Goo Goo Dolls to bring ‘Something’ to ToledoGoo Goo Dolls to bring Something to Toledo

InterviewSeptember 23, 2010Toledo Free Press

John Rzeznik. He sings. He writes hit songs. He plays memorable guitar riffs. He cooks.

“I’m very good with Italian food; I make unbelievable sauce,” the front man of the Goo Goo Dolls said.

“Do I have a secret? Yeah, I dated an Italian girl,” he said and laughed.

Does he have other hidden talents?

“I can juggle,” he offered.

“That’s funny. We were doing a show the other day, and I was like, so the album’s coming out, so please go out and buy it because I really have no other marketable skills. If I have to go out and get a job, I’m going to be in big trouble,” Rzeznik said.

Not that he has to fret. The band has sold more than 10 million records thanks to a steady stream of hits — “Name,” “Iris,” “Slide,” “Black Balloon,” “Here Is Gone,” “Let Love In,” “Better Days.”

“I’m from Buffalo; you still worry about it,” he said.

That uncertainty is featured on the Goo Goo Dolls’ ninth studio disc, “Something For the Rest of Us.”

“I wanted to sort of deal with the emotional kind of fallout of what’s going on in the world right now and how this kind of separation and anxiety is sort of affecting all of us,” Rzeznik said during a call from the back steps of his Los Angeles home.

“Home” is the new single.

“I was just thinking that you’re trying so hard to go out in the world and make your pile of money and you’re feeling incredibly unsatisfied because what truly matters is what’s going on in your interior life — having a home and family and friends,” Rzeznik said. “I think a lot of people are starting to realize that, that there’s sort of a paradigm shift going on in America, I think. We’ve been put in a position where we’re forced to be less materialistic, and we’re sort of re-evaluating what’s important in our lives.”

He said the ballad “Notbroken” was inspired by a woman he talked to during a meet-and-greet event.

“She was just telling me about how her husband had gone away to Iraq and was injured and he was in the hospital and he didn’t want to come home because he was afraid that she wouldn’t love him the way that she did when he felt whole,” Rzeznik said. “I just walked away from that five-minute conversation and was like, ‘wow, you know, that was really heavy.’ So I took it upon myself to try to write a love letter to him from her, trying to say that everything is all right, it’s time to start our lives over again, I’m here for you.”

The Goo Goo Dolls — Rzeznik, singer and bass player Robby Takac and drummer Mike Malinin — have been around for almost a quarter of a century.

“Please don’t remind me — our silver anniversary, oh my God,” Rzeznik said and laughed.

And that’s with a band name Rzeznik isn’t crazy about.

“Robby won’t talk about it because he’s just like: Everybody remembers that name, it’s a great name. And I’m like, yeah, I know, but we could have done something cooler,” Rzeznik said. “Every once in a while I’ll come up with another name, and it’ll be like, oh yeah, but I forget them as fast as I come up with them.”

The Goo Goo Dolls will play a 7:30 p.m. show Oct. 6 at the Stranahan Theater. Tickets are $45 and $35. The Spill Canvas will open.

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