98 Degrees Talks Growing Up, Crazy Fan Gifts, and “North West”

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The hardest thing I’ll ever have to do is talk to Nick Lachey without totally fangirling out. The easiest? Remembering why 98 degrees made us fall in love with them in the first place.

During the Brooklyn Barclays Center stop of their Package Tour with fellow boy band groups of yesteryear Boys II Men and New Kids on the Block, Popdust got to chat with the fantastic foursome. 98 Degrees’ big break came in 1998 with “True to Your Heart,” a duet with Stevie Wonder featured in Mulan. From their, the boys enjoyed 8 top 40 singles (“Because Of You,” “The Hardest Thing“) and sold over ten million records.

Let’s remind you what they look like…via selfies.

1. DREW LACHEY (36)

2. JEFF TIMMONS (40)

3. Nick LACHEY* (39) AND JUSTIN JEFFRE (40)

*”I don’t do selfies” —Nick Lachey

Alright, now that you have a visual, here’s what the
boys men had to say for themselves…

ON TOURING WITH NKOTB AND BOYS II MEN…

Jeff: It’s been great. Fun. We grew up idolizing Boyz II Men, and of course New Kids on the Block are legends. And they’re all down to earth. The first time we did a promo day together, promoting the tour, jokes were being cracked all day. Everybody’s just laughing and having a good time.

Nick: Usually at our expense, but that’s OK.

Popdust: You’re the youngest group on tour. Is it a weird “bigger brother” situation?

Drew: There’s a mutual respect amongst all the groups. Everybody really enjoys being around each other. The egos are set aside, you know? We’re here to do a job and also enjoy the tour. We realize we’re getting the opportunity to play venues like this and I think everybody’s kind of relishing the moment.

ON CRAZY FANS…

Jeff: Two of the girls were talking to us about how there was a hurricane last time they saw us and they were on the top of the roof, trying to – despite a hurricane warning, they were on top of the roof trying to meet us and we went and talked to them.

Drew: Note, we don’t encourage that kind of behavior.

Jeff: But they were here tonight and they brought us gifts.

ON CRAZY FAN GIFTS…

Nick: We’ve gotten food. We’ve gotten condoms…

Popdust: Are you allowed to eat it? The food, that is.

Justin: It depends on what the food is.

Nick: Back in the day, I got acne medications.

Justin: The most passive-aggressive gift ever…

Nick: She felt bad for me. I had a little breakout going on. She said, “Here, Nick, I want to give you something.”

Drew: n Asia, they make these handmade gifts. Illustrations…

Jeff: Origami stuff…just crazy stuff that takes tons of time. But yeah, we’ve gotten quite the plethora of stuff.

Justin: And they spend so much time putting together the signs and tonight we got photos and everything happens so fast, especially back then, that a lot of times you don’t get photos and so it’s nice to see that stuff.

Popdust: Do the ladies still throw stuff on stage for you guys?

Nick: Not so much this tour. I mean, I guess now they have to explain when they get home to their husband why they’re not wearing any panties.

ON HAVING OLDER FANS…

Popdust: Is it weird that your fans are now married with kids?

Nick: No, it’s awesome! I mean, we’ve all grown up together. A lot of our fans grew up on our music and were teenagers or whatever when they first started listening to us, and now they’ve grown up and a lot of them have started families, and we’ve done the same thing. So it’s kind of like we’ve all grown up together.

Justin: Well, as a single guys, it’s often disappointing.

ON OCCUPYING CINCINNATI…

Popdust: Justin, you were involved in Occupy Cincinnati, right?

Justin: I was, yeah. I think that there’s a growing inequality in the country and that’s basically what the message was. Cincinnati’s a big example of that, so I thought it was important. I’m also involved, I’m an editor for a street paper that’s put up by the homeless coalition.

Popdust: Would you guys ever do political music?

