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00:00What's up, buddy?
00:01What's up, brother?
00:03Appreciate you taking the time.
00:04I know you've been busy.
00:05Just kind of just, you know, just have a conversation about what, you know, how you felt and what going
00:09through stuff and also what that was like.
00:11You got it, man.
00:12All right.
00:13Good to see you, bro.
00:14Goodbye.
00:14I'm Nick Lachey.
00:15Take one, he becomes more.
00:23We're not going to pay for anything.
00:25You're not getting paid.
00:26In fact, you're not doing a set.
00:28There was a power issue here.
00:30And I said, go get him and drag him out of there.
00:37Jamie, you're taking one mark.
00:39Is it okay if you can sit over here?
00:41Yeah, yeah.
00:41Yeah.
00:43Fame's an amazing thing.
00:44Are there other parts of it that you don't appreciate?
01:00Click.
01:03Today, what's important to you?
01:06What's important to me is family.
01:08I know that my sobriety is number one.
01:11It has to be.
01:12Otherwise, there is no family.
01:14There is no anything without my sobriety.
01:18Back when you were 13, what was important to you back then?
01:24Family.
01:25I just wanted to make them proud.
01:27I wanted to do right by my family.
01:31That was like numero uno for me.
01:38With the Backstreet Boys, Nick, because he was 12, was always trying to compete in upstage.
01:45Because when they went out to the movies or dinner, Nick was too young.
01:49So Nick always got, oh, we'll see you tomorrow.
01:52Nick and I were still, we are still the two youngest.
01:54There really wasn't as much hanging out at the house as you would think.
01:57We would do rehearsals, and some of us would go then hang at the house and play pool, go swimming,
02:04watch a movie.
02:09Nick being the youngest and Kevin being the oldest, they were always at each other.
02:13And I'll never forget one night in the studio, because Nick wasn't hitting a note that Kevin thought he should
02:18hit, they got into it.
02:21He was a little skinny kid.
02:23He had a little mouth on him.
02:25Kevin was 5'11", probably 185, 190 pounds.
02:31It got to a point where I ended up grabbing Nick and taking him up to the roof.
02:35And that's when he told me, I want to quit.
02:37I'm out of this.
02:38I'm out of this.
02:42So, what I told him was, don't hold back.
02:46Next time he comes at you, hit him.
02:49I just felt like the only way Kevin's going to stop that is you have to man up and show
02:54that you're not this little weak kid that he probably thinks you are.
02:58And a few months later, what happened again, Kevin said something to him and Nick punched him in the chest.
03:08There is this myth that female artists are always getting into cat fights or fighting more than men.
03:16Boy bands are fighting too.
03:18Boy bands have drama too.
03:20Listen, I'd be lying if I was going to sit here and tell you every day is rosy and we
03:24don't ever have disagreements.
03:26But there's a difference in my mind of having a disagreement and being disrespectful.
03:31Because you only disrespect people you don't really care about.
03:34We fight and we have disagreements.
03:37But the worst thing you can do to another man is disrespect him.
03:40Everybody wants their respect.
03:43My name is Jeff Timmons.
03:45I am the founding member of a group called 98 Degrees, which started way back in the day, 1995, all
03:52the way back in Ohio.
03:54Where I'm from, it's all about football.
03:57I mean, when you're born, they literally, at the hospital, if you're a boy, put a football in your crib.
04:03Nothing else is cool, no matter how good you are at it.
04:06Whether it's theater or band or any of this kind of stuff.
04:09So I never thought I'd be in the entertainment business.
04:12Although, you know, I always gravitated towards the arts.
04:15Our parents put us in, you know, choir and band and speech and debate and theater and music.
04:22The first time I heard Boyz II Men, I think I was either a junior or senior in high school
04:27and was in my basement.
04:29And I heard It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday on Hot 92.3.
04:34Boyz II Men, they really had a lot of soul and R&B influence in their music.
04:41And, I mean, it was baby making music.
04:44There's no other way to put it.
04:45Ran over to the stereo and put my head down by the speaker and just listened to it.
04:50Hung on every word, every sound, every sonic until it was over.
04:52Then immediately called the radio station all night long to hear it again.
04:55It moved me that much.
04:58And then I'm like, man, I think I can do a version of this one of these days.
05:02I didn't know how that would happen.
05:04But I felt like I could do it.
05:07I was with some guys I went to high school with.
05:09We were singing at a party trying to impress some girls.
05:12When we started singing together, the people in our town, you know, it's a small town.
05:18So word was out quick that, you know, these former Maslin Tiger football players have started this group that's going
05:24to try to be like boys to men.
