Welcome to your Throwback Thursday for January 10! If you were born on this day you share a birthday with Rod Stewart, George Foreman and Pat Benatar.

On this day in 1863, the London Underground, the world’s oldest underground railway, opened. In 1901, it was the day the oil gusher was discovered at Spindletop in Beaumont Texas, marking the start of the “Texas Oil Boom”. January 10, 1949 marked the introduction of the “45″ vinyl record and on this day in 1978, the Sex Pistols performed their infamous show at Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas.

Today, here in the AG Vault, we have this great article from 2003. Here Robby Takac from the Goo Goo Dolls talks about the band’s transformation, how the entertainment industry has changed and about being the “kind of band who has said that our audiences pick us”.

by Chris McKay for concertshots.com
January 22, 2003

The Goo Goo Dolls crawled out of the Buffalo, New York scene in the mid-‘80s peddling their brand of indie power pop and cheaply recorded albums from the back of a van that carried them from bar to club. The group was often compared to The Replacements. The Dolls did indeed share that same sense of melodic aggression and they also had a cult following that hung on every word and chord. Sometime in the mid-‘90s that all changed. First, the acoustic power ballad “Name” went into the post Hootie charts, then the song “Iris” was released on the City Of Angels soundtrack, becoming one of the biggest singles of the year and catapulting the album it came from (Dizzy Up The Girl) to multi-platinum status. This launched the band, lead vocalist/guitarist Johnny Rzeznick, vocalist/bassist Robby Takac and drummer Mike Malinin, to superstar status. Last year, the band released the long awaited follow up Gutterflower, which returned to a slightly more aggressive sound (albeit with a couple of prerequisite power ballads to boost sales). After touring for over forty weeks headlining sheds and theaters on their own, The Goo Goo Dolls are now about to join one of the most highly anticipated bills of the season as they take off with Bon Jovi for a major arena tour that lands at Atlanta’s Philips Arena on February 13. I spoke to Goo Goo Dolls bassist Robby Takac about the band’s transformation from garage to stadium and the future of the music industry as it tries to survive the digital revolution.

Chris McKay: How does a band go from being the unheard of Sex Maggots to a massive rock group that has one of the biggest hits of the decade and over a million plays on radio in one year? Was there a conscious effort to become more mainstream?

 Robbie Takac:  I think we tried harder at one point to be a better band, to write better songs. We decided to play. We thought, “Holy cow, we can almost really do this now.” Our first record was sort of a drunken car crash.  Aside from that, we’ve always been trying to seek out some musicality. It was not quite as obvious then, but the underbubbling of something was there.

CM: I have a friend who was into The Goo Goo Dolls for a long time and then when you broke through, suddenly his girlfriend loved you. He didn’t anymore. Did that backlash affect the band?

 RT: Yeah, you know that’s going to happen, man. I guess that’s something that just comes with the territory. I mean, I remember U2 playing on the Boy tour and they were playing with The Dream Syndicate in this place in Buffalo. A friend of mine was standing next to me and he said when Dream Syndicate was playing, “You know I’m probably going to split after this.” I was like, “Why?” He was like, “My little sister came to see U2.” I thought to myself, “you big dumb idiot.” It’s like, “What are you saying? Your sister came so you can’t stay?” You know? Over the years you sort of become your own band. I think those things that were there when your band was at its conception are things that make your band. A lot of those things are very peripheral and very surface. I think that if you manage to stay together this long, it’s a miracle in itself. After a while you start to become your own band and writing rock songs that are sort of unique to yourself. U2 is a perfect example. You’ve got pop kids there. You’ve got country music fans there. They write good songs.

CM: Who do you think makes up your audience now?

 RT: I have no idea (laughs). Holy cow! We’ve always been the kind of band who has said that our audiences pick us. We’ve never had a target group of people that we’re shooting at or anything. I think a lot of people have come along with us. We’ve lost some along the way as well. That happens, you know? I think that we’ve been around long enough to where older generations can appreciate and I hope I’m clinging on to enough of my youth (laughs) so that what we’re doing is still semi-valid at the same time, you know? I think John gets pissed sometimes when I say this, but you know how at most shows, the minivan pulls up and drops the kids off? The minivans at our shows go drop the kids off, circle around back, park and go in with their friends. You know? It’s kind of weird.

CM: Do you feel as if you’ve lost the edge that you used to have? The Goo Goo Dolls were more raucous than people realize.