Justin: I don’t think we would as a group. We’re not a political group. It’s just me individually. We have different views; we don’t always agree on everything.

Drew: We occupy our dressing room.

Justin: We occupy the heart. That’s what it is.

Nick: But we’re always willing to bail Justin out of jail, as a group. If he gets incarcerated…

Popdust: Have you guys ever had to bail each other out of jail?

All: No.

Drew: We’ve helped each other get into jail.

Jeff: I think we were cuffed. We weren’t actually jailed. They fell short of jailing us.

Nick: They were fuzzy cuffs. It’s a long story.

Jeff: A good stern cuffing. I’m not sure she was a police officer…

ON ADOPTING NEW MUSICAL STYLES…

Popdust: Back in the day, your music was more ballad-heavy. The stuff on your new album 2.0is more dance-y. What was that process like?

Jeff: We just try to stay contemporary with the music. Mmost everything on the radio – unless it’s your second, third or fourth single – is an up-tempo song. Radio likes tempo.

Drew: Unless you’re Adele.

Jeff: She’s sort of an anomaly.

Drew: Or Bruno Mars.

Jeff: Right, and he does a lot of dance songs. But you sort of break in with dance songs. Back in the day, when we were primarily balladeers with mid-tempo stuff, we always wanted to have songs that people could get up and dance to. I mean, I think “Give Me Just One Night (Una Noche)” was our only up-tempo song—sort of a Spanish, Latin-leaning song. We wanted to experiment with that on this album. We felt we had the opportunity to get out there and do another record so why not do what we wanted on it. So that’s why we have so many tempo songs on there, but of course we do have our standard sound on there as well, but with a contemporary approach and twist.

Popdust: Did you write the songs on 2.0?

Jeff: We made a conscious decision that we weren’t gonna write on this record. On the last record, we wrote the majority of it. This time, it was just, we want the best songs possible, we want to focus on doing the best performance we can. We literally listened to hundreds of songs until we found the 15 that we ended up recording, and then narrowed that down. Each song has a different feel to it, has a different vibe. They show the different influences that we’ve had musically, so for us getting back into the studio wasn’t the hard part, just finding the music that fit who we are now was the challenge. But we’ve very happy with the songs we found and I love the record.

ON PLAYING THE CLASSICS…

Popdust: Do the fans go crazy when you play “the classics?”

Nick: As soon as the songs are recognizable the crowd goes crazy. And they sing along with us and they know the songs, and that for us is gratifying to see that after all these years. We’ve made that sort of impression with our music on these people and it still means something to them.

Justin: Boy, they better go crazy tonight.

(SPOILER: They did.)

AND FINALLY…

FACT: 98 DEGREES ARE FORTUNE TELLERS!

Nick: Jill. Jill West.

Popdust: Sounds like an attorney or something.

Jeff: I’m gonna go with North. (!!!!!!)

 In case you ever doubted their magic.

What Happens to Boy Bands When They Grow up? A Night with Boyz II Men, 98° and NKOTB

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What happens to a boy band when they grow old? Do they age out of matching outfits and group choreography, or are they doomed to repeat the ancient moves until their AARP days? This summer gives us the perfect opportunity to find out, as ’90s stalwarts Boyz II Men, 98 Degreesand New Kids on the Block have teamed up for the arena-spanning Package Tour (yes, that’s right). We were lucky enough to get floor seats when the Package Tour rolled into Brooklyn, and we were able to see how the three boy bands deal with a changing world in three very different ways.

BOYZ II MEN

Boyz II Men open the night, with a shortened set that plays all the hits and left no fat. In their heyday, no one would have called Boyz II Men a boy band—too mature, too technically impressive—but nostalgia has a way of erasing all those old distinctions. They’re still a “classy” group, though, which in this context means they keeps their clothes on; the voices are the show. (Almost every song on their set has an extended coda for Shawn Stockman and the brothers Morris Nathan and Wanja Morris* to show off their vocal gymnastics.) On the Package Tour they play the role of the Sensitive Bachelors, stocking the stage with huge bundles of roses that they throw out to lucky ladies in the audience. When the trio goes a capella, the whole arena gets silent. When they invite the crowd to sing along, Barlcays erupts in a distinctly feminine trill.

