INTERVIEW: How a Stanley Cup memory confirmed Goo Goo Dolls’ success
Photo: Goo Goo Dolls feature John Rzeznik and Robby Takac. In 2018, they are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their most successful album, Dizzy Up the Girl. Photo courtesy of Bob Mussel / Provided by Warner Bros. PR press page with permission.
One of the defining albums of the 1990s is Goo Goo Dolls’ Dizzy Up the Girl featuring such singles as “Iris,” “Broadway,” “Slide” and “Black Balloon.” The alternative rockers sold 6 million copies of that album, cementing their status as one of the most in-demand groups of their generation.
Now, they are reliving those memories and taking the entire album on a 20th anniversary tour. Bass player Robby Takac and singer John Rzeznik are playing a host of dates that will include a song-by-song recreation of the influential album, plus some fan favorites and deep cuts. The Goo Goo Dolls pull into the tri-state area Monday, Oct. 15 with a concert at New York City’s Beacon Theatre and Tuesday, Oct. 16 at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey.
The band is known for packing outside amphitheaters with their annual summer tours, but for this 20th anniversary celebration, they have decided to play more intimate venues and get closer to their fans. That also means tickets are hard to come by, and audiences should check availability.
Recently, Takac spoke with Hollywood Soapbox about his memories of recording Dizzy Up the Girl and what fans can expect on the road this fall. Here’s what he had to say:
On where he’s located during this phone interview …
“I’m deep in the woods of Michigan.”
On his memories of Dizzy Up the Girl …
“It seems like a lifetime ago, and it seems like just yesterday all at same time. It’s funny. We’re not ones to look back too much, and this has given us cause to. It’s been a pretty cool experience. We’ve never done anything like this before. We’ve never gone out and performed an album before, so it’s going to be a new experience for us, too.”
On whether Dizzy felt special at the time of recording …
“We had just been off an album we put out called A Boy Named Goo, which had a pretty big hit on it called ‘Name,’ and so when that song came out, we sort of felt a little bit of [the fan reaction]. Between A Boy Named Goo and Dizzy Up the Girl, we had a song, ‘Iris,’ released on the City of Angels soundtrack, so that had gotten some traction as well. So by the time we were in recording Dizzy Up the Girl, Benmont Tench from Tom Petty was playing keyboards, and Rob Cavallo was producing. We were at Track Records, and Snoop Dogg was down the hall. It definitely felt like something had changed, but it wasn’t jarring like the bus brakes weren’t on or anything like that. We sort of eased our way into it. I guess every record you make you want to be special, so I don’t think we felt it was anymore special than the others. But I do think we definitely felt like something was happening at that point.”
On how the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs factored in …
“I remember while we were recording the record, we were watching — I’m not a real big sports fan — but somebody had the Stanley Cup playoffs going on, and this while we’re making Dizzy Up the Girl. And ‘Iris’ had already come out. Whoever won the Stanley Cup that year was skating around the rink holding the Stanley Cup above their head, and ‘Iris’ was playing in the background as we were making Dizzy Up the Girl. I remember that moment in particular as being one where I was, oh, wow. OK, man, something’s boiling up here. That’s pretty mainstream. From that point on, things were very, very different for us for sure.”
On the novelty of presenting an entire album live to the fans …
“We’ve never gone out and done an album from beginning to end before, so this is a different experience for us. And we’re going to be playing a lot of older stuff that we haven’t played in a a decade. We’re just going through the catalog. … I think we felt like this new format of doing the entire album and then coming out and doing another set of songs gave us the opportunity to break that cycle of playing those 15 songs that you know people want to hear every night. It made us feel like we could go a little deeper into the catalog, so we decided to keep it smaller venues and make it a little bit more exclusive and a little bit more special for everybody involved. We’re going to have a great time doing it.”
On how he first became interested in music …
“Part of it has got to do with not being able to hit a baseball, not being that good at math when you’re a kid. You’ve got to meet girls somehow. You’ve got to find your thing when you’re young, and I think pretty early on, John and I both, we didn’t meet until we were just out of high school, but I think we lived parallel lives in that sort of way. The guitar was the thing. That’s just what we did. Fast forward to today, and it’s still pretty much the same thing.”
On how he gravitated to the bass guitar …
“I play the bass guitar, and I also used to play goalie. I played with all the big kids when I was younger, the older kids, taped a couple sofa cushions to my knees and put me in front of the net. That’s sort of how I fell into the bass. Everybody was guitar players and drummers, and they all needed a bass. Nobody wanted to play the bass, so they put a bass in my hand when I was 8. I’ve been playing bass since then.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Goo Goo Dolls are currently celebrating the 20th anniversary of Dizzy Up the Girl with a tour throughout October and November. They stop at New York City’s Beacon Theatre (Oct. 15) and the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey (Oct. 16). Click here for more information and tickets.
