Robby's Lobby #163

BlogJanuary, 2021INROCK Magazine

Heyhey in rockers and welcome to the lobby and this month’s continuation of our tandem journey into what has become a strange year under the spell of Covid19 around the world. As I mentioned in an earlier column Goo Goo Dolls cancelled dozens and dozens of shows since March including shows in Japan and across Asia. We have rescheduled our US tour for next Summer with a new support act and we’ve got our fingers crossed that we’ll be able to make it happen. It’s still unclear what’s going to be safe when the spring comes along, but things are still pretty intense here in NY, we hope that all of the promising vaccines, treatments and maybe a new way of going about combating the disease because of our new President. The Biden administration made COVID their first priority and I’m hopeful they’ll have a more focused way of taking on the challenge. I see there have been some shows happening in Japan over the past few months and that gives me some hope that we’ll be out there with the band making music soon.

Our new Christmas album “Christmas All Over” is doing very well for us around the world, another odd thing added to a strange year for us, and to make it a little bit stranger our Augmented Reality Christmas Special “Christmas All Over with The Goo Goo Dolls” will be airing this month through the Fantracks company on Dec12. It’s unlike anything we’ve ever done, and maybe we’ll never do anything like this again! But, it was a ton of fun and it made for a holiday vibe in a year that has been a little different than most nearly from the start. A little music (actually performed LIVE…), a little acting (maybe poor acting, but we tried….), some laughs, some tears, but positively a great way to share the holidays with us in the spirit of the old 70s Era Christmas programs with a modern tech twist!

The region I live in here in New York State has become a COVID “Orange Zone”; meaning our infection numbers are on the rise here so many businesses and restaurants have had to shut down until the numbers are back down again here in our region. The US has rising rates in general as I mentioned, and this is a tough time for this to happen as the Thanksgiving holiday happens in a couple of days here. Thanksgiving is the one of the most popular times for distant family gatherings and it’s making the scientists and people at the CDC very nervous, so they are asking people to stay home and not travel or gather.

So as my wife and daughter and I were preparing for our 3 person Thanksgiving celebration (with our relatives joining over ZOOM) I received a call from Goo Goo Dolls manager that we got asked to make an unbelievable 3rd appearance in the legendary “Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade” in NYC. It is being done in a very different way this year (as most things seem to be) and will be aired on TV and streamed over the web but not as a parade through the millions of normally shivering parade goers lined up along the streets and high rise windows of NYC. It will be a combination of live and recorded segments that will offer the experience for those who traditionally watch from their living rooms every Thanksgiving morning as a kickoff to their Holiday Season. We have been on the Lindt Chocolate Chef float, The Kings Hawaiian Volcano float, but this year we were asked to perform our Christmas single “This is Christmas” on the Lego Godzilla float !…. I would say we are moving up in the float hierarchy, maybe next time we’ll be right up there with Santa in the Sleigh at the end of the parade!

We forge ahead through this crazy time and are about to enter a brand new year, here in the US we are going to have some major changes occurring in our leadership and I hope 2021 is going to be able to proceed without some of the challenges that we’ve been through this year. All the best to you this holiday, hope you get to enjoy a yummy, yummy Christmas Cake and we’ll see you all next month here in the pages of the Mighty InRock !!!!!

Peace and Happy Holidays !!!!!

Robby

Related