 RT: We felt like some of the edge was stripped away from us. Hey, this is by no means a jab at (producers) Rob Cavallo and Jack Joseph Puig. Obviously that record did incredibly well and it was all over the radio and it sounded great on the radio, but you have this vision of what your band is or at least what your band sounds like. For us, we go out and play every night and it was always a lot heavier. Sometimes it was like a ball peen hammer to the forehead of a few business suit wearing, secretary types that came to hear us. Especially in the early days, the only song that anyone knew by us was “We Are The Normal Ones.” (**AG staff edit, I assume he means We Are The Normal**) We’d come out to an audience expecting 10,000 Maniacs and that’s what they got alright! They got serious, screaming maniacs is what they got! (laughs) . I think that the first real conscious decision we made was right before we made this record (Gutterflower). I think that we decided that things had gone far enough. I think it felt like we needed to take a step back and sort of take a look at where our records went after they left our fingers and our brains and before they hit the shelves. You know what I mean? The process of making the records is that once your tracks are down and you go into mixing, the things you’ve put on tape aren’t always going to be the things that end up on your record. Some of them are going to be muted. Some of them are going to be delayed 23 times and then repeated with electronic gizmos. This time, there was a lot more rock in the record. Before, there was a lot more rock in the band than there was on the records. The new one is not like the last record where we’re like, “Sorry, we don’t have the chamber orchestra for this track. We don’t have the full-on symphony for this track.” That’s what felt so good when we were done with this record. 

CM: How much longer are you going to be on the road?

 RT: We’ve been out for about forty weeks and we’ve been around the States three times. If you wanted to see us last year, you’ve certainly had the chance. We’ll do at least 12 weeks more, then…God, I don’t know, man. I guess it all kind of depends. If the record picks up a little bit more, maybe we’ll stay out. Otherwise, it might be time to belly up and take six months and get a life to fuck up and write about again.

CM: How did you wind up with Bon Jovi for this tour?

 RT: We wanted to find another band to go out and play with and we started looking around and there were a few options out there, but not many. There weren’t a lot of bands out there that were bigger than us that we could hook up with and try to play to their crowd a little bit.

CM: Is that what you were thinking when you got this tour? Were you thinking, “We’ve got our own fans, we’re preaching to the converted, let’s go get some new ones?”

 RT: That’s exactly it, you know? The choir loves you, man.  I’m hoping to win over some new fans. If so, awesome, if not, I’m sure it’ll be a lot of fun. I’m hoping people come out early. If they do, it’s a really cool setting to see us in. It’s a lot of fun to play with a room like that. Let’s face it. We’ve been out for 40 weeks on this record, so we need a bit of a change.

CM: What kind of show can your fans expect?

RT: Just the hits, baby! (laughs) We’ll be playing just short of an hour. It’s a pretty decent length, though. I’m really excited to see how this whole thing goes, you know? We might get shit whipped at us, I don’t know. I don’t think so, but maybe! I think that we’ve been around long enough now that we’ve earned a bit of respect. Hopefully, we won’t get too many sneakers whipped at us. I do spend a lot of time in the backyard with my wife and a few cardboard boxes full of shoes. I have her just whip ‘em at me randomly while I have the guitar on so I have ninja like reactions now. (laughs)

CM: I think you’ll be okay opening for Bon Jovi. It’s not like you’re going out with Slayer. Then you’d have a problem. Bon Jovi’s just a straight rock act. The thing that freaks me out about them is that in Europe they’re considered as classic as Creedence Clearwater Revival or something.

RT: It’s unbelievable! My wife’s from Tokyo and Bon Jovi just spent three nights at the Tokyo Dome. Three nights!

CM: That’s what I’m saying. Obviously, due to their early years, people are hesitant to embrace them that way in America, but over there it’s like they don’t even know they existed in the hair metal years.

RT: I have friends that used to be out with Van Halen and Van Halen would be saying things like, “Dude, I can’t explain to you how big Bon Jovi are.” These are the guys in Van Halen! They’re saying this. They’re like, “Dude, they have their own jet!” No one has their own jet. How do they have their own jet? It should be a great tour, though.

