Though Nick Lachey has had a successful career as a pop singer, in recent years his fame has been the direct result of his personal life. His marriage to starlet Jessica Simpson received unprecedented attention from practically every magazine on the shelf, which was deliberately courted by the pair with their hilarious MTV reality show, “Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica”.
Lachey was born in Harlan, Kentucky on November 9, 1973 and attended Cincinnati’s famous School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA). He then headed to Miami University in Ohio, where he majored in Sports Medicine. Lachey and his brother Drew, along with school pals Jeff Timmons and Justin Jeffre soon moved to L.A. where they formed the boy band 98 Degrees in 1997. The quartet’s first album quietly failed, but their second effort, 1998’s “98 Degrees and Rising”, sold over four million copies and produced three smash singles in the U.S. A single featuring Mariah Carey and Joe in 2000, “Thank God I Found You”, hit #1 in the U.S. Their third album, 2001’s “Revelation”, sold over two million copies and scored two more hit singles for the group. Though never as successful as boy band rivals Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC, it’s impressive that the band survived at all considering the glut of teen pop acts in the late 90s.
Though Lachey’s solo debut in 2003, “SoulO”, sold poorly, “Newlyweds” was a huge hit on MTV with Simpson’s antics responsible for much of the show’s appeal to the teen set. The heavily publicized marriage ended in late 2005, and Lachey has recently finished his second solo album, “What’s Left of Me”, to be released in May 2006.