Oklahomans - a show that profiles famous people from Oklahoma.

Total running time for Hanson = 20 min.

[Opens with scenes from concerts shown in Road to Albertane...]

INTERVIEWER: Now that you've done the tour album, the live video, live CD...were these the kinds of things you used to dream about happening?

ISAAC: I would definitely say, yeah. Or you would kind of wish you would get an opportunity to do them.

INT: But did you dream they'd really happen?

TAYLOR: Only dream. We were like, "Oh man! It'd be so cool if we..."you know when you're watching Jay Leno or David Letterman or something like that, you'd be like "That'd be so cool to be there.""

ISAAC: I remember very well standing in the living room going "I wonder..how could we get on Jay Leno? How could that happen?"

INT: And that was your fourth appearance?

ISAAC: That was our fourth appearance on Leno so it's an incredible opportunity that we've had. It's amazing. I guess a dream come true is probably very much the way to describe it.

INT: When did you first know that something big was beginning to happen?

ISAAC: I think when we were getting ready to do Letterman.

ZAC: We were practicing for Letterman. Getting ready..we weren't completely ready. We wanted to practice a little longer and there was something set up at a mall in New York.

ISAAC: It was one of those promotional appearances where you show up with acoustic songs...

ZAC: We were gonna skip it, but we decided we might as well go just because we promised some people there..you know they were pressuring us. So we went there and there was thousands of people and we were like "UHHHHH!!!!"

INT: What are these people doing there?

ISAAC: Exactly. That's what we were wondering.

ZAC: We were like, "I'm glad we came!"

INT: What's the best and worst of your fame now?

ZAC: It'd probably be that you're recognized. You know, because they recognize you and they're your fans and then they recognize you and you can't do anything.

TAYLOR: I think that's probably true. That's probably the best and worst.

INT: Are there times when you do miss the normal life? Cause I'm sure it's hard to go to the mall, go to the movies, the things that most kids do.

ZAC: We weren't big mall people, first of all. We're just not mall people. We don't go there a lot. We don't miss that. And as far as movies, you know, you can usually get in the movies.

TAYLOR: When you go to the movies, you just go in big groups of friends or you don't go in the movie theater until it goes dark. We just find ways. It's really no big deal. I mean, we still do all the normal stuff anybody does so, we just find ways to do them.

ISAAC: You just plan it out.

TAYLOR: It's just a plan.

INT: Let's talk about some of the projects you're working on now. You just produced your live CD. Is that something you want to do more of in the future?

ISAAC: Definitely. We also produced the Christmas record also, co-produced that with a guy named Mark Hudson.

ZAC: We also directed the new live video.

INT: Producing and directing. Are we gonna see more of that in the future?

ZAC: That's always a goal for us. You know, just get more and more involved in all the production and behind-scene stuff so I hope so.

TAYLOR: I think, we're the band. Why wouldn't we be more and more involved. I think that's the whole idea. The reason you get into is because the musical part and the writing the songs and recording is what makes it fun for you. So that's why you'd wanna get more and more involved.

INT: You guys are really involved, I understand, also on your internet sites. That's a big part of Hanson.

ISAAC: Yeah. The internet, obviously, has become a pretty big deal. There's actually an amazing amount of other sites that other people put together.

TAYLOR: Yeah. Tons of fan sites. A ton of amazing fan sites, but there's one official Hanson site which is Hansonline.com.

ZAC: Which we just re-did.

TAYLOR: We just totally re-did it...or we didn't re-do it. We have people who work on it.

INT: You frequent the internet though, right?

TAYLOR: Yeah, we get on. We were just talking about it before how, you know, when you're gone, how do you communicate with friends? Definitely e-mailing people has become one thing...

INT: So that's how you communicate with your friends back in Tulsa?

ISAAC: Yeah, that and long-distance bills. They get kinda crazy sometimes.

INT: What else do you miss about home besides your friends? You're away so much at the time now.

ISAAC: Umm..well I think the best thing about home is just the fact that it is home.

TAYLOR: You've got your friends, you're comfortable there...

ZAC: You've got your bed. You sleep in your bed and you have YOUR bed.

TAYLOR: We've got certain restaurants that we will not say the names of that we really like. These places that we feel comfortable so I think that's the best part. That you just know that you feel really comfortable there.

INT: Was there ever a time when you guys got really discouraged and thought "Gee, this isn't gonna work. Let's just go home and have a normal life and not do this."? Does it ever get too hard?

ISAAC: Not really. There's always times where you go "Man, this is getting kinda rough." It's always a little bit hard. You know, life is not a piece of cake.

ZAC: "Mom, let's go home! I don't wanna do 21 interviews tomorrow!"

TAYLOR: Or when you're just like working on an album and you're getting close to the deadline, you know you gotta finish this or you gotta do something else tomorrow and it's just kinda closing in on you. I mean, that's just part of it. But there's that in anything you do.

ISAAC: Yeah. I don't think it's ever been like "Ooh..we wanna stop." It's excitement!

ZAC: It keeps everything intense.

INT: Who has inspired your music the most? What other performers?

ISAAC: Well, we've always said 50s and 60s rock-and-roll has been a major influence on our music.

INT: Just because your parents liked it.