05:26And we started becoming sort of the laughing stock of the town.
05:30Yeah, it was not good.
05:35So I talked these guys into moving to California because you didn't have the internet, you didn't have American Idol,
05:41you didn't have TikTok, you didn't have any of these resources to get discovered.
05:46So you had to go to where the industry was.
05:48In our minds, it was L.A. or New York.
05:52But throughout that process, my guys from Ohio, they were getting homesick.
05:57You know, the odds are one in 55 million or something crazy of getting discovered and putting a record out.
06:03So those guys started getting discouraged.
06:05So I found myself struggling with them pretty much on a daily basis to keep them there.
06:09And then the other guys in my group went back to Ohio for a vacation and they never came back.
06:16And I was blown.
06:17I was so discouraged.
06:20I might have to go back to Ohio to find a group.
06:25Then, all of a sudden, somebody else from Ohio said, hey man, you got to hear my boy Nick.
06:31My name is Nick Lachey and I was in a band called, well, I shouldn't say I was in a
06:36band, I'm still in a band called 98 Degrees.
06:40When I was a young kid, I wasn't allowed to listen to secular music.
06:43So I listened to a lot of Christian rock.
06:46But then as I got into high school, I was exposed to a lot of different music.
06:50I listened to a lot of rap, a lot of R&B.
06:53I had an obnoxiously loud car stereo.
06:56I was one of those kids that had two big 12-inch subwoofers in the back of my very crappy
07:02Toyota Corolla.
07:03And I literally would set off car alarms.
07:05If I saw myself today, I'd want to kick my own ass because I was just that obnoxious.
07:09This guy, he passed along a tape that had Nick's voice on it.
07:13I popped this tape in and I was like, whoa, what, who is this guy, is that him singing?
07:19Get him on the phone.
07:20So, got on the phone with Nick, you know, gave him the whole spiel, although kind of told a few
07:25white lies in the process about the point we were.
07:28And he's like, sounds good, man.
07:30Sounds like a plan.
07:31I'm like, really?
07:33So then I said, well, what about Drew?
07:35My brother, you know, he can sing and, you know, we have a similar voice, you know, he'd be probably
07:39a good blend, you know.
07:40So, yeah, what the heck, go get him.
07:42As soon as Drew showed up in L.A., it sounded perfect from the beginning in my mind.
07:50Touring's not easy.
07:52Their days are 18-hour days.
07:54Those boys would get up, do press at 7 a.m. in the morning, take a nap, eat lunch, go
07:59to the venue, soundcheck, show, meet and greet, do it all over again.
08:03Life on the road is not glamorous at all.
08:05People like, oh, I'd love to do what you do for a living.
08:08No, you wouldn't.
08:09You wouldn't last a day.
08:11In one given year, they might have done, I don't know, 170 dates.
08:15First of all, it is an amazing thing.
08:17To have the ability to bring so much joy and happiness to people you may never know on a personal
08:23level around the world is a blessing, and I'm grateful.
08:30Drawbacks? Sure.
08:32Your life is no longer your own.
08:35I think I was probably more lenient on NSYNC than Backstreet Boys because I wanted to make sure that I
08:45maintained some control.
08:47The first time that I took them to Germany to do this pop Rocky show, all I wanted to do
08:55was to go do the show, leave, and go back to the hotel.
08:59Now, they had an after party.
09:02Kevin wanted to go to it, and I kept saying to him, I don't want you to go.
09:07I just, we did our thing, we shocked a lot of people, let's just now go back to the hotel
09:12and move on.
09:13And he was adamant that I'm old enough to go to this party, I want to go.
09:18So he walked away from me and went into the party.
09:22So I looked at the two security guards, and I said, go get him and drag him out of there.
09:28And they were like, what?
09:30And I said, go get him and drag him out of there.
09:35And at that point, it wasn't because I really didn't want him to be at the party.
09:40There was a power issue here.
09:43There was an agreement upon the group that we were going to leave and go back to the hotel.
09:48So I can't let you feel like you can just change the scenario without any repercussions from him.
09:55So we went, he spoke to him, Kevin said he wasn't coming.
09:58So he said, what do you want me to do?
10:00I said, go pick him up and drag him out here.
10:03And he said, you really want me to do that with all these people?
10:05I said, yeah.
10:12So the security guard went back and was able to have a conversation with him.
10:16So that didn't have to happen.
10:18And Kevin came out, and he was mad at me for two days.
10:22And I told him, like, you can't just defy what the movement of the group is.
10:26We have to move as a group.
