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Ryan Ross Hernandez Appears as a Guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live
Jimmy: Our first guest tonight is a multiple time award winning artist, over twenty millions records sold worldwide. His talent and charisma makes people of all ages swoon over him. His sixth and forthcoming album titled "Traveling Tales" will be released on October 22nd. Please welcome Ryan Ross Hernandez!
Ryan steps out looking rather sharp in a gray suit, Jimmy standing from his seat to welcome him. The two shake hands, briefly exchanging inaudible words before they return to sit, Hernandez waving at the audience as they continue to applaud and cheer for him.
Jimmy: Thank you for stopping by the show. Everything going alright?
Ryan: Yeah, everything's good again. I'm back touring, my voice is back to its original shape and form. It's a really happy time in my life.
Jimmy: That's great to hear. You just played at the Hollywood Bowl last weekend, correct?
Ryan: I did, I did. That was a very special show for me, a lot of friends of mine made it out to that show. It was just a great night for music, great atmosphere.
Jimmy: Well I read an L.A. Times review of your concert at the Hollywood Bowl, and it got a pretty great review. I saw that even Isabel Mejores was at the show.
Ryan: She was, which was a surprise to me. I know her, we worked in a television series together and always kind of ran in circles around Los Angeles that meant we ran into each other every now and then. But it was really cool to see her at the show and actually having bought a ticket to go to the concert. She didn't call anybody and was like, "I'm Isabel Mejores, biggest popstar in the last two years, I want tickets to go see Ryan Ross Hernandez." No, she actually wanted to attend the show on her terms. It's humbling to see a fellow artist with the success she's had, just skyrocket success, to still come out as a fan of my work.
Jimmy: You know, it's funny, I always try to call places saying I'm Isabel Mejores, biggest popstar in the world, and they never believe that I'm her. [audience laughs]
Ryan: [chuckles] I don't think it would work for us, no. Especially when we got there they'd see these two guys in their mid-thirties and forties trying to take the identity of a 20 year old female. [audience laughs]
Jimmy: [laughs] Yeah, probably not. You're still currently in the middle of touring, right?
Ryan: Yeah, we just wrapped up the North American leg of the tour last Saturday here in Los Angeles. I head over to Denmark in a couple of days to start the European part of the tour which is like another week in a half, two weeks of touring.
Jimmy: I have the dates here and you're playing shows in Denmark, Norway, United Kingdom, Netherlands. And you just wrapped a very long run of dates here in the United States.
Ryan: I did, it's a very long tour we're on right now. I have breaks, like this week I've been off, then after that European tour I have about three weeks without a show before we start a Fall tour here back in the states.
Jimmy: When did you start touring again?
Ryan: Right around fourth of July, give or take a day or two.
Jimmy: And when does it officially end?
Ryan: It ends when I quit, pretty much. [chuckles] Right now I'm just thrilled to be touring again.
Jimmy: Which for good reason. I know you had a serious problem with your vocal chords in the last year or two.
Ryan: I had a very serious situation where this growth, what they call a granuloma, developed and it kinda kept me out of the singing for a while. It's a interesting to me when I tell people I meet through other friends or just acquaintances, when I tell them I haven't toured in three years. Most people who don't know me on a deeper level or aren't fans keeping up, I tend to have noticed that they weren't aware I was ever away. [audience laughs] That's how I know I'm really not important anymore. Three years of my life went by, I moved to Montana, I own a dog now. All of a sudden I come back and most people are like, "oh, you're here! We never even noticed you were gone. I assumed I had to go to a show of yours last Summer." [audience laughs]
Jimmy: [chuckles] What exactly do they do to your throat to fix the vocal problems you had?
Ryan: Well first we tried just resting, serious vocal rest, it didn't work. Then in August of last year I had a surgery done, didn't work either. I had to go see a lot of different specialists in Los Angeles, New York, Boston, I was all over the place. Then I finally met this brilliant doctor who suggested that injecting botox into my vocal chords, pretty much freezing them so they can't touch. I could try to make a sound but nothing was going to happen.
Jimmy: How do they inject botox to your vocal chords?
