When the Hanson brothers -- Isaac, Zac and Taylor -- released their 1997 debut, Middle of Nowhere, they did so just as the cutthroat boy-band race began. Didn't make much difference that they played instruments and wrote songs -- they were young and cute and the guys who did that MMMBop song. A boy-band, it seemed, they were forever doomed to be.
With this year's This Time Around CD, though, Hanson managed to free itself of the boy-band label. Time may be ticking its way off the charts, but it's simply a more genuine, not to mention grittier, record. Hanson may have lost a lot of fans when the guys invited Blues Traveler singer/harmonica devil John Popper to blow his heart out on a couple of tracks, but they gained credibility -- which you simply cannot buy.
And live, they are in an absolutely different universe than 'N Sync and all those others. There are no costume changes, no explosions, no props, no flying drummers. It is a rock 'n' roll show in the simplest of terms: They walk on stage, say "Hi," then play.
You will never see the Backstreet Boys do that. Ever.
Hanson
7:30 p.m. Saturday
Six Flags Over Texas
$5, plus park admission
(214) 373-8000 or (972) 647-5700
Arlington
Do you still have a massive crush on Jennifer Aniston?
Taylor: She's not my number one any more. The girl I've got my eye on is Clare Grogan. She used to sing in the group Altered Images in the '80s. She's the wife of
one of our producers.
Hanson's Voxpop Interview
Do you have any girlfriends
Isaac: No, no steady girlfriends right now. No.
Steady?
Taylor: Umm...No one has a girlfriend.
Are you dating?
Isaac: Yeah
Taylor: Yeah, you meet people and you date them but no one has a girlfriend. Isaac: I mean it's also kinda a little bit different, you know what I mean. It's not the
classic High School school situation where you kinda date whoever you want and you end up constantly going out and breaking up, going out, breaking up, going
out... (joking and making gestures with his hands, then shakes his head, big smile)
Zac: Yeah, I mean look at us right now, like we have time to go out on a date... (does some kind of macho thing and smiles)
Do you have the same taste in girls?
Taylor: We have different tastes...(spinning his foot during the entire interview)
Zac: (goes into deep voice pretending he's chewing on something) No, no, no.
Zac (continues joking): I like fingers...I...
Taylor: Zac likes necking the...
Isaac: Ohh...jeeez..Taylor please (embarrassed, laughs)
Tell us more...
Taylor: Everybody, likes...(tries to say something)
Zac: Please.
Isaac: Behave. Bam, bam (pretends to slap Taylor)
Taylor: Everybody... Ike might see a girl and go "wow she's really cute" and you might go "I don't know I kinda like the other girl that's over there over there ", so
it's different...
Isaac: Defiantly different tastes. I know in particular that Taylor and I have defiantly different tastes in girls. But I don't know... I'm not sure, I haven't figured Zac out
quite yet.
TOPP Norway - May 2000
Does anyone of you have girlfriends?
Taylor: It`s hard, because we aren`t in the same place long, and I think it would be very difficult to have a girlfriend. I don't think any of us is looking for a girlfriend.
Our focus isn't there at the moment.
"We're never in one place to have a girlfriend, friends our age, they've had like nine or ten girlfriends already. Guys will call anyone their girlfriend."- Taylor
"Well, it's not smart, it's just stupid to be honest. People always say to have safe sex, but there's no such thing."-Taylor on premarital sex.
AOL Chat Australia - March 21, 2000
What do you think of people going into your personal life and asking questions like about g/fs and dating? Taylor: Well at this point we've gotten used to the girlfriend question. There's a lot of things that people don't know about us and hopefully it will stay that way.
Popcorn Magazine - April 2000
Do you have steady girlfriends?
Isaac: (annoyed) We have to answer this question three times in every interview! Okay, we're all solo!
Zac: (grins) I think Taylor has a female penfriend! He was really in love a few months ago.
Taylor: (pokes Zac) You're just jealous!
Tiger Beat - April 2000
Do any of you have a girlfriend right now?
Isaac: No, no steady girlfriends. I've been dating different people off and on though.
Taylor: I don't see anyone right now. No steady girlfriend.
How do girls usually act when one of you guys ask for a date?
Taylor: Well, see at that point, if you're gonna ask someone out for a date, you already know her. It's not like you meet somebody and go "wow she's hot," and you
ask her out. I want to make friends with her first. You want to make sure it's actually about them liking you as opposed to them thinking "wow, I'm gonna date a guy
from Hanson." I don't want dating to be something superficial.
Have you ever met a girl and wished you weren't a famous guy?
Taylor: Yeah, I think so. Sometime's that's true. You see this really cute girl in the audiance and you know there's no way you could approach her because of who
you are. It would be hard to ask her out just like that.
So do you guys usually go out with girls from back home?
Isaac: Yeah, girls that we've known and been friends with and kinda had somewhat romantic interests in, you know.
Taylor: As far as meeting girls, you just meet em'. You figure out kinda fast if she likes you for you or if it's just a superficial thing.
