About 98°
98 Degrees is an internationally acclaimed, multi-platinum, multi-award-winning, and nominated vocal group consisting of brothers Nick and Drew Lachey, Jeff Timmons, and Justin Jeffre. The group has sold over 15 million albums worldwide with 4 Top 5 Billboard charting radio singles, including mega-hits such as "The Hardest Thing," "I Do, Cherish You," "Because of You," and the number one hit single featuring Mariah Carey called, "Thank God I Found You." 98 Degrees' albums have reached gold or platinum status in more than 60 countries worldwide. Their first Christmas album, "98 Degrees This Christmas," has sold over two million copies and is widely recognized as one of the most successful holiday albums ever.
The American pop and R&B group was started independently by Jeff Timmons in Los Angeles, California, although all of its members originate from Ohio. Unlike most boy bands, they were later picked up by a record label, rather than being assembled by a label or a producer. They have sold over 10 million records worldwide and achieved eight top 40 singles in the U.S. Between late 1997 and 2000, the group reached top-twenty status on the Billboard U.S. Hot 100 chart, with their debut single "Invisible Man" peaking at No. 12, and 1999's pop/R&B cover of the country ballad "I Do " peaking at No. 13. The group successfully charted in the U.S. top five with "Give Me Just One Night ", "Because of You", "The Hardest Thing", and "Thank God I Found You" ; the latter as featured artists, topping the chart also making it their first and only number-one song, and earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.
Beginning with an August 2012 performance at the Mixtape Festival in Hershey, Pennsylvania, the group reunited and continues to record new music.
The founding members of 98 Degrees met after Massillon, Ohio native Jeff Timmons decided to quit college and pursue a music career with best friend Jeremy Volk. He studied psychology at Kent State University in his home state of Ohio, and planned on a career playing football in the NFL. In 1995 he sang at a college party with three friends and received a positive reaction from the female audience about his voice. The following day he left college and headed out to Los Angeles, California. "It was a pretty hasty decision, looking back, but I was young and dumb. Sometimes ignorance is bliss," he said in 2004. He met a former student of the Cincinnati School for Creative and Performing Arts who passed his name on to another graduate, Nick Lachey, who was attending Miami University to study sports medicine. Lachey flew to Los Angeles and, after hitting it off, decided to form a boyband. Lachey suggested inviting one of his friends, Justin Jeffre, to join them. Jeffre, a history student at University of Cincinnati, had attended SCPA with Lachey and they had performed together before in various outfits such as a barbershop quartet at the amusement park Kings Island and a cover band. The final member to join the band was Lachey's younger brother Drew, who was working in New York City as an emergency medical technician, as a replacement for founding member Jonathan Lippmann.
After rejecting a series of names , upon the suggestion by their manager Paris D'Jon, they decided on "98 Degrees" describing body temperature and their music.
Taking a series of jobs including landscaping, working as club security officers and delivering take-out food, the band refined its harmonies and presentation, looking to groups such as Boyz II Men, Take 5, and Jodeci for inspiration. The new group also made the rounds of auditions in Los Angeles and gradually built up its contacts in the music industry. The group's wait for a manager and a recording contract did not take long, as they seized an opportunity to perform during a radio broadcast of a Boyz II Men concert, which they attended in the hope of passing a demo tape to the band. They were discovered by music manager Paris D'Jon, who was co-managing Montell Jordan at the time.
Just before the group signed their deal founding member Jonathan Lippman departed the group due to his religious beliefs, he later went on to form CCM group True Vibe.
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