Founded in 1986, The Goo Goo Dolls began as a "cover band," played in bars for almost 10 years, recorded a couple of albums, kept day jobs and never really believed they’d make it big. That is, until singer/songwriter/ guitarist Johnny Rzeznik penned the sad, strummy ballad “Name,” then its sequel, “Iris,” which was featured on the City of Angels soundtrack and topped the charts in five formats. Rzeznik, Robbie Takac-vocals, bass, and Mike Malinin-drums, have blended power rock with acoustic sounds since their 1987 debut, and John seems slightly confused that all of a sudden they’re labeled as genre-crossing. While the rest of their material clearly shows punk roots, their two Number One hits are ballads.
     InsideCx: You’ve always been more of a band for the fans than for the critics. I don’t like critics; I really don’t like them. I think most of them are ignorant and don’t have a clue!
     InsideCx:Sounds like you’re carrying quite a grudge there! I guess I do, but we got a lot of shit from them, you know. Most of them don’t even play an instrument, they can’t even pen a song, but they rip us to shreds. Look at them: most critics get 75 bucks for an album review. I’d gladly give them 100 bucks if they’d just shut up and wouldn’t write about us at all. I don’t care what they think about me.
     InsideCx: You toured with Bush, they have the same problem. The audience loves them, most critics hate them. Don’t remind me of the tour...
     InsideCx: Why? Was it such a bad experience? Was there a problem with them? Not at all. We got on with Bush and No Doubt, but it was more or less the audience. It just wasn’t our audience at all. The people who wanted to see us didn’t want to shell out a lot of money to see Bush and No Doubt, and their audience is different from ours. It just felt so bizarre, the audience...
     InsideCx: You’re coming from a punk rock background, but funny enough your big breakthrough single was a ballad. That’s true. We didn’t plan to write something that was radio compatible, but it introduced us to a broader audience because there are so many different radio stations playing it.
     InsideCx: The original version of “Iris” was written for City of Angels. How did you get that job? Our management is involved with the film industry and they asked me to write a song for the soundtrack. After I saw the screening, I just wrote “Iris.” I thought it would be a great song for the movie and apparently everybody else agreed.
     InsideCx: Why did you name it “Iris”? Rumor has it that you wrote it for the country singer Iris Dement. That’s not quite right. I wrote the song for the movie but saw the name Iris Dement somewhere and I remember thinking, "Iris, what a beautiful name..." So I titled the song “Iris.”
     InsideCx: This song is a double-edged sword in a way, isn’t it? It was a huge success but at the same time it seemed to fuel the sellout accusations. That is so stupid. We always had mellow, acoustic songs, always! I won’t say that we’re still a punk band, but I think we’ve still got our roots in punk and it’s one of our main influences. To call us sellouts because we don’t sound like we used to when we were 18 is ridiculous. People grow, people change and the music reflects those changes. That’s really natural and normal. I think it would be ridiculous to try and sound like we’re still 18. There are enough bands out there who try to do that. Actually, I would consider that selling out, you know, if you don’t dare to change because you’re afraid to lose your audience.
     InsideCx: The band has been around for quite a while. You started out in Buffalo during the mid-Eighties. Yes, we started out as the Sex Maggots, then became the Goo Goo Dolls, well, and we’re still the Goo Goo Dolls!
     InsideCx: Sex Maggots? I bet that name didn’t get you very far. Ha ha, no, that’s true. A promoter "strongly advised" us to change our name. Buffalo is not exactly a metropolis and it was considered offensive, so we changed it to Goo Goo Dolls.
     InsideCx: How did you get started? I think we got started like all bands. We wanted to make some noise, hang out, and have some fun. Remember, we’re from Buffalo - there isn’t really that much to do. When we started we were a cover band and slowly developed our own material.
     InsideCx: Are you sometimes bitter that it took you so long to hit it big? Not really. I think it gave us more experience. For a long time we never really thought about making it big, going anywhere. It was more or less a hobby that became a job at some point along the road. Of course you always dream about making it big; every band does, but we never really expected it. I see it as a learning experience. A lot of bands who had a quick success just lost perspective. Look at all the one hit wonders who lost their heads. We did the circuit and we paid our dues. It’s been such a slow build up, we grew into it and kept our heads. Of course things are better now, better hotels, better busses, but I’d rather have it like this than going from a fast success back to dingy little hotels and dirty vans.
     InsideCx: Isn’t there a lot of pressure that comes with success? Success has its hassles, but playing in shabby bars has its hassles too. If you’re scrounging around for your next meal, it isn’t exactly fun. One thing that really got to me was that after we had a hit, I started to be far more critical about my songwriting. It almost blocked me completely, but I got over it. Now I don’t care anymore who likes it and who doesn’t. Now it’s just back to normal, and that’s making the best music we can!