Back when they were just starting out, 98 Degrees singer Nick Lachey says that someone from the group’s label handed the band a book that laid out the age of consent in every single state. The shocking revelation comes in the new Investigation Discovery docuseries, Boy Band Confidential, which features stories from members of some of the era’s biggest names dishing on life inside the boy band bubble.
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“This is going to sound super shady but when we first went out — I remember in our first tour — someone at the label gave us a book,” Love Is Blind co-host Lachey says in the series that debuts on Investigation Discovery on Monday (April 13) and Tuesday (April 14) at 9 p.m. ET before later streaming on HBO Max. “It was the age of consent in every state in the country,” he added, according to Us magazine.
“We kept that book on the tour bus. Unfortunately, there were people out there looking to tear you down,” he adds in the show of the manual that was seemingly meant to make sure the singers, then in their early-to-mid-20s, did not break the law on the road when interacting with fans. Lachey fronted the band that also featured his younger brother, Drew Lachey, as well as Jeff Timmons and Justin Jeffre, and he says that the safeguards in place today were not there when he and his bandmates were touring.
“You see [Justin] Bieber cancel a tour. You’ll see Shawn Mendes cancel a tour because [their] mental health needs to come first,” he said, noting that no matter what was going on off stage for the group known for such hits as their Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 collaboration on Mariah Carey’s 1999 smash “Thank God I Found You” (also featuring Joe) and 2000s No. 2 hit “Give Me Just One Night (Una Noche),” they were encouraged to carry on.
“That was not an option when we were out there. You went out there and you did the show. Then you came back after the show and you broke down and you cried and you kicked a hole in the wall. Or you did whatever you had to do. But you didn’t bow out. You work so hard to get there, you can’t let your foot off the gas,” he said of expectations for the band, who were all between 25-27 years old during their peak 1998-2000 years (Drew was between 22-24).
98 Degrees released their first non-Christmas album in more than a decade, Full Circle, last May. The collection featured six updated versions of their biggest hits. Boy Band Confidential, executive produced by *NSYNC’s Joey Fatone, features Fatone, Lachey, O-Town’s Ashley Parker Angel, *NSYNC’s Lance Bass, Backstreet Boys’ AJ McLean, Boyz II Men’s Wanya Morris and Shawn Stockman and LFO’s Brad Fischetti.