CM: So when are you going to do your solo record? (laughs)

RT: Oh, dude, I’m doing my thing, man. I’ve completely shaken hands with the digital. Johnny and I have both bought consoles and Pro Tools and we’re learning and we’re becoming comfortable with the way the world is right now. I mean, the world has changed drastically. The entertainment industry has changed drastically. The people who are involved in the decision making processes are about to change drastically. You know, ‘cause none of them are going to have jobs anymore because they can’t figure out how to make money!

CM: How do you feel about this whole thing with people downloading music and such?

 RT: You know, I’m glad you asked me about that. Okay, to me, digital music is causing a huge problem. People who are involved in the music industry now are getting boned. Everybody except the biggest pop acts who are probably the most offensive (laughs). The reason it’s such a hassle is the ease of transfer for digital files. There’s our problem, but the same thing that makes that a problem also allows you to manipulate and store and work with audio which, as I stand here in this pile of gear, allows someone to be able to spend the amount that a demo would’ve cost ten years ago to make an album which will sound as good as anything that goes on the radio. And…for $19.99 a month, you can have access to the world’s largest distribution system and you can send that stuff anywhere you want and anyone can come to you and get it. There’s a revolution going on here. Unfortunately, some quality people are falling, but you have to flush out the good with the bad at times, I guess. It’s going to happen. Let’s face it. The music industry has gotten pretty…weird as far as the industry and record deals and how all of that stuff goes. It’s a business built on people’s dreams. I mean, with our first deal, we only got 1500 bucks, but we were like, “You like what I do and you’re going to put this record out? Okay, cool. We’ll take that 1500 bucks because a) I don’t have that 1500 bucks and b) because if I don’t take it, somebody else is going to.” Then, boom! You’re gone for five records and that’s how the business works. That’s so weird.

CM: I think I read that Billy Corgan said that the future of music, in his opinion, would be more like pro athletics. They don’t have a hard product, but they make their money from appearances and endorsements.

RT: Right, exactly. The difference is that right now there’s still a way to control the broadcast rights for television and unfortunately for music since it’s such a compact and specific thing to trade, it’s too easy.

CM: And it’s just too tempting for too many people.

RT: Yeah, but this whole mp4 that they have now is such that you’re going to be trading movies in fifteen minutes and that’s when it’s going to be we-eee-eared, man! (laughs) The bottom line with record deals is that the musicians pay for pretty much everything and that the record company makes the majority of the money. That’s how it works. With movies, actors pay for nothing…and they get an advance. The music industry is the only industry in the world that works that way. When that happens, they’re really going to be losing money.

CM: Do you feel like Don Henley’s on the right track with all of the bills he’s out promoting to change the way the industry works right now?

RT: Yeah, but I don’t think anybody wants to listen to somebody with 100 million dollars bitch. It’s like, “Shut up, man!” That’s what everybody thinks when he goes to Congress and sits down and spins his gold ring around. They go, “shut up!”

CM: Yeah, and he’s up there doing this while trying to convince Congress that musicians are starving.

RT: Exactly. The bottom line is that the general populace doesn’t think that what we do is really like a job. It’s like you being a writer, people are like, “Oh, you sit around and think of things. That’s what you do.” Yeah, that’s what I do, you know? Some people can’t handle that as an occupation and I think that’s the way the government looks at it.

CM: It doesn’t help with musicians going around saying things like, “I just pulled this song out of the air.” That doesn’t really sound like there’s any work or craft involved.

RT: Yeah, exactly. It’s like they think the music industry is all just drug addicts and losers and misfits. The problem is that, once again, it’s a business built on dreams so you have completely irrational people making completely irrational decisions at all times!

CM: Yeah, like the Mariah Carey thing where they gave her 80 million to sign a recording contract, then changed their minds and paid her 40 million to NOT record anything!

RT: How wack is that? How about Puff Daddy right now? He’s on the brink of signing what is potentially the biggest deal ever with Universal Records. I just saw it on CNN a couple of minutes ago. I mean, what exactly does that guy do?

CM: He takes other people and/or other people’s songs and makes a lot of money for a lot of other people by revising and re-releasing their tracks.

RT: It’s unbelievable! What does he do? Does he just like own all the rights to all of the artists that he produces?

CM: Probably.

RT: Jesus, man, there’s money to be made somewhere.

CM: What are your plans for the future?

RT: I just bought a recording studio in Buffalo and we have 3 Pro Tools rooms and we’re trying to keep that full right now. Someday I’ll retire there and write my manifesto. (laughs)

CM: It’s good that you’ve got plans for your retirement!

