http://washingtonscene.thehill.com/my-5-minutes-with-obama/13351-john-rzeznik

Dec 13, 2011
Robin Bronk

John Rzeznik, songwriter and lead singer of the Goo Goo Dolls, founded the band in 1986 with Robby Takac. The Goo Goo Dolls’s long-term success kicked off in 1998 with the release of the song “Iris,” written by Rzeznik. With the recent release of “Something for the Rest of Us,” Rzeznik commented, “I wanted some of the material on this album to address the disillusionment of the difficult period we live in; I wanted to give a voice to the emotional uncertainty that accompanies hard times. So many people are struggling to keep it together through tough economic conditions and two wars that seem to have no end in sight. The ones who bear the brunt of these burdens are everyday people. That’s who I want to speak to.”

Rzeznik and the Goo Goo Dolls support many charities, including USA Harvest, the Food Bank of Western New York and the Autism Action Partnership.

ROBIN BRONK: If you had five minutes in the Oval Office with President Obama, what would you discuss with him?  What issue would you like him to know about?

JOHN RZEZNIK: Real and meaningful campaign finance reform.

RB: If you could give President Obama one piece of advice, what would that be? 

JR: Use the bully pulpit to speak your piece directly and fully to not only corporate leaders and Congress, but to the American people. We need strength and confidence in our leader.

RB: If you could ask President Obama one question, what would that be?

JR: Why didn’t you take advantage of your majority when you had the chance?

RB: What book would you offer to lend President Obama? Why?

JR: The Big Short, by Michael Lewis. It finally made me understand how we got into this mess and gave me strong opinions on how to get out of it.

RB: If you were going to send the president to one place in the United States for one day, where would that be? Why?

JR: I would send him to my hometown of Buffalo, N.Y., so he could see in full detail what happens when a strong manufacturing town is destroyed by unfair trade practices and union busting.

RB: Would you ever consider a political career?

JR: Not in a million years.

http://www.jbrinlinginterviews.com/#!__goo-goo-dolls

by Jeremy Brinling

This is my interview with Robby Takac, bassist, of Goo Goo Dolls before their show on November 13th in Erie, PA. He is an incredibly nice guy and I am very glad he was able to take the time out to talk with me.

How has this tour been so far?

Well actually, today is the first day of pre-production. We’’ve been rehearsing in Los Angeles for the past three days and now we’’ve got the theater here in Milwaukie rented for a night for ourselves. We’’re all set up and the tour starts tomorrow so we are trying to make it happen.

When you are on tour, what do you do to stay busy?

Well, I’’m on tour actually (laughs) officially so I’’m pretty busy. But you know, you have press, sound checks, meet & greets, and then there’’s getting from venue to venue, city to city. There’’s a lot of time in there but there’’s a record label that I run with my wife and we do that over the web mostly. I like to walk around though and take in the local sights and that kind of stuff.

Do you have any advice for aspiring musicians?

Yeah, do what you love and you’’ll be good at it, if you are doing it because you love it. That’’s what I think the most important part is. Making money in the music business is a bi-product of being really good at something. So you have to do that first (laughs).

If you could co-write an album with anyone, who would it be and why?

You know, I’’d probably have to say somebody odd like DJ Shadow or like Chemical Brothers, somebody that sounds totally different than we do.

Me: It’’d be interesting.

Yeah, because I think that that would be an interesting mix.

If you could give yourself advice 15 years ago, what would you say?

If I could give myself advice 25 years ago, I would have told myself to name the band something different. (Laughs) 15 years ago, I don’’t know, I would have tried to convince myself again to change the name of it.

Me: Not a huge fan of it?

No well you know, it’’s time for it to stay after a certain age. (Laughs)

Do you have a favorite song to perform live?

““Slide”” is always a super fun song to play because we always play it early and we usually play a few songs before that that the casual fan might not know but when we go into that song, it is definitely a song that every human being in the building knows and not necessarily loves either. The workers even know it I’’m sure.

Me: They may hate it but they definitely know it.

(Laughs) Yeah, they know it.

Do you have a favorite place to play live?

Yeah, I love playing at Tokyo. We haven’’t been there in a couple of years but I love playing there. I love playing London. I love playing our hometown of Buffalo. Those are probably my three favorite places to play.

Who is your favorite band or artist that you’’ve toured with?

We toured with The Replacements many, many years ago and it was super fun. We toured with The Rolling Stones, that was super, super fun.

Me: Just the little names.

