The Head and The Heart’s Kenny Hensley - STAGE THREADS Ep. 11

I also tend to wear shirts out until they're falling off my back. Philippe's, the original French dip sandwich. This was a bracelet that was given to us, this tour, by some of our kind of super fans that started this crew called the Blue Crew. Hi, my name is Kenny. I am in Head and the Heart. Yeah, we are right now in the middle of the Aperture tour, promoting our new record Aperture, which came out in May, a few months ago. It's been a blast. We've been playing shows all around the country and Canada. We're about a month into a five-week run right now here in beautiful Chicago and couldn't be happier to be here tonight. Yeah, so, fashion on tour. I've always been a very simple person. I'm very much a t-shirt and jeans kind of guy and have been since I was a kid. I also tend to wear shirts out until they're falling off my back. My dad was the same way. I got it from him. My mother and my sister make fun of both of us and have always done so. But, yeah, so I don't think too much about it. I just bring on the road, I grab about seven of my favorite t-shirts and four or five pairs of pants, a pair of swimming trunks, and a bunch of socks and underwear and I'm good to go. There's not much of a buying process. I, first of all, wear a lot of our merch because those shirts are free and they're comfortable and I like the design of them. And I figure, free publicity, why not? So I do wear a lot of our merch on tour and at home. This shirt I'm wearing here was the handout at a Laker game. I'm born and raised in Los Angeles and so this is also free. But I'm born and raised in L.A. and a lifelong Laker fan and went to a game five or six years ago and it was Red Hot Chili Peppers night. And Flea played the national anthem on base. It was great. And, like I said, I wear shirts until they're falling off me. So it's like slowly getting there. I love the feeling of a good warning shirt. And so I'll wear it until it's literally, you know, falling off my back. I do have two of these because I went with my girlfriend and they gave us two and she doesn't like it and so people think I wear this shirt all the time but I'm really swapping between two different ones. But, yeah, here's my Laker Chili Pepper shirt that I wear quite a bit. I'll pull out a couple others. Here, like I said, is one of our merch tees that I like and wear very often. This is from 2023, so not too old. But I do, I mean, I like collecting our merch anyways. I have boxes in my basement at home of one of every item we've ever produced, you know, give or take a couple that I missed along the way. But the handful that I really dig the designs of, I probably wear as often as I feel I need to. Here's another tee that reps my hometown of Los Angeles. Philips, the original French dip sandwich. This is a staple of L.A., been around since 1908. There are two places in L.A. that claim to have invented the French dip. Philips is one of them, the others is Kohl's. I've always preferred Philips and I believe their story. And growing up as a kid on the way to Laker games and Dodger games, my dad and I would always stop here and eat French dips and I still go every month or two at home. And so I like repping the local legendary Philips home of the original French dip sandwich. It depends on the shirt. I've had some that have lasted me years, but that's a lot of wears. Like I had for a while, I had this shirt by the band Warrant, which was like an 80s hair metal band. I think they did that song, Sweet Cherry Pie, which I'm not like a diehard fan, but I do think the 80s hair metal bands are cool. And I found that at a thrift store on tour in Indianapolis back in like 2011. And I wore that thing until it was almost embarrassingly like shredded and falling off of me. But it's really just about the feel. Like I don't even care about the look too much as far as like the tattered look. I just love the feel of a really thin worn t-shirt. And so if I have the option before a tour, I'm obviously going to grab the five or six that are already kind of at that state. But yeah, I tend to wear like the same shirt for a few shows in a row. And then once it gets to the point where I need to throw it in the dirty clothes bag, it goes there and I just try to do laundry on the road. So I don't pack for more than a week, even if we're on a two-week or two-month tour. Yeah, I mean, these are Levi's. I found these at a thrift shop in L.A. And I love green and it's hard to find green pants. And so anytime I do see a green pair of denim or slacks or whatever and they fit well, I tend to pick them up because I just like anything dark green. So these were just a random find. I guess other pants. I mean, I do like Levi's a lot, just like blue jeans. I found a handful of years ago we did like a little partnership with Lululemon and met some of the folks that kind of are high up at the company. They're really sweet to us. And they gifted us a ton of stuff. And I found that they're, I don't know the name of them, but they're like ABC stretchy pants. They're like very breathable and stretchy. You can kind of wear them to like a nice dinner if you need to. You can wear them out, like working out. You can, it's just day-to-day pants. I love those. They also have a policy where if you bring them in, you can get a new pair without having a receipt or needing one. So I've literally