RADIO TRANSCRIPTS

Denver, Colorado's 95.7 The Party
Backstage At The Grammys Broadcast
07 February 2008

JOE, HOST: 95.7 The party. We are backstage at the Grammys and it is a big deal. It is just completely hectic and of course in comes Hanson and the place goes berserk.

ISAAC: But it’s a party!

TAYLOR: Is this a party?

JOE: This is The Party!

ISSA, HOST: The Party with Hanson!

TAYLOR: It is THE party. It is a table, it’s the party.

JOE: Do you get tired of young girls screaming? Finally?

TAYLOR: You know what? I don’t know how to react to that. Do you get tired of girls screaming?

ZAC: In what way are they screaming?

JOE: Young girls.

ZAC: Is it like a, “AHHHH! OH MY GOSH! THAT GUY IS UGLY AND SCARY!” or is it a, “AHHH! OH! I LOVE HIM SO MUCH!” or is it like, “AHHH! I DON’T KNOW WHY I’M SCREAMING!” There’s a variety of screams.

JOE: I’ll give you this one. It’s the young girls and it’s like the girl on Deal or No Deal.

ZAC: She was not that young! She was 26 or something like that?

JOE: No, she was old but it was her dream, just to digress for a second, Hanson was on Deal or NO Deal cos there was a contestant whose wish of all time was to have Hanson come play for them.

ISAAC: Yeah, and we came…

JOE: And they came on Deal Or No Deal. Good gig guys, it’s a good gig!

ISAAC: No, we had a good time with that.

TAYLOR: Honestly, we have amazing fans. Always have had amazing fans. And the idea of screaming girls or whatever---yes, we have a lot of girls fans and they are really passionate so there’s screaming involved, I guess.

ISAAC: We feel like it’s—we feel like we’re in really good company. Elvis, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys.

TAYLOR: That’s pretty bold, Ike. You mean screaming girl fans?

ISAAC: I’m just saying. Screaming girls fans.

JOE: Screaming girls, you’re right. I can throw a New Kids On The Block…

ISAAC: Yeah, you could.

JOE: Nah, I wouldn’t do that to you guys.

ZAC: He doesn’t necessarily…

JOE: You guys have always kept your sense of humor though, I mean I’ve talked to you many times throughout the years since the very beginning and God bless you for that, because it would have driven me nuts.

ISAAC: Thank you very much.

ZAC: There’s never any point in taking yourself too seriously. Honestly, I think any band who gets the chance to be successful at what they’re doing. You need to realize you gotta poke fun at yourself every once in a while a little bit. And in truth, that’s the greatest compliment. Satire is the greatest compliment, for people to be making fun of you. To be on Saturday Night Live or Family Guy…

ISSA: Oh, totally.

ZAC: When Jon Stewart is making fun of you on his show, you’re like, “Okay!”

TAYLOR: That’s the biggest kind of compliment.

ISSA: They’re talking about you. When they’re not talking about you it’s like, “Ehh…”

JOE: You guys are fantastic musicians. I know this is a fact, for things that people don’t know about this band. I often get made fun of because I like the band Toto.

TAYLOR: Dude, Toto is…

ISAAC: A really good band!

JOE: And the same with you guys. Alright, enough with the old stuff. Tell me what’s happening now. What are you doing?

TAYLOR: Well, we got a record called The Walk and we’ve been touring on it since—we toured on it over the fall, we’re about to get back on the road starting at South x Southwest. One of the cool things about this record has been a little bit of the time we spent in Africa, which seems kind of maybe out of left field but right from the top of the record you can hear this children’s choir chanting at the top of the album and you can hear them say, it’s a phrase, “Ngi ne thema,” which is “I have hope” in Zulu. We recorded some there, we met these kids, we worked at the hospital in Soweto, South Africa, and the song “Great Divide,” which has been the first single off the record, all the money from that goes to help raise money for AIDS research and treatment in Africa.

ISAAC: And for example, one of the things that the hospital there in Africa has done is they’ve reduced the transmission rate from pregnant mothers to unborn children, the transmission rate from pregnant mothers with HIV from about 40% to 2%. So, it’s…

JOE: Wow, well I’m glad you guys checked that out, investigated that, because so many people are so concerned about what’s happening just with their lives at this moment in this country.

TAYLOR: Yeah, well, with our generation we’ve grown up with technology and what we saw with our fans was they—the excitement of sheer music empowers people, music inspires people, as it should, but it’s really cool to see people that even find a greater connection when they say, “Okay, I’m coming to your show and I’m excited to see you play” and then you talk to them about something that actually makes them feel like they have a role to play, there’s something they can do.

ISAAC: And through technology and things like that you can connect with people in a whole new way and we hope—I think that through technology it may actually empower the future charities and so on to really do an even more powerful job.

JOE: You guys are a truly WORLD band. You toured the world since “MMMBop” and apparently your fans stuck with you.

TAYLOR: We’re lucky.

JOE: What’s your favorite place to visit besides here?

TAYLOR: God, that’s really hard. I mean obviously home is home across America. Love Italy, love Australia. Have a great time in Brazil and Argentina.

ZAC: Japan’s not bad.

TAYLOR: Japan is a great time—have a great time in Japan.

JOE: Where is the biggest following, like when you guys play arenas in Brazil? Do you play stadiums in Italy?

TAYLOR: I think probably Argentina and Brazil, I think those are some of the craziest fans. Those places are amazing. Again, lucky to have international fans, lucky to try and keep that alive by—you can’t be in all those places at the same time. That’s the thing. The internet is a great thing cos you can stay in touch with them but it reminds you constantly, “We’re not in Mexico, we’re not in Brazil, we’re not in Italy…”

JOE: That’s right. Well, thank you guys for coming and partying with us. You know them of course from “MMMBop,” which broke them many years ago when they were young guys but they’re tremendous musicians and you guys are forward thinkers and you’re helping the world out so thanks so much for doing the right thing.

TAYLOR: Yeah, thanks for having us. Thanks guys.

ISSA: Thank you.


typed up by Heidi (me)