 RT: Yeah, and it’s going to be a good one, too! (laughs)

Welcome to the first Throwback Thursday for 2013! If your birthday is today you share it with J.R.R. Tolkien and Sir George Martin! On this day in 1870, the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge began. January 3 1952 was the day Dragnet and “just the facts, ma’am” entered homes via television. In 1959, it was the day Alaska became the 49th U.S. state. And on this day in 1987, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted its first woman- Aretha Franklin.

Today here in the AG Vault, we dug out this article from January 1999 for you. Here, John Rzeznik talks about writer’s block, wrestling with a record label and being able to say “I opened for the Stones”. Pull up a seat, you won’t want to miss this article, taking you through the Goo Goo Dolls history and past albums.

 From Boys to Men

Houston Press

By David Simutis

Published on January 07, 1999

Sometimes success ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.

That’s what Johnny Rzeznik, the singer and primary songwriter for the Goo Goo Dolls found out when he tried to compose songs for the follow-up to the band’s 1995 breakthrough album, A Boy Named Goo. After ten years of respectable record sales and playing in small, sweaty clubs, expectations now weighed on him. And when he sat down to write the tunes that would eventually end up on the band’s sixth album, the recently released Dizzy Up the Girl, he was frozen by the prospect. So frozen that the band took a two-year break, just as it was finally enjoying mainstream success.

“I talked to a shrink and tried to find out why it was going on,” Rzeznik recalls. “She told me that ‘You just gotta work through it. You just gotta sit there and write all kinds of crap that you hate until you find something that you like.’ “

He worked through it, all right, literally burning those songs he didn’t think met the standards set by the Dolls’ No. One hit “Name,” from A Boy Named Goo. “I was just scared,” he says. “I was scared shitless because we had already had a hit. I was burned out and turned off to the music business because it’s a really filthy, disgusting business. The objectives sometimes get lost because of all the bullshit that you have to get through.”

In addition to Rzeznik’s writing block, the Goo Goo Dolls had to wrestle with their record label of ten years, Metal Blade. A lawsuit was filed, the money issues were settled, and the band is now earning a much more respectable royalty rate, but the bitterness remains. A Boy Named Goo, released in 1995 by Metal Blade, sold in excess of two million copies in the United States alone, but the band received next to nothing in terms of royalties. Even as “Name” climbed the charts, touring continued to be their primary source of income.

“When I sold over two million records and they said, ‘You owe us money’ instead of ‘Here’s the big check and the house on the hill,’ I said, ‘What the fuck did I do? What the fuck did we do?’ ” Rzeznik says incredulously.

He attributes the band’s lack of business acumen to its relative innocence at the beginning of its career. As cliched as that sounds, the Goo Goo Dolls’ slow, steady rise to rock stardom has at least prohibited the band from being spoiled by success. And in August 1997, its fortunes took a turn. The band terminated its contract with Metal Blade and signed one with Metal Blade’s distributor, Warner Bros.

If nothing else, the Goo Goo Dolls’ members are patient. They started out in 1985 in Buffalo, when they were just out of high school. (Rounding out the band are Robby Takac on bass and Mike Malinin, who replaced the band’s original drummer in 1996.) Reared on the Replacements, Cheap Trick and cheap beer, they put out two early records, a self-titled release and Jed, which were more punk than pop. But their 1990 release, Hold Me Up, began to turn the equation around. It showed that the boys could harness their energy and create solid songs that didn’t fall apart when they slowed things down.

“Two Days in February,” the last track on Hold Me Up, is a blueprint of sorts for the group’s later success with light, acoustic-based rock songs. Otherwise, the record combines near-punk velocity and metal-attack guitars with catchy melodies sung by either Rzeznik or Takac. The songs offer honest-to-goodness hooks, and the group began to win over critics with its thematically linked lyrics. One reviewer noted that Hold Me Up is the perfect record for the “recently jilted.”

The next record, Superstar Car Wash, released in 1993, landed the band halfway between the alcohol-infused rambunctiousness of its early days and looming celebrity status. It was the Dolls’ first album to receive major-label distribution (Warner Bros.), and instead of throwing in just a token acoustic track, the Dolls offered mostly midtempo songs with acoustic guitars and with the distortion turned down. They even got to work with their hero, co-writing “We Are the Normal” with ex-Replacements leader Paul Westerberg. But Superstar didn’t quite jell. In making the album, the band was struggling to find a voice and to feel comfortable with the idea of writing radio-friendly songs.

