PAST APPEARANCES The New Tom Green Show
01 September 2003TOM: Okay, my first three guests are brothers. They are multi-platinum record artists, they have nine-they are three time Grammy nominees and they are currently finishing up their album, Underneath. Take a look at this clip (shoots to LifeBEAT performance and still shots). Please welcome Hanson! Wow, I just got the wind knocked out of me by Hanson! That was pretty cool!
ISAAC: That's okay, at least you didn't get the clipboard in the face like Rob Schneider did.
TOM: Oh what, did you hit him in the face…?
ISAAC: Zac, didn't actually--
ZAC: There was a series of things, of knockings, and I hit a guy and a guy hit Rob Schneider.
ISAAC: With a clipboard and the next thing you know, Rob Schneider has got this big bandage on his nose…
ZAC: …bleeding…
TAYLOR: The story is we were doing a morning show in the UK and at the end of the show they all gather around the staircase, it's this big pseudo house, they pretend they're in a house. And everyone lines up and say's "goodbye" and the host had been heckling Zac the whole time the show--
TOM: I didn't know Rob Schneider hosted a morning show.
TAYLOR: No, so Rob Schneider was one of the guests on the show and so at the end of the show Zac jumped down the stairs, over the banister trying to land on the host, and in the process the host's clipboard smashed up into Rob Schneider's nose…
TOM: You did that?
TAYLOR: And the rest of the promotion of his movie he had a bandage across his face.
TOM: Well, that's kind of cool though. You could have done that here.
ZAC: I've got the ability to say I beat up Rob Schneider. He's only like, 5 foot nothing, but...
TOM: I have a hard time keeping… you know, keeping track of which one of you is which. Can I just call you all Zac?
ZAC: Yeah!
ISAAC: For the show, sure, why not?
TOM: It's so confusing!
ZAC: This is Zac with a "k," I'm Zac with just a "c" and this is Zac with an "h."
TOM: Yeah, Zac Hanson. I'll just… you guys were like a huge, you guys you know, are a huge phenomenon in pop music. I mean, what have you guys been doing in the past couple years?
ISAAC: Well, in the past couple years obviously making a record for a while. We got off the road in late 2000 and have been making a record since then. This record's about to come out early next year and we're promoting right now doing just acoustic shows around the country and playing to intimate audiences.
TAYLOR: One of the first things, I guess we're going to play later is we're going out playing acoustic shows, especially…
TOM: So, the acoustic album you have coming out?
TAYLOR: Yeah, there's an acoustic EP that goes along with the tour to kind of bring people in to the songwriting sessions and the first way to introduce people to the music.
TOM: That's cool, we don't usually have people play on the show very much so I'm very excited about it. I got to tell you, I went on a tour with a skateboarding team and we got one of those iPods and we were traveling all across the country and basically for two weeks--all we did for two weeks was listen to "MMMBop," for two full weeks.
ZAC: I'm sorry!
TOM: It was amazing, no! It was amazing. We loved it. But we're going to come back and we're going to talk to you more and we're going to have a performance and it'll be cool. Hanson's here. We'll be right back! With Hanson! Stick around!
COMMERCIAL
TOM: We're back with hanson! Excited, I'm excited about the song, you're going to play a song in a bit. What is the song called that you're going to play?
ISAAC: It's called "Penny & Me." "Penny AND Me."
TAYLOR: We have a contingent of fans in the corner.
ZAC: Some people think it's "Penny In Me," which has some odd connotations. It's "Penny & Me."
TOM: Oh, Glen would love that. Glen likes to stick coins up his ass.
ISAAC: That sounds really painful!
GLEN: I'm not even going to comment on that.
TAYLOR: He was telling me about that during the break, actually.
TOM: I bet he was. I bet he was. That's what he does during the breaks.
ZAC: It's a Canadian thing.
TAYLOR: In Canada they do that.
TOM: All right, so you guys must have had some pretty wild experiences on the road. First of all, you're all brothers. And you're the youngest one, right?
ZAC: Yeah.
TOM: And your hair used to be kind of… you're the drummer, you used to have the longer hair?
ZAC: I used to have hair midway down my back from the last record.
TAYLOR: He had a mane.
TOM: I can't help but acknowledge and notice this, but you look a bit older.
ZAC: You know, that does happen. Over time, you get older!
TOM: Yeah, you all kind of look consistently the same age, because before it was very obvious who the youngest was and now you're kind of evening up, that's kind of neat.
ISAAC: Actually...
ZAC: Now we go by more, like you know, the skinny one, the odd one, the slightly larger one…
TOM: Now what was it like being on the road with your brothers though? I'm especially curious to know what you thought since you're the youngest, with your older brothers you were probably were experiencing things for the first time, perhaps on the road? (laughs & cheers)
ZAC: Yeah.
TAYLOR: That three-way with the dwarf last weekend.
TOM: Three-way with a dwarf, is that what you said?
ZAC: Yeah, there was a three-way with a dwarf and there was an animal thing, you know, gorillas. And it was really odd, like chimps and animals.
TOM: But how old were you, seriously, when--
ZAC: The first record came out when I was 11.