(Laughs) Right, I don’’t know man. We’’ve done a lot of great tours. Those two are definitely stand outs. We did a tour one year with Soul Asylum, that was great. Tons. Bon Jovi we played with for way too many weeks. Yeah, we’’ve played a lot of tours and opening spots.

Is there a song of yours’’ or somebody else’’s that you do not perform live and wish you did?

Wow, that’’s an interesting question. It’’s weird. There are some songs of ours that I wish we’’d play but there’’s not really any place for them. We have a whole bunch of songs that we know we won’’t get out of the building if we don’’t play. So that takes up a pretty significant part of our set, about 14 songs, and we play about 20 songs a night. Then you are adding a few songs from the new record and then a couple of songs that we really like, and then that only leaves a couple more spots for songs that we really want to play. I guess there are songs that I would really like to play. Many, but we just never are able to get to them for some reason.

Is it strange for you to see that ““Iris”” came back onto a Top 40 chart in the U.K. after over a decade since it was released?

Yeah, it’’s nuts man. It’’s crazy. That happened on my birthday, right when I woke up. Somebody was like ‘’dude, “”Iris”” is back on!’’ (Laughs) It’’s so funny because every time you come out with a record and try super hard to get a Goo Goo Dolls song on the radio. So this is the second time that that has happened. When ““Iris”” was a big hit over here (in the U.S.), nobody knew it over there (U.K.). It wasn’’t a hit at all. Then there was a kid named Ronan Keating who covered it and it was in that boy’s own band and it was his song that went into the Top 10 and our version was in the Top 20 for a bit and then kind of disappeared. So, it had already happened once. I think it’’s pretty amazing and it happened because of this TV show, The X Factor. It’’s pretty amazing that a television show has that much power to influence what people want to hear. Maybe it was just that there was so many years on it at one time and the song wasn’’t a big hit over there. We’’ve had a few songs that were kind of big hits.

Me: A few.

But that song, excuse my French, was a f**king bomb of a hit man. Dozens of weeks in the Top 10, it was crazy and that’’s just a phenomena it’’s like all the stars have to align for that to happen. The song worked and it was so big over here (U.S.). So I think once they heard it over there (U.K.), maybe it had that same affect all of a sudden over there. All of a sudden it ends up that we’re selling 100,000 singles in a week. It’’s crazy man.

Now you have a new song, “”The Best of Me”” that will be on the new Hawaii Five-O show and soundtrack, are you a fan of the show at all and are you excited to be a part of it?

I used to watch the original many years ago but I really don’’t know much about it. We recorded that as we were traveling on our last tour actually during the summer. We stopped off at the studio in Memphis and recorded that there. It’’s just sort of a one off thing. I don’’t know much about the show but I assume that it’’s a younger, much chipper version than a lot of excuses for gratuitous “”t.n.a.”” shots and cars jumping over ramps and stuff.

Now this is definitely not your first soundtrack released song, with songs on the Transformers films and City of Angels, do you think that this song will do as well? Have you enjoyed doing the soundtrack work?

I think you obviously……the depth of the project involved and how and where your song will be used and the TV sound check, who knows. We’’re certainly not using it as a single; I think it’’s just something we contributed. You never really know, you just have to see what happens every time you put something out. Certainly, when you put something in a blockbuster movie, “”Iris”” was the City of Angels soundtrack with Peter Gabriel, Sarah McLaughlin, U2, Jewel, and with just crazy names and it was just nuts. Somehow, we rose to a place of significance in that soundtrack. But if you think of the amount of dollars behind a project like that, it’’s just insane. They went everywhere and yeah, it was nuts.

What’’s your greatest memory with the band so far?

Probably playing on the same stage that I saw Kiss play on when I was a little kid, The Memorial Auditorium. We actually got to play there right before it was torn down in Buffalo, where I grew up. I just remember standing on the stage thinking ‘‘wow, this is it. This is what I’’ve been waiting for.’’ I was in the exact spot where I saw The Who play in the place. I think that was a big day and that was about 15 years ago; pretty crazy.

What can fans expect at the show in Erie?

Hopefully, all the songs they want to hear.

Me: Have to figure out the set list first.

Yeah, well we’’re doing that tonight and we’’ll have to figure that out together. It’’s just going to be a good rock show. We’’ve been doing this a long time so we bring good rock to town (Laughs).

Ryan Star is on this tour as well. Are you excited to tour with him?

Yeah, I’’m excited. I have yet to meet him but we’’ll be shooting it around with him tonight.

What are your plans for the future?