What Superstar lacked in confidence, A Boy Named Goo made up for in commercial success. Although the heartstrings-tugging single “Name” sent the album up the charts, Boy was actually harder-edged than Car Wash, making it perfect for alternative radio, which was then at its peak. The ten years it took the Dolls to attain mainstream success helped the band stay balanced as its world changed. And two years on the road cemented the Dolls’ reputation as an energetic live group.

Rzeznik credits the band’s less-than-meteoric rise with helping him keep his sanity. “[It] helped me mentally prepare for this,” he says. “I really don’t give a shit about being famous. I just feel really lucky that a lot of people want to listen to my music, and something that is a part of me, something I have been doing my whole life is getting recognized. That feels good.”

It should. Released in September, Dizzy Up the Girl is approaching 200,000 in sales, and the first single, “Slide,” is currently in the Top 30. Even when the band was on hiatus, it wasn’t out of sight. Goo Goo Dolls songs were included on the soundtracks for Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, Tommy Boy, Twister, Son in Law and Batman & Robin. The band scored really big with “Iris” from last summer’s City of Angels soundtrack. “Iris” became the group’s second No. One song, on MTV and radio.

Dizzy Up the Girl finds the Dolls more relaxed and confident than ever in their roles as pop songwriters who still harbor a bit of angst, to which both teens and twentysomethings can relate. On “All Eyes on Me,” for example, Rzeznik alludes to his own problems with the lyrics “Everything you’re chasing, it seems to leave you empty.” But they can just as well be read by moody adolescents as lyrics of the “nobody understands me” sort. Musically the band still plays edgy guitars, but the instrumentation has been sweetened with strings.

The Dolls will finish their current tour in Pompano Beach. They’ve taken some of their favorite bands on the road with them, relative unknowns such as Buffalo Tom, Athenaeum and Frogpond. “That’s one of the cool things about having a quote-unquote hit, is that you’re selling enough tickets yourself so that you can take whoever the hell you want with you,” Rzeznik says.

Still, he’s realistic about the Goo Goo Dolls’ now-radio-friendly image. “I wanted to ask [the independent pop-punk band] Superchunk to go out with us,” he says, “but I don’t think they would, because we’re on a major label.”

Rzeznik is well aware that the Dolls are seen by some as a band that gave up its ethics for radio exposure. But he doesn’t sweat it. “Once you start selling records, people automatically assume that you did something to sell out,” he says. “So it’s, like, ‘Whatever.’ “

One band with which the Dolls debated sharing a stage is the Rolling Stones, who asked the trio to accompany them on the No Security tour this coming spring. Remembering the band the Stones used to be, Rzeznik lobbied the Dolls to do it. “I was like, ‘Hell yeah, we should do this. It’s gonna be hilarious. We’re gonna get to shoot pool with Keith Richards,’ ” he says, laughing.

Ticket prices for the best seats are expected to go for $300, meaning that older, wealthier audiences than the Dolls are accustomed to will be in attendance. Still, Rzeznik says, playing with the Stones is an opportunity to show respect for rock’s elders, for those who set the standards for rock and roll excess.

“It’s going to be exciting,” Rzeznik says enthusiastically. “Mick Jagger, he’s the real deal. The first person you think of when you think ‘rock star’ is Mick Jagger. He’s a cultural icon. Playing with those guys is going to be like visiting Mount Rushmore; they’re like a historic landmark or some shit. How many people are able to say, ‘I opened for the Stones’?”

After all he and his bandmates have been through, Rzeznik is prepared to savor such moments, even though he knows the Stones are simply throwing a bone to a lesser-known opening act. Says Rzeznik, “I can guarantee you this: Nobody is paying 300 bucks to see my ass.

Welcome to your last Throwback Thursday for 2012-only four days remaining for the year! If you have a birthday today, you share it with Gerard Depardieu, Marlene Dietrich and Louis Pasteur.

On this day in 1932, Radio City Music Hall opened in New York City. In 1934, the first youth hostel in the U.S.A. was opened in Northfield, Mass. 1947 saw the first telecast of the “Howdy Doody Show” on NBC and on this day in 1979, “Knots Landing” premiered on CBS-TV.

Today we went into the AG Vault to bring you this article with Guild Gallery in December 1999. John Rzeznik discusses musical memories, alternate tunings, greatest guitar solos and if he sees himself as a guitar hero…..

