 in the morning where I’ll get up, I’ll run until I burn 1,000 calories on the treadmill, and I’ll lift weights at some point every day. There’s also diet too, I’ve been on a variation of keto or Atkins for over 25 years now.”
On his unique night time routine:
“At nights, if I’m not on calls I work on music every night after my wife and kids have gone to bed. I’ve been working on a lot of tech platforms. I’ve been marrying entertainment and tech, which is especially relevant during COVID. I started developing a tech platform almost 2 years ago, it’s about to launch here in the next 2 or 3 months. In that process I’ve been aligned with some really amazing entrepreneurs and tech developers. We’ve got some cool things coming in the next 6 months to a year. That’s been taking up a lot of my time but then again I’ve got to do some unscripted stuff. I had the opportunity to partner up on a really great documentary we got coming up soon. We got a game show coming out, we got some scripted stuff too.”
“I saw this opportunity where we had some ideas with some strategic partners that we started creating stuff but I was busy touring with 98 Degrees. But now everybody has a lot of free time, so those things are starting to come to fruition. I feel blessed to have the time to focus on that. Sadly, you don’t want a pandemic to cause something like that to happen, but everybody has been safe and healthy on my side.”
On how important music is to him:
“It’s always been a part of my life, and I don’t think I’ve consciously recognized how much it means to me until later on. I grew up in a small town that was a football town. I love football and I tried to take it as far as I could, but the reality was I just wasn’t good enough. But music was always what came really easy to me. As I’ve gotten older I realized how much music means to me. I would say that outside of music it is the most important thing in my life. If I don’t do music, I feel empty and I miss it. It’s part of my love for life and I’m lucky to be able to do it.”
On setting goals:
“I can tell you, I have 3 notebooks filled with daily ideas and thoughts. The importance of filling out goals, I can’t stress it enough. What it does is create an unconscious behaviour of yourself. The more you engrain your goals into your mind, you start to consciously behave in ways that you can achieve them. When you envision achieving these goals, the experience when you do is even better. I write down my goals every day and take notes in every meeting. I formulate the notes into what it is, the touch and the feel of the pen activates the brain and gets the creative feel going.”
On how the group got started:
“It is coincidental. Originally I started the group with a bunch of different guys I went to Ohio state with. I caught up with these guys randomly at a party and started hanging out at their apartment. We ended up singing at a party for girls and it was this totally random thing. I started a group with those guys, moved to California and they quit. Then I met somebody in LA when I was seeking to build positions in the group. I met a guy who went to school with Nick Lachey and he played me a tape. I didn’t know what Nick looked like but I liked his voice. Next thing, I got him on the phone and convinced him to move to LA. He brought his brother and that’s how it all started.”
“Once we got to LA there wasn’t a blueprint. It was like lets go to LA, that’s where people get discovered. Our story was Boyz II Men got discovered backstage at a New Edition concert, so lets find a way to get backstage at a Boyz II Men concert. Eventually we got the tickets and we sang our way backstage, and we did get discovered there. We got discovered by a manager backstage and we got signed to Motown.”
On whether he still talks to the original members of 98 Degrees:
“They’re my best friends in the world, I still keep in touch with them. They are such talented guys, this lifestyle might not have been for them, because we are from a small town and they wanted to have that sort of life, and I respect that. The way I was raised, the people were amazing. But they are so talented, I wanted them to be involved with things that I do. I’ve written hundreds of songs with those guys. They’re songwriters and they’re producers, they’re ultra talented. They just didn’t want to be in the touring environment.”
On 98 Degrees splitting up and the reunion:
“It was a grind, we cherished everything and relished the moment. But it is a ton of work. We travelled for 5 years straight with no breaks. We were on the road for a long time, and I mean every day together. Imagine being in business with your family/friends and being with them very day for years and years. There were very high highs and very low lows. We were just exhausted. We were on the road a long time, completing a huge tour. Our last show was September 10th 2001 in New York, a tribute for Michael Jackson. Then the next day of course, September 11th, no one knew what was going to happen. We had 2 dates left on our tour, but we cancelled them, went home and we were done. We didn’t know what was going on, we all went in different directions. I had a young child and had just gotten married. We all just got into our own things and life took us apart. It wasn’t like ‘we’re breaking up. The bands breaking up.’ It was just dictated by the universe.”
“It could have continued, but music transitioned and it was hard to get traditional media to accept that the music the way it was and to keep running with the ball that way and they wanted to go in a different direction. But for us it was just circumstances. We missed it, we missed each other and the joy of performing for our fans. We came back and now we have been doing it ever since. The fans are more excited than they have ever been, and there are some exciting things on the horizon post COVID for 98 Degrees.”
On knowing the bubble might burst:
“I anticipated that when you’re driving in a Winnebago one day, and the next you are on TRL and can’t get out of your tour bus, you realize the facts. A lot of it was hype, you’re on television and the radio everyday, suddenly you’re popular. You realize it can go away as fast as it hits you. I was trying to learn all about the aspects of the industry as much as I could. The marketing, the PR, the retail, the radio. Who are the important pieces in that? I tried to learn as much as I could but I did not know where I was going to go. Was I going to produce music? was I going to come out as a solo artist? Probably not, because they are trying to get away from the boyband guys.
“I had to find out what I wanted to do, and that was interesting because I didn’t have those tools, I couldn’t just drum up business like you can now with LinkedIn and Facebook. It was a scary few years in pivoting in what I was going to do. It was a tough time for about 5 to 10 years until I was able to figure out a niche.”
On whether he thought about quitting music:
“Absolutely, you get discouraged by it. You go maybe I should go and host something, or maybe it’s just not on the cards. But I never gave up on music. As much as I tried to go OK I’m going to go and do this now, get rid of all my equipment, it’s a waste of time. You really get discouraged and think that way. Someone would always throw me a bone that would always involve me doing music. You find a way to say hey this is a part of me. Embrace it and have that leap of faith that you are getting pulled in a certain direction. Once I realized that, things got easier and opportunities started coming.”
On what he is grateful for:
“My family, my health and the opportunity to do what I do for a living. Also our fans that are still there and are still as excited as they were 25 years ago.”
Jeff Timmons can be found on Twitter here and Instagram here.
