The Curious Case Of George Tutuska

“A drummer is usually like the backbone.” – Brody Dalle

Please note: The information posted below comes from a collection of interviews and rumors I have read on the internet over the years. Do not take it all as completely representative of reality. Some things may be right, others may be totally wrong. This post only serves the purpose of discussing George’s role in the band, as I believe true Goo Goo Dolls fans would be pleased to know more about him both as a person and as a band member.

George Tutuska was born in South Buffalo, NY on February 27th, 1965. His family was comprised of his parents and four sisters. Pretty crowded house, and not a lot of money according to him. If memory serves well, he met Robby Takac while attending Medaille College to become an English teacher, and they decided to form a band. Later on, John Rzeznik, who was in another band with Robby’s cousin, joined them in 1985. The trio was initially called Sex Maggots, before changing its name to Goo Goo Dolls. “They spotted a mail-order ad in True Detective magazine selling something called a Goo Goo Doll. And that’s how the Sex Maggots became the Goo Goo Dolls.“

George’s father was a firefighter, and so was his grandfather. Just like his ancestors, he was supposed to be a fireman as well. However, he decided not to, focusing on music and possibly making a career out of being a musician and live performer. He even dropped out of College to follow that dream. Overall, he approached playing in a band just like one would approach a normal job. “I never had any delusions of being a rock ‘n’ roll millionaire,” George says. “To me it’s a job, a way to make a living like my father makes a living. And if I can make a living playing rock ‘n’ roll, I’m happy.”

George stayed with the band for a total of 10 years, from 1985 to 1995. Weeks before the release of their 5th studio album, A Boy Named Goo, he was fired. What happened? Well, most of the story is actually provided by this article, published in 1999, exactly one year after the band had reached worldwide success with the release of the song “Iris“.

In the article, there are several claims made by George. A very interesting one is that he actually contributed to a lot of songs. Which ones? We don’t know. The only one we know for sure it was written by him is “Stand Alone“. You can read more about it here. I speculate that his efforts were present in pretty much every song which is detailed as being “Written by the Goo Goo Dolls” in the official credits listing throughout their first five albums. Check the booklet inserts of those releases and fantasize about which songs may have been penned by him.

“The only thing that bothers me to this very day is I never got my due as a songwriter and most people think, ‘So what, they fired the drummer; it’s just the drummer.’ If I could give people a list of songs I wrote, I think it would shock them.“

Besides songwriting and music compositions, not many people know that George was actually heavily involved with the artistic side of the band. In fact, he had been contributing as an Art Director for all of those five albums. I am not entirely sure which photographs or album covers were actually made by him. I know for sure the cover for the “We Are The Normal” CD single, pictured below, was actually fully designed by him. I also speculate the cover for Hold Me Up was inspired by him, and possibly even the one for Superstar Car Wash. Furthermore, he had also worked on the cover for A Boy Named Goo, which I read somewhere it featured a sumo-like guy on a bridge. In reality, that rumor turned out to be fake. After he was fired by the band, the cover was replaced by the one with the young blonde boy being surrounded by adult arms.

Art and Photography are actually passions he has kept along the years, and they still persist to this day. I will talk a bit more about this further down in the post.

The aforementioned article also explains why he was fired by the band. I have heard two different versions: the one discussed in the interview, where it is claimed that he was the only one who left the band, and the second version whereby it was actually John who first left the band, then Robby convinced him to return and George was fired in his place. Either way, the end result was the same: George was no longer part of the group. His last concert with the Goo Goo Dolls was on December 31st, 1994 at the Blind Mellons in Cheektowaga, NY. A rare poster for that show can be seen below.