Well we have this tour for six weeks, and then have a little time off to do some things around the house, and then get to work on another record.

http://www.udreview.com/mosaic/wilmington-venue-features-90s-rock-classic-1.2699318#.TsRx5XLpz0R

By Krista Connor
Published: Monday, November 14, 2011
Updated: Tuesday, November 15, 2011 03:11

WILMINGTON, Del.—Strobe lights and rock ‘n’ roll filled the packed Grand Opera House in Wilmington Wednesday night as alternative rock band The Goo Goo Dolls performed one of the final shows of their year-long east coast “Something for the Rest of Us” tour.

The Buffalo, N.Y.-based band formed in 1986 when two teenage friends—singer and guitarist John Rzeznik and bassist and singer Robby Takac—began playing music together. They gained popularity with singles like 1995′s “Name” and the 1998 hit “Iris.” Over the past 20 years, the Grammy-nominated band has released nine albums, sold nearly nine million albums in the United States and had 14 top-10 singles.

Before the concert, The Review talked with Takac about the band’s upcoming album, the origins of the band name and their days before hitting the charts.

What brings the band to Wilmington, Del.?

Takac: Oh man, we’re bringing the big rock show to town tonight! Ya know? We’re winding our tour up. We’ve been out since April of 2010 on “Something for the Rest of Us” tour and we’re taking this last eight weeks and doing smaller theaters, pretty much mostly on the east coast. But we’ve been having a great time—I’m sure we’ve been to Delaware before. I can’t think off the top of my head, but we’ve been traveling around for 25 years, so I’m sure we’ve been here at some point. And then we’re going to go out and make another record. Go out and do it all over again.

You just mentioned a new album. Can you talk about what you’re working on now?

Takac: We’ve been collec-ting some ideas and have recorded a couple of things and we’re going to try to pull things together. We attempted before—it hasn’t happened—but we are going to try to pull things together pretty quickly and get another record out there, so we can get back into the swing of things. Things have changed a lot in the music business. We used to release a record every three or four years, and I really don’t think you’ve got that kind of time anymore. I think people get distracted very easily these days, so hopefully we can get one out a little quicker this time.

Can you talk about your latest album, “Something for the Rest of Us”? What’s the main message you’d like to get out to listeners?

Takac: It’s like most of our records, where we sort of talk about the things we see around us. I think three years ago when we were writing that record, we were looking around us and there was some crazy stuff going on, generally, in the world. And I think the songs tend to reflect what was going on around us. You know, I think it was a bit of a dark record. It’s funny—I see a glimmer of optimism up there [in society] right now. We’ve got all of these people who pay attention, got some people camping out in parks cause they want people to take notice—and that’s very engaging to me. So hopefully with the next one—I’m pretty sure the next one’s going to be more optimistic, ’cause I think the world’s heading that way.

How did you come up with your band name, and what exactly does it mean?

Takac: We often say we wish we had a few more minutes to think and we maybe could have come up with something cooler. When we were searching for a name to replace our original band name—which was even worse, which I won’t go into right now—we ended up with “The Goo Goo Dolls.” Although we hate it, I think it’s memorable. I think once you hear it, you don’t forget. […] It was a toy that we saw in a magazine, and we were a super-fast punk rock band when we started out—fast, loud, screaming music, and we found it to be an ironic name for what we were doing. And we were kids. You never think your band’s going to be together for 20 years and you’re going to grow up when you’re a band, which is what happened with us. We were kids making the kind of music we liked back then, and we grew up and we learned how to write songs, we learned how to make records. The name doesn’t seem fitting anymore, but it does describe the group of people that had been making this happen for the past 25 years. So we’re stuck with it.

When you started the band, what made you want to branch away from the mainstream pop culture?  Do you think it’s ironic that you became one of the bigger bands?

Takac: Yeah, I can’t believe it. It freaks me out, man. It’s weird to me. And it still seems weird to me—I’m sitting here making music for a living. It’s, like, wow—it’s pretty awesome. I think we sort of fancied ourselves bohemian art kids back then. We were in the alternative world. All our heroes, all our favorite bands sold 20,000 records—they weren’t selling a million records like Mötley Crüe was. They were small indie bands and super dedicated and a very—this is kind of the wrong word, but you’ll get it—elite following of people “in the know.” And that’s sort of where we came from. We never really thought about being a mainstream band or anything like that. Just kind of made our songs and got to be able to get better at what we did, and somebody heard a song one day and thought, “Wow, this might sound good on the radio,” and it worked—and the rest is kind of where we are now.