98 DEGREES

Unlike Boyz II Men (who never split up) or NKOTB (who reunited years ago), 98 Degrees is using the Package Tour to come back from a long hiatus. You can kind of tell. Their choreography is a bit sloppier, and there’s a sense of glee on the faces of the group’s non-Nick-Lachey members; they’re excited to be back in the spotlight, and they haven’t quite gotten used to it yet.

Of these three, my favorite is Justin Jeffre. Every reunited boy band has one guy who fell prey to the normal aging process, and Jeffre is 98 Degrees’ version. He looks like he should teaching math somewhere, or running your IT department, but instead he’s selling out arenas and doing sexy dance moves alongside three guys who look like Ken dolls. (As we learned when we interviewed the band, he also owns a free newspaper that benefits the homeless and was closely involved in Occupy Cincinnati.) Jeffre is also the only single guy in 98 Degrees, and if you follow his movements throughout the show you’ll realize he spends the most time doing all the crucial connecting-with-the-audience things like making eye contact, pointing and high-fiving. He gives 110% on every pelvic thrust. In other words, he’s awesome.

There’s a reason for all these pelvic thrusts. In their younger days, 98 Degrees was a ballad group, but ballads have all but disappeared from the pop music landscape. (“One Night (Una Noche)” was their sole uptempo hit; when the band play it at Barclays it holds up surprisingly well, its shameless trend-jumping only a memory.) How to hold the audience’s attention? The answer is as old as culture itself: Just show some skin. There’s a decided Magic Mike air to 98 Degrees’ set: loosened ties, suspenders hanging around the waist—these clothes, they’re telling us, are not staying on. Halfway through, the moment comes. The boys strip down to their undershirts and run into the audience, looking for women to serenade. The audience, having expected this, goes wild. (Yes, even for Justin.) What’s greater is that the boys perform in the undershirts for the rest of the set—one of the top acts of the ’90s looking like a bunch of well-muscled Sunday-morning dads.

Elsewhere, there are brief acknowledgements of the time that’s passed since the TRL days; “I Do (Cherish You)” goes out to “all the sexy married ladies out there,” while another song is dedicated to all the dads in the audience. (It was Fathers’ Day.) “It’s a hard job—or so I’ve heard,” quips Justin. For their part, the guys are unfazed by the shoutouts. While some of the husbands and boyfriends didn’t mind sl0w-dancing to Boyz II Men, the most 98 Degrees gets out of them is half-hearted swaying.

NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK

If you don’t follow the Package Tour, you might think that Boyz II Men, 98 Degrees and New Kids on the Block were roughly equal on the boy-band hierarchy. Not so. The other two groups had their fair share of fans, but nothing compared to the way the women of Barclays—young and old—went crazy for NKOTB. From minute one it was clear they were the top dogs on this tour. They had the most fans, the most costume changes, the most songs. They had a robotic voice telling fans that they didn’t need to feel guilty for what would ensue: “I deserve this night.” They had a rotating platform that send them singing into the sky together, and they had five smaller versions of the same so each member could be raised up individually. They had new songs, and not only that, they had new songs that the crowd actually sang along to.

How did NKOTB come to rule the man-band roost? One answer, I think, is the songs. Boyz II Men and 98 Degrees wanted to seduce you with their loving ballads, but the New Kids only wanted to play fun, good-time dance music, exactly the type of music that’s back on the radio today. NKOTB’s hits may have been written when George H.W. Bush was president, but add a 4/4 beat to them and they wouldn’t sound out of place on a Justin Bieber setlist. (Their current single, “Remix (I Like The)” is arguably better than half of what’s played on the radio right now.)

