This is the transcript from the Planet Hollywood press conference in San Francisco, July 15, 1998. Hanson had microphones, but the people asking the question didn't. The parts where I'm not sure what they're saying, I put in {}. Zac smiled continually through the entire press conference. He didn't say much, but he had that little smirk on his face that was so cute. Taylor was very, very animated. His face and voice are so expressive. He smiled alot and seemed to be having a great time. Isaac was a little more subdued, I guess trying to be the elder spokesman of the group. But even he broke into a smile quite a few times.

Before the press conference, a person I shall call the Announcer Lady gave the rules of the press conference: 1. No screaming 2. Pictures could be taken and videos made only before and after the conference. During the conference, all cameras and camcorders had to be out of sight.

Q: How do you guys describe your fan base, and what's the craziest thing a fan's ever done?

Tay: Well, first of all, as far as these guys go, that's what it's all about. Without them coming out here and standing and waiting all day, that's {something I can't understand} show. So, I think, whoever your fans are, that's who it's about. So whether they're young or old that's who it's about.

Q: {Have you got any staying power?}

Tay: I don't . . .

Zac: I don't think anyone really does. It's all about whoever buys the record. If they don't buy the record then you're gone.

Ike: That's really what it's about, making and hoping that people continue to enjoy your music, because if people don't buy your records, like they just said, then you can't continue to do it.

Tay: I think you just keep doing the things you've always done and hope that people still enjoy it and you can enjoy it.

Q: Do you have any advice for people who have been trying to break into music for 10, 20, 30 years and still haven't made it? Do you have any advice for people like that?

Ike: It's a very hard thing. I mean, you never know what's going to happen. The truth is you just have to keep working and just going for it. That's all you can really say. Just play wherever you can, and try to get out there as much as you possibly can because that's really all you can do.

Tay: Yeah, I don't think there's one secret. I think it's just work your butt off.

Q: Do you get a chance to enjoy the cities where you tour or do you get recognized everywhere?

Tay: We try to see things. Actually the last time we were here on TTMoN, the last time we were here we got to see the Redwoods and that was really cool, but. . .

Ike: We got to go to the Muir woods and everything and it was very cool.

Tay: So we try to see things in every city but it just depends. Like today, we're doing a show tonight so it'll be pretty quick, so hopefully we'll try to see as much as we can. San Francisco is really cool. It's totally awesome.

Q: Guys, can you be normal teenagers at all. Do you play Nintendo and hang out in your hotel rooms? Can you just be normal?

Ike: Ah, I don't think we have any problems being normal. I think we're pretty much pretty normal

Tay: I think if you hung out with us for a day, you'd be pretty surprised because of course we're just normal kids.

Zac: We make money, but. . .

Tay: We're pretty normal.

{{The Announcing Lady made an announcement that she was still seeing cameras}}

Tay: She's strict. {{everyone laughs}}

Ike: Well, guys she is here because of the press and because of the cameras and we really can't have the flashes going off.

{{Announcing lady starts saying if she sees cameras or camcorders, people will be asked to leave}}

Tay: You never know who's really your friends, until you {{laughter drowns out the rest}}

Q: How many marriage proposals do you get a day?

Tay: We don't count.

Ike: Well, we actually, no, um, actually {{something}} we haven't gotten very many of those, thank goodness, but, uh . . .

Tay: Well, you know, in concert, people will hold up signs. But I think it's just any band, you know, you're out there and people see you they think they love your band, so you're going to get a little of that no matter who you are, and I think it has nothing to do with us personally, when you get things like that.

Q: What's the weirdest thing a fan has ever asked you to sign?

Ike: Ummmmmmmmm . . . {{{laughter}}}

Tay: Do you really want to know that? That's the question.

Ike: Probably a bra strap is probably the weirdest thing.

Tay: We usually don't s-sign that stuff, like that.

Q: Your face is on tee shirts and mugs and everything. Is there anything that your face isn't on that you'd like to see it on?

Tay: I'd say, we probably in some ways we kind of don't want to go too overboard doing things like that. I mean you have tee shirts and posters and things like that, but

Ike: A lot of that other stuff is not actually our stuff. We really don't like doing too much of that. Really, the truth is it's about the music and you just hope the people buy your tee shirt it will facilitate your continuing to do the music.

Zac: I want to see my face on your head. {{laughter}}

Tay: How would you do that exactly?

Ike: It would be like Face Off or something like that, you know.

