Today, contributor Bailey sent us a scanned copy of an article featuring a few questions for lead singer John Rzeznik.
According to one of our users, the article appears in a 1999 edition of YM.
Bailey also sent us her comments along with the file. I will let her do the talking. What’s interesting here is the bit which talks about John’s summers when he was younger.
On another note, Bailey promised us a little surprise at the end of the month to celebrate bassist Takac’s birthday. Make sure to come back in a few days to find out what it is.
Today I’m sharing an interview from a newspaper article from 1998. Actually, it might be from ’99, I didn’t check. Anyway, it has some really cool intel, including where John first worked (when he was 14, he got a job cleaning up a park in Buffalo), which according to him, was his least favorite job. He does say that he bought his first amp with the money he made, though.
Well, the interviewer goes on to ask him if he’s ever had any luck with summer love, and he goes on to tell a story of a girl he met while he was a bartender. Now, I’m sure it’s a general known fact that Johnny used to work at the Continental in the Jed-Hold Me Up era. In fact, Bud, the man who owned the place, got the Goos their first gig there, since the band John was in before (The Beaumonts) had played there multiple times. (And was also the man who banned them at least twice from the place. . .). Now, I also know that John and Laurie met at the Continental. In this interview, John does not say the name of the bar he worked at, nor the girl he started talking to, but it’s pretty clear he was talking about Laurie. This means though, we could be right about “Just The Way You Are” being about her! Hold Me Up was released some time in October or November of 1990, and he met Laurie some time in the summer. I feel like the puzzle pieces are all coming together with this interview! (At least the little corner of the big Goo puzzle).
Besides that, John also says he really liked the guitar solo to Naked, and was really digging the song Slide at the time.
This is a really neat interview, but I’ll leave the rest up to you to interpret.
You can check the article below.
Temple of Goo - The rarest Goo Goo Dolls releases, for real Goo fans only 
That’s the Aug 99 issue of YM. I had a copy years ago. The aromatherapy thing is so cute
John spoke about meeting Laurie for the first time in the 99 Rolling Stone story. I think they actually met in the spring and were broken up temporarily that summer – that’s where Cuz You’re Gone came from supposedly. It sounded to me like the summer romance girl was somebody else.
That first job!! Damn. John had some seriously awful jobs for awhile. Cleaning toilets, selling hot dogs on the street …. You can understand why he wanted to succeed and get out of Buffalo so bad. Poverty can be an excellent motivator.
Woah that’s some good intel. I’ve always wondered about Cuz You’re Gone. Good to know, though. Maybe it was about someone else? Well, all we can really do is guess because he never really says (prooving your point further about how hush-hush Johnny is about everything!!)
John used to be so much more open too. Some of the earlier interviews are almost uncomfortable he is so open. But ofc fame changes things, not to mention all the crazy stalkers and fans with no sense of personal boundaries. Once in a while he says something unexpectedly personal but mostly I guess he has learned to self edit.
The interview where he talked about Just the Way and Cuz being about Laurie was from a local Buffalo station and someone uploaded it to the old What a Scene fan site. Wish I had downloaded it! I think if it had been about some random girl from the 90s, his current wife wouldnt (supposedly) have a prob with it, ykwim?
Makes sense. Have you read that one interview I shared a while back from 1991?? It’s called “goo goo dolls-wild and crazy guys” I think. John admitted some things that went on when he had to share a bed with Robby in a hotel room on tour, and I was feeling so uncomfortable reading it! He really had no filter, that’s for sure! I’ve listened to so many live shows from the early days and he and Robby would just talk and talk about things- they were so open with their fans! You could also see it in the way they dressed. Some of johns outfits just made me laugh! There was one picture I saw where he was wearing pink and white striped capri pants, white track shorts over the top (!!) and this cropped t-shirt thing. If you hadn’t know it was him, you easily would’ve mistaken him for a girl! It’s kinda refreshing though because it was like they really didn’t care at all. Once fame hit though, it all changed. It’s understandable because of totally obsessed fans, yes. Some people are scary…
I don’t know know if you can insert links in these comments, but I found the post with that interview:
Quite interesting
Thanks for the info about the date. Will change the post.