Day: May 10, 2022

The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY)
August 7, 1997 Thursday City Edition
HEADLINE: Q&A: AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHNNY RZEZNIK OF THE GOO GOO DOLLS
BYLINE: Ken Neijstrom

The Goo Goo Dolls took time off from working on their new album to perform at the K-Rock-A-Thon in Vernon Downs July 13. The band’s latest album, “A Boy Named Goo,” is a multi-platinum seller that includes such hits as “Name,” “Naked” and “Long Way Down.” Their new single, “Lazy Eye,” is featured on the “Batman and Robin” soundtrack.

The Goo Goo Dolls, who are from Buffalo, have been performing together for 10 years and have made five albums. Recently I had a chance to interview lead singer/guitarist Johnny Rzeznik. Here are excerpts:

HJ: Were you shy when you were a teen-ager?  

Johnny R.: Yeah. I was pretty miserable. I didn’t have a lot of friends. I basically kept to myself.

HJ: What’s the strangest thing that ever happened to you at a concert?

Johnny R.: Once I tried running across the stage but there was no more stage left. I fell off the stage into a crowd of people, and I knocked about a dozen people over. Everybody was just laying there on the floor. It was hysterical. I had this huge bruise on my hip for about two months.

HJ: What’s your favorite song to play live that you’ve written?

Johnny R.: “Naked.” People seem to dig that song for its energy.

HJ: When did you start playing guitar, and did you ever take lessons?

Johnny R.: I started playing guitar when I was 13. I took a couple of lessons. My dad would give me five bucks a week for the lessons, but I’d go out and spend it and tell him that I went to my lesson. My friends and I would get together and play, and that’s how I really learned to play.

HJ: What bands did you grow up listening to?

Johnny R.: Kiss, Cheap Trick, Replacements, Clash and the Sex Pistols.

HJ: Where do you find inspiration for the lyrics you write?

Johnny R.: It’s always different. Sometimes I just make up a story. Other times I draw from real life or other people’s lives. People will talk to me, and I’ll write a song. Sometimes I just throw words together because they sound cool coming out of your mouth.

HJ: How did you come up with the name Goo Goo Dolls?

Johnny R.: That was a stupid, drunken nightmare. I was, like, 18 or 19 years old and drunk.

HJ: How often are you away from home, and what is it like being away that long?

Johnny R.: I was home for about one month out of the past two years. I’m still readjusting to being home. I moved to New York for six months, and that became a drag. So I just came home to Buffalo, and I’ve been home for about a month. It’s real good to be home.

HJ: How long does it take you to write a song, on average?

Johnny R.: Three years (Laugh). Sometimes 10 minutes, sometimes three years. I still have songs that haven’t been finished from five years ago. Generally I spend around six or seven months writing everything for the (album).

HJ: What’s your worst memory from your high school years?

Johnny R.: I was the only punk in my high school. It was all jocks and metal guys, and all my friends didn’t go to that school. I just remember being in the bathroom, smoking a cigarette, and the biggest dude in the school came in and spat in my hair. He just spat in my hair, and I was like “What do I do? This guy will kill me.” So I took it. What can you do when a 250-pound jock wants to kill you because he thinks you’re gay because of your funny haircut?

(My school) wouldn’t let me graduate onstage because they said I didn’t represent what a normal, healthy student at my high school should be like. The school was into squashing people’s take on life. So they just handed me my diploma and told me I graduated. Then they asked me to come back and give a speech. I started writing it, but I politely declined. It was really weird, because it was a catharsis from my own high school experience.

When I look back in retrospect, all the things that everybody told me that I was an idiot for doing were the things that paid off for me. I stuck to my own idea of the way I was supposed to live my life, and it worked for me. And that feels good now, because they were wrong and I was right about myself.

HJ: What advice would you give to a teen-ager who is having a tough time in high school like you did?

Johnny R.: The only thing that matters is being true to yourself. You don’t need people in your life that don’t believe in you. It’s better to be alone and have your integrity and freedom than to be a part of a group and deny yourself those things.

HJ: Has success changed you at all?

Johnny R.: Not at all. I bought my wife a nice car, and I moved to a bigger apartment. It’s really a passing thing. I’m not really into the fame-and-fortune thing. Everybody thinks that when you make a hit you have a lot of money, but it’s not true, because I don’t make a lot of money. It wasn’t about the cash. I know that some day I’ll wake up and it’s not going to be there.

HJ: How’s the new album coming along, and when do you think it will come out?

Johnny R.: It’s coming along great. It will probably come out in January. We are about to do a video for “Lazy Eye,” which is on the Batman and Robin soundtrack.

HJ: Do you like doing videos?

Johnny R.: No, I hate it. It is really uncomfortable. They stick cameras in your face, and they say, “All right, pretend you’re singing.” Then you do it, and you feel like an idiot. But I always make sure I really sing. When I’m singing and playing, I make sure I’m playing the right notes and actually singing. Even though they’re not recording it, I feel so bogus standing there flapping my gums with nothing coming out. So I make myself sing.

Source: Unfortunately, I don’t have an original source for this I can credit.