RADIO TRANSCRIPTS The Bob Rivers Show
Seattle, Washington
10 September 2003BOB: All right, are the boys here? I believe they're here. Let's bring them in, the three boys in the band Hanson. And I'll confess, I'm not really up on their catalog. But let's give them a nice introduction now. They're working very hard. Oh, he's putting it on his forehead. There's Zac.
ZAC: I want you to know me by my name.
BOB: That's it. Hi Zac.
ZAC: I'm putting this nametag on my forehead.
BOB: Zac, I-zac.
ISAAC: Ooh, I-Zac!
BOB: I'm sorry, I'm just teasing. Zac, Isaac, and…
TAYLOR: Taylor.
BOB: Taylor. And I should know this. If I was a girl, I would know this. I guarantee you. Hanson have sold more than 14 million records worldwide including many, many huge hits. The one I'm familiar with is probably a song they're sick of, I'm going to guess. Because it was like, classic Hanson.
ISAAC: Sure. It's like, old school.
BOB: Yeah. You guys have grown up, and the thing I wanted to say about you--did you hear us talking about you before?
TAYLOR: We heard a little bit, yeah. We thought you guys were--well, what were you guys saying that we missed? That's what I want to…
TAYLOR: Well, basically, the cool thing is that you guys are actual musicians. You are not just pretty faces that sing and do dance numbers.
ZAC: Thank you for saying we're pretty.
ISAAC: Right.
BOB: I did just call these boys pretty, didn't I?
MAN 2: Pretty boys!
BOB: No, but seriously. You're not just that. You're not just eye candy for the girls. You actually know how to play fricken instruments, which a lot of the bands these days don't play any instruments. They literally put studio musicians out there and then trot out Kelly Osbourne or whatever the flavor of the week is. I know you won't say anything…
ZAC: Well, thank you, to start off by.
TAYLOR: No, thanks. We appreciate that. I mean, for us, it's not just--it's all about that for us.
MAN 2: Quit checking out his ass, Anita. Look at this! Do you see the girls checking out your ass, isn't that nice?
BOB: This is what we wanted to ask you about.
ISAAC: Truthfully, we wouldn't have it any other way. We-we-we started writing songs when we were obviously little kids, and it just evolves from there. I mean, your love for music just turns into a devoted passion and the next thing you know you just can't stop doing it. So, we wouldn't have it any other way. I mean, I wouldn't be able to put down a guitar. You'd have to like, you'd have to--
BOB: No one could teach you dance numbers and make you dance.
ISAAC: You'd have to handcuff me…
ZAC: Well somebody last night, I was hanging out with this guy and he said, he was asking me if I was going to go to college--
BOB: How old are you, Zac?
ZAC: I'm 17.
BOB: 17, girls! How about that?
ZAC: I actually tested out of school almost two years ago now but, I'm like--
BOB: You tested out of school?
ZAC: Yes.
BOB: Ah, damn!
MAN 2:You know how that works?
BOB: Yeah, I got kicked out of school, it's similar, but the result is the same! No, you finished without going. They said you've already qualified to be smart enough to be in the world.
ZAC: Exactly.
BOB: That's great.
ZAC: Well, I just used my beautiful faces to …
MAN 2: He slept his way to the top.
BOB: Zac, how old are you? 17 did you say?
ZAC: I'm 17.
BOB: 17 and he's already done with school. Isn't that nice?
MAN 2: He's been for two years!
ZAC: I was done with school… well, I'll be 18 in October. I tested out when I was 16.
BOB: And you guys are formally musically trained?
ISAAC: A little bit.
TAYLOR: Well, we started out playing classical piano, and I played for about seven years classically. But once we started playing gigs, even locally, when we started doing a bunch of gigs, it was kind of like, "wow, we don't really have enough time to go meeting up with--to take more lessons and continue."
BOB: That's right, because the career came in the middle of your adolescence.
TAYLOR: Well, no, I mean, even when we were just playing gigs locally around where we lived and performing every week and then we were performing multiple times a week, and all the sudden it was a commitment.
ISAAC: We did over 300 gigs before we made the first major record and stuff, so we've been playing a lot of shows over those several years, before…
ZAC: An old timer at the age of 11.
BOB: Look at this.
ISAAC: I remember those good old days (aged accent)
BOB: There's a future for them in morning radio, you know that. And the guys… you've sold how many million albums now?
TAYLOR: You quoted fourteen, it's somewhere around there. 14 or 15, I don't know.
BOB: You're past 15 now.
TAYLOR: Yeah, somewhere around there.
BOB: Are you rich?
TAYLOR: Are we rich? You know what, I don't really know how to answer that question. We--what we've always said is success and selling records, the thing that makes it possible is for you continue to do it.
BOB: It just keeps the thing going. The tour bus is expensive.
MAN 2: Okay, the leather patches on your sweater, did you buy them on there or did you put them on there?
TAYLOR: Yes, I did.
MAN 2: Okay, dude. You're rich.
TAYLOR: This is totally not an expensive, this is not an expensive sweater.
BOB: And that's cool. And you guys--
ISAAC: This jacket is nice.