TAYLOR: Even before our parents.

ISAAC: Yeah. Even before our parents' stuff. A lot of the stuff we listened to late 50s rock and roll.

TAYLOR: 50s and 60s.

ISAAC: Well yeah that's true. Yeah, and then lots of soul music.

TAYLOR: Spencer Davis, Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, that kind of thing.

ISAAC: Chuck Berry, everything. And also, very much, contemporary music like Aerosmith, Spin Doctors, Counting Crows, Lenny Kravitz, Sheryl Crow...

INT: A pretty wide variety.

TAYLOR: Everything.

ISAAC: Yeah, we listen to a lot of stuff.

INT: You know, I heard Ringo Starr in an interview saying that you guys reminded him of the Beatles in the early days and he thought that you would have the potential to go on and have the same kind of success. [all three boys shocked] What do you think about that? He said that!

ZAC: Don't even say "Beatles" and "Hanson" in the same sentence.

ISAAC: Because the Beatles are like the biggest band ever.

TAYLOR: Well I think any band would have like a fraction of the success that the Beatles had, of course, cuz the Beatles are in their own...

ZAC: ...category. It's like Beatles...everyone else.

INT: And to even have them mention you...

TAYLOR: Absolutely.

INT: That has to be a great thrill.

TAYLOR: Definitely. Yeah, we got to meet him and we've run into him several times and I think that's just amazing. Cause the Beatles, of course, are just...[bows down]

ZAC: Definitely.

INT: What about your tour this past summer? Great fun, had to be.

ZAC: That was really fun. We finally actually got to get out and perform for the fans.

INT: You had been wanting to do a tour for a while, haven't you?

ZAC: Yeah. We've been saying, "No more interviews! We wanna play!!!" You know, finally, we actually got to do that and that was just a really awesome experience. You know, finally getting out there..

ISAAC: Night after night..getting back into the routine. You miss that a lot. It's just seeing the audience and just getting an opportunity to play your music night after night..there's nothing like it.

TAYLOR: It's totally awesome. I think that also growing as musicians and things like that..you know, getting out and playing is definitely something that makes you grow as songwriters and things for the next album and stuff like that.

INT: What about the night you came back to Tulsa?

ISAAC: That was very cool.

ZAC: That was really fun to see Tulsa fans again and being home.

TAYLOR: I think it had been probably, almost 2 years since we last played. I think the last show we did was at the Blue Rose Cafe. And then we went off to make the album and then we came back to play at the Mabee Center. That was the first we've been back.

ZAC: What was really cool actually was we had seen a few shows at the Mabee Center and we were like "This should be us playing here."

INT: So you used to sit in the audience and say "Oh that should be us up there."? You really thought that?

TAYLOR: Oh totally. I mean, you go to see bands there and we'd be like "Wow, this is so awesome. We should play here someday." You keep that in the back of your mind and then you're there. I think that was amazing. And, of course, THE TULSA AUDIENCE IS ALWAYS THE BEST.

INT: Now I've heard a lot of people talk about when you used to play at Mayfest or Big Splash. What do you guys remember about that?

ALL 3: EVERYTHING!

ZAC: Mayfest and Big Splash were like our big shows. You know, we did Mayfest which was bigger than Big Splash but we only did those like 14 times a year.

TAYLOR: You know, Big Splash..you know, always going back for there. And, of course, Mayfest was the first place we played.

ISAAC: Yeah. We did a 30-minute a cappella show. I guess it was 1992 was our first official show.

TAYLOR: And, then like five years in a row, ever year, we'd come back.

ISAAC: Or maybe it was more like '91, I forget.

TAYLOR: Whatever!

ZAC: It was one of those years.

TAYLOR: Those were definitely the landmark shows for us. And everywhere else, just playing festivals and fairs and whoever would take you.

ISAAC: Oh yeah, we've played just about everything.

INT: Yeah, I've heard. You would play to whoever would listen.

ALL 3: Exactly!

INT: But you don't have that problem now. What's in the works for next year? What projects?

TAYLOR: I guess you never know exactly.

ZAC: Definitely a new album. Anything else...it's possible.

TAYLOR: I think we're definitely trying to lay back a little now just to be able to take the time to work on the next album. We have tons of songs that we really wanna get to record so we'll see. We don't know exactly, but we're looking forward to the next album in a big way. So that's definitely what's to come.

INT: When you guys dream about the future, what do you dream about?

ZAC: Flying. Flying cars.

ISAAC: Flying hover cars.

TAYLOR: Shoes that lace themselves.

ZAC: Automatic toilets.

TAYLOR: Futuristic things.

INT: I mean like your future. [guys laugh at their stupid joke] Okay, your future.

TAYLOR: All you have to do is say "flush.." [joke's over kid] I think you can just hopefully you can grow...or Hanson can grow as musicians and do the projects and still enjoy doing the music. I think that's probably the goal of which we will be able to continue.

ISAAC: Just grow as musicians, gain new fans, you know..all that kind of stuff.

TAYLOR: But anyway, that's what any band would want. To just continue to do it. That's what we hope is to do it as long as possible.

INT: "As we say goodbye, we wish you a Merry Christmas with this special holiday gift from the Hansons."

[clips from Road To Albertane]