Tay: I don't think we're ever going to make deodorant or anything like that {{laughter}}

Q: What inspires you to make music?

Ike: What inspires us? Uh. . .just about anything, anything can inspire you.. .

Tay: I think you guys, going to the show and having the crowd psyched to be there, and having fun, I mean that's inspiration.

Ike: But also just any modern music that we listen to. We listen to anything from Bob Dylan to Massive Attack from En Vogue to Arosmith. All kinds of different things. And so really, just anything that you listen to I think influences you in some sort of way.

Tay: It influences you in one way or another.

Q: What do you guys want to be doing in fifteen years?

Tay: What did you think you were going to be doing fifteen years ago?

Q: I didn't know what I was going to be doing.

Tay: Exactly!

Zac: Herding cattle.

Ike: Herding cattle. That's really interesting.

Ike: Actually we just hope we can continue to do music. That's what we've always wanted to do, and we've been lucky enough to get the opportunity to do it at such a young age and so early on, and so I would just hope that we would be able to continue to do it because that's what we're loving to do, and I hope that we can continue to do it.

Tay: I think that you're always, you know, we sure didn't plan any of this, so all you can do is just continue to love what you're doing and have alot of fun, and as we said, if people continue to like it, then that makes it possible for you to still be around.

Q: You've got three younger siblings. Do they {want to join the band?}

{{question is drowned out by fans yelling FOUR!}}

Tay: Four. Thank you. I was about to say that. {{Tay's saying something else but there's a lot of crowd noise.}}

Tay: No, it is not true that they are going to be joining the band, or their own band.

Ike: Actually, that's actually probably one of the most asked questions. And I would be really surprised if they joined the band if merely for the fact that they. . .

Tay: Well, just the fact that our little sister is 6 months old. She's not exactly going to be running out on stage.

Ike: But really, they enjoy music very much so I don't think they're wanting to join the band, and if they decided to do anything musically, I would imagine they would do their own and not be part of

Tay: We just want them to do whatever they really want to do.

Q: Do they travel with you?

Tay: Yeah, our whole family travels with us.

Q: Do your parents supervise you?

Tay: Umm, our parents. . .

Zac: What do you mean, supervise us?

Ike: Well, our parents are our parents so I mean, therefore, I guess they play the "parental role". Oooo! But they. . .

Tay: Our parents are pretty cool. They travel around and they {love everything}, and they kind of do everything with us, I guess you could say. They help us out. They {do something} and make it fun for everyone.

Q: {Can't hear this question}

Tay: I would say. I would think, um, just the public just the music. I don't think there's one way or another to predict how something's going to happen. I think it was awesome that. . .

Zac: There is no way to predict how it's going to happen. You can be number one one week, and then the next day

Tay: Nobody knows who you are

Zac: You won't have any idea

Q: {Can't hear the question}

Tay: There's a lot of other bands, so we're just kind of. There are a million other bands out there that are doing awesome, so we're just one of those, so it's lucky enough to have a few fans so we can play so we can do it. Everything's changing every day. There's a new band and new music. Just like movies or anything like that, so you just continue to do it and hopefully you can be one of those people that is still doing the music.

Q: How do you feel about performing live?

Ike: I really think that live performance is very is important at least for us anyway, I mean we . . .

Tay: Of course, for us, you know that's what we do. If you're a band and you're not playing, it's like what's the point? So I think doing shows is really a way to communicate with your fans. I mean, it's one thing to hear a song on the radio, but to really go out and play in front of plenty of people is fun for you and fun for them.

Ike: It has been great to get on tour, because this is something we've wanted to do for a very long time. So being on tour now and getting to see everybody, I guess you could say, in person, it's very cool and we're really enjoying it very much and we're hoping that everybody will enjoy tonight's show.

Q: Girls have pictures of you on their bedroom walls. Who's on your bedroom walls?

Tay: That's a good question actually, we don't

Zac: Nothing

Ike: We don't have anything on our bedroom walls

Zac: Seriously. Literally nothing.

Q: Who's your favorite female group?

Ike and Tay: Favorite female group. Umm . . .

Zac: Hanson! {laughter}

Ike: I think you just dissed yourself.

Tay: Ooo!

Ike: Well, I really don't know. We like all kinds of different things.. .

Zac: I would say, female group, well we listen to all kinds of music. Not one thing.

Q: What would you do if it all ended tomorrow?