Dizzy up the Guitar: an interview with Johnny Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls
By Eric Kingsbury
Guild Gallery, July – December 1999
—

With the dizzying success of the breakout hits “Name” and “Iris,” Johnny Rzeznik, Robby Takac and Mike Malinin have unexpectedly found the spotlight focused directly on their Buffalo, New York-based trio.

On their latest CD, Dizzy Up the Girl, guitarist and vocalist Rzeznik brings his indie-rock spirit of experiment into play, going from distorted power-pop to oddly tuned acoustic numbers, powering it all with a seasoned expressiveness that puts many modern rock newcomers to shame.

Rzeznik has been playing Guild acoustic guitars for several years, including jumbos and S4Ces. Additionally, he requested from the Guild Custom Shop a solid thinline acoustic-electric that he could play at high volumes without feedback. The Custom Shop’s solution was the S7CE Peregrine.

–

Guild Gallery: What were some of your earliest musical memories?

Johnny Rzeznik: Oh, man. I have musical memories like staying up late on Friday night and getting to watch Don Kershner’s rock concert on TV, listening to my older sister’s records. There was always a guitar around the house, and I just liked making noise on the thing. Playing the tennis racket.

GG: How old were you when you started playing the guitar?

JR: I was probably 7, 8. But I took accordion lessons, you know. Like every good Polish boy on the east side of Buffalo, you take accordion lessons. Then I played drums for a little while, but my mother put a stop to that and finally bought me an electric guitar.

GG: What was your early motivation as a guitarist? Did you see being in a band or was it just playing around, having fun?

JR: I was really bad at sports. So it was just to have people to hang out with. You know, all the other losers in the neighborhood that were lousy at sports, we hung around together and we played music.

GG: Did you have an image of the kind of player you wanted to be?

JR: It was really weird because I took a couple of lessons, and I just decided it was useless. I was never very good at playing other people’s music, so I just started writing my own. And I did a lot of things, even back then, with screwing around with the guitar, you know, winding up the tuning pegs to get different sounds out of the instrument. I’ve never been into guitar virtuosos. That stuff just really bugs me. I want to hear somebody playing from their heart. I don’t care how many notes they can play, you know, or what their technique is, I just want to hear them mean something that they’re saying to me.

GG: That attitude was basically the root spirit of punk rock.

JR: Yeah, in a lot of cases. Iggy Pop was definitely the roots of punk. He was pretty real. The Sex Pistols, as far as I’m concerned, were just the Monkees with dirty words.

GG: One of the great things about punk is that 14- or 15-year-olds can just pick up guitars, get together with their friends and play Ramones songs.

JR: Right. Exactly. The Ramones kicked butt. They were one of the greatest rock’n’roll bands ever. It’s not even so much that they were a punk rock band, which they were; they were just a great rock’n’roll band. And the understood a 15-year-old’s energy. They legitimately wrote about their environment. New York City – their songs are mostly about being bored, living in New York City, going to Coney Island, digging rock’n’roll, chasing girls. That’s cool. I loved the Ramones. The whole punk rock thing, for me, was all about complete nonconformist and being an individual. But there started to be too many rules to that, too. I can’t stand completely image-driven music. That’s why I always hated hair-metal. The music becomes secondary to how cute the singer is. But at the same time, you can’t underestimate the power of having sex appeal as a component of music. Sex has definitely always been a part of rock’n’roll. Mick Jagger is just pure sex. I have this rule: it’s like, if you write an amazing, cool song that you mean, and then you go out and put your leather pants on and sing it in front of people, that’s okay. But if you put your leather pants on and stand in front of the mirror and go, “Okay, I’ve got to write a song to fit these pants,” then you’re in trouble.

GG: The music scene has changed a lot since the Goo Goo Dolls started. “Alternative Music” used to mean something different then. As a band that saw those changes, what’s your view on it?

JR: We’re the only band that survived the ‘80s. [laughs] I think that there were people in the record industry that saw all these alternative bands and said, “Hey, we could make money off them.” Then they started marketing and packaging it correctly. And people were sick of spandex.

GG: Well, let’s talk about guitars. You’re playing a Guild Custom Shop S7Ce now.

