Today we received a scanned copy of a short article discussing what inspired lead singer John Rzeznik to write the worldwide famous hit “Iris“.
Contributor Bailey shared the following interview:
A few days ago, I wrote a comment on a YouTube video for a live version of the song “Stop The World“, speculating that the tune was likely written for John’s then-wife Laurie Farinacci, given its lyrics. My observation made Bailey think about something. Here are the thoughts he forwarded along with the picture shown above:
After reading your comment on the live “Stop The World” performance the Dolls released Friday, I remembered this article clipping I found a week or so back. I didn’t bother reading it until just recently because I figured it was just the typical “The Goo Goo Dolls are rock stars this is the lineup. . .how did you get your name?” type of thing. Turns out, it was a lot better than that! He mentions how when he was writing the song Iris, he’d just gotten separated from Laurie, and the lyrics reflected what was going through his head at the time. Which, now that I think about it, Stop the World could’ve been about Laurie, like you said, as so many of his other songs could have been as well. I was thinking maybe Just The Way You Are, but that was written probably before he knew her, and I think that’s about Alison. Which. . .long story short, (as you probably know) is the girl who inspired the whole “Two Days” story (as well as 22 Seconds, according to that amazing Robby interview:) Someone said once that she was “thanked in Hold Me Up” which. . .I wonder if they meant “Just” or that poem Robby wrote in the HMU CD insert.
In the article we wrote for Laurie, it is speculated that she may have been (and probably still is) a source of inspiration for many of the Goo Goo Dolls songs which have been released since “Hold Me Up”. Hence, Bailey’s conclusions may be right.
Officially, “Iris” was mostly written just for the movie and conceived in reference to certain scenes within it, then lastly titled after a country folk singer simply because John liked her name and was watching her performing live at some event.
However, as stated in the last section of the aforementioned scanned article, there were personal matters (i.e., John and Laurie separating from each other) which may have had a role in the composition of the song.
It’s hard to say for sure. John mentioned a few times he doesn’t like people digging into his personal life, and I perceive when he briefly talks about it he always does so in a non-specific, generic way so as not provide many details about it.
Thanks Bailey for the material. After 25 years since its publication, it is apparent that “Iris” still is a potent source of wild speculations.
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Someone posted an old radio interview on one of the fan boards where John said Just the Way you Are was for Laurie. Alison seems very cool, and she’s a crazy good photographer but the sentiment behind that song seems to fit what he’s said about Laurie much more than Alison imo. There’s a SSCW show, maybe at CBGB’s?, where he says mid-song, “Thank you, baby!” to Laurie.
About Iris though, I think he’s just didn’t want to admit it was about another girl he was seeing and not his wife. So he either said it was just inspired by the movie or circled around the divorce altogether for a long time. Whoever she was, like the Cage character, he was apparently willing to give up everything for her. There are prob more songs about her.
John’s so secretive about this stuff, so it’s fun to guess!
Apparently John was dating a lawyer around the time DUTG was in production. The song Slide was supposedly written for her. Who knows, maybe Iris was also somewhat inspired by that individual…
yeah, she was the girl John was going to take out and “dizzy up”, right? She needed to relax and stop working so hard or something. That sounded like a friends with benefits, good time thing to me. He seemed to really be in love with whoever Iris is about. He pretty much says he left his wife for her, so I guess it was intense. John should write an autobiography for us and sort out all the old gossip!
It is fun to guess why he wrote songs and stuff! Also, I did listen to Slow It Down today, and geez you’re so right! The lyrics: “You know I loved a girl/who said that I could change the world/if only I was brave enough/to live the life in front of me” make it pretty clear it was written about Laurie. Also yes, he says “Thank you baby” during the show at CBGB’s (for some reason I never noticed it until I listened to it again. . .) This is really cool! And now that I think about it, you do have a point with “Just The Way You Are”. When he says “And if you leave, you know I’m crawlin’ at your feet”, he could be meaning he doesn’t like to be apart from Laurie? “Just” seems like an angry song just as much as it seems a love song. I also feel like he could’ve been saying “You never get weak when I’m leaning hard on you” because Laurie has been said to have helped him through a lot, like his alcoholism. Hold me up is just so full of angst and I love it! (I could rant about that album all day. . .:)
Justin from Blue October asked John on his podcast who he wrote that Slow it Down lyric about it. I don’t remember thinking it sounded like Laurie, but maybe. Give a listen, its on youtube.
Alison was such a tough city girl. Very goth, very hipster. Laurie seemed like a nice girl from the burbs lol Plus, one of the interviews posted here I think, doesn’t John say she was like his personal therapist?
Oh hell yes, HMU is sometimes my fav release. Angst and love definitely! You can hear the personal transformation John was going thru, the tension and struggle of it. He changed a lot in a short period of time. That album is like listening to a butterfly smash it’s way out of a cocoon.
Oh my gosh that’s the best way to describe hmu “like listening to a butterfly smash it’s way out of a cocoon”. You know, one of the things I like about that is, it’s so REAL. The songs were all about real breakups, real people, everything was based so heavily off their lives. You know, There You Are is actually a breakup song? Obviously two days is too. I like how John worded it one time when he was about to sing the outro to the song. “This is where the guy punks off the girl” (in a sense, he was over her). I’m a little obsessed with “February”. . .I’ve posted like 10 live performances of it on my youtube channel. . .haha. Still though, I finally bought the CD a couple years back and I still listen to it quite often. Also yeah, he did say Laurie was kind of his “therapist”. It’s too bad it didn’t work out between them because they were a sweet couple. Really all we can do it guess about a lot of things with him. . .
Hey, maybe it’s just me but do you ever wonder if they’ll make a movie about the Goos someday? I just watched that one documentary about Queen a week or so ago (yeah, I know it’s a little past due time I watched it. . .) and I was like, huh, what if they did that. . .but we’ve got John, Robby and George (and Mike) there. That probably wouldn’t be for a long time though, if they ever even made a documentary. . .
Feb is really one of the best ever songs. It’s deceptively simple. Big shame they don’t play it anymore. Yep, There You Are is George’s and he ended up marrying the girl! I think they’re still married actually.
I cant see a docu film about them. Most of the world sees the Goos as a 90s band, or one hit band unfortunately. But I wish John would consider an autobiography because he’s had such an insane life and he’s smart and could speak about it well, yk? People could learn a lot from his story.
That’s one of the reasons I like that song so much! I’m sure it’s very complicated, but really the main idea is “I’ve moved on”.
As for an autobiography, that would be amazing! I’ve read some bios done by other artists and have really liked them, but Johnny could really write a good one! He’s very smart and so so good with words! I’ve already been inspired by him, and I barely know anything about his childhood, early life, etc! An autobiography seems a lot more likely than a documentary, unfortunately.
Oh, also, there you are is about Nadeen? I never knew that! Yes, I believe they’re still married and I know George has an adult son, at least. Honestly, as far as that goes, I think he’s better off than any of the other dolls.