Ryan: Literally just grab a needle and put it through your neck to get to your vocal chords. I wasn't put down or anything. The day that treatment was suggested, it was done that very same day. It would've been fine had it been one or two injections, but I actually had about twenty or thirty botox injections put through my neck to my vocal chords to make sure they would not come in contact. So that took months and months to wear off. Aside from that, I couldn't speak for weeks, then when my voice started to come back, I still had to rest my voice a lot to not risk the granuloma returning.
Jimmy: Did you cry when you had that many needles put through your neck? [chuckles]
Ryan: I didn't cry during the process of feeling these needles, but I did cry when the doctor told me it was going to be done right there at that very moment and I was going to lose not be able to say a word in about three days. That is terrifying. That's like being on a plane that you know is going to go down but having enough time to say goodbye to everyone you care about. It was never a question of if my voice was going to comeback, but just how long it would take for it to heal and be able to sing again.
Jimmy: You know that doctor probably went home and told everyone he knew how much of a wuss Ryan Ross Hernandez is.
Ryan: [laughs] You and every single person would have been a total wuss as well. The physical pain isn't that bad for me, but the impending kind of doom if you will, of not being able to speak was what got to me. I think in the span of time, like three days, before my voice went away, I called everyone I had ever met and told them that I loved them. [chuckles]
 
Jimmy: [chuckles] During this period of time you did move to Montana. I know you mentioned that earlier.
Ryan: Yes, I did move to Montana. I moved to this really small town in Montana, and actually the home I own there is out of that really small town next to it too. I really do live in the middle of nowhere. The internet connection is terrible. The phone signal isn't much better either. But yeah, I bought this place as kind of a getaway before I knew I wasn't going to be able to tour, so I just spent a lot of the time when I wasn't touring out there in Montana. Which was a good thing, because during the time when I couldn't tour and just lived out there, I became a part of the community. It's not the celebrity who moves to this odd place and drops in every once in a while, I actually really integrated myself there.
Jimmy: Without internet or cell signal, what do you when you're out there? I mean when you first got out there you must have not known anyone.
Ryan: I just roamed around and met people, listened to the history of the area, learning the culture. I'll say that it's much harder living in a small town and making it count for something, than living in a big city. Everything I do in this small town in Montana really does matter and can make a difference. I learned a lot just from having conversations and really listening to people. Someone gave me advice to not show up in town and be driving a sports car or a Land Rover, so now in Montana I drive a Ford truck, a Ford Raptor. They respect someone who drives a Ford truck because you're not showing off or making yourself purposely recognizable. If I'm in Montana and someone wants an autograph or picture, I always say yes because I'm bound to see that person again, you know. [chuckles; audience laughs]
Jimmy: I heard somewhere that you were trying your hand at fly fishing in Montana.
Ryan: Yeah, I have the Yellowstone River flowing through my backyard and I tried that for a while. It's very difficult to fly fish. It's not something for dumb people. [audience laughs] People who fly fish are very smart people and I'm not there yet. I'm going to keep practicing but I'm not going to say I fly fish until I actually know what the hell I'm doing. I don't want to make a total fool of myself.
Jimmy: Does being in Los Angeles feel a bit weird after spending so much time in a small town?
Ryan: No, it's actually nice when I come back to Los Angeles. I can take part in the nonsense of Los Angeles, just by the way this city moves. But at the same time I can say it's not my thing, I don't live in Los Angeles. If you live here, you have a house under your name here, you're a resident of L.A. You can worry about traffic and that sort of very Los Angeles thing to worry about, but when I come here now. I'm not gonna lie it's probably all bullcrap what I'm telling you right now, I'm as much of the problem as everyone else here. But I have a license that says I'm a Montana resident and I can just raise my hands and be like, "I'm just visting, I'm a vistor here."
Jimmy: [laughs] Yeah, just clearly wanting to get the point across that you're not from here.
Ryan: [whispers] But I'm having a great freaking time here. [chuckles; audience laughs] I'm having a great time at Serenity Scott's barbecue, or Stephanie Fierce's house warming party, or Ryan Gosling's birthday party. I don't know. [audience laughs]
Jimmy: Were you actually invited to Ryan Gosling's birthday party?
