Formation
The founding members of 98 Degrees met after Canton, Ohio native Jeff Timmons decided to quit university and pursue a music career. He had been studying psychology at Kent State University in his home state of Ohio, and was planning 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 School for Creative and Performing Arts who passed his name on to another graduate, Nick Lachey, who at the time 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.
After rejecting a series of names (including Just Us, Next Issue, and Four Queers), the group decided on "98 Degrees" after a suggestion from their managers, Paris Djon and Johnny Camisa.
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