It also helps that the New Kids have been at this since 2008. (Like Britney Spears, they’ve been on the comeback trail longer than they were famous in the first place.) Their showmanship is tight, and everybody knows their roles. Jonathan Knight, always the shy one, is happy staying on the sidelines. Danny Wood is too, as long as he gets a moment in the spotlight to show off his dancing. Joey McIntyre makes the most of his role as the 1A guy, knocking his solo on “Beautiful Girls” out of the park. Jordan Knight has the quiet swagger of a man who’s glad the world agrees he should be famous again.

And Donnie Wahlberg… well, if you only know Donnie Wahlberg as the weird guy from The Sixth Sense, it may be disconcerting to see to go to an NKOTB show and see how the crowd reacts to Donnie Wahlberg. Gone is the gruff character actor—in his place is an odd combination of rapper, master of ceremonies, hype man and sex object. When he wasn’t dropping a “Hello, Broooooooklyn!” in between every song, he was grabbing a camera and taping the show from the stage; when he wasn’t doing that, he was grabbing random women from the audience and making out with them for what seemed like a solid minute. His finest moment may have been “Cover Girl,” a solo performance that he kicked off by doffing his shirt and ended by bending over and slapping his own ass, to roaring cheers.

After 25 years, the New Kids have also turned into top-notch panderers. They know when to do the male stripper thing, flashing their abs and shaking their hips, and they know when to play the bat mitzvah DJs, spicing up their set with brief covers of today’s hits. Sometimes they’ll even do both at once, like when Jordan Knight raised his shirt Situation-style as the band sang LMFAO’s “Sexy and I Know It.” To close out the show, they put on Nets jerseys and had Donnie declare an end to the ancient feud between Boston and Brooklyn that he may have just invented. Then they played a mash-up of “Shipping Up to Boston” and “Empire State of Mind.” Shameless, yes, but you have to remember these guys went 15 years without hearing any cheers. Who can blame them for the milking us of all they could get?

NKOTB, 98 Degrees, Boyz bring harmony, heat

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There's not much the HVAC system can do to cool U.S. Bank Arenaon a hot June night when the place is sold out.

And all a performer such as Donnie Wahlberg can do in such sweaty conditions is run around the stage with his shirt off.

Wahlberg's group New Kids On The Block headlined a three-way boy-band package that also included Boyz II Men and Cincinnati's own 98 Degrees. The two opening acts each delivered professional performances in the boy-band tradition, with much crooning, harmonizing, long-stemmed-rose-tossing and audience hand-holding. ...

NKOTB, 98 Degrees, Boyz II Men deliver whole 'package'

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 "Why the heck are there so many women downtown?"

That's a question I heard from passers-by more than once Friday evening. Aside from a smattering of men accompanying their dolled-up lady, downtown Orlando went boy band crazy.

Well, "man band" is more like it.

New Kids on the Block returned to a jam-packed Amway Center on "The Package" tour, which is about one-third of the way through its run. Boyz II Men and 98 Degrees opened for them.

Although Shawn, Wanya, and Nathan were the first act, they could've near filled up the place on their own. Even 98 Degrees is geeking out to be on tour with their idols. (Watch full interview Monday).

Boyz II Men crooned for about 40 minutes. With harmonies like “On Bended Knee,” "I'll Make Love to You," and “End of the Road," we felt like we were back at school, dancing with our crush for the first time. The Boyz still put the "power" in ballad.

Performing a longer set next was 98 Degrees. And talk about swagger. Even with suspenders draped over their rear ends, the men could've played pat-a-cake without losing a smidge of sex appeal.

So imagine what happened when Nick, Drew, Justin and Jeff walked into the audience and escorted four unsuspecting women on stage. The men not only serenaded them with "You Are My Everything," but squeezed them tightly. And when they got down on one knee -- fuggedaboutit.

