I consider the years 1992, 1994, and 1997 to be bleak years, meaning periods of time where not much was going on with the band. I will make specific posts about the last two sometime in the future. Today, I want to focus on 1992.
So, what was going on with the Goo Goo Dolls in 1992? As you must have already guessed from the title, not much really. In terms of band members, John was likely engaged to his former wife Laurie during that year. They had been together since 1990 and I find it most reasonable that they decided to engage in 1992, as they got married the following year. Not much is known about Robby’s whereabouts as well. According to his Discogs profile, he is listed as a producer for the album “Worry When We Get There…” by The Wrench, which was recorded in his native Buffalo, NY along with the Goos’ long-time collaborator and producer Armand John Petri. The album was released in 1993, so I’m speculating Robby spent a few days/weeks of 1992 working on that.
Alright, so what was the band up to? The website GooGooFans is a great resource for historical Goo stuff. In terms of live concerts, as you can see, the only listed shows they have records of were all performed in their hometown Buffalo, NY.
This interview talks about the one at The Icon.
To my knowledge, during 1992 the Goo Goo Dolls also played live at least one more time, that is at the Gavin Radio Convention in San Francisco. An extremely rare picture of that event featuring John with a couple of fans can be seen below:
On that occasion, John revealed to one of them to hate the song “I’m Awake Now“, which he had been asked to play.
I believe the first half of 1992 was spent demoing “Superstar Car Wash”. They likely worked very hard on it, and to my knowledge there are at least four demo sessions recorded by the band before hitting the studio, which they did from August to October in Mississauga, Ontario (Canada) to record the album. After that, they returned to Buffalo, NY to reprise their day jobs.
That’s all I know about 1992. If you have more insights, don’t hesitate to contact me.
Temple of Goo - The rarest Goo Goo Dolls releases, for real Goo fans only 
Did they ever play I’m Awake Now live despite JR disliking it….? I’m pretty sure they didn’t but this fan interaction to me is “new” news.
I don’t think so. I remember John mentioning a few times the movie was cheesy and uninteresting. I think they just recorded the song for the money and completely detached from it ever since it was released. Unlike, for instance, songs like Lazy Eye which they truly cherished for the longest time