Not so long ago, Nick Lachey used to stake out a spot on the roof of a parking garage across from LA's famed Shrine Auditorium to watch his favorite stars arrive for the Grammys and American Music Awards. These days, a singer with pop sensation 98*, the 25-year-old's got a much better view. With the AMAs just one day away, he and the rest of the group - Nick's younger brother Drew Lachey (pronounced Le-SHAY), 22; Jeff Timmons, 25; and Justin Jeffre, 26 - are in the back of a stretch limo, heading to the Shrine for a rehearsal for the awards show. "I used to go to USC, which is right across the street," recalls Nick, who also used to deliver Chinese food in this same neighborhood. "So it's kind of weird years later to come back and be [performing] in the Shrine. It's come full circle, and that's pretty cool."

Full circle and then some, considering the band's recent rise - both on the charts and in the hearts of fans. With a platinum single ("Because of You"), at press time, a soon-to-be-platinum album (98 Degrees and Rising) a tour in the works, and a Grammy nomination (for their Mulan soundtrack hit "True to Your Heart", with Stevie Wonder), it's no wonder that AMAs executive producer Dick Clark invited the group to appear in his star-packed show.

But the Ohio-born foursome's popularity extends well beyond their primarily young, female fan base to include their contemporaries - and even the competition. As the clean-cut quartet strolls into the Shrine, fellow popsters 'N Sync - rehearsing their own part for the AMAs - suddenly break into the chorus of "Because of You." Says Jeff, 98*'s founding member, "We've been friends since we went on tour with them in England about a year and a half ago. They're very down-to-earth, very talented guys." Just the night before, three members from 98* stopped in for a backstage visit after 'N Sync's performance at LA's Universal Amphitheater. "We were all in there, just chilling," recalls 'N Sync's JC Chasez. "The fact of the matter is, we can be friends. You know, we're above that kind of simplemindedness."

But as much as 98* may connect with their supposed rivals, they consider themselves a breed apart from the average boy band. Refer to them as such and they'll be sure to set you straight. For starters, "We're not the greatest dancers," admits Justin (their show doesn't feature a lot of complicated choreography). Instead, they're a male vocal-harmony group, "like Boyz II Men," says Drew. "That's who we modeled ourselves after." Unlike 'N Sync or Backstreet, there's no teenage heartthrob in 98*'s midst: All four members - who went for a sophisticated suited-up look at the AMAs - are in their twenties. And there was no enterprising manager around to pull them together. They formed the group themselves in 1995, after a mutual friend introduced Jeff and Nick. Nick then recruited his brother Drew and longtime friend Justin.

"They're balladeers," says their manager, Paris D'Jon who discovered the group singing together backstage at a Boyz II Men concert in 1995. Within months, 98* had a deal with Motown Records. In concert, says Paris, the act is "more emotional, more theatrical" - not unlike his former client, Montell Jordan. "You would go to a Montell show and people would actually cry during some of the songs," he says.

That emotional honesty sets them apart offstage as well. Not only do two of the guys have girlfriends, they're actually willing to admit it. (What they won't do, however, is reveal any names, for privacy's sake.) "When we first started, our old label didn't really want anybody to know [if] we had girlfriends," says Jeff. "They thought that it would take away from our teen audience - like, if all of sudden we were taken, girls wouldn't buy the records anymore. That's just not the case. I mean, we've had girlfriends. We're real guys and romantic guys."

He's not kidding. After hours of AMAs rehearsal and an endless photo shoot, Jeff still remembers to buy the object of his affection a huge bouquet of flowers for their one-year anniversary. "This girl is very special to me, and I absolutely love her with all my heart," he says. And while the relationship was stop-and-go for a bit, Jeff now says he hopes to someday marry the 19-year-old Southern Californian. "And I want her to have my children," he adds. "That's something that I'm proud of, and I don't want to hide it."

His mom, homemaker Trish Timmons, says that Jeff has always been the "sensitive" son. (The singer has an older brother, Michael, 29, as well as a younger sister, Tina, 24; dad James is a vice president at a computer company). "Jeff was going with a girl in high school - he really liked this girl," recalls Trish. When they broke up, she recounts, "He cried. He didn't go out with anyone for a while. He said his heart was really broken."

Nick's endured his share of heartbreak too. This past year, he split for good with his on-again, off-again girlfriend of almost eight years. "When you're with somebody for that long, they become an interchangeable part of your life, like your right arm," he says. But he is dating again, even though he says he's hesitant to get physically involved with just anyone. "Some people are able to have one-night-stand and say 'Okay, that's it,' and they walk away," says Nick. "For me, if I'm intimate with somebody like that, I can't just walk away from it. I'm emotionally involved at that point."

But with such a crazy schedule, in which he begins almost every day in a new city, how does Nick manage to find potential love matches? Sometimes, he needs to look no further than his fans. If a girl at his show caught his eye, "I would try to find a way after the show to meet her," he says. "She could end up being your wife one day - you never know!"

Justin is currently a single guy as well, and he conceded that for him, life on the road can get a little lonely. "When I see [Jeff] with his girlfriend, or even when [I] hear a song," he says, "sometimes it will trigger that memory of maybe an old, old girlfriend or somebody [I've dated], and I'm like, 'Man, I wish I could be around her.'"

Drew, the youngest member of the band, actually does have a special someone who he can reach out to when he's on tour, but he doesn't want to talk about her just now. Instead, the former Army combat medic (he once saved a woman's life aboard a commercial jet) says that his current priority is to stay focused on his career goals, which include winning a Grammy. "I've actually had dreams about walking down the aisle, about who I would thank," he says. "I could see my family at home watching it on TV."

For almost all of the group, home is still back with their families in Cincinnati. Only Jeff has moved away, to Orange County, Calif., to be near his parents. (They left Massillon, Ohio for the West Coast last year when his father moved for work.) When the band's in California, they'll sometimes hang out as Jeff's parents' place - the location for TEEN PEOPLE's photo shoot - to grab a home-cooked meal and watch a little football.

The band has practically become a family itself. Drew can easily remember the first time that he felt as if he had three brothers, not just one. "Six months after I'd been in the group, we were hanging out in a restaurant, and some some guy started picking a fight with me," he says. "Of course, Nick was there and stood up up for me. But then Justin stepped in too - and Justin isn't a fighter in any way. Then Jeff came out of the bathroom and saw the three of us engaged in a situation, and without hesitating, he was in there. It was a situation, but it united us."