Rest assured that Hanson is not resting on his laurels, though. The singer and musician says Stewart — who has never won the Mirrorball Trophy in her seven seasons on the show — is keeping him busy and making him put in the work, as they are “not playing around” in their pursuit of the win. As for what that looks like and how it will play out throughout the season, check out DECIDER’s full interview with Hanson below.

DECIDER: I gotta start by asking you about the fan theories online. Some people seem to think that it was your fans who crashed the ABC site. What is your reaction to that?

TAYLOR HANSON: You know, there are no concrete facts at my disposal to debate it in either direction, but I will say I have seen the most amazing fan engagement over my career in music, and fans that have followed my world over the years have definitely crashed a server, so anything’s possible.

They are clearly going to be turning out this season for you. I want to ask you about starting with the quickstep, because I’ve seen some back and forth. Some people say it’s better to start at the cha cha and get your hips loose, others think the quickstep is not where you want to start because it’s so fast. Do you think that was the best way to start for you?

I don’t think there’s a perfect way. Everybody’s different. It’s a little bit of a fool’s errand to try and isolate and be like, “This would have been better.” What my experience has been so far is, one, I think the biggest thing is having a great partnership, having that click. Britt’s a phenomenal teacher. She’s kind of the pro’s pro. And her teaching style is really welcoming. And so I think, to me, that’s kind of the foundation of everything is just really taking her lead. And frankly, the quickstep is challenging. And so, I appreciate the fact that she kind of looked at me up and down pretty quickly and said, “Oh yeah, I think you can do this.” So I think starting with something that was a little more challenging helps set the bar for how we’re gonna approach things.

What have you found to be the most fun and the most challenging parts for you so far?

I think the most challenging part — and kind of unexpected part for me — is just how personal it feels pretty quickly. Because you’re so in your body. I’ve spent a lot of time as a collaborator in a band, you have a drummer, you have a bass player, maybe you have a business, and you have an idea and then you build a team. Like, this is just you. You have to really dig deep. I mean, for me, that’s how it’s been. You have to dig deep to perform with your body. And in a way, maybe that’s overly serious, but like, that how it has hit me. Just the sense of the only way to kind of really make the most of this is to go inward and pull out of yourself, like, how to be an artist in a different way. Dancers are such artists. I mean, what they’re crafting is storytelling. They’re explaining a narrative and you’re watching the interaction between two people, like, there’s so much going on. So that’s been challenging for me because it really leaves you nowhere to run. So the fun part of it is the contrast of just accomplishing stuff, like really learning. I mean, I love learning. I love discovering new skills that’s… I told Britt right from the beginning, I said,”First of all, mold me because I’m just a lump of clay, you just go for it.” There’s kind of no way to lose this for me because I will have taken away something I just didn’t even know after doing this process.

I think that’s the right mentality, and it’s the one you probably want your kids to see, too. You have seven kids, I’m one of eight. If my dad started doing Dancing with the Stars, I don’t even know how I would react. What are they saying about this so far?

We’re a close family. They’ve seen me do a lot of things, and I’ve taken them with me. They’ve traveled a lot, hey’ve seen the world. They are both my biggest supporters and definitely the biggest critics. They’ll tell me straight that, “That was not good” or “don’t do that.” But overall, this is just a really positive headspace for the whole family. Just kind of that, like, “Let’s do things, let’s take leaps, let’s try things.” I really believe in that. I believe in leading by example. I mean, for better or for worse, when you take on something, you should go for it, you should give it everything you’ve got.

Biggest cheerleaders and biggest critics — did their scores come in higher or lower for the first week?

They did not give me scores, they just gave me notes [laughs].

And you were at Dancing with the Stars last year with one of your kids, right, for Wicked Night?

Yeah, I brought my daughter Penny.

Is that where this whole process started for you?

The process of considering coming on the show did sort of kick off with that visit, but it was unexpected. I mean, we’ve known several of the producers for years and there were times where there was a possibility of, oh, maybe we might do the show or there was curiosity about that. And I was asked different time, but we went to see the Wicked-themed episode, Penny and I did, and just went there as guests, just wanted to see the show, and it was really fun to be there. And pretty quickly, I was getting the, like, “When are you coming on the show?” I’m like, “Well, I don’t know, am I? Is that something [I’d do]?” So it’s been very cool. I do have to give credit to the overall production. I think this is a very unique production, the overall thing everybody that’s on the team, from the lighting guys, the cameramen, makeup, the dancers, the wardrobe everyone’s very invested in the quality of the show. They’re just really invested in a quality experience for everyone and so I’m grateful that they wanted to have me on. It made sense for me to go for it.

You mentioned your daughter, Penny. So many people say that it feels like “MMMBop” might be inevitable or unavoidable, but there’s a small corner of the internet that wants to hear “Penny and Me” on DWTS. Are all songs on the table?

I did not go into this with an investment in dancing to my own music or dancing to Hanson’s songs, but we’re just kind of taking it a week at a time. And so no doors have been closed. I mean, yeah, “Penny & Me” would be a great song to dance to and “MMMBop” would be a great song dance to. I mean, it’s all about rhythm and different styles. So I think part of what’ll be happening over these next few weeks, you know, hopefully I’m here and the fans keep voting, we get to take this thing all the way, or at least a long way, we’re trying to balance songs plus themes. It’s a little hard to predict what will actually come together, but I would definitely have fun dancing to a variety of different songs from my catalog.

I’ll wrap here: Britt said “we’re not playing around this year.” What does it mean to not be playing around and what would it mean to win Britt a Mirrorball?

Britt is an incredible human and an incredible dancer, and she certainly is absolutely deserving to take it all the way. It would be a huge honor for me to be with her in that moment. I mean, it would really be a victory, I think. But on a personal note, she is somebody that I think I’ve watched, just in my short time, be a leader of other dancers and I think that’s why all the fans and the people in the show, there’s a lot of people rooting for the possibility of what she could do. I would just be honored to be a part of it. Also, side note, today is Britt’s birthday, so maybe this is the day to really show Britt your spirit, share the love, and send us some extra positive vibes for Week 2.