Carter: Our all access pass into these incredible celebrity motor homes now takes us to Nashville, TN to catch up with 90s teen mega stars, Hanson.
C: Hey, what’s up how are ya?
T: Hey Carter
C: Good to see ya, Isaac, how are ya?
T: Welcome to our bus
C: Zac.. Look at this! Nashville Tennessee let’s go check this out!
C: With their international smash hit, MMMBop, multiple grammy nominations and over 16 million album sales, Zac, Taylor and Isaac have been making music for over two decades growing up and touring the world they consider themselves road warrior veterans. And when it comes to their motor home, it’s obvious these guys know how to travel in style.
C: Alright, look at this guys!
Z: Welcome
C: This is it!
C: Customized to make road tripping a pleasurable experience, this 52 foot luxury coach comes fully equipped with Italian wood cabinetry and premium leather ceiling and couches. It’s pretty easy to see why Hanson prefers to hit the super highway in this beauty.
C: This looks like a space that I could hang out in. This is impressive.
T: You’ve got to be comfortable. This has everything you need.
C: It’s a little smaller than I was thinking
T: When you’re on the road, it’s a submarine. You’re in here, you’re rolling down the road but when you stop there is a little bit of a trick to this room.
C: Ok
I: It involves a remote control
C: With the press of a button, this coach doubles in space and transforms into a mobile apartment.
C: There it goes! Look at that!
Z: I’m not moving, it’s just you
C: He gets a ride on it, the room expands, now we’re talking guys. How cool is that? A lot more room
T: You need some elbow room. You live on these things. You’re going from city to city
C: I mean, that makes a lot more room. That’s a noticeable difference.
T: Double the space
I: This is basically double the space
C: This is your main room, you guys hang out here, you do everything in here.
T: This is the room that gets the most traffic
C: Walk me through a little bit of the style of this because I see all the wood paneling
T: When you’ve got a bunch of guys on the road, we figure it should feel like you’re in a cigar lounge
C: It definitely does feel more like a cigar lounge with the chocolate leather on here, with the paneling on here, and the sconces as well and of course all this wood paneling that runs the front pretty much all the way to the back.
C: Ask any touring musician and they’ll say the more important amenity on a bus is a bumpin’ sound system. And these guys make sure to have the best.
C: Walk me through the AV system a little bit.
I: It is surround sound so I mean so you’ve got front and back speakers
T: You’ve got subwoofers under all the chairs
C: So you can get this place rumblin’ a little bit
T: Oh yeah
T: We’ve got two TVs, hanging out on this side you’re a little bit of a downgrade with the size of the television so if you really want to take in the movie, I suggest you move to this side
C: Which is a little bit longer of a sofa
T: You move in here and you take in
C: So do you guys fight for these seats, or no?
Z: It kind of depends, there’s a hierarchy
C: Who wins?
Z: I do
C: You win?
Z: Always.
I: This space we spend so much time because we actually run the record company and things like that so while we’re on the road we’re spending a lot of time talking to people, meetings, things like that
C: Do you guys really get anything done in here?
I: We do actually, we get a lot of things done. Mostly drinking
C: Turning pleasure into business has made Hanson successful entrepreneurs and nowhere is this more apparent then in this rolling beer garden.
T: Are you a beer fan?
C: I’m a big beer fan, yeah, why?
I: We actually do have our own beer. Hanson beer
C: No Way. This is yours? How cool is that? MMMHops. Get it? MMMHops? Whose idea was this?
T: Well actually, you’re sitting on the bus much like right now and we were talking about ideas that we’d be excited about. We run our business for over a decade we run our own label. We thought that one of the things that goes best with music is a good beer.
C: So what am I looking at here?
T: This is a really malty kind of full body American pale ale, it’s kind of got a nice sort of hoppy finish but it’s easy drinking
C: Cheers!
I: Alright
C: This is really good! I am thoroughly impressed guy! At home, if you could taste this right now you would know the deliciousness that is going into my mouth from MMMHops.
C: For the Hanson brothers, there’s nothing better than a home cooked meal on the road. They customized a big feature into this small kitchen.
C: It seems like your kitchenette area is definitely used.
T: Oh yeah! I love to cook, we have a nice convenient stove top that slides out
C: How cool is that! That’s awesome!
I: This is perfect for breakfast for like eggs, Taylor is more the chef than I am, but, I make some mean eggs.
C: Ok so that early in the morning maybe you’ll find eggs. How about you?