Ike: We would continue to do music whether a million people or one person or ten people . . .

Zac: We would go, "Wow!" {laughter}

Tay: "That's interesting!" I think you can't take music out of somebody. I think whenever there's something you love to do, that is always going to be in you, so no matter what happens, it's always going to be a part of you. So hopefully we'll be able to just continue to do it in our garage in Tulsa, Oklahoma or somewhere.

Q: Have you ever written a song that one of you liked and one of you didn't? How did you deal with it?

Zac: First of all, we probably wouldn't finish writing a song if one of us didn't like it. Or two of us.

Ike: Well, I guess you could just finish it with the two of you, but then well, the thing is, I mean. . .

Tay: There are songs. . .

Zac: If you don't like it, you can it

Ike: Well, there are songs that maybe somebody doesn't like it as much, but for the most part if they end up on the album or something like that,

Tay: everybody

Ike: everybody's pretty much an opinion of the song. I think most of the time when there's a song that one of you really doesn't like, then it's more likely that all of you go, "You know, that's a song that's really not. . .

Tay: {can't understand}

Ike: Yeah, there you go.

Tay: You definitely have bad songs.

Q: What do you think your worst song is? You thought, "This didn't turn out the way we thought?"

Tay: Well, the songs that didn't turn out the way, that were really bad, you don't remember.

Ike: Or you try not to remember. And one thing's for sure: We wouldn't sing them for you.

Tay: or tell you

Q: I have a question, I just saw a girl up there in the front, who had a sign up that said "I saw Hanson in Washington DC and I traveled 500 miles to see them".

Tay: Wow!

Ike: Wait... no actually wasn't that 2,500 miles? Isn't that what it says?

Fan: Yeah

Ike: Oh my goodness, well congratulations. You are awesome!

{clapping and cheering}

Ike: I think that's very cool, I mean the fact that, that young lady would travel that far to see us is pretty humbling actually. So, that's...

Tay: Hopefully it'll be another awesome show

Ike: Yeah, hopefully she'll enjoy it.

Q: Why do you think people travel like that? What brought these people here?

Tay: What was it? Why did you travel?

Zac: Why are you here?

Fans: Because we love you!

Zac: There's your answer

Tay: That's one answer

Q: Are you guys gonna cut your hair?

{Everyone yells "NOOOOO!"}

Tay: Um... the unanimous vote is no but um, I don't you know it's just hair, your hair grows back even if you cut it off it will grow back eventually, so it depends...

Ike: Yeah, I mean, you know, it's a

{Announcer Lady: Okay, guys, 5 minutes}

Q: What's life like on the road?

Tay: It's all about, um... brothers, I guess if we're all on the road together.

Zac: No it's all about (in a strange voice:) "Get away from me!"

Tay: Exactly. We, you know, basically we've been on the road for the last year and a half since the album came out, whether we were playing shows all the time or not, we've all, it's kind of like, we've always been on the road so I think now that we're on tour, we're on the road, except for now we're gonna have shows every day now so...

Ike: And it's actually more... it's actually more fun that way because like we said, live performance and being the band is really what we do. So getting the opportunity to do that more frequently is, has been a real...

Tay: It's kind of like you don't know what interview you're gonna do for the next week, instead of having, you know, we're going to do a show in San Francisco, we're going to do a show in Denver you know, it's awesome to be able to say we're going to play music, so you know like someone asks you what you're gonna do you actually know. You actually know what day it is, and you know what . . .

Q: ?

Tay: Um... it's hard to say the goals. I think they'd be um, hopefully, hopefully we might expand out of music but I mean, we're a band so. But now there's been all kinds of things like people saying we're going to do a movie and all those kind of things but I think maybe in the future but definitely a long ways from now.

Q: I heard a rumor that you guys got caught rollerblading in the lobby of a hotel

Tay: Many a hotel

Ike: Yes we have, many times actually. You know we were in England and we're... we were trying to be very curteous . We put on our rollerblades in our rooms cause we didn't want to have to take our shoes out there so we put them on in the hotel. Ok... and the guys says {British accent:} "Excuse me sir, this is a four star hotel" {laughter drowns out the rest}

Tay: You'd be like Emma Peel. {something in a British accent} And so you just kind of walk out and they, you know, look at you like "those kids!" and like, you just rollerblade. It's fun.

{Crowd says "Awww" like they're feeling sorry for Hanson}

Zac: No! It's, it's more fun that way!