BOB: Are your parents, are they involved in your career, are they out in the bus?
TAYLOR: No, they're not in the bus. But when we started out we were obviously really young. I was 14 when the first album came out.
BOB: Zac, how old were you?
ZAC: I was 11. I think the main thing with our parents is they've just been… from when we started off when we were really young, and obviously our first international release was when I was 11, they've just been really, really supportive, and just sort of a help to anything we needed them for.
TAYLOR: Well, we were always kind of crazy--
BOB: Did they keep these girls away from you in the beginning though?
TAYLOR: Well, obviously, you know, we just set up big tables like this and we see them all from a distance and we're all happy.
BOB: Let's point out that there is a gaggle--
ISAAC: A gaggle, I like that!
BOB: That's the wrong word.
TAYLOR: There's a pod. There's a little pod.
BOB: There's a pod of beautiful young women here. Give yourselves a big round of applause. Come right around here, hang out with the guys. They can brush up against them. Shake hands. Are you guys afraid of them? Look, they're a little afraid of the guys.
MAN 2: Well, they've spent their lives running and chasing--
ZAC: We're like gazelles and they are the lion.
BOB: You guys have snuck out of buildings, right?
TAYLOR: Sometimes, yeah, yeah.
BOB: Does this scare you?
ISAAC: No, actually these guys are very--
TAYLOR: You know, what has really been amazing has been as we've changed and grown up or whatever, we've seen our fans--
BOB: Grow up too.
TAYLOR: Cos here Ike's 22, I'm 20.
BOB: So they weren't as hot when they were 11, is that what you're saying?
ZAC: Well, I don't think Tay means mature and go through puberty and fill out. You know, going from high school to college or… and really changed styles and ages with you. And as you change musically, your fans change and grow with you.
MAN 3: I was going to say, changing musically. I know you guys have evolved since your days of, you know, your kid days.
ISAAC: The early days of "MMMBop."
MAN 3: And I see Isaac checking out our CD collection back there. Are there some classic rock artists you like? I know you guys have played with Bob Weir.
TAYLOR: See, that's the thing. If we lived here, we would probably be listening to your station all the time.
BOB: You love classic rock.
TAYLOR: I mean, classic rock even back farther--like what do you guys play, mostly 60s, 70s kind of stuff?
ISAAC: They got some good old Cars stuff.
BOB: Some Cream.
TAYLOR: Do you guys ever play Traffic on here?
BOB: Traffic? You bet, absolutely.
TAYLOR: Do you go back to Otis Redding, or any of that kind of stuff? Or is that less classic rock?
BOB: Occasionally, "Sitting On The Dock of the Bay." But not that often.
TAYLOR: That's not really classic rock.
BOB: Isaac, who's your top three guitar players?
ISAAC: Top three guitar players: Chuck Berry, number one. Because he, to me, is the quintessential--
ZAC: He made one lick last an entire career. (imitates guitar lick)
ISAAC: But basically, he invented the lead guitar for all intensive purposes, he was like the guy who made it cool to be this solo guy who was going for it--and the duck walk's pretty rad--and let's see, Clapton's pretty high up there. I think he's a really, really tasteful player. And actually, you know what? A young guy named Johnny Lang is a friend of mine, and you know what? I admire him immensely.
MAN 3: May I say that Hanson knows more about great guitarists than Rolling Stone does in this month's issue. Here's Rob in Seattle. Rob, go ahead.
ROB: Yeah, how you guys doing this morning?
ALL: Good.
ROB: Hey, I'm coming to the show tonight with my daughter. I'm really excited to see you guys. I saw you guys at The Key and I thought you guys were just solid musicians.
TAYLOR: Thanks.
ROB: Are you guys touring with a bunch of back-up musicians for this tour, too, or have you scaled that down?
TAYLOR: Well, the whole idea with this tour is basically just to scale it down completely. I mean, we're playing acoustically, just three guitars, a piano--an acoustic piano. It's really about just doing something really special for us because it's just a great thing to do; it's kind of like bringing people to our songwriting sessions or something.
BOB: Very nice, at the Showbox, right? And people can still get tickets? Guys, thank you very much. Would you be willing to sing a little for us?
ISAAC: Sure, I mean..
BOB: I mean, if I ask to hear "MMMBop" a little a cappella would that be bad?
TAYLOR: No, we can always break out a little "MMMBop."
BOB: All right, here we go.
TAYLOR: "MMMBop, ba duba dop, ba du…"
BOB: Oh wait, hold on a second. Why don't you share your microphone so we can get a nice sound?
ISAAC: No it's okay, we can gather around this.
TAYLOR: Sing it a cappella-
MAN 2: All the girls are around my mic.
BOB: Girls, girls, let's hear it! Let's hear it girls, for Hanson!
"MMMBOP" CHORUS A CAPPELLA
BOB: Ladies and gentlemen, Hanson. Thank you for coming in.
ISAAC: Hey, thank you.
TAYLOR: Thanks very much.
typed up by Heidi (me)
audio © bobrivers.complease do not reproduce without permission