Life After Sex
By: Dan Aquilante - NY Post
April 5th 2002 7:20am
THE Goo Goo Dolls have come a long way since 1986, when they were known as the Sex Maggots - a cover band gigging around Buffalo. The trio hit the big time after front man Johnny Rzeznik scribbled the band's breakthrough song "Name" and cemented their fame with "Iris," propelling the disc "Dizzy Up the Girl" to more than 5 million copies in U.S. sales. On Tuesday the band drops it's latest album "Gutterflower." The Goos always looked good on MTV, playing the kind of power-pop that made chicks crumble and critics cringe. Speaking to The Post from his L.A. home, Rzeznik, 36, says he's over the days when he had a standing offer to give critics who hated the Goos $100 not to write about his band at all. Rzeznik said, "I've gotten some criticism that was actually constructive and has helped me out, but most of the time, when you get a bad review, it's a lot of blah-blah-blah that boils down to 'I don't like this.' "I want to tell people: Don't write about what you hate - write about something you love and can champion." Post: The lyrics to the songs on your new disc are very literate. When you read, what do you gravitate to? Rzeznik: I read history and politics. It's really important to have a sense of your own history to understand what's going on in the world. Post: Most adults don't study history, so hearing this from a rock star is even more surprising. Rzeznik: I never thought I was going to be a rock star. I wanted to be a teacher or maybe a sociologist. Post: You've had problems with fame. Rzeznik: Yeah, I've had a couple of run-ins with stalkers. I really felt sorry for them, but one really wanted to kill me. I couldn't help but feel for this girl and how sick she really was. When she attacked me, she was completely irrational. It might sound a little selfish, but I hope she's well now. Post: Do you refer to this incident in any of the lyrics to the new songs? Rzeznik: Definitely not. That was the problem to begin with. This girl thought I was writing songs about her. So I'll never write a song about it. Post: You're a pretty private person. How about a little personal stuff about you? Rzeznik: I live in L.A., but I'm from Buffalo. Post: That's not too personal. What do you miss about New York? Rzeznik: I miss the first snowfall because it's so pretty, and I miss the first few days of spring when it's warm out, but the wind can still make it cold. Post: How do you think you're different, having grown up in Buffalo rather than L.A.? Rzeznik: Buffalo doesn't have any illusions. People know who you are, and they're willing to tell you what they really think of you. In Los Angeles, people are disingenuous. I find myself being cynical to many people here. Post: You don't like phoniness. Rzeznik: People come up to me all the time and say, "You're so great." That makes me think, how do they know I'm great? I'd rather somebody say they enjoyed a song I wrote. Post: Are you married? Rzeznik: I'm not married, and I don't have children, and I'm not involved in any serious relationship. I'm going to start working on all that soon. Post: Do you own a home? Rzeznik: Yeah, but only since the end of the last tour. I found this 80-year-old cottage. It's tiny, but I really love the place. It only has one bedroom and one bathroom, but it's perfect for me. It was totally trashed, so I picked it up cheap and spent the next six months rebuilding it with a contractor. I had a lot of fun. Rebuilding my house was very satisfying. It was nice having a creative project that wasn't music-related. Post: Did you like working with tradesmen around your home? Rzeznik: It was the best time. You're going to laugh, but after I was done working on the record before this, I had nothing to do, so I was hanging around my sister's house and I decided I was going to remodel her bathroom for her. Post: How did it come out? Rzeznik : The last part of the job was installing the toilet. When it was done, I just stood there staring at it - it was one of the proudest moments of my life. Post: That's when you were the proudest? Rzeznik: I don't want to sound ungrateful at all the success I've had in my career, but I felt more satisfaction taking the first ride on my sister's toilet than I did when I got my first gold record.
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