What caused the controversy which ultimately led to George being fired? The oldest reason for dispute, that is Money. Ever since the release of the first self-titled album, all the band members had evenly split royalty cheques. Hence, each member would basically get 33.3% of the profits from each cheque. Following the release of Superstar Car Wash in 1993, and sometime during that year or the subsequent year, the song “Fallin’ Down” was issued as a single, although no music video was filmed for it. After a while, George mentioned in the interview above, friends of his began telling him that they could hear that song on the radio, it was being regularly aired. He found that strange, as he had not gotten a single royalty cheque specifically for it. When talking to John about the discrepancy, the latter revealed to him that he had been collecting those “Fallin’ Down” cheques for himself, robbing George of his money. The news hit him pretty hard, and he talked to the band manager about the situation. All of this was happening during the pre-production for A Boy Named Goo. George’s relationship with John was degrading, and he began to feel gradually more disconnected from the band. At a certain point, he informed the manager he would not tour with them for the new album unless royalty cheques would again be split equally among members. Just shy of the release for A Boy Named Goo, he was fired from the band and replaced by Mike Malinin. Below is a very rare promo picture for the song “Long Way Down“, still featuring George in the band, and likely taken weeks before his departure from the Goo Goo Dolls.

What I find sad about the whole thing is that neither John nor Robby ever officially commented on George’s claims, specifically the ones about the royalty cheques dilemma. Personally, I am prone to believe him. I speculate that times were pretty tough for the band in general (as per this interview), including for John, especially the 1992-1994 era when he got married (that usually takes quite a large amount of money out of the wallet) and was (to my knowledge) mostly working odd jobs to sustain himself and his family. I think he may have been finding himself in a situation where the revenue from “Fallin’ Down” was needed to dig himself out of a hole. Who knows. What is known is that type of behaviour certainly is not proper, and he should have discussed with the entire band what was going on before deciding to redirect that money towards his own bank account.

Another article, published in 1995, offers some more details about the case. There are no claims about the royalty cheques issue, and both John and Robby only talk about the decision of firing George being related to problems within the band on a personal level, which reached an encore during the recording sessions for A Boy Named Goo. However, it is slightly hinted by Robby that there was a money issue there, at least that’s what comes to my mind when I read the following statement of his:

“We haven’t given up on the record. We’ll do whatever we have to to make it work. If it becomes a big hit, all of us, including George, can make money.“

I speculate that George being robbed of his royalty cheques was the last episode in a long streak of bad blood events between him and John. I remember I read somewhere that John’s excessive drinking was another point of conflict between the two. In both the two aforementioned interviews, George claimed his efforts in the making of the albums were not properly credited. On the Superstar Car Wash booklet insert he is listed as “Just played drums”. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but I find that as being a bit of a strange way of crediting the drummer. In this other interview, also released in 1999, there is a plethora of additional information that provides more clarity to the whole situation. Firstly, George claims that:

“The thought of slitting my wrists never crossed my mind. Actually, it did cross my mind when I was still in the Goo Goo Dolls“.

That speaks volumes in terms of how relationships were standing, even before the royalty cheques episode. Secondly, in the very same article, George also points out that disputes were not only about money and songwriting credits, but also about the musical direction the band was taking with A Boy Named Goo. About the latter, we get a glimpse of those clashing views here, where it is also discussed that apparently George’s drums sessions for the hit single “Name” ended up being completely discarded without his consent.

Comments from John or Robby about the matter of George being fired have always been seldom, and never specifically addressed the monetary issue dilemma. In example, in this interview, John simply states that the decision had to do with internal conflict rather than anything else. In that instance, it is stated that the relationship with George had become such as that with a significant other who one suddenly realizes not to be in love with anymore.

In a 1999 interview, John and Robby briefly state there were “money issues”, but decide to mostly focus on George’s lack of commitment during the “A Boy Named Goo” pre-production phases as the cause for him being set aside from the band. I feel a bit skeptic about this explanation, and if true, maybe George’s disinterest from the band’s activities was the natural result from the aforementioned cheques dilemma?

Furthermore, George says that he had to endure rough times after the departure from the band.

“It was tough after the split,” he said. “I was 30 years old with nothing. I quit college to stay with this band. I couldn’t have gotten through this without my family“.

Also, despite the adversities, his wife claims that George loved the two other members of the band.

“It was the hardest thing George has had to go through,” said Nadine Tutuska, George’s wife. “The success of Johnny and Robby doesn’t bother him. What does bother him is the failed relationships. They were two people he loved very much“.

George never spoke to the other band members after the split, and had to lawyer up to settle his royalty benefits from the revenue generated by A Boy Named Goo. Mmmhmmm… Interesting. This gives us even more clues at to the degree to which he actually contributed to the band, specifically to the last album he worked on.

