The Hanson brothers are letting their fans in on a family secret.
On Friday, June 14, the singers appeared on The View to surprise co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin on her birthday, performing a medley of songs including “MMMBop” and “Where’s the Love.” While on the show, the brothers, who are about to head out on tour, joked that getting on the road helps them stop having kids.
“This is hard to keep track of cause all of you are no longer kids, you have kids. Isaac, you and your wife have three kids, Taylor, you and your wife have seven kids and Zac, you and your wife have five kids,” Sara Haines says. “And you just announced that you’re heading out on tour. So how does that work?”
“So we can stop having children,” Zac Hanson, 38, jokes.
“Is that your form of birth control?” Haines asks.
“It’s old school. Distance, it works!” Zac responds.
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Zac shares his five kids — sons Shepherd, Abraham, and Quincy, and daughters Junia and Lucille — with wife Kate Tucker. Taylor Hanson is dad to sons Ezra, River, Viggo, and Indiana, and daughters Penelope, Wilhelmina and Maybellene, who he shares with wife Natalie Bryant.
Isaac Hanson is dad to sons Everett and Monroe and daughter Odette, who he shares with wife Nina.
In 2022, the Hanson brothers opened up to PEOPLE about how they prioritize fatherhood over fame, sharing that most of the time, they’re just “Dad” to their kids.
“My kids, they don’t think of our career at all,” said Zac.
“They’re always welcome, but [with my kids I’ll be] like, ‘You want to come to the show?’ [They’ll say,] ‘Yeah, nah. Maybe next time’ — in a beautifully confident way,” he added. “Some of my kids love music, and today, one of my daughters is singing at a little local festival, but she doesn’t care at all that her dad sings. She’s just like, ‘I want to sing, so I’m going to go sing.’ ”
Taylor said he has a bit of a “different” perspective on his kids’ relationship with music, since they range so much in age.
“You definitely see the way they reflect on what it is to have a musical family,” he said. “You also see that people are going to be who they are. I have some that are extremely like, ‘I want to be on stage. I want to be a drummer. I want to play music.’ One of my boys said at one point, ‘You know, Dad, I think I want to control the musicians, not be one.’ I was like, ‘Okay, that’s scary.’ Future manager.”
“Even though we’re parents, and we’ve seen our kids get older, we’re doing many of the things that we were doing back when we were teenagers, and they’ve seen that,” he continued. “Especially with my older kids, they’ve really seen what it means to go on tour. They know that it’s going to be a lot of fun, for sure, but it’s a lot of work. Hopefully they get and appreciate that side of it.”