September 1999

Interview by Mike Bederka     

Even though the Goo Goo Dolls got shut out at a certain awards ceremony months ago, singer/guitarist Johnny Rzeznik isn't bitter. Well, maybe just a little. "The Grammys are bullshit," he says in describing the sheer plastic falsity of the gala event. "It's all entertainment. It's like watching a fuckin' movie. Everybody is floating around in their own vapor. "I find it amusing."

These venomous words from Rzeznik may catch a few off-guard. Remember, this is the same 33-year-old guy who writes song lyrics like: "And I don't want the world to see me / 'cause I don't think that they'd understand / when everything's made to be broken / I just want you to know who I am." Most likely only a sparse few wouldn't recognize the chorus to the Goo Goo Dolls' mega-hit "Iris." And as a result of the song's popularity, the group is highly visible on pop radio stations all around the world.

They just returned from a European mini-tour, but it appears the excursion to what he calls the "Dark Continent" wasn't all peaches and cream. "I don't really dig France," Rzeznik says with disgust. "People there are a bunch of snotty pricks."
The same cannot be said for some of its other Trans-Atlantic stops, though. "In Italy, it's bizarre," he says. "They make no distinction between the Backstreet Boys and Slayer; everyone's a pop star, that's it. It's like all these 12-year-old girls screaming [in an Italian accent] 'Johnny, Johnny, I love you, I love you.'"

The admiration toward the Goo Goo Dolls comes over in a different light over in the States. Its latest album Dizzy Up the Girl went platinum and is still resting nicely on the Billboard charts. And with single after single hitting No. 1, it appears the sky's the limit for the trio. However, with this fame comes the unfortunate oversaturation of the Goo Goo Dolls' music, a concept which doesn't sit well with Rzeznik. In fact, he flat out apologized in a recent issue of Teen People for the mind-numbing heavy rotation of "Iris."

"People don't understand my band--they only understand 'Iris,'" he says. "'Iris' is just a tiny little piece of my band. I think radio stations do overplay songs. I think they kill the careers of bands."

Rzeznik says he wishes fans would buy a record and enjoy the entire piece rather than just the hit single. With artists like these, people tend to solely focus on the look--a superficial aspect of stardom Rzeznik says he wants to stay far away from. Instead, he would rather have fans focus on the big picture.

"I don't want to sell my face--I want to sell my music," he says. "People try to write my music off, saying 'I'm just a pretty boy.' My music comes first, and there's nothing wrong with a little sex appeal." Rzeznik says he wants other musicians to put music before vanity as well.

"Image is an important part of music. I have this equation," he says, pausing slightly. "If you write a song and then put on leather pants and play--you're OK. But if you put leather pants on and stand in front of the mirror, then play--you're fucked up." Rzeznik certainly belongs to the former category. The songwriter penned most of the tracks off Dizzy and doesn't plan to stop there.

"I love writing ballads," he says. "I think I'm good at it, and I enjoy doing it. It's a really integral part of making a well-rounded album." But his trail wasn't always lined with irises. He traveled a long and winding road before he and the Goo Goo Dolls became the fan favorite they are now. Rzeznik grew up in Buffalo with an alcoholic father and became an orphan at age 16. Completely on his own, he made ends meet by using small, monthly Social Security checks from his deceased parents.

Not surprisingly, these were tough times for Rzeznik, as he frequently consulted the bottle for support. Fresh out of his teenage years, his anger was transformed into music as he formed the group Sex Maggot with friend/bassist Robby Takac and drummer George Tutuska.

"The first six months of this band, I don't think there was 20 sober minutes," he says. "We were a garage band--we made noise. When this band started, we were all balls and no brains. We wanted to be as loud and hard as possible."

Soon enough, the group brought that punk-rock sound to the studio. Now under the friendlier title (named after an old magazine ad for something called a Goo Goo doll), the band released its self-titled debut in 1987. For years they performed in relative obscurity--they were still far from famous.

"We played at places where the stage fuckin' collapsed," he says with a laugh. However, the Goo Goo Dolls' hard work eventually paid off.

The group's 1993 album Superstar Car Wash spawned the minor hit "We Are the Normal," and soon they were making the rounds on college radio. The wheels of success were starting to turn. It took two more years to happen, but they finally broke through into the mainstream.

The track "Name," off their fifth release A Boy Named Goo, launched the trio into superstardom. But since the pop hit was a far cry from their early crash-and-burn days, some old-school fans became disenchanted. Yet Rzeznik shows no remorse.

"I did exactly what I wanted to do," he says. "I never played a note or put a song on a record that I didn't want to do. I write music for myself. I didn't sell out." And it seems this philosophy has worked. The Goo Goo Dolls played a series of shows opening for the Rolling Stones, a band for which Rzeznik has intense admiration.

"I can't even make a dent in what the Stones do," he says. "As hard as I work writing songs and stuff--I can't do what the Stones do." They didn't play second fiddle for too long, though. The group headlined its own Dizzy Up the Girl tour that took them around the country with the New Radicals.

At all Dizzy tour dates, volunteers from U.S.A. Harvest will collect food for distribution to local shelters, soup kitchens and other social service agencies where hungry people gather.

"I'm beggin' everyone to bring at least something," he says. "It's good for your karma." Rzeznik has a good heart and knows firsthand life isn't always spectacular. And because of his troubled past, the Goo Goo Dolls' frontman is always looking to help out other people. His attempts to reach his fans haven't gone unnoticed. He recalls one compliment in particular which thanked him "for telling us all the things that everybody else forgot to tell us." Rzeznik says it made him feel he was writing something that people could grab hold of.

"For someone being able to identify with what you said in a song is very powerful," he says. "I'm not a preacher, though. I just say what I feel." And few would question that sentiment as he reminds listeners of who he is - or more appropriately, who he isn't.

"I'm not a rock star," he explains to anyone wondering. "I'm a guy in a band that does really well. Every rock star I meet is an asshole. I'm not part of that."