10:28A coach of a basketball team, if you don't follow what they say,
10:32then it's never going to be successful.
10:34So that's kind of the way I looked at it.
10:38Let's not pretend like these boy bands are just all sunshine and rainbows behind the scenes.
10:43They are not.
10:44There are a lot of big egos involved.
10:47There's a lot on the line.
10:48It's high stakes, high pressure.
10:49You know, if we're all going to come together and wonder twin powers activate, right,
10:54everybody has to know their role and know their part.
10:58The Boys of 98 Degrees took a page straight out of the Boys to Men playbook.
11:03Boys to Men was, they were here.
11:06They were the standard.
11:07We knew they sung for Michael Bippins backstage, and that's how they got their break.
11:10So they track them down at a show, just trying to get a moment of their attention.
11:17We were singing outside a backstage fence area, acapella.
11:20And sure enough, somebody from the radio station called The Beat walks by and goes,
11:25man, you guys are good.
11:26You know, do you guys want to come backstage and sing on the radio?
11:30Come back after.
11:31We'll introduce you to Boys to Men.
11:32We were like, whoa, this is, we're doing this.
11:35One problem.
11:35We don't know how to get backstage.
11:37We don't have a pass.
11:40So we ended up hopping the fence.
11:42Of course, I don't encourage doing things like that, because you'll get arrested.
11:47And we sang on the air, and somebody there heard us.
11:49This guy sitting in a Corvette goes, hey, hey, come over here, guys.
11:53And his name was Paris Dijon, and he was the road manager for Montel Jordan.
11:56And he said, hey, what are you guys here for?
11:59I said, well, we're trying to meet Boys to Men.
12:00He's like, they don't have time for you guys.
12:03They're, you know, they're too busy right now.
12:05Here's my card.
12:06I think I can help you out.
12:07So we ended up signing with Paris, and he ended up being our first manager.
12:10And he said, first things first.
12:13Montel was performing at the Washington State Fair in Pielup.
12:16If you want us to work with you, then you need to go open up for Montel in Washington
12:22at this Puyallup festival.
12:24We're not going to pay for anything.
12:26You're not getting paid.
12:27In fact, you're not doing a set.
12:29You're going to sing the national anthem, and that's it.
12:32One of the guys had a Toyota Paseo.
12:35Smallest car ever.
12:36So four grown-ass men get on the I-5 freeway at, like, 1 in the morning.
12:41We drove 24 hours up to Seattle.
12:43It was an opportunity we were not going to pass up.
12:45And we show up, and this guy, Paris, is like, oh, my God, I had no idea you guys would
12:49actually come.
12:51Apparently, there's this lady who's sung the national anthem here for, like, the last 55 years.
12:56I can't get you on.
13:00But then there was this other group there, young kids, and they performed the whole set.
13:04They had maybe 20, 30 girls that came up there, were screaming for them, had, like, pictures of them.
13:09So we got to talking.
13:10I was like, yeah, you know, we met this guy, and he has hot air balloons, and he's going to
13:14help us fund the record.
13:16They were called the Backstreet Boys.
13:18So we, all of a sudden, were trying to play catch-up, and we couldn't break through.
13:26With Backstreet Boys, Nick had a younger brother.
13:30And I'll never forget the first time I met Aaron.
13:33He was nine years old.
13:34Nick and I had a birthday party, because we share birthday month, January.
13:40And it was being celebrated at Lou's house in the pool area.
13:44So the doorbell rang, so I opened the door, and it's little Aaron and his mom, Jane.
13:49And Aaron is dressed in, like, a suit.
13:51And so he goes, pool!
13:53And he walks right by me, walks through the door, and jumps straight into the pool.
13:59And I was like, I love this kid.
14:02You know, because that was his personality at nine years old.
14:05He just didn't care, and everybody got a laugh out of it.
14:07Of course, Jane wasn't happy.
14:09The fact that this little nine-year-old came in dressed in a three-piece suit, not thinking, like, I'm
14:16not in a bathing suit, I'm not in shorts.
14:18I'm dressed.
14:19I'm just going to go jump straight into the pool.
14:21So there was part of that said to me, oh, he wanted some attention, you know?
14:27Aaron was hanging out at a rehearsal one day, and him and Nick were super tight, like he was the
14:32little shadow.
14:33And so we were planning on doing a European tour, which was going to start in Germany, and it was
14:37during the summertime.
14:39So Aaron knew that he wasn't going to see his brother in the summer.
14:42And they were a big family that fished.
14:44They liked to go boating and stuff like that.
