MusiCares tribute to Springsteen shows artists' unique take on his music

InterviewFebruary 9, 2013Examiner.com

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Multi-platinum, Grammy nominated John Rzeznik, best known for his work with the Goo Dolls, has a long career that was set off with their debut album release in 1985. The highly anticipated release of their 10th album Magnetic is slated for release on May 7.

The band hit Billboard's Number 1 slot for their single "Iris, which won Grammy Awards for 1998's Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Performance by a Duo or Group. The Goo Goo Dolls won another Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group in 2000 for "Black Balloon."

Having started in the business at a young age in the genre of rock, Rzeznik expressed his understanding of what artists experience. "I think it's really important that an organization like this exists that can help really sensitive, very creative people."

"Sometimes very fragile people get through a rough patch in their life, then get on with their lives and do what they're supposed to do, which is to make the world a little bit better with what they create," he said.

I think these musicians, and other people, are now finding out that childhood trauma and alcoholism and drug addiction are very much linked together in a lot of cases, because of post traumatic shock disorder (PTSD)," he reflected.

"You see it in a lot of soldiers coming home, and they're finding that the same parts of the brain are stimulated by watching your father beat your mother, or whatever other childhood trauma issues one experienced," he offered.

"You can be really devastated, and carry a lot of stuff around inside you, and sort of sublimate it. It manifests itself in all kinds of crazy perversions of your own personality. So I think it's important they're actually finding out that PTSD is a real thing, and that they're finding ways to treat it," he revealed.

Many musicians in that phase don't realize what's going on, and it sometimes requires an intervention from caring others, who contact an organization like MusiCares.

"I think it makes it a lot more difficult," Rzeznik observed. "You bury it, and you start acting out. And there is really that question of why. Why is this person acting this way? It needs to be taken apart very slowly and very carefully," he said.

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