Isaac: We have met girls at video shoots, like we did a commercial and these girls were part of the extras, and they were really cute so we hung out with them. We
didn't really date, but it was fun. We could have called them up, but we were busy.
Zac: We've had offers of marriage. Like "Marry me!" and you go "I don't know you!"
Taylor: Just because we're known, people can come up with the craziest things. That's why you can't let this go to your head. The whole reason you do this has to
be based on your love for music and playing. As far as the girl thing, if you weren't in this position, like famous, they would look at somebody else who was.
You especially get lots of love letters and marriage proposals. How do you feel about that?
Taylor: Well, Actually I am getting married. NO, I'm just kidding. But people sending love letters and proposals, it really has nothing to do with us personally. From
the beginning of rock and roll and bands getting out there, girls walk up and they go "OH, will you marry me?" You can't really ever take that stuff personally. You
can't go "oh, they really do love me. Wow, this is great!" It's just about you being a figure out there playing music. It really doesn't have anything to do with you. So,
you can't get all caught up in it and lose sight of why you're doing it from the beginning. But, I definitely think It's very cool to get to read letters, and we get some
awesome fan letters and fan mail, all kinds of things from fans, so you can't ever forget that. That's definitely a very cool thing!
What do you see as the main difference between having friendships with boys and friendships with girls?
Taylor: Well , I think you'd have to be brain dead not to notice the pretty massive difference. I think of course there's a huge difference just because girls and guys
are very different.
Do you think romantic tension gets in the way of relationships with girls versus the guys? Can you trust one of the other more?
Taylor: Well, I don't have a problem getting in romantic relationships with guys [laughs], so that rules out that side of it. With girls, I guess that can get in the way.
Like, if some girl likes you and you're like, "Let's just be friends, " that , of course, is the fatal kiss of death. A lot of the girl friends I have are just friends, like
anybody.
The Rumour: Taylor is dating Ozzy Osbourne's daughter.
The Truth: Tay: No! I'm not dating Ozzy's daughter. We have met both of his daughters a couple of times, though.
Holiday Yahoo Chat - December 22, 1998
What do you look for in a girlfriend?
Taylor: First of all, that's she's a girl but besides that, I don't see how you can say what the perfect girl is, until you meet that person. Someone you have fun with and
like to hang out with. It's pretty obvious...
Yahoo Chat - November 11, 1998
Do you guys have crushes on any Celebrities?
Taylor: You definitely get to meet celebrities you admire but there are a lot of people that people could definitely have crushes on...
Z100 Interview on May 11, 1998
Would you ever be willing to date a fan?
Isaac: Well, you know what, we probably would--
Zac: It depends on the person. See but the thing is, once you end up dating the fan, they'd probably be more like a friend.
Taylor: By the time that, you know, we have a lot of friends that started off as fans, like you met 'em at a concert or something like that and you ended up being
good friends, so you never know.
Isaac: And it's kinda strange to actually say that they were fans cuz--
Taylor: Well put it this way, you wouldn't just like walk up to somebody and just like lay one one em, so. (laughing) You wouldn't just you know, "hi nice to meet
you," you know, tongue and all.
(Zac makes kissing noises)
Taylor: Ewwllll, sorry.
Isaac: That was a little graphic.
Taylor: I was just trying to you know, explain it.
Zac: Thank you for being so graphic.
Well I have to ask the question you guys are all single of course.
Isaac: Yes we are.
Zac: Right now, right now--
Isaac: But with the way Taylor's talking, you would never know!
Taylor: I'm definitely single now.
Isaac: Hel-lo! Yeah, his girlfriend just broke up with him. sorry!
Some random 1997 Quotes and inserts....
"A girlfriend would see me like one minute a year."-Taylor
Do any of you have girlfriends now?
Taylor: We don't have girlfriends...
Zac and Isaac: None of us!
Would you ever go out with a girl who's so crazy for you that she shows up at your house to meet you?
Taylor: If someone was that obsessed with you, I think it would be kind of hard, but I don't know--if she was nice enough, I guess yes.
Are any of you dating?
Isaac: We can date, but right now we're not... a girlfriend wouldn't want to deal with it.
Zac: They'd see us one minute a year!
Taylor: It's pretty weird. And also, you'll have a fan trying to get an autograph and then you tell her you have a girlfriend and she's like, oh, bummer!
What do you think about girls?
Taylor: (laughs) We like them just fine.
Do you guys date?
Taylor: Not right now. We're allowed to. But we're just too busy. We're always on the road. We're rarely home.
And what do you look for in girls?
Isaac: Someone who won't scream and yell at the mere mention of my name.
Taylor: That's fun at first. But after awhile, it gets a little annoying.