TOM: Eleven. So, you would be on tour all over the world and you guys probably had to look after Zac.
ISAAC: Yeah, yeah, well, it was that thing where you know you're showing up in Melbourne and there are 8,000 people in the airport, right? And you're walking out and you're like, "Where's Zac?! Where's everybody?" You gotta keep everybody together. We've had some crazy experiences. I walked out to the bus a couple times this happened where you're walking out of the venue and all the people are leaving after the show; you're walking over to the bus and you realize, "Wait a second… I don't have a key. Oh crap!" You start running back towards the venue because there are thousands of people chasing after you…
TOM: It was crazy… it was one of those crazy, overwhelming things.
ZAC: Even on the second record, we were in like Florida and they had a really short stage and you know a couple people came on during the stage and by the end of the show everyone figured out that they could make it on to the stage, so the whole audience was coming down…
TOM: But you were 11 though! That's crazy! Now, would your parents go on tour with you ever?
ZAC: They did on that first record.
TOM: Yeah, they were probably worried about you. When they weren't there were you kind of the pseudo father figure?
ISAAC: Well, I tried, I try to be the responsible big brother but I think I'm actually the worst.
ZAC: Yeah, I think I'm the responsible big brother.
ISAAC: We used to say, "Oh, it's father Zac."
TOM: I heard you had to sneak him into a club once or something?
ISAAC: Actually that's what's really funny--go ahead…
TAYLOR: Yeah, the story was, we were-we were going to see Radiohead, they were doing a listening party at Sundance Film Festival and they're really strict in Utah.
ISAAC: 21 and under, you know, under 21, no way.
TOM: No coins on the ass in Utah.
TAYLOR: Well, exactly. I don't know about that. So we couldn't get in, they saw Ike, they said, "Okay, he's underage," they recognized him; Ike snuck in. We were invited by the band, hey, we should be here, we should be upstairs. I had to take a piss during the show but I couldn't go downstairs cos all the security guards watching out for whatever. So I climbed out on the rooftop through a window and found a corner and like, "Okay, yeah, this is okay." And I realized the hill--we were up in Utah, so the mountains, and I realized you could actually climb over a fence and get on the rooftop through the window. So, I'd been talking to Colin from Radiohead and I got them to stand by the window and so I called Isaac on his phone, said "Ike, come around." He climbs up the hill, onto the rooftop, through the window, by the end of the night we were in the venue, on a big megatron, talking to the guy who was running the party, talking-
ISAAC: And here's all the security guards, going -
TOM: So you hauled little Zac through a window then?
ISAAC: It was… it was actually just me on that particular show.
TOM: Climbing up the mountains.
ZAC: I wasn't in Utah, I was partying in Oklahoma. Cow tipping. The usual.
TOM: Your new record you're putting out is kind of it's like an independent record, you're doing this on your own. Why is that?
ISAAC: We decided that with this new record, we're going out on the road right now on an acoustic stuff so we have an acoustic EP, but the next record that's coming out in February also, this is all independent release. And we just decided, there are a lot of changes in the music industry right now and we want to be able to move and change with the times.
TAYLOR: It's really just exciting cos we have a really amazing contingency of fans that are right at the age where they can get to the internet and-
ZAC: There's three of them up there!
TOM: So are you guys going to be rollerblading in the video? I hope you guy's do rollerblading in the video.
ISAAC: You know, we thought about that.
TOM: You know, going around, jumping and weaving.
ISAAC: Yeah, exactly. We thought about that.
TAYLOR: You have to be in the video with us doing that.
ZAC: I really want to bring lawn darts back. Lawn darting.
TOM: What do your parents think about everything that's happened to you guys? It must have been-cos obviously they encouraged you to get into music, I guess, at an early age.
ISAAC: Well, our folks have always just been really cool and very supportive I mean, you know, if it weren't for them we wouldn't have been able to start at such a young age. And since then they've just been--
TAYLOR: Obviously they have to be, for us to be doing this.
ZAC: At this point it's pretty inconsequential but early on, yeah.
TOM: Do you still live with your parents?
ZAC: I do. I mean, I'm 17. So.
TOM: Right. Well, I heard you got a house next door to your parents.
ZAC: I have my own house. It's just sort of on the same property.
TOM: What, you build a house on the property or something?
ZAC: Ah, I just bought a house. I just buy houses, just whenever I feel like it! Hey!
ISAAC: He's like, "I want a house!!"
ZAC: I'm going to buy a house over here! Noo, I like to buy houses here!
TOM: That's cool to be able to do that I guess!
ZAC: You don't sound excited!
TOM: Well, I just think it's cool to be able to do that, you know? It's a party house or something, I heard.
ZAC: You heard?
TOM: I heard, I heard it on the internet. Yeah. I read that somewhere. So, you guys going to play a song? What? Don't hit me again, okay? Don't hit me with the clipboard or something. Okay, you guys going to play a song?
ISAAC: We are going to play a song.
TOM: Cool, I'm excited about this.
PENNY & ME
TOM: Hanson! Isaac, Zac, and Taylor Hanson. Zac Hanson! We'll be right back!