"98 Degrees in Hot Water" By Alyssa Vitrano (Blurb)

YM Magazine (date unknown) -

If these sexy songmen are stealing your hearts, maybe it's 'cause they're old hands at snaggin' stuff...

Even though 98° is sweatin' at the top of the music thermometer, the guys can still remember the chill of their pre-fame pauper days - and why it drove them to a life of "crime."

"I stole peanut butter from a deli in L.A. where I worked," says Drew Lachey. "I bought a loaf of bread for 50 cents, and that was my food for, like, a week."

Justin Jeffre admits to yanking a shabby mattress out of the trash. It felt, he recalls, like "one giant spring."

Jeff Timmons also had long nights - due to 75-hour weeks as a security guard. He once helped the guys plot to snatch some scenery for the apartment they all lived in together.

"We stole this palm tree from our building's courtyard and we put it in our apartment," Nick Lachey recalls. "Then after we won $100 at a talent show, we hung it on the tree, praying that it would multiply.

That money tree never did grow. Luckily, their talent and dogged dedication are finally paying off.

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