"We're not looking for, nor do we have girlfriends. We actually like girls a lot. It just hasn't happened naturally."-Taylor
"If somebody was obsessed with you it would be kind of hard to go out with her. You'd take her hand, and she'd scream! But, if she was nice enough, yeah, I'd date a fan."-Taylor
"Girls just want to talk, they want romance and there's nothing wrong with that!"-Taylor
"It's a weird phenomenon. A lot of guy (fans) want to be friends and want to come over or something. The girls do the 'I love you' thing. It's weird."-Taylor
"I like girls, but I haven't really seen one that I can really just go up to without her going, 'Oh my god! Oh, my god!'"-Taylor
"I don't have a girlfriend yet. But if you live life, you meet girls. That's pretty basic."-Taylor
"It seems like everyone is getting girlfriends younger. What's the point? What do you do? Ringup and go 'Let's get together and talk.'"-Taylor
Hanson in the spotlight
Hanson's back in the spotlight with a new single, album
and video.
The brothers recently made their way to L.A. to film a video for "This Time Around," their new single and the title of the new album (due on May 9), MTV reports.
The video is full of clips of the Hanson boys performing, although originally, they were thinking about trying a more serious approach.
"The song actually has a very serious meaning," Taylor Hanson told MTV. "It's kind of about fighting for what you would die for and what people would die for. We thought about focusing the storyline of the video on that, but we felt that some of the concepts in the song were a little too serious and might scare some people off."
"This Time Around" (the single) features a guest appearance by guitar star Jonny Lang. According to Isaac Hanson, the brothers and Jonny became friends before they asked him to be on the album.
"We actually kind of called him, because we wanted to meet him, because we were big fans of his, Isaac told MTV. "We're in London, we're going to see this movie, you want to come with us?" And he [Jonny] was like, "Sure." So he came down and saw the movie and kind of struck up a little friendship, and then he was in Tulsa playing, and we came and saw him and said, 'Hey, do you wanna play on the record?" and he said, 'Sure'."
Hanson to take over the internet
The Hanson brothers are spreading their new, grown-up sound all over the Internet.
The group's new single "This Time Around", from their forthcoming album of the same name (due May 16), can now be downloaded for free, Entertainment Weekly reports.
Once fans download the single, they'll receive an invitation to listen to the album on March 31. The blond crooners, who kicked off the whole teen-pop phenomenon, are also thinking about starting their own Internet service provider.
Taylor, the 16-year-old member and the love of many female fans' life, explained why Hanson is going so high-tech.
"It's a way to bring fans together and say, 'Here, you can be part of this thing," he told Entertainment Weekly. "But it's not about going out there to become some huge ISP and rule the world. It's more like an Internet fan club almost, about letting fans create their own sites at Hanson.net."
Although the thought of Hanson all over the Internet is exciting, what fans are really wondering about is the new album. The first single proves that the brothers have matured beyond their "MMMBop" days and are trying a new sound.
"I think the music has definitely evolved to be a little more rock & roll, and that's just been the natural progression for us," Taylor told Entertainment Weekly. "But I wouldn't say the new stuff is way different. In a lot of ways, it's still Hanson."
Although Hanson has been out of the spotlight for a while now, Taylor says the fans have remained loyal.
"We love our fans, because they're as loyal as they can be, and they're really awesome."
It is time once again for the Hanson train to get rolling.
The Oklahoma trio's first album in three years, "This Time Around," arrives on May 9, and the band recently trotted out to Los Angeles to shoot a video for the title track. The band hooked up with director David Meyers and put together a performance-rich clip, which was not their original intent.
"The song actually has a very serious meaning," Taylor Hanson told MTV News while shooting the video in late January. "It's kind of about fighting for what you would die for and what people would die for. We thought about focusing the storyline of the video on that, but we felt that some of the concepts in the song were a little too serious and might scare some people off. So we decided to go for a more performance-based video, but the song definitely has some very serious meaning." [RealVideo]
The single, which also features blues guitar whiz Jonny Lang, should start hitting radio next week, and the clip will debut on an edition of MTV's "Making The Video" that airs Monday, March 6 at 10:30 p.m. (ET)
You can also catch more from the Hanson boys themselves dishing the dirt on their new album in our MTV News Online feature, "Hanson: A Good Wow."
Hanson in the spotlight
Hanson's back in the spotlight with a new single, album and video.
The brothers recently made their way to L.A. to film a video for "This Time Around," their new single and the title of the new album (due on May 9), MTV reports.
The video is full of clips of the Hanson boys performing, although originally, they were thinking about trying a more serious approach.
"The song actually has a very serious meaning," Taylor Hanson told MTV. "It's kind of about fighting for what you would die for and what people would die for. We thought about focusing the storyline of the video on that, but we felt that some of the concepts in the song were a little too serious and might scare some people off."
"This Time Around" (the single) features a guest appearance by guitar star Jonny Lang. According to Isaac Hanson, the brothers and Jonny became friends before they asked him to be on the album.
"We actually kind of called him, because we wanted to meet him, because we were big fans of his, Isaac told MTV. "We're in London, we're going to see this movie, you want to come with us?" And he [Jonny] was like, "Sure." So he came down and saw the movie and kind of struck up a little friendship, and then he was in Tulsa playing, and we came and saw him and said, 'Hey, do you wanna play on the record?" and he said, 'Sure'."
In other Hanson news, the boys have all cut their hair, and AllPop will soon have new pictures of all three to add to the Hanson gallery.