Z: I am famous for my blue box macaroni and cheese
C: Oh really. I see a lot of ingredients up here. The fact that you have parsley and chili powder, I mean, that’s pretty impressive.
T: We’re also big coffee fans. You gotta have your coffee. Always fresh coffee running.
C: Do you use the microwave a lot?
T: Oh yeah.
I: Especially for re-heating coffee
T: The last piece of the front lounge is the important element of the fridge! Fridge and two drawers
C: Nice! And then you have the wine chiller
T: Of course!
C: Look at that. How cool is this? I love that you guys have got your priorities. And another fridge up here?
T: This is a freezer
C: To cool down in this really warm weather. This is cool. So this is like another separate area to your kitchenette so you don’t kind of clog the area up there.
T: Yep.
Z: I’m glad you liked the front lounge, as we to go to the back, that’s where the real party happens.
C: Real party? Let’s go check this out.
C: Coming up. Teen icons Hanson shows us a feature that you won’t be able to look away from.
C: This room is by far one of the best in the whole bus.
Z: It’s really just about this
C: Our tour of Hanson’s incredible coach continues as we bop our way towards the back to check out some bunk spaces where these brothers have traveled enough miles on tour to circle the globe more than 25 times.
T: Welcome into the submarine
C: oh look at this!
T: Everyone’s got their little bunk I mean, it’s pretty tight quarters
C: Time out. Everybody has their own little bunk, I see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 bunks and one is for cameras
T: There’s some junk bunks
C: These are good sized bunks. Have you guys all gotten comfortable sleeping in bunks on a bus
T: We’ve been sleeping in bunks since we were kids so this is like. This rocks us to sleep.
C: Was there any ever rhyme or reason to who has what bunk?
T: It’s sort of bottom or top and I actually prefer a lot of times to be a little higher up but in this case, it’s also nice to sort of have access to your stuff, I’m a bit of a camera junkie
C: Because of being on the road, you’ve got to have something to do. And something besides just your music
Z: Yeah,when you’re living in confined spaces and a lot of times there’s fans outside the bus, you can’t necessarily just walk around everywhere, having someway to get away is important so you find those things to help you do it.
C: So now we know where you guys sleep, where you guys hang out, what’s in the back of the bus?
T: We’re gonna show you
C: The last stop on our tour takes us to an amazing back lounge where Zac has planted his flag and claimed his own personal retreat.
C: This room is by far one of the best in the whole bus.
Z: They’ve got their own junk bunks, Taylor sort of works in the kitchen, but the back lounge is really my
C: Your area?
Z: My lounge. It’s really just about the TV and the gaming system
C: Oh you’re a gamer! How much time do you spend gaming?
Z: It’s the first thing I do in the morning and the last thing I do before I go to bed.
C: You’re a total gamer. You don’t need your own bunk. You have this whole back space to be a gamer!
Z: Yeah
C: The one thing I like about this is you have the carpet on the floor so it’s a little bit cozy-er and you can come back here without your shoes on and then you have your great big banquette that can fit a lot of people and wow he totally scored in this deal!
T: I know!
C: How did you guys get pushed out of this? I mean he totally scores
I: We don’t like his smell.
C: Oh, that’s what it is. Alright
C: In a tour bus, space is a luxury and these guys take full advantage and turn this back lounge into their private closet.
C: I see a lot of storage compartments back here too
Z: Yeah so in the back we also have three closets and this is where we put a lot of our stage clothes
I: Truth is. This is actually my area in the back. This is all my clothes.
T: Zac may have the lounge, Ike claims the closets.
C: So how’d that happen?
Z: Cuz Isaac’s a girl
I: Because I like to dress well
C: I love the fact that you guys have got all this space back here because now like we said before, storage is a premium on the bus
I: Oh yes
T: Definitely
C: So having something like this
Z: Which, Speaking of storage being at a premium. The cooler.
C: Look at this. They’ve got coolers everywhere. That is impressive. I’ve seen a ton of cool features on buses but this is the coolest.
I: Filled with beer. And of course, soda.
Z: Soda? It’s pop, Ike. We’re from the Midwest.
C: Yeah, Cmon Ike. Cmon
C: Thank you guys so much for showing me around, I love the fact that your motor home, you have all these cool features on it. From the front lounge area to all those bunks all the space there and then even this back area which I know is your area
Z: Yes.
C: But now I know you have a few hours. So let’s just have a few beers?
Let’s do it!