An Update From Ron

We went to visit HYN reporter Ron Simonsen the other day and we're happy to report that he is in good spirits. His health is getting better and he continues to talk with Chad Everett on a regular basis. He loves getting cards and phone calls, so go ahead and get in touch!


While we were editing the new series we realized it needed some narration and who better for that than Mr. Ron Simonsen himself. So you'll hear Ron narrating our adventures in the new series. Even if he can't be with us out on the road, we'll always get inspiration from Dr. Ron!

We Crashed the Bus!

Everyone agreed that we needed a bad-ass opening for our new series so cameraman P.H. O'Brien came up with a crazy plan. "Let's build a billboard and crash the bus through it," he said.

"Excellent!" we all replied.


Russ the bus driver and PH spent countless hours planning out this stunt. They even crashed a few cars through test materials to see which ones would work best. They settled upon a top secret mixture of styro-foam, two-by-fours, and pencils. Seriously, they used pencils to hold this stuff together.




We rented a huge airplane hanger out at the the old airport to hold the three billboards they built. No sense just doing this once!



We all gathered together on our last day in Austin to watch the big crash go down. Would Russ survive? What about our beloved bus? We held our breath and...BAM! It worked!


Way to go, Russ, PH, and Trace...you made us proud! Wait till you see it on film...a killer opening for a killer show, we hope.

The Shows at SXSW

Oh boy, where do we begin in telling the tale of our great adventure down in Austin, Texas? We were all very excited and honored to be included as a band at the big South by Southwest music festival. Over 1500 bands from all over the world played that week, and we were one of them! We arrived in town a few days early so that we could rehearse and begin taping episode three of our series down there. We rented a big house in South Austin and settled in nicely. Here we are taping some intro shots in front of the bus:




We interviewed many of the talented musicians who where in town that week. Some of them even jammed with us. Our favorite was "Lightspeed Champion" from England. He rocked!



We played two shows that week, one at night and one during the day. Here's some shots of the day show at Scoot Inn:




Afterwards Sue Harrington needed a dunking in the ice bucket to cool down...


And here's some shots from our big midnight show at Bourbon Rocks. About 250 people showed up and the band blew the roof off the place! Except there was no roof, just a tent...


Chad and Brendan find a groove:


Sean strums while Sue belts out "Respect":


Lucas wows the crowd with his teeth playing prowess:



Sean boogies down:


Larry, Jeremy, and Lucas bang out the beat:


Bob takes the mic for his show stopping song:


Jeremy talks to the admiring fans after the show:


It was a great show, and a great week in Austin. We love that town! Now we're all at home resting and getting ready for the next big trip...New Orleans here we come!

Texas!

We're all back home now after a great trip back to good old Texas. Pictures to come soon, but until then please enjoy this clip from our very first trip to Texas:

California Dreamin'

So here's the report from our trip to California. We arrived in Venice Beach after a three day road trip across the desert and everyone had a few days of rest before we started taping episode number two of our series. This was an exciting episode because we got to interview people on the red carpet at the Grammy Awards. But first we went surfing at Huntington Beach.


Here's Sue interviewing professional surfer Courtney Conlogue:


Later on we picked up a hitch hiker and it turned out to be John Stamos. Boy was Jeremy excited about that. Here they are talking about girls on the HYN bus:


And then the whole team interviewed him in our mobile news room.



Then it was time for the Grammy Award Ceremony. Here's Sue and Larry talking to Akon:


And here's Jeremy waiting to talk to Cindy Lauper:


But he was most excited about meeting The Muppets!

Vegas Baby

Once we'd finished the music recording we got on a plane and flew to Las Vegas where we met our new tour bus. Wow! It was built in 1976 and we fixed it up with bunk beds and a news desk in the back for mobile news reports. Check it out:



Here's Sean and Sue in the back doing a "mobile" news report:



Everyone fits inside!


Bunkbeds!


While we were in Vegas we covered lots of Vegas style events like the Miss America contest, the Rambo movie premiere (We interviewed Sly Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger!), and a UFC fight.


Then we hit the road for California, interviewing whoever crossed our path. Here's Sue talking with some folks in Slab City:


And then it was time for a little rest...

HYN in the studio

After months of planning and preparation we finally got the gang together to film the first two episodes of our new series for mtv. The first thing we did was head to the studio in order to record a new theme song. We've recruited two more musicians into HYN, Brendan and Lucas. Both of them have Williams Syndrome, like Jeremy. Brendan plays bass and Lucas plays guitar. They rock!


Chad jams with Lucas:


Jeremy Vest on the drums!




Larry rocks the organ:



Sue had a cold so we're going to record her vocals later, but everyone else sounded great!
Thanks Dan Curran for the photos!

Next up: We're off to Vegas to tape Episode number one