14:47So I guess in Aaron's mind, he was sad because all those things that he would normally do with his
14:51brother during the summer, now it wasn't going to happen because he was on the road.
14:54So I said to Jane, I said, can Aaron sing?
14:57And she goes, yeah, yeah, he's got a good little voice.
14:59So I had this thought in my mind, and I was like, look, if we could cut a record on
15:02him, put a little show together, I'll ask the guys if Aaron can open up for the Backstreet Boys, and
15:08that way him and Nick can stay together for the summer on tour.
15:11So the first show was in Berlin, Germany, 16,000 tickets completely sold out.
15:17This little kid comes bouncing on the stage, does a backflip.
15:20This place goes crazy, right?
15:23Same thing happened on the second night.
15:24After the second night, four record deal offers were on the table for Aaron.
15:30And that first album came out, Aaron sold like a million copies, and he was off to the races.
15:36At that point in time, the family said, hey, you know, we got this, okay, so you go and continue
15:43to be with Backstreet Boys, and we're going to take Aaron.
15:45So my hands weren't on it anymore after that.
15:48Then as success comes, it changes everything.
15:53When it comes to someone like Aaron, a lot of us saw it coming, and it was just a matter
15:58of time.
15:59I was never around Aaron when he was active in his disease, but I was watching it through others' eyes.
16:06You could see from the weight changes to the attitude to House of Carters.
16:14We're all adults. We can make our own decisions on our own without your family.
16:18No, you're 18 years old.
16:19I think Aaron was lost.
16:22Aaron just wanted to be back in the fame circle, but then he would surround himself with bad people, enablers.
16:30Like, you can't enable a person who's an addict.
16:32And if I know somebody who is an alcoholic, and I see him chugging some vodka,
16:37I'm going to be like, what are you doing?
16:40Because that's, because I care about them.
16:42He reached out to me.
16:44I did my best to help.
16:45And then, unless you're court mandated to stay at a treatment center, you can leave whenever you want.
16:50And he left after 10 days.
16:53And then put me on blast, saying that I was, you know, trying to help him get sober so that
16:59I look like the hero.
17:01And it's like, no, dude, I'm not doing it for any other reason than you're like a little brother to
17:05me.
17:05I don't want you to die.
17:12We were in London.
17:13It was a day off when we heard the news.
17:17I actually heard it before Nick.
17:23I knew through another friend of mine, who reached out to me to ask if Nick knew.
17:31And I was like, I don't know what you're talking about.
17:33And he's like, Aaron's gone.
17:36And I was like, what?
17:51By the time I got back to the hotel,
17:53Nick and his wife had been on the phone with his sister.
17:57And that night, we asked the hotel for the back of the bar that was closed,
18:04if we could just sit there.
18:05And we just talked for hours, listened to Nick.
18:10It was a pretty emotional night, you know?
18:14For me, I take some responsibility to what happens in his life,
18:19because I put him in this business at 10 years old.
18:23But it was all truly about giving him an opportunity to be with his brother,
18:30not about trying to force a young kid into the music business.
18:33But also, I lost control of that.
18:36And so I wasn't able to be a part of his life
18:39as he started to go through these problems.
18:43I'm sorry.
18:45So it's a sad thing.
18:49I'm sorry.
18:50It's a huge loss.
18:52Yeah.
18:53And then the very next day, we had to do a show.
18:57We lost one of our family members yesterday.
18:59We just wanted to find a moment in our show to recognize him.
19:07It was a pretty emotional show for everybody, especially Nick.
19:11You know, Nick was angry.
19:13He was sad.
19:15He was frustrated.
19:16Anyone that's lost someone, just in general,
19:19you're going to go through all of those phases of grief, anger, resentment, all of it.
19:26But, you know, we had to keep moving forward.
19:32I look at someone like Nick, and I praise his strength and perseverance,
19:38because he's been through hell and back with his family.
19:44He's lost three siblings.
19:46To addiction.
19:46That's insane.
19:48But he has really just become such an incredible human being.
19:53How are you doing?
19:54I haven't seen you in a little bit.
19:56I'm busy, bro.
19:57There is definitely an emptiness that we try to fill that void with external validation,
20:07with external things, when really, it's the age-old saying, like,
20:12you can't love something until you love yourself.
20:15When you're so consumed with external BS,
20:21you're not living in the present moment,
20:24and not living for what's the most beautiful thing right in front of you.
20:29I've made anything to do.
20:31I've made something to love me.
20:31I was very excited, like,
20:31when you're doing it right now.
20:31Even today, series ofvetinovularial thoughts also live in some way,
20:31but, again, it's not about the fact that you can't like it.