Sky News Australia
Zac Hanson was 11 years old when he and his two brothers had a massive worldwide hit with the song MMMBop.
While some might think he was too young to be in the music industry, he reckons, now that he’s a father of four children, that kids are natural rock stars.
‘They can’t do anything themselves, they’re always like ‘I want this, get it for me’ they’re pooping in their pants, they walk around with their juice boxes like they’re on some sort of drugs, all the stereotypes of rock stars comes from children,’ Hanson told AAP.
As the youngest member of Hanson, Zac may have been the most qualified to be there.
Luckily, the trio’s success, which began with the release of the hit album Middle of Nowhere in 1997, didn’t herald a succession of bad life choices that often comes with early fame.
And 25 years after they formed Hanson, brothers, Zac, Taylor and Isaac have managed to maintain their wholesome image.
‘We’re very normal human beings so that means we drank and smoke and all those things, we just didn’t do it on camera very much and still don’t. I think our image is clean, void of rehab sessions, because that’s what we always wanted, we weren’t interested in that,’ he said.
‘The rock ‘n roll is what we’ve always been mostly interested in and the sex and the drugs is just something that happens along the way.’
Hanson have released six studio albums, selling more than 16 million of them, and their The Middle of Everywhere world tour will be a celebration of their decades together.
While a refrain like MMMBop’s has the potential to drive the sanest person mad if played enough, you can be certain the Hanson boys will be playing it loud and proud every night on their tour.
‘Someone might go ‘Aren’t you sick of playing all those old songs’ and we say ‘no we play ’em every night because our fans want that’. Because we’re fans of music and when I go see a band I love I still want to hear those songs that I first fell in love with. When I go see Billy Joel, I don’t care how many times he’s played Uptown Girl, I want to hear it,’ he said.
Hanson’s tour will take them Down Under next month which will be a sort-of homecoming for the Oklahoma natives.
‘In the first two or three years people would go ‘so where in Australia are you from?’ and we’re like ‘where did you get that?’ ‘Oh we saw you surfing in the MMMBop video,we just assumed blonde guys surfing must be from Australia’,’ Hanson said.
‘But that one has been cleared up.’
Hanson kick off their tour on June 15 in Perth and head to Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Gold Coast, Brisbane and Auckland.