A Boy Band Christmas Part II
A Boy Band Christmas Part II
As I mentioned in the previous issue of ellicottvilleNOW, I had the opportunity to talk with three of the headliners of “A Boy Band Christmas”, which will be performing two shows at Seneca Casino’s Niagara and Allegany event centers December 9 and 10, respectively. This issue features Jeff Timmons of 98 Degrees.
There was something familiar while catching up with Timmons, as I had interviewed him in 2004 for another Christmas show with Jim Brickman & Friends. During our conversation back then we found out that we grew up about a half hour from each other in Ohio. Our high schools were football rivals - which we still debate as to who has the better team.
When we realized that almost 20 years have passed since we last saw each other, we both knew one thing… neither of us has aged at all. Some things have changed - the singer who was the father of two is now the father of five. Timmons, the founding member of 98 Degrees, has delved into all aspects of the entertainment industry but hasn’t limited himself to exploring “out of the box” behind the scenes things that he has enjoyed.
The worldwide, fan favorite group decided to take a break in 2001, but has since gotten back together and will be celebrating their 25th anniversary next year with a couple of exciting projects in the works, which he mentions in the following conversation.
Life for Timmons has been a rollercoaster ride, but he attributes the high he has been on to his current wife, Amanda, saying, “I met her at a time when I was going through a very difficult time in my personal and professional life. I was so discouraged and she literally changed all that the second she came into my life. She is supportive, encouraging and makes great business decisions.”
With all the years behind him, Timmons has found the secret to success. “You have to have some sort of foundation. You can go out there and be on TV everyday, or touring the world like we were doing, but if you don’t have things in order in your personal life, or the support system, then what’s it all worth, right? If you don’t have someone to share it with… it’s great to experience for yourself, but really you don’t do it - at least I don’t do it for myself - I do it for my family and for opportunities for other people and I do it to be creative and it all sort of ends up being empty if you can’t share the wins and exciting things with the people you care about.”
You can follow Timmons on all social media platforms. For ticket information to us upcoming shows at Seneca Niagara and Seneca Allegany visit senecacasinos.com.
A CONVERSATION WITH JEFF TIMMONS
HULICK: I was so excited that I was going to be able to talk to you again. I believe it was 2004 when we last saw each other.
TIMMONS: I know! Can you believe it’s been that long already? It’s crazy!
HULICK: Of course you and I haven’t aged at all over those years.
TIMMONS: (laughs) I love you. You’re too kind.
HULICK: You have really kept busy all these years. I can’t believe all you’ve accomplished.
TIMMONS: I’ve tried aligning myself with forward thinking people, not necessarily in the entertainment business. So I’ve been doing some out of the box things… of course I’m still producing music for other people and I’ve done a couple TV shows, dived into packaging and the ways you can distribute, worked in all the platforms on the way you can get exposure… so that was what became the focal point of what I was doing behind the scenes, aside from traditional music stuff.
HULICK: Is there one of those you like doing in particular?
TIMMONS: I love the behind the scenes stuff, but I like working with artists, too. I’m doing some work in Japan, the Middle East and the Philippines. I like it all and with the technology of today it allows you to wear many hats and juggle different opportunities. As long as I’m staying busy and being productive with creative and talented, successful people, that’s what excites me most.
HULICK: I know you are very goal oriented. What’s one of the most recent things you’ve done and achieved the goal you set for yourself?
TIMMONS: I know 98 Degrees’ most recent certification was 10 million - or something like that - albums sold and I knew we had sold more than that. I tracked down our record sales and we’ve been fortunate enough to collectively gather the data from our streams, so finally we were certified 15X platinum and half a billion streams so we just got certified with all that. I wanted to make sure our group got the notoriety they deserve collectively. We have a documentary that I’ve been pushing hard for years… the documentary of our group… that’s in motion now, and with this being our 25th Anniversary, we’re going to possibly start filming that at the start of next year and release that in the summer. Then there’s some big things in regards to the charity organization called Victoria’s Voice that I’m a part of… I’m on the Board of Advisors for that and we’re trying to set up a massive concert at Allegiant Stadium and we’ve been fortunate enough to have a commitment from Mark Davis to let us use the stadium. Now it’s about getting the logistics and details, the acts and the timeframe of when that’s going to be. Those are some of the things that are in motion for this upcoming year.
HULICK: Wow! I’m so happy for you, Jeff. I love talking to you because you seem like a local guy.
TIMMONS: Well one of the first stations to embrace 98 Degrees was Buffalo’s Kiss 98.5. They had a contest that whatever high school turned in the most index cards to the radio station would win a concert by 98 Degrees. There was a shortage of index cards in the whole city… they ran out of them. It was a massive campaign and it made national news and USA Today at the time. So we have an affinity for the area. There’s a cool vibe there… kind of a mid-western vibe to upstate New York and we love coming there.
HULICK: So you’re doing a show at Seneca Niagara December 9 and then traveling to their Seneca Allegany property for a show the very next day. You will go through the village of Ellicottville on the way. When you get to the light at the end of the village on your right will be a tree made out of skis.
TIMMONS: (long pause) Out of skis? Like in snow skis?
HULICK:(laughs) Yes. It’s the coolest thing. Watch for it.
TIMMONS: Absolutely! I’m gonna have to make them stop at it!
HULICK: Do you ski at all?
TIMMONS: Not very well. I’ve snowboarded a couple times and that didn’t go very well either. (laughs)
HULICK: (laughs) Yeah, you don’t want to get laid up with everything you have to do.
TIMMONS: I can barely move around in my old age as it is!
HULICK:(laughs) I know what you mean. I bent over to pick up the cat's water bowl the other day…
TIMMONS: And you’re like what happened! (laughs)
HULICK: Being that this is a Christmas show you will be doing, would you mind if I asked you some Christmas questions?
TIMMONS: You can ask me anything you want.
HULICK: Do you have a family tradition you’ve carried on?
TIMMONS: Growing up we got to open one present on Christmas Eve. It’s not that exciting of a tradition, but we carried that over with my kids.
HULICK: What is your must-have food for the holiday season?
TIMMONS: I am on a perpetual low carb diet and Thanksgiving is the one day of the year that I eat whatever I want… I don’t eat sweets either, so I’ll eat pumpkin pie, stuffing, mashed potatoes… everything you can think of… candied yams… I mean I’ll stuff myself. I’ll gain, and I’m not exaggerating, probably like 10 pounds on Thanksgiving Day and the day after.
HULICK: What was your favorite gift as a child?
TIMMONS: My parents were pretty great. They spoiled the heck out of us when we were kids. The very first discman I got was a renaissance with regard to technology. It had been cassettes and records before that point, but when I got my discman I carried that thing everywhere with me for a long time. It was a giant block too (laughs)… people reading this will be like what is that? What does that mean? Google it. (laughs)
HULICK: (laughs) That’s funny… Google it. (laughs) What is your favorite Christmas carol and Christmas song.
TIMMONS: Oh man… so many of them. I love Christmas music. When I was a kid I was actually in the play, A Christmas Carol, for many years. Canton, Ohio had a big production of it every year. I would probably say my favorite carol is “O Holy Night”. For a song for today I would say Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas” is a legendary Christmas classic.
HULICK: Do you have a favorite Christmas memory?
TIMMONS: I think the last time I was with my grandparents when they were still alive and my parents and all of us were together. I think that’s probably the best one… the last time we were all together.