Nick Lachey Talks 98 Degrees' Beef With *NSYNC

Remember back in the '90s when you had to carefully choose your favorite boy band? It was all a battle between *NSYNC, 98 Degrees, Backstreet Boys, O-Town, New Kids on the Block, and more to win your heart. However, the fighting was just between teen girls and not band versus band — Nick Lachey says that there was no "beef" between boy bands in 98 Degrees' heyday. In fact, when I chatted with him about his new album Soundtrack of My Life , he revealed he even has two favorite songs from one group that he would hypothetically cover.

"All that 'beef' stuff was a lot of BS. People liked to create that stuff to make stories, but we all had no problem with any of the other groups, to be honest with you," Lachey says of the lack of boy band battles. "Great songs are great songs no matter who is in them to begin with."

With an album of all covers, it was interesting to imagine Lachey taking on another group's hit song from the '90s. And although he admits he has no plans to do so, he does have a good idea of which tracks he would put his own spin on.

"I would probably go with an *NSYNC song," the singer reveals. "Probably 'This I Promise You' or 'Gone.'" Those are of course two of their biggest ballads, which Lachey chose purposely. "You gotta stick with your wheelhouse," he adds. "That’s where my sensibility lies, so I figure if I cover someone’s song, you might as well go with your strengths."

When it comes to revisiting old 98 Degrees songs, Lachey has plenty of fond memories. He cites "I Do (Cherish You)" as one of his favorites because it means so much to other people that many use it as their wedding song, but his second favorite has more memories for him.

"[My favorite 98 Degrees song] would probably be 'Because of You,' which was really our first big single. I remember the experience and excitement we had over it going Top 10, and the video being shot on top of the Golden Gate Bridge," Lachey reveals. "There are just a lot of great memories about that song, surrounding that song and all the excitement we had with that song kind of blowing up and putting us on the map. That would probably be the one that I’d pick out as my favorite."

Images: Getty Images (2)