Liam Payne's death is putting a spotlight on the unseen struggles teen singers face when they put trust into stardom, even when it seems like they're thriving ... according to Jeff Timmons from 98 Degrees.
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00:00I was at one of P. Diddy's freak-offs.
00:03Freak-offs.
00:04You saw celebrities there that you recognized.
00:07Mm-hmm.
00:08They were a rapper that we all know.
00:11Straight-up porn directed by Diddy.
00:13I'm just grateful to have made it out.
00:17There seems to be a through-line here with all of these boy bands,
00:22which is going from kind of oblivion to incredible fame,
00:28and then at a point it all just, the air goes out of the balloon.
00:32That feels like a tough life.
00:33Well, look, it's been a blessing to be a part of it,
00:36especially being a part of it 30 years later,
00:38but it is a roller coaster ride.
00:40Make no mistake about it.
00:41There are high highs and low lows,
00:43and for us it was like an overnight success.
00:45We were signed.
00:46We were on Motown.
00:47There was no TRL.
00:48We weren't considered a boy band at the time.
00:50Then TRL happened, and overnight, Backstreet, us, NSYNC,
00:55were thrust into the spotlight.
00:57I've got to tell you, of course we all wanted that,
00:59and we're excited about it.
01:01Again, it was a blessing to be a part of it,
01:03but you're never quite prepared for all the things that come along with it.
01:07Like I said, high highs, low lows.
01:10We were in our early 20s.
01:11I can't imagine doing this as a younger person,
01:15a younger guy, teeming now with social media,
01:17all the stuff that that entails.
01:19It is quite a ride.
01:21Do you guys have any interaction with some of the younger groups
01:24and maybe even counsel them on the pitfalls?
01:29We've had an opportunity to cross paths with the wanted in one direction.
01:33When we first came back out in 2013 and got back on the road,
01:37we shared the stage on a couple of big events with those guys,
01:40and they were incredibly grounded for what we kind of thought
01:45and expected they would be, I guess because they had the social media aspect
01:50and being under the microscope 24 hours a day
01:53and just sort of becoming second nature to them.
01:55You don't know what goes on behind closed doors.
01:57There are documentaries that are out there kind of chronicling all this.
02:01This one's really, really well done.
02:03I mean, Johnny Wright, who's managed Backstreet N'Sync,
02:06he manages Justin, now manages us.
02:08I mean, he's a legend and was a part of New Kids.
02:10I mean, he really has his sort of ear to the ground on how all this stuff works,
02:15and they've really, really done a thorough job of chronicling the history of all this,
02:20and how it works, again, the ups and downs, the roller coaster ride,
02:23and everything in between.