Another stand-out song was "I Do (Cherish You)." The buff boys -- having maintained their most admirable physique -- stripped down to thin white tank tops. The response was deafening. But unlike the screams generated during a Bieber concert, these weren't annoying.

That's probably because I joined in.

Before NKOTB came out, we stepped away to grab some grub and refreshments. The instant that Joey, Jordan, Danny, Donnie and John opened their mouths, I've never seen so many 30-somethings sprint and squeal simultaneously, making a beeline for the stairs.

Funny how things don't change 25 years later.

The New Kids performed for about 2 hours. Wearing white blazers, sparkly "Boston Strong" shirts, and - at times - a shirtless Donnie Wahlberg with a blinged out belt, the men created hysteria.

The gyrations during "The Right Stuff" were probably more, let's say, "pronounced" than they were a few decades ago. After all, we aren't kids anymore.

Luckily for fans, the New Kids utilized the center stage quite a bit, creating a greater sense of intimacy. They were elevated by individual risers at times, which seemed to enhance the emotion of the song. The stage also spun, allowing the audience to "have a moment" with their favorite New Kid.

The choreography seemed effortless. After all, if you're an original boy bander, those slow, dramatic arm movements and clenched fists against the heart should be second-nature.

The youngest member, Joey McIntyre, kept reminding the audience that "it's been 25 years!" One of his strongest songs as a higher-pitched kid was "Please Don't Go Girl." When he performed it Friday, Joey was lifted high above the crowd, dropping to his knees to hit the tough notes.

He nailed it.

Needless to say, the boys - ahem, men - could do no wrong.

98 Degrees talks 'Microphone,' families, and 'Praise Jesus!' fan reactions

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It was 5 p.m. Friday, two-and-a-half hour before show time. Our cameraman and I were waiting backstage for 98 Degrees. Suddenly, a deafening "Eeeeeeeeek!," "Yea Baby!!!" and a  "Whoo whoo!" permeated the office walls.

The source of those vocal bursts of extraordinary excitement was a group of 6-inch heeled women in their 30s. No one was without a beer. Some were double-fisting. They were 'taking the edge off' on their way to the meet-n'-greet.

Watch out boys because here they come.

Heaven only knows what happened in that meet-n'-greet, but everyone survived. Like the slow-motion intro to "Baywatch," Nick, Drew, Jeff and Justin strutted down the hall toward us.

Smooshed into a corner of a production office, we cozied up for a chat.

ALLISON WALKER: First of all, Jeff, it's good to see you back here, my friend! We've run into each other a few times at Full Sail.

JEFF TIMMONS: I'm a big fan of the university. I love Orlando. This is obviously the home of boy bands, although we're not from here. We didn't spawn from here. We're Ohio guys, but I'm a big fan of the area, big supporter ofFull Sail University. I love the university.

AW: Are you geek-ing out that you are following Boyz II Men on "The Package" tour?

DREW LACHEY: Yea, for us, Boyz II Men is probably the single largest influence on us musically, and us getting together and singing - period. So for us to be on tour with them, regardless, is a huge honor. The order of this tour doesn't really make a difference to any of us. We're all going out, performing for the fans, having a great time. To be on the same bill as Boyz II Men and New Kids on the Block -- you couldn't ask for anything better than that.

AW: How do you travel? 3 luxurious buses?

JUSTIN JEFFRE: We have 3 different buses. Jeff has a big family and these guys each have wives and kids. [The buses] accommodate the families. I'm with some of our wonderful crew members, but it's a lot of fun. We get to spend enough time around each other. So we're always together.

AW: Nick and Drew, do you know the name Chip Foose?

DREW LACHEY: Yea, very well!

AW: [Showing them a sketch by Foose] He recently came to town for Car Masters Weekend. I know that you two were on his show "Overhaulin'."

