Smash Hits

May 1998

As you read this, the Hanson-mobile is zooming around the USA on a month-long tour. Meanwhile down here in Australia, we've been getting all weepy over Hanson's latest sobbin' single, Weird. Smash Hits managed to interrupt their "zooming" sime for long enough to get some answers to some, or weird, questions while Taylor thoughtfully stummed his guitar (!!!) and Ike and Zac scoffed Toblerones!

If your surname was Fotherington-Smythe, is that what you'd have called the band?

Taylor (stopping his guitar-stumming and laughing): We probably wouldn't have had that name, because we're American and that's not a very American name! But I have a feeling we would have thought of a different name in that instance.

Zac (seriously:) Fotherington-Smythe is a little long, I think.

(Everyone falls about laughing.)

Isaac (Disagreeing with his bros): Who knows! That might be a kind of a cool name! Very different. It'd stand out to people.

Zac (reconsidering): Mmm, yeah...if our name was Fotherington-Smythe, I think we would call the band that!

Do you snore?

Taylor: Everybody snores a little bit, but nobody's a big snorer in this band.

Zac: I've talked in my sleep once, but...

Isaac (interrupting him): Zac's done it a couple of times. It's quite funny.

Taylor: Sometimes, people do a few weird things in their sleep. Zac sometimes gets up and walks out to the room. He'll go to the bathroom, come back and not remember it the next day. But that's not weird.

Have you ever been in a hospital?

Zac: I was born in a hospital. No, actually, I wasn't..I was born in our house.

Taylor: We've only been in a hospital to see people and have check-ups. I did break my arm when I was 12, though, I was going down a hill on my bike when I slammed on my brakes, flipped over and landed on my arm.

Isaac (impressed): He did three flips before he landed!

When you behave badly, do you get a smack?

Zac (frowning): That stuff really doesn't matter.

Taylor: Our parents do their job.

Zac: I guess we won't answer that question.

What's the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?

Zac (baffled): Um, a light bulb?!?

Isaac (putting on a dorky Beavis and Butt-head voice): Yeah, a light bulb. It was shiney and stuff. I think that's a really impossible question to answer. There's a lot of things to see...

Taylor: You go to Paris and you see Notre Dame (the famous cathedral that allegedly housed the hunchback) and the River Seine. You go to the Louvre, a huge, famous art gallery)

Zac: Yeah, the Louvre! (They argue about the pronunciation for a bit.)

Taylor: The glass pyramid in the middle of the Louvre is pretty amazing.

Zac: I wanna climb it, and then fall through with a parachute. Ya! Ya! Cool! (Responding to his brother's disapproving looks) OK, I'll be quiet.

What does success smell like?

Zac (Loudly again): Like your armpit!

Isaac: Yeah, like your armpit! No success has absolutly no smell.

Zac: It's not important in our eyes. All that really matters is making music.

Taylor: People ask you what it's like when you're successful and it's kinda like when you have a birthday. It's amazing.

Isaac: But you're still the same person that you were. It doesn't change you in the slightest. The fact that you've gotten this opportunity...

Taylor: Should make you more humble, more appreciative!

Side bar:

'Who Do They Fancy?'

They're three of the most fancied blokes on Planet Pop, but who do Tay, Zac and Ike fancy?

"Cindy Crawford," say the two eldest Hansons immediately. "And how about Cameron Diaz," adds Taylor, going all wibbly. "She's cute. We loved seeing her in A Life Less Ordinary."

Aren't some of you too young to get in?

"No!" protests Taylor. "We watch so many R-rated movies!" Isaac, meanwhile is miles away, imagining a date with a lurvely laydee..."We actually met Cindy Crawford. It was awesome. She's really, really pretty..and hot!" Taylor joins in wistfully. "Yeah, she was really, really nice."