“Tutuska was particularly upset because of the band’s lack of recognition of his contributions to their breakthrough album, “A Boy Named Goo.” Part of their legal battle was over royalty rights to those songs“.

I am very curious about those songs. I think every true Goo fan out there would kill to obtain a list of all the songs he contributed to, and in which form/capacity. In this interview it is hinted he mostly worked on lyrics, though no official claim in terms of song names is provided in that occasion. In another article, the songwriting process is detailed a bit more, and we get to learn that George was a potent driving force behind song crafting, especially in terms of words composition and tunes’ overall melodic structure. “Road To Salinas” and “James Dean” are discussed as practical examples.

In another article, taken from a small collection of 1990-1993 interviews by the same journalist, we get even more songs which are confirmed by Robby as being written or co-written by George. The list will surprise you, to say the least. I will copy-and-paste below my commentary about the tunes. Get ready for some astonishing revelations.

• Road To Salinas (It was established a lot of time ago that this was penned by him)
• There You Are (This comes are a nice surprise. I thought it was a John song. In the interview, it is stated he wrote it, and there is no mention of the tune being co-written by anyone else, conversely to the next one)
• You Know What I Mean (In this occasion, they specifically state John and George wrote it. This makes me speculate “There You Are” was written by George only)
• Already There (I thought this was written by Robby only. Instead, the latter claims George helped him write it)

Another interesting claim made by George, with which I actually concur. I know expectations for Superstar Car Wash were very high. The band really wanted to become successful, especially John. I think they had been waiting for it since the release of the single “There You Are“, as John would sometime introduce the song as a tune “which should have made them famous, but it didn’t”. He also made a similar comment about “We Are The Normal” in more than one occasion. Below, George states that in the end, aspiring to success, rather than making good music, was what ended up corrupting the relationship between him and the lead singer.

“The breakup of the Goos had as much to do with personality and ego as it did with musical philosophy, Tutuska said. “Johnny made it impossible for me to stay in the band. He portrayed me as a weak musical link“.

And also:

“Two of the Goo Goo Dolls wanted to be rock stars and one didn’t. The one who didn’t was George,” said a former associate from the early days“.

So, what happened to George after he was unjustly fired? Well, like I mentioned above he struggled at the beginning, but did not give up. He joined a band called Hula and another one called Bobo soon after being kicked out. In 2000, he performed drums for Jackdaw. My understanding is that he no longer plays in those bands, and they all gradually disbanded sometime in the 2000’s.

As far as Bobo is concerned, an EP can be streamed on YouTube (Notice that George’s face is also printed on the CD, along with the other members’). For Jackdaw, we can also find at least two more releases on the same platform: a 2000 album and another one issued a couple of years later, the latter also featuring a picture of George on the top-left side of the back cover.

In terms of personal life, I read he is married with two children. Since the departure from the Goos, he has been working as a construction worker in his native Buffalo, NY. I believe he mainly does house renovations. Furthermore, he is a very skilled painter and photographer. He is very active on his Twitter profile, and publishes plenty of his art-related works. They are really worth checking out.

This is his Discogs profile, it may be incomplete. I don’t think he plays anymore, at least not officially in a band.

I hope the readers enjoyed this post. I tried to put into it all I know about George and what happened to him. I think it’s important that this information gets out, to let fans know, as I believe the vast majority of the Goo Goo Dolls songs that people from around the world have been loving since 1987 were ameliorated and elevated to higher standards especially thanks to his precious contributions.

UPDATE: At the end of 2022, a video appeared on YouTube featuring a brief interview with George Tutuska about his involvement with the School Of Rock in Buffalo, NY. He will work there as a drum instructor. Watch the interview below.

My Personal Message To George: This is a long shot, but in case George one day will get to read this… I want to personally thank you for your dedication to the band. I deeply respect how you have applied your creativity, passion for music-making, and intelligence for ten years of your life to the albums and songs I, along with millions of others, have come to love and cherish for so long. I am confident, should things had gone differently, that the Goo Goo Dolls would have continued to issue plenty of amazing releases thanks to your crucial efforts. Lastly, I wish you and your family all the best with your future endeavors.