Ike: Because then you get to tell the story afterward about how snooty the guy in the lobby was.

Q: I heard a similar story. You guys got busted for playing with bouncy balls in the toy store.

Ike: Um... that... that is...

Zac: That is not...

Ike: That is not true, yes, that is not true

Q: I work for the new Z95.7, I had a girl call me the other day that said she had 4,012 posters of you guys...

Tay: Wow! That's...

Q: How often are you in a photo shoot?

Ike: Um well unfortunately those, probably half of those are like photos that are pretty scary. Some dude from like three miles away with a lens about this long . . .

Zac: They only get the back of your head

Tay: It's a lens, you know, about that big around. You walk into a place and there's a lens as big as your head, and you're like . . .

Q: How much income tax did you guys pay last year?

Tay: How much did you pay?

Q: A lot

Tay: A lot!

Ike: A lot! Yes, unfortunately, a lot. Um. . .

Q: There are all these girls like crying after every song {can't hear the rest}

Tay: Don't cry!

Zac: ::singing in a weird voice:: "Don't cry for me Argentina!!" {laughter}

Tay: More like San Francisco

Q: ?

Ike: I think it's pretty safe to say. . .

Zac: That's me

Ike: Yeah that was Zac. I mean I think it's pretty safe to say that we have our parents and the rest of our family is into that. Just, just each other because really we just, we just get along very well. I really don't know what to say. I mean we, we just, we hang out a lot and we get along so, um, you know I mean. . .

Tay: I think you kind of play off each other, we hit each other on the head if we start getting a little bit too big headed, so. . .

{Announcer Lady: Three more questions}

Q: What was it like to work with Gus Van Sant?

Ike: Gus Van Sant was incredible, he is {something}

Tay: Um, yeah, he's actually become a good friend now. He's very cool, um it was awesome just to get to work with such a cool director, {can't understand}

Ike: And, actually yeah, Gus was actually at the show that we did in the Hollywood Bowl which was very cool. And we got to talk to him very shortly afterwards. And what, what was really cool working with Gus was we had come up with this concept and we were trying, trying to find a director and Gus had shown interest. And when we talked to him he just made it happen like that. I mean, he had the connections and was able to do it. And the coolest thing was, you're working with this amazing director who is just so well known and he actually worked the closest on that video, on the kind of, I guess you could say, the director end of it, than on any other video.

Tay: He was very open, and completely like, "You guys do whatever you want." I think that's what makes a good director, because he's working with the band and trying to {something}

Ike: And he was, he is really amazing and we've become friends, so it's, it's very cool.

Q: Have you ever gotten sick and had to cancel a show?

Zac: Um, Well no, actually. You get sick and you have to do it anyway. We were in Florida and Tay and I were, you know, barfing all over the place, and our joke was if you're gonna barf, don't barf on the audience.

Tay: Yeah, you turn backwards if you're gonna throw up. {Tay demonstrates how to do this}

Ike: Yeah, don't throw up on the keyboards. {Audience "eww"s}

Zac: Many times, it's happened

Tay: The show must go on

Ike: Yeah the show must go on as they say, yeah.

Q: {Do you guys get nervous on stage}

Tay: Um I think, I think when we first started you might get a little bit of stage fright, but once you're out on stage it's like... it's all awesome. You're just enjoying the crowd, enjoying playing the music and it's the whole... the whole environment is just fun

Ike: Yeah...

Tay: It's like, it's like just sitting in your garage and playing rock 'n' roll. I mean it's, it's the same but without a lot of people making lots of noise so. . .

Ike: It is, it is a very amazing experience to be up on stage. It's just one of those you things you just can't explain and, and without you guys being there, you know, this kind of thing wont be able to happen so, thank you guys very much.

{Announcer Lady asks them to talk about the concert and say thanks}

Ike: Ok well. ummmmm.....

Zac: {strange voice} I want to do it. {normal voice} We can go into the shpiel of. . .

Tay: Yeah, we could go into the big shpiel. Well first of all, thank you guys for waiting so long. I mean you guys waited a long time.

{cheering}

Tay: And uh, thanks to all the press that came today and it's uh, been very cool. We're looking very much forward to the show to night.

Zac: {Strange voice} Thank you everyone. You've been great.

{Announcer lady says she'll give gifts to hanson}

Tay: Okay

Ike: Thank you guys again! We'd like to thank everyone for...

Zac: Thank you guys! See you guys tonight!