JR: Yeah, it’s something that those guys put together for me. I told them what I wanted, and they pretty much gave it to me. There were two things that I asked them to do for me, I said make me a guitar that A, will not feed back, and B, still sounds like it’s made of wood. You know? [laughs] Because a lot of thinline guitars sound like metal; they don’t sound like wood. I wanted it to sound like it was made of wood, and they did it. The guitar still sounds like a guitar, instead of an amplified pie tin. It’s really beautiful.

GG: Do you plug into an amp with the S7CE?

JR: I plug into a Demeter DI and then right into the PA. That’s it. To me, it’s one of the only guitars out there that you can crank through a PA and a set of monitors and the notes aren’t going to go crazy on you. I fought for two years on our last tour trying to find a good acoustic guitar tone. Finally, I hooked up with the guys at Guild and kind of put it all together.

GG: With all your alternate tunings, do you experiment and then work things you like into songs?

JR: Yeah, I just start winding tuning pegs. What I’m doing now with a lot of electrics, I use banjo tuners on the high E and B strings and a hipshot on the low E. That way, I can tune my B up to C. I can tune my E down to D. So I can switch in and out of crazy tunings.

GG: And you don’t have to carry around 30 guitars.

JR: Well, I still carry around 30 guitars. [laughs] But it just gives you more latitude. I can segueway a lot faster. It keeps the momentum of the show up. That was one of the things that I learned from the Ramones. I like to machine-gun off about 7, 8 songs in a row without stopping. I dig that.

GG: With Robby, you’ve played together for so long, I’ll bet you’ve got pretty tight musical chemistry.

JR: Yeah, you sort of start to become psychic with each other. You know what each other’s going to do. It’s funny because me and Mike and Robby will be playing together – Mike’s the drummer, but he’s sort of tied in to this thing – we’ll all screw up exactly the same place and pull it off. I think it’s mostly them catching me screwing up. I’m king of the clams. I clam so much, man.

GG: Do you see yourself as “a guitar hero”?

JR: A guitar hero? I ain’t no Al DiMeola, and I don’t want to be. But I think I’ve done a few things that other guys might not have done. Or I sold a lot of records doing weird things with my guitar. But I’m definitely not doing anything that a thousand guys before me haven’t done. I got popular at it, so I get noticed for it. Which is good, because I’m glad that I get noticed for my guitar playing once in a while and not who I’m sleeping with or something like that.

GG: You’ve said that you don’t have much of a repertoire of solos, but your playing works well in the service of music.

JR: It’s all about doing what’s right for the song. The songs is the most important thing, you know. Like the tuning of “Iris,” it’s five Ds and a B. [laughs]

GG: Not a lot you can do with that.

JR: Not a lot you can do with that, but the point is that it’s a very special kind of drony thing that goes on underneath. The guitar is very much a background instrument in that song. It’s there to support the melody and meaning behind the song. There’s this great book that I really think every guitar player should read. It’s called the Zen Guitar [by Philip Toshio Sudio, Simon & Schuster]. He describes the way things have to be with playing guitar, you know, that it’s about finding a spiritual pulse, more than just showing off on the instrument. The only reason I really like guitar solos is because the songs would be too short without them. Most of the time, I get dragged into having a guitar solo. [laughs] Then, I just rip out the standard Ace Frehley #2 solo. I just rip it out.

GG: Ace was great.

JR: I ask you: what are the greatest guitar solos of all time?

GG: I’d have a hard time picking. Page or Hendrix, maybe. I would pick those guys over, say, Van Halen.

JR: But I give Van Halen props for being the guy that sort of invented that stuff. Maybe not invented it, but refined it and popularized it. I think Eddie Van Halen definitely had a huge influence, probably was one of the most influential guitar players ever.

GG: You’re right, he got a lot of players going. It’s not his fault that so many guitarists in the world imitated him and essentially played that style to death.

JR: Exactly. I mean, the first 2 or 3 Van Halen records were great. I used to catch hell from my little punk rock friends, but, man, those records kicked. The songs were amazing. And David Lee Roth was just out of his mind. That was amazing music. For me, my favorite solos, it’s the guitar solo on the live version of “Stairway to Heaven.” Jimmy Page’s solo on that unbelievable. He’s got a few that are amazing. His guitar playing was just so insanely innovative. He’s slipping up all over the place, but it was unbelievable. Also Alvin Lee, that guitar solo on “Goin’ Home” from the Woodstock record. And Ace Frehley. Okay, so he only played three different guitar solos, but he played the hell out of them.