NICK LACHEY: Drew had a truck, a Ford F100 - '67. It needed some TLC. So we surprised him for his birthday and went on "Overhaulin'" with it and Chip did his thing with the truck and completely pimped it out.

AW: I want to talk about "Microphone" real quickly. Would that have ever made it onto your debut album back in '98?

JEFF TIMMONS: Obviously, you have good mic technique. So you've been studying the song. You're putting the mic up to your lips and are doing the best you can. So I think it's just about -- it transcends generations, learning how to use a microphone.

NICK: It's very important.

AW: Er, shifting gears  --  I understand you bring up 4 lucky women on stage during the show?

DREW: There is a rumor that we bring up girls occasionally on stage.

AW: Say if that rumor came true, I imagine you have very interesting reactions.

NICK: Some people freak out. We've had some cryers. We've had some 'Oh Praise Jesus!' We've had some -- some people just kind of sit there --

DREW: We've had some cinematographers.

NICK: Yea, some people just do video. So it's interesting to see how the different people react to that moment. I mean, they're up there in front of 17-18,000 people. Some people relish it. Some people get completely intimidated by it. It's a lot of fun for us.

98 Degrees hoping to re-energize fan base at Summerfest

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The New Kids came back during a boy band dry spell, potentially triggering the new boy band boom led by One Direction, the Wanted and Big Time Rush.

But there's one boy band it deliberately had a hand in bringing back to the world: its current tour opener 98 Degrees.

The R&B-heavy boy band — featuring Jeff Timmons, Justin Jeffre and Lachey brothers Nick and Drew — saw its 1998 sophomore album ,"98° and Rising," go platinum four times over, but it went on hiatus in 2002.

"There was no official falling out," Timmons said. "We had been on the road forever...and I wanted to be with my family and learn how to produce music."

After the split, the guys pursued their own stage and music projects, and the Lacheys most notably stayed in the spotlight through reality TV hits such as "Dancing With the Stars" and "Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica."

Then last year, the New Kids asked the group to reunite and join the Package Tour. 98 Degrees made an appearance at the Mixtape Festival in Hershey, Pa., last August to "test the water...and the fans' response was great," Timmons said.

But the group wanted to have some new music to help "re-energize the fan base and to try to cater to a new fan base," so it rushed to get new album "2.0" out in May. Recording began just two months prior.

Some responses haven't been positive, particularly for lead single "Microphone," and the album was the group's lowest-charting release in its first week.

"But at least we made the Billboard 200," Timmons said. "That surprised me."

"Any artist who tells you that negative feedback doesn't bother them is lying," he added. "Over the last 10 to 12 years, we're better than we were before. We're better vocally, we're better on stage. We bring a lot more seasoning to the table."

98 Degrees: still hot

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Two years ago, New Kids on the Block teamed up with The Backstreet Boys for a massively successful summer tour.

One group watching from the boy-band sidelines was 98 Degrees, which around the turn of the century scored major hits — “Because of You,” “The Hardest Thing,” “Invisible Man,” “Give Me Just One Night [Una Noche],” and “I Do [Cherish You]” – and sold more than 10 million albums.

The question was whether the temperature was right for 98 Degrees — featuring Ohio-born Nick and Drew Lachey, Jeff Timmons and Justin Jeffre — to hit the road and tour for the first time in over a decade. That answer came last year with a one-off gig at The Mixtape Festival in Pennsylvania.

“We definitely were watching the New Kids, and they sort of proved it can be done,” said Cincinnati native Jeffre, calling from Connecticut. “One of the things we sort of wondered is, are the fans still going to be there? Has it been too long? What’s that going to be like? But then we did the MixtapeMusic Festival, and that was a little bit of a temperature check for us. The fans were still there and still incredibly enthusiastic. They’re back and excited that we’re back.”

Similar to an alley-oop pass in basketball resulting in a thunderous slam dunk, Jeffre’s comment about the temperature check required a follow-up question about the mercury level.

