Monday, December 21, 1998

"I think he's got a lousy, stressful job, he doesn't make enough money and he's got groupies just like any other rock star. He took liberties with one of them, and he got popped," John Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls said at Z-100's Jingle Ball last week.

Rzeznik wasn't referring to Mick Jagger — after all, that allegedly philandering rock star had the top-grossing tour of 1998. The groupie-magnet in this case was none other than Bill Clinton, whom Rzeznik and bandmates Robby Takac and Mike Malinin declared the second rock-star president, following in the tradition of John F. Kennedy.

It seems Rzeznik, the voice behind the group's megahit "Iris," has a forgiving streak almost as big as the first lady's. "Denying having an affair is more of a reflex than a lie," he said. "Any other guy in the world, if somebody would've said, 'Did you have an affair on your wife?' he'd go, 'No.' "

"The difference is, Mick Jagger wouldn't lose his job," added Takac.

So how will the boys from Buffalo spend the new year? Rzeznik says that in addition to "stuffing all my cash in a mattress for when the millennium bug hits," he and the group will tour for much of 1999. If things keep going the way they're going, maybe they'll get to play at Al Gore's inauguration. — Karen Burns

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