Ryan: No, I was not. That man is a whole other part of Los Angeles that I do not know. [laughs] I'm just trying to work with the demographic of the crowd. That should cover about eighty percent. [audience laughs]
Jimmy: He's talented and funny, I see the appeal that women have on you now. He has a new album coming out titled "Traveling Tales." This is Ryan Ross Hernandez and we'll be right back with him after this commercial break.
Jimmy: And we're back with singer-songwriter Ryan Ross Hernanez. "Traveling Tales" is his new album and his travels continue on as he is set to continue touring through December. We were talking over the break and you mentioned that you now Instagrammed yourself on Instagram after a show. Why is that?
Ryan: Well I've started to do it recently, more so than in the past, because last month I performed in Argentina and Brazil, in all those shows everyone was so into it. They're so passionate about their music and how they take it. I didn't very many phones or cameras taking pictures. But it's different here in the states and in most places now that Instagram has become such a big thing. That's why I think the only reason my show at the Hollywood Bowl sold out is because people wanted to take a picture, post it on Instagram, tag it as Hollywood Bowl then make all their friends jealous. If you're at the Bowl on a Friday or Saturday night you're at the spot to be in Los Angeles pretty much. Unless Isabel or Riot in the Boulevard are playinga the Staples Center that same night, the Bowl is the place to be.
Jimmy: Have you become use to having everyone using the smartphones and cameras to take pictures or videos to post on social media? Or does it still bother you?
Ryan: It doesn't bother me because it's just taken in a different way here. I'm sure people in Brazil still were taking pictures, but here it seems like people take 250 pictures in one night on their phones just to look through them all and post two out of those 250 on Instagram. [audience laughs] In South America, 35,000 were going crazy for the music. Then when I came back to the states the reaction changed, they weren't going as crazy, but that doesn't mean they didn't have a good time at the show. They were going crazy in the sense of trying to win at Instagram by posting pictures of them and their date or friends drinking Bud Light Lime-a-Rita while I created background music for that moment. [audience laughs]
Jimmy: [chuckles] If you don't mind me bringing it up, a lot of people are curious about your current love life. Is there a girlfriend around?
Ryan: [sighs sarcastically; chuckles] We had to get there, right? You know, I'm just happy, I'm truly happy. I'm turning 36 years old next week, which at this point I've become very welcoming of getting older. I feel like my life is so good right now because I not only feel my age, but I'm acting my age. I'm not trying to save my youth in a bottle.
Jimmy: So does that mean you are single or? [audience laughs]
Ryan: It means that I'm at a time in my life where I'm open to getting to know anyone who comes into my life. Anyone who I feel I can get on with, who I find interesting, I'm going to take the time and effort to learn them, while at the same time letting myself be learned by that woman too. You need to find a balance when you're dating someone.
Jimmy: Well that kind of sounds like you're single, so I hope you can find that woman soon.
Ryan: Thank you. I'm not gonna rush it.
Jimmy: I'm looking at the track listing for your new album and you have a song with Serenity Scott on it. Is that a duet?
Ryan: Yes, it is a duet. A beautiful duet if I may say without sounding arrogant for being a part of that song.
Jimmy: The song is called "A Song in My Heart."
Ryan: Yeah, it's a really special moment on the album and just as a musician. There are still some musicians who you can call and tell them the studio doors are open for them to join you, and they'll take you up on it, no pressure. That's what happened with Matty, this rapper on a short little track on the album, but it also was the case for Serenity. We had met at some point in the past and we had quite a few mutual friends, so I got in contact with her and offered her to come in if she wanted, we could try to do something cool. She came in and she was fantastic, she sounds great on that song. It was a great experience for me and hopefully for her as well. We had fun working on that song together. It's a true duet and I don't think we get those very often anymore.
Jimmy: I'm sure everyone looks forward to hearing it and just the whole record in general. The CD is called "Traveling Tales" and it's available everywhere on October 22nd. Ryan Ross Hernandez, everybody. Thank you for being here. We'll be back with more of the show. Edited by user 12 October 2013 06:52:11(UTC)
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