“It was at least 98 degrees,” Jeffre said.

So it was last summer when the band decided to give 98 Degrees another go around resulting in its new album, “2.0,” and summer jaunt on “The Package Tour” featuring New Kids On The Block and Boyz II Men.

What’s interesting about the lineup is it aptly plays into the dichotomy of 98 Degrees. Though during its heyday the vocal group was referred to as a boy band, such as New Kids on the Block, in reality it was stylistically closer to Boyz II Men’s “MotownPhilly” sound.

“Of course we were considered a boy band, but we really put ourselves together, moved to Los Angeles and struggled to get signed,” Jeffre said. “We did it the old-fashioned way. We weren’t put together. Plus, we‘ve got a more R&B flavor. We were less about dancing and more about singing. That set us apart.”

As for the reunion, 98 Degrees was actually in good shape. During the hiatus, the band members remained in the public eye. Nick released three solo albums and is the host of NBC’s “The Sing-Off,” while his brother Drew won the second season of ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” and appeared in the stage musicals “Rent,” “Spamalot” and “Hairspray.” Jeffre ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Cincinnati. Timmons released a solo album of his own in 2004 and was part of the VH1 reality TV series “Mission: Man Band.”

As for the group’s current tour, being out on the road now compared to a decade ago is an entirely different experience for all four members. Jeffre said today his band mates are all married with children while he remains the lone bachelor. In fact, all spouses and kids are touring, meaning other people’s backstage domesticity can put a cramp on a single guy’s lifestyle.

Jeffre said he doesn’t mind. Back in the early ’00s, the band’s fans were more than likely tweeners brought to the show by their moms. This made it difficult for the group to, let’s just say fully experience all aspects of pop-star life.

Today, those same fans are older and, more importantly, of legal age for dating and such. Add in the fact three-quarters of 98 Degrees are spoken for means Jeffre is on his own.

“It certainly takes away a lot of the competition,” Jeffre said, laughing.

98 Degrees raising temperatures again in Canada

Source- Click on Source to watch video of Nick and Justin
“In a lot of ways, Canada is really where we broke first, even before the States,” he recalled. “So it’s pretty cool to be doing it again up here.” The foursome is currently on tour with NKOTB and Boyz II Men as part of The Package Tour, which stops at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre on Friday (and returns July 28) after shows in Ottawa and Montreal. Fans in Vancouver will have to wait until July 10.

“Performing together on stage is what we enjoy most,” Lachey said during an appearance with Justin Jeffre on Global Toronto’s The Morning Show.

Jeffre agreed. “We always dreamed of doing this and so to be able to come back and do it again after all these years is just an incredible experience,” he said. “We’re having a blast.”

Lachey said the four singers (his brother Drew Lachey and Jeff Timmons round out 98 Degrees) didn’t expect to take such a long hiatus.

“You really are a family, and dysfunctional like any other family. We all love each other but you also get to a point where it is good to take a break,” he explained. “We just took a slightly longer break than we thought we would.”

In addition to the tour, 98 Degrees has a new album, 2.0 — its first collection of new material since 2000`s Revelation.

“There’s a little more tempo on this record than people are probably used to hearing from us but we still remain true to who we are as a group,” said Lachey.

“It was a bit of a balancing act, especially for us because we were known as balladeers. Love songs are what we did, really. We wanted to keep our signature 98 Degrees sound — a lot of harmonies — but we also wanted to see our sound evolve with where the music scene has evolved over the past decade. I think we did a very good job of walking that fine line.”

The first single from the new album is the double entendre ditty “Microphone” with lyrics like: “Hey lady / Grab the microphone / You’re warmed up and ready to blow / Put this in your hand / And hold it up to your lips.”

Lachey and Jeffre said audiences on the current tour are markedly different than in their early days.

“We’ve all grown up together and the women now bring their daughters to the show,” Lachey said. “It’s a whole new generation that’s being exposed to our music.”