The battle of the boy bands continues!
98 Degrees singer Nick Lachey was asked to pick the worst pop group of the '90s during a Monday appearance on Bravo's Watch What Happens Live. The musician—who appeared sans bandmates Justin Jeffre, Drew Lachey and Jeff Timmons—didn't shade more successful acts like New Kids on the Block, Boys II Men, Backstreet Boys or 'N Sync. Instead, he chose a more obscure British quintet: 5ive.
To be fair, it was host Andy Cohen who first suggested 5ive was the bottom of the barrel. "It's so funny you call them out, said Lachey," who hosts Vh1's Morning Buzz. "That's exactly who I was gonna say."
According to the 40-year-old ""I Do (Cherish You)" singer, "We had a big time beef with those guys."
"We were on the Smash Hits tour in the U.K. with a bunch of pop groups at the time, and 5ive for whatever reason just had it out for us," he said of the 1998 shows. "So we used to battle every night."
Lachey went solo after his band's 2000 album Revelation, but 98 Degrees reunited for 2.0 in 2013. 5ive—known for semi-hits like "Slam Dunk (Da Funk)" and "When the Lights Go Out"—released three albums between 1999 and 2001. Five years after the band broke up, in 2006, J Brown, Abz Love, Ritchie Neville and Scott Robinson staged a comeback without fifth band member Sean Conlon. Eight months later, they disbanded a second time. They were featured in the ITV2 documentary series The Big Reunion in early 2013, and they went on a tour of the U.K.—this time, however, Brown was M.I.A.
In late 2013, the "Everybody Get Up" singers embarked on their first solo tour as a four-piece band. Love quite the group in March 2014, effectively making Conlon, Neville and Robinson a pop trio.
98 Degrees, meanwhile, co-headlined a tour with Boyz II Men and NKOTB in the summer of 2013.
(E! and Watch What Happens Live are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)