Follow the screams and you'll find Hanson. Tonight the screams are comming from the hundreds of girls who are assembled outside the Beacon Theatre in New York City. They're bearing the signs that read ZAC: you're all i'm living 4;We love Hanson 4-Ever;Hanson: America's boys. They're hoping to catch a glipmse of Isaac(17),Taylor(14),Zac(12) leaving thr theater where they've just shot their upcomming homevideo concert,Tulsa,Tokyo and Middle of Nowhere, and the video for their next single "I will come to you."When the Hanson brothers appear at the Beacon's backdoor, the noise reaches deafening decibels. The guys sprint to their limo and pile into the car's plush backseat. aa mob of girls breaks through the police barriers and swarms the car,pounding right back,laughing at the frenzy.
As the car pulls away,Isaac,Taylor and Zac kick back the limo,readying themselves for a trip to the airport. The Hansons are off to Europe to tour and record their first Christmas album,Snowed In. Zac spots a car weaving through traffic to keep up with them."I wonder if they're following us," he says.
They are.At a red light, a carful of girls pulls up. As the brothers roll dowm their windows, the girls begin yelling frantically. Then the Hansons ask in a mock-upper-class British accents:"Pardon me,do you have any Grey Poupon?"
You might say that the Hansons are handling superstardom well. They may have sold more than 5 million copies of MON worldwide and had a number one single in 23 countries,yet they're cool,funny, and down to-earth."You look out there and you see all these people. And you look on the charts and you see your name. And people go ,Oh my God,you 're Hanspn!" says Taylor. "And you go,Wait,I can't believe this.
"It's been totally unbelievable,"Isaac agrees."
People thin of us as stars," says Taylor," and we don't even think we're stars at all, not even for a second."
"We think,Stars? Where?" says Zac.
"If i saw a band like us," says Taylor,"the first thing I would say was,'Fake! They're put together;they don't write their own songs.'"
The Hansons are able to deal with the type of hysteria that would drive even the worst seasoned rock star insane.
"You go to a concert and there's all this craziness, but it's just people who are really excited," says Taylor.
In places as diverse as Indonesia,Australia and Paramus,New Jersey, the Hanson craze is a fever pitch. This summer, at a Hard Rock Cafe in Jakarta, Indonesia, a riot nearly broke out when thousands of fans stormed the tiny establishment."They were flinging rocks," says Taylor."We had people throwing themselves at us and hanging on us and ripping out our hair and trying to kiss us.
" In Australia 25,000 people showed up to see us perform three acoustic songs." Taylor continues. "In Taiwan a group of girls followed us everywhere we went, and had cabs waiting at all times.I mean, they spent a lot of money on cab fare," he muses
But the most hair-raising (blond ofcourse) experience for these guys occured at what was supposed to be a small in-store appearance at the Paramus Park shopping center in New Jersey."It was like the first appearance we had ever done," remembers Taylor," And we went to this mall-there were like 8,000 people. And we had no security, no barricades on the stage. We thought, Wow,if they wantes to get on the stage, they could."
With all this touring, the brothers are racking up major mileage." It's really amazing to think , Yesterday I was in Indonesia;today I'm in Canada." says Taylor."We've been all over Asia, all over Europe. A lot of people never get to do that."
"It's an incredible opportunity," interjects Isaa,"but at the same time you start to miss home."
:You defenitely miss home," agrees Taylor."But still when are you ever going to be able to do this?"
What keeps these guys' spirits up during their ultrahectic schedule is thier love for music and devotion to their fans(not to mention the copious amounts of Dr. Pepper and Jelly Belly Very Cherry jelly beans they consume)." We're doing it becaause we love to do it," says Isaac."There's always a little bit of exhaustion."
"It's the most fun thing to ever." adds Taylor. " We enjoy recording and performing." Perhaps it's because their Father, Walker, is their manager. For the recording of Snowed In, the entire family - which includes mother Diana; sisters Jessica,9, and Avery,6; and brother Mackenzie,3-will be staying together in a residaantial studio in London.
"Hanson's family is what keeps them sane," says Mercury records's senior vice precident,Steve Greenberg, who signed Hanson to the label back in 1996. Walker Hanson's management has kept some of the Hanson mania at a distance. The boys -it comes as no surprise- have been offered many Hollywood deals.
" People have offered us sitcoms,movies and all that," says Isaac(One deal had them starring in a film version of the '60s TV series My three Hansons)"Obviously, we didn't accept."
While you won't be seeing My three Hansons,one humor won't go away-that Hanson will be starring in a biopic a la the Beatles's Hard Day's Night. The Hanson publicity machine vehimently denies it. But according to Entertainment Weekly, Morgan J. Freeman has been hired to write the film. For now, fans can content themselves with the Hanson related merchandise coming this winter.
" we want to say right now that we're not going to put out Hanson dolls," says Taylor." We're not going to put out totally sell-out stuff."
" We'll offer a hat or a T-shirt," says Zac. "It's not going to be jackets and boxer shorts and lunch boxes."
They're also putting out an authorized boigraphy to set the Hanson record straight." Somebody said Taylor's a lefthanded dyslexic;that's not true," says Isaac.
"I'm right-handed and not dyslexic," chimes Taylor
They also say we're immigrants from Sueden, and that I used to have a girlfriend named ashley who cheated on me, so I broke up with her. What's funny is that I do have a friend named ashley, but he's a guy."
"There was one about Ike dating LeAnn Rimes," says Zac" We don't even know LeAnn Rimes." The Hansons are tough enough to stand up to their critics, and they're also very protective of their younger siblings. There's a reson why they're not part of the act."You want them to be able to do whatever they want," says Isaac. Taylor agrees:" We don't want them to put them to much in the spotlight." But the younger Hanson do provide musical inspiration."The first songs we wrote were about them." says Taylor. Then even composed a lullaby called"I'll show you Mars" for their brother. Mars is probably the one place in the solar system imune to Hanson mania. The brothers don't think they've peaked yet, and steve Greenberg agrees saying" The guys want to mature with their fans." If the girls at the Beacon theater are any indication, Hanson will be rockin' through the millennium.