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Hot Chelle Rae’s Ian Keaggy learned from his father Born to the big time
By John Benson
Moving from one diva to another, Hot Chelle Rae opened up last year for Demi Lovato and Taylor Swift. Now the pop-rock act has been tagged as opener for Justin Bieber’s scream-fest summer tour, which comes to Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena tonight.
The trek back to Northeast Ohio will be a homecoming of sorts for Hot Chelle Rae bassist Ian Keaggy, who is the son of Glass Harp guitarist Phil Keaggy, a Youngstown native.
“I’ve been up there off and on to see family or to go to shows with my dad,” said the younger Keaggy, calling from Oklahoma City. “The dude is so insanely talented. And I grew up with him my entire life, and I didn’t really know anything different. It wasn’t until I was doing it myself that I realized how successful he was.”
It turns out the Hot Chelle Rae members have quite the musical pedigrees: Brothers Ryan (vocals) and Jamie Follese (drums) are sons of A-list Nashville songwriters Keith and Adrienne Follese, and Nash Overstreet (guitar) not only is the son of five-time BMI songwriter of the year Paul Overstreet, but he’s also the brother of “Glee” actor Chord Overstreet.
So when the group’s sophomore effort, “Whatever,” became a success — including two mega-smash hits, “Tonight Tonight” and “I Like It Like That,” which sold more than 6 million singles — the band members’ backgrounds prepared them to handle the spotlight.
“One of the best things my dad ever said to me when I was younger was just simply never compare yourself to somebody,” Keaggy said. “Like in the sense that what you do as an individual is always going to be different than what somebody else does. You don’t want to listen to a record and say, ‘Man, my music is not as good as this,’ because it’s different. That’s something that stuck with me for a long time. I think that was a really valuable lesson.”
Staying humble is hard to do these days for Hot Chelle Rae, which made numerous television appearances of late including “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve 2012,” “The Today Show Summer Concert Series,” “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon,” “The Tonight Show” and “Live with Kelly.” Up next for the band is its highly anticipated follow-up effort due out later this year.
“Compared to the last album, this record will be the same as far as what people know as Hot Chelle Rae that they hear on the radio or at a party,” Keaggy said. “We’re hoping to maybe slightly mature a little bit. But it’s fun, lively.”
Having fun is what Keaggy calls the Justin Bieber tour. In fact, he describes it as a foolproof decision considering the Canadian pop artist is arguably one of the more popular tours on the road this summer.
Keaggy said, so far, audiences have been receptive to the band’s music, which differs from many other modern pop acts that turn in a truly live performance night after night. That’s right, there’s no lip-synched or pre-recorded parts from Hot Chelle Rae.
“We are a real band, and a lot of people don’t know that until they come to our shows,” Keaggy said. “It’s exciting and never gets old. It feels really good to be appreciated and accepted by all of the Bieber fans out there, too. We’re stoked.”