had the same like four pair and I've just recycled them for the last handful of years. I'm pretty like budget conscious. You know, I like saving my money and I don't really care to like spend a ton on clothes. So thrift stores, merch, free handouts, most of my closet. I'd say 90% of my closet is in those categories. Shoes. Yeah. Again, not very picky. These Reeboks, like kind of classic old style Reeboks I have loved for years now. And it's almost embarrassing. Embarrassing. If you saw my, my closet at home, I have like nine pairs of these. They always come out with like slightly different color, colorways. The bottom, these are the brown. Anytime I see a new color, I pick them up. These ones have obviously been worn for a while or not super clean right now, but we're a month along into a tour and I wear them every day. But yeah, these Reeboks I've been wearing pretty nonstop. I wear a lot of like Birkenstocks when I'm just trying to be comfy on the bus or around the venues and whatnot. But yeah, and then running shoes I have on the road. So yeah, so these, my Birks and my running shoes. I have a pair of Reebok pumps that were like a gifted thing years ago that actually have the little pump button on the side. I don't use that, but they're super comfy and right now pretty gross. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Apple watch, I don't necessarily think it's the coolest thing ever, but I use it for runs and whatnot. And I'm, I'm a numbers person. I like to keep track of my steps and like, especially on the road. I just have kind of goals I try to hit and this makes that a lot easier, but I do take it off for the shows. It's also, I've found if you're playing the piano and wearing an Apple watch, it counts a lot of the playing as steps. And so I feel like I'm cheating. If I play a whole show, it'll count it as like 12,000 steps and that's just a lie. So I take it off for that. This was a bracelet that was given to us this tour by some of our kind of super fans have started this crew called the blue crew based off our last record, every shade of blue. And some of them have been to upwards of 50 shows in the last couple of years. And they're always front and center. They always wear blue lights and give out these blue crew stickers. And so they gave me one of these recently and I've just been wearing it. This was another, we get a lot of friendship, friendship bracelets given to us. And this one, I'm not even sure who gave it to me. We just had a bunch of them waiting on the bus for us, but I thought it was just pretty wild. You saved my life and thought that was very sweet and a good reminder of the power of music and the power of what we do. It's more than just, you know, a job and a hobby and an art for us. It spreads and my try as often as I can to remind myself of that. So having it right on my wrist is a really nice mental check in every time I look at my hands, which is every night when I'm playing. So these are our wardrobe cases. We each have one. We've had these for years. Up until this tour, mines remain empty. I've never used it once. I've actually kind of just over the years, like let Maddie or charity or whoever needs it take up mine. If they have extra, extra things they'd like to bring out. But this tour, for the very first time, I decided to fly with a few essentials that I just figured I'd keep on the road that I might not. I haven't even used this tour, but things like a rain jacket, an extra just kind of button up like a fleece for if it's cold. It's obviously middle of summer right now, so not using any of this stuff. But some people will do that. They'll just leave like an extra rain jacket on tour all the time. So the next time I fly to a tour, that's one thing I don't need to bring out with me. And so this is the first time I brought a few kind of cold temp, rainy essentials that I'm just going to leave with our gear. So I'll never have to fly with a rain jacket ever again if we're doing a van trip. Yeah, I love Patagonia. One of my best buds who lived at my house for a few years has worked for them for ages. So once again, he got me a really good deal. So I have a ton of Patagonia stuff. It's embarrassing, but I've done a lot of like backpacking trips. I climbed Kilimanjaro a few years ago in Africa and needed it. Like this is a really nice like Patagonia shell and just needed a ton of gear that I didn't already own. And I just stocked up on Patagonia stuff. So they also make the best socks on earth. Their socks, which I'm not wearing right now, are the most comfy socks in the world. So buy your wool Patagonia socks. You'll feel really happy. Yeah, so again, Kenny from the head and the heart. Our new album Aperture out now available wherever you will prefer streaming music or purchasing music. Hopefully at your local record stores. It's been a blast touring off these new songs and playing them. We're still on the road and have a lot of dates left this year and next year to be announced eventually. But yeah, please come out and see us. It's been a blast and I feel like we've kind of leveled up in a way. And I really want our older fans and newer fans to experience it. So come out and join us on the road. We're around. And yeah, the head and the heart. Go to our website or Instagram or Twitter, whatever you feel like doing. And we're everywhere. But we love you. Thanks again for watching. And I'm Kenny.