Haim on Kesha Teaching Them How To Sneak Into Shows, Bum-Rushing Prince Stage as Teens: ‘She Taught Us How to Be Confident’

Haim are not like us. The sister trio who just dropped their fourth studio album, I Quit, popped in to chat with Jake Shane on his Therapuss podcast this week, where Alana, Danielle and Este shared some of their only-sisters-can-talk-like-this banter and classic stories about their teenage misadventures in Hollywood with Kesha and Prince.

Sharing some of the inside knowledge they learned from “Joyride” singer Kesha, Alana, 33, revealed that the trio used to sneak into concerts they couldn’t afford as teens thanks to their notorious pass-copying crew. “Well, we copied passes, and we also just snuck in. We would climb over fences, we would climb up trees,” added Este, 39, who noted that when she was in high school they could scramble up into the trees behind the Greek Theatre to watch shows.

Their lookie-loo adventures were aided and abetted by Kesha — who they met in 2004 when she was a 17-year-old Hollywood transplant from Nashville — who Danielle, 36, said, “taught us how to do all that stuff.” They recalled meeting Kesha at the Sunset Junction street festival in Silverlake at a Chaka Khan show, where Este was immediately a fan after a random friend introduced them.

“I saw her and I was like, ‘oh.’ It was love at first sight. Completely,” said Este. “Have you ever had that with someone when you see someone and you’re like ‘I know this is gonna be my best friend?'” In classic old school Kesha fashion, Este said when they first hung out, the singer told her she’d just stolen a bottle of Goldschläger from the liquor store and they proceeded to get drunk outside Kesha’s apartment on Sunset Blvd., with Alana giving the “Raising Hell” vocalist credit for [teaching] us how to be confident.”

The sisters then became part of Kesha’s crew, “running around Echo Park” and sneaking into places when Alana was still a 13-year-old with braces and Danielle was a 17-year-old high schooler, with big sis Este hooking her siblings with hilariously too-old-to-pass fake IDs.

Their shenanigans reached peak ridiculousness in 2009 when they went to see Prince at the Forum in L.A. with their parents, who scored them prime nosebleed seats. Near the end of the show, Alana said Prince summoned “all the hot ladies in the audience” to the stage. Before Alana could realize what was going on, Este and Danielle had taken off in their high heels, sprinting towards the stage while their folks grabbed Alana’s arm and denied her the chance to share a stage with Prince.

Realizing they would have to sneak by security to make it all the way, Este said they swung their way down as on monkey bars onto the floor using some Mission Impossible-level parkour as they approached the purple velvet rope separating the crowd from the more exclusive “P-Hive.”

Long story short, they were psyched to watch the show from the way-better vantage point, except Este was still determined to make it on stage. “He said ‘come onstage.’ He said, ‘hot ladies, come onstage,'” Este reiterated as Danielle described her sister attempting to vault from a production table to the on-stage promised land in six-inch heels.

“If I can get on the production table, I can then hop onstage… I think I’ve done the math correctly, I’m gonna put one foot on this table, one hand on this stage, hoist myself up. Great,” Este said. But, on the cusp of glory, she described feeling a hand, “clock me. Hand in face. I fall backwards into more security. And I fall. I’m like an angel falling from grace.” As her sister was being hauled away, Danielle pretended like she didn’t know who Este was and kept dancing in the circle. “Danielle literally could not have given less of a s–t,” Este said. “I tried to barter my insulin pump. I was like ‘you can have my insulin pump. Just please let me go back out there.’ They kept me back there in quarantine. […] I missed ‘Raspberry Beret,’ which I really wanted to see.”

The hour-long chat featured them recalling the bummer of releasing their 2020 Women in Music Pt. III album just as the COVID-19 pandemic was breaking out and starting the band when Danielle was a senior in high school and decided she wasn’t going away for college; Alana noted that, to be fair, neither she nor Danielle actually got into college. They also hit on writing the I Quit breakup ballad “I Cry” after Este outed an ex for cheating on her to their friend group and their friendship and obsession with creative director/photographer Terrence O’Connor and his creative and romantic partner Overcompensating creator Benito Skinner.

Check out Haim on Therapuss below.