"There was one in the Star that Taylor is going out with Ozzy Osbourne's oldest daughter" says oldest brother Isaac. The rumor isn't true, Isaac hastens to add, although the Hansons and the Osbournes have met.

Middle Hanson Taylor's love life is pretty tame stuff for the Hanson rumor mill. Far more grisly were last summer's stories about youngest brother Zac meeting an untimely demise.

Zac is very much among the living and excited to be on tour, he says by telephone from New York. The brothers were in the Big Apple to present the best new artist trophy at the recent MTV Video Music Awards.

"Finally, we're actually doing a real tour," the 12-year-old drummer says. "We waited awhile to do that but we're doing it now."

"It's definitely been a great thing," Isaac, 17, concurs. "We've missed it."

Last year's personal appearances by the trio, which also includes 15-year-old keyboardist Taylor, were limited to five or six songs. In pre-stardom days, the group played about three shows a week, sometimes in the parking lot of clubs they were too young to enter legally.

The boys will be commemorating the tour with a live album and video, as yet untitled, set for release in early November.

For this album, Hanson is working with producer Elliot Shiner, who also has worked on live albums by the Eagles, Fleetwood Mac and John Fogerty.

The brothers have a sterling record of collaborators. Production team the Dust Brothers (Beck's "Odelay") worked on Hanson's 1997 debut, "Middle of Nowhere." And they co-wrote some of that album's songs with the legendary team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.

"When we saw their catalog, we were saying, 'They wrote that?!'" Zac says. The Mann-Weil catalog includes such classics as the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" and Paul Revere and the Raiders' "Kicks."

Working with top names in the music industry is a result of Hanson's success, not the reason for it. The boys have been performing since 1992, released two independent CDs and got stacks of rejection notices before signing a recording contract in 1996.

Hanson's tour ends Sept. 30, after which they'll complete work on the live album and video. Isaac says they'll probably take a break before beginning work on their next studio album.

"We're just working on writing songs," the oldest Hanson says.

Hanson is alive and well, even if the trio's Claymation counterparts didn't fare as well.

Hanson slaughtered the Spice Girls, but were then offed by Marilyn Manson on MTV's "Celebrity Deathmatch." Despite rumors to the contrary, the boys thought it was "awesome," zac says. He would like, however, to point out one discrepancy.

"The fact is, the Spice Girls are much shorter than they looked on ["Celebrity Deathmatch"]," Zac points out. "We would have been standing over them going, "How's the weather down there?'"

[This info was placed in a box in the middle of the article.]
HANSON
WHAT: the popular trio's first major tour
WHEN: 7 tonight
WHERE: Orlando Arena, 600 W. Amelia St.
TICKETS: $28.50, plus service charges; call the arena box office, (407) 849-2020, or Ticketmaster, (813) 287-8844, for more information.