Johnny Rzeznik
John Joseph Theodore Rzeznik was born on December 5, 1965, to Joseph and Edith Rzeznik. He has four older sisters: Phyllis, Fran, Glad, and Kate. His family lived in the inner city of Buffalo New York, on "Superman Corner," on Clark and Kent streets. His dad was a postal worker and his mother, a schoolteacher, who always dreamed of becoming a musician. She taught at a Catholic school, Corpus Christi, so her children could get in tuition-free. His dad was a postal worker, and was also depressed, and frequently got drunk. When Johnny was young, his father would take him to the bowling alley, and they would share time together. But as time went on, he got more and more depressed, and got drunk more and more. His parent fought a lot. One night, Joseph came home drunk, and hit Edith in the jaw. Johnny then pucnhed his dad, and got yelled at by his mother, for not respecting his father. But Johnny had no respect whatsoever for his father. When Johnny was 14, his parents got a divorce, and Joseph moved to an apartment in the back of his house.
As he got older, Johnny started to hate his father more and more. He would act out against him, steal money form his wallet, drink and do drugs, and vandalize property. In January 1980, his father fell into a coma, and died a few days later. Not even two years after that, Edith suffered a massive heart attack, and died in their living room, in front os her children. "It was the coldest day of my life," John says. After both of his parents passed away, his oldest sister, Phyllis, became his legal guardian, and she helped him find an apartment to live in. He was on his own at 16.
Johnny had been playing the guitar since he was 12, and he started to write songs. He was a punk in High School, as he says. "I wore crazy clothes, had a mohawk, and wore combat boots to gym so I wouldn't have to participate." He started skipping school-who did he have to answer to at home? He drank heavily all the time with his "punk" friends. He wanted to be a plumber, but after a day of digging ditches, he said "Screw this, I'm going to college." Johnny's girlfriend at the time when he graduated high school helped him get into Buffalo State College-a vocational school where Johnny would study plumbing. He dropped out after freshman year.
At college, he met a bass player named Paul Takac. They formed a band called The Beaumonts. When that fell apart, Johnny and Paul's cousin Robby decided to make a band with a drummer named George Tutuska. They called themselves The Sex Maggots. They were offered a gig at a club-but only if they would change their name. Under the influence, they decided on the name "Goo Goo Dolls." They were a band with a very punk sound, but their songs always had a "melodic slant" to them, as Johnny says.
Johnny was happy being in a band, although they weren't very famous. He was doing what he loved, and that's what mattered to him. In 1990m he met a girl named Laurie Farinacci, and they married in 1993. One day, he was thinking, and a melody just popped in his head. He wrote a bit down, and brought it to the producer, and he liked it, so John made it into the song. He called it "Name." They hid it in the middle of the record, hoping no one would really notice a slow song on a cd filled with rock songs.
At this point, Johnny and George were not getting along at all. Johnny couldn't take it anymore. He called Robby and quit the Goo Goo Dolls. Robby didn't want to see Johnny's dreams die, so to get Johnny back, he fired George. They then hired a drummer named Mike Malinin. So, Johnny was driving along one day, and hears his song Name on the radio. He though, "Oh shit..." He knew he would get lots of crap from people...and he did. He got many letters complaining the band had sold out. Even though they had finally gotten their big break, Johnny became deeply depressed. He developed a severe case of writer's block. He was convinced that Name was it, that was their high point, and it was all downhill from there. He actually stopped playing his guitar altogether for a few months. He and his wife separated, but did not divorce.
Then, in January 1998, he got a phone call from the director of a movie, City of Angels. He wanted him to write a song for the movie. So, John went to a screening of the film, and decided that he was going to finish this song, no matter what. It was a goal for him. He wrote it in one hour, and called it "Iris." It took off and spent 18 weeks at #1. "It was a godsend," as he says.
After seeing Iris work, Johnny again had the confidence he needed to write the other songs for their upcoming album, Dizzy Up The Girl. It was released September 22, 1998, and went double-platinum in less than six months. Johnny is now happy, and is enjoying every minute of his fame. "I don't feel so doomed anymore...I'm pretty happy," he says, laughing.