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Back to the Sound-Off Room

CNN Newsroom Transcript
(July 31, 1998)

FRASSRAND: Go to a record store and these guys are all over it. Book stores, same thing. They're on magazine covers, t-shirts. As big as Leonardo DiCaprio, and making the same audience swoon, ladies and gentlemen, Hanson!

The brothers from Oklahoma are making "Mmmm-Boppers" out of everyone. Tonight, they hit the stage in Chicago.

NEWSROOM's Scott Withers caught up with Ike, Zac and Tay when they recently swung through Atlanta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCOTT WITHERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The teenage rock group Hanson makes lots of music on stage, and generates even louder noise off-stage.

ZACHARY HANSON: It's awesome. I mean, you have really devoted fans. That's makes it -- one of the coolest things is to go out there and have fans in riots that are really, really excited to be there. It makes it more fun for you.

ISAAC HANSON: It is actually amazing, though, that they scream that loud and that much.

TAYLOR HANSON: They've got that really high pitch. Usually it's the high pitch.

ISAAC: They've got the really that when it gets loud, it distorts.

WITHERS: There's no distorting Isaac, Taylor and Zachary Hanson's popularity. The three brothers from Tulsa, Oklahoma have soared to the top of the charts. Their latest album, "Three Car Garage," was released in May and has already turned platinum. Their summer tour has taken them around the world, with their mom, dad and four siblings close by.

ISAAC: We have a really good relationship with each other and the rest of our family, and we really enjoy being with each other.

ZACHARY: We bring them along with us for a reason.

WITHERS: The reason: to keep the trio down to earth. They admit it would be easy for them to be carried away by their success. They've been nominated for three Grammys, they schmooze with biggest celebrities, and have millions of fans chanting their names.

TAYLOR: Well, beside the extra arms that grow out, you know, we're pretty much normal.

WITHERS: The guys try to squeeze some normal teenage time into their very hectic schedules. When they're not singing or promoting their music, they're playing and studying.

(on camera): I heard you're pretty good at Nintendo.

ISAAC: Zac is good at everything. He's really good at all of the video games.

ZACHARY: Not that great. There's a lot of people that could beat me.

TAYLOR: Zac's the kind of guy who would like would disappear for like a day. I mean, if you had a day to disappear, he would, and he would be like, "I beat six games today." And were like, "OK."

We're not big readers; we're big drawers. We draw a lot.

WITHERS: What kinds of things do you draw?

TAYLOR: I don't know. Anything -- cartoons.

ZACHARY: They're usually not realistic.

TAYLOR: It's always like goofy stuff. And on the road, of course, you crank-up music a lot.

WITHERS (voice-over): And just who does a band who grew up listening to the songs of the '50s and '60s crank-up?

TAYLOR: Credence Clearwater to, like, Third Eye Blind. I mean, to Aerosmith, to En Vogue, to everybody.

ZACHARY: Billy Joel.

ISAAC: We listen to a lot of different things.

WITHERS: The Hanson family has a different view on education. All of the kids have been home-schooled, which the brothers say has helped their careers.

ISAAC: I think we've gained more than we've lost.

TAYLOR: I think it helps to be flexible, to be able to go places and still be able to do school.

WITHERS: Ike will be a senior in the fall.

ISAAC: College is a possibility, definitely. It's hard to say at the moment. I mean, I'm definitely preparing for college and getting ready for that, if I decide that that's what I wanted to do.

WITHERS: Where are each one of you going to be in ten years?

TAYLOR: Well, we're going to be ten years older, first of all.

ZACHARY: That is an unanswerable question, you know that. I have no idea. For all I know, I'm going to be on Mars.

TAYLOR: We could be on mars, actually. We may colonize the moon soon. Maybe Mars is next.

WITHERS: Its doubtful Ike, Tay and Zac will be living on the moon. If they have it their way, the three brothers will still be cranking out chart-topping tunes.

Scott Withers, CNN NEWSROOM, Atlanta.