Music Preview
Interview • August 9, 2011 • In Utah This Week
By Spencer Sutherland • for In This Week
Long before the name Goo
Goo Dolls was permanently attached to the phrase “platinum-selling
artists,” the threesome was just another bar band in chilly Buffalo,
N.Y. That all changed, however, thanks to a slew of massive hits in the
mid-’90s and early 2000s, including “Name,” “Slide” and “Here is Gone.”
As the band nears its 25-year anniversary, bassist and founding member Robby Takac wonders where all the time has gone.
“It
doesn’t seem real,” he says of the milestone, from a tour stop in
Connecticut. “It’s amazing how fast 25 years flies by.” Though much of
the past quarter-century has felt like a whirlwind, he still remembers
the changes brought on by the band’s breakthrough hit in 1995.
“After
10 years of driving around in a van, trying to convince every kid in
town to come check out your band, [having “Name” on the radio] was
huge.” Unfortunately, the first thing he did with his newfound fame and
fortune wasn’t all that glamorous.
“I paid off my studio loans,” he says with a laugh. “Those bill collectors were starting to get after me.”
“Name”
would be only the beginning of the band’s reign of mainstream rock
radio. Since that time, the Goo Goo Dolls have amassed 14 top-10
singles. Ruling the airwaves, however, does have some disadvantages.
“It’s
funny when you hear your music in a grocery store or something,” Takac
says. “That’s a highly self-conscious moment. The first time you hear
yourself on the radio, you want to point around and tell everybody to
check it out. But that wears off really quickly, and you can’t get to
the radio fast enough to shut it off. You never want to get caught
listening to your own band. It’s a little creepy.”
Over the past
few years, the band has noticed a shift in the demographics at their
shows. The longtime fans are still coming, but now they’re bringing
along their kids.
“It sounds crazy, but there are a lot of
families that come see us play. I had a lady tell me that because of our
band, she feels like she has something to talk to her daughter about.
The thing they do together is come to our shows. That moved me a little
bit,” Takac says.
He adds that it’s not difficult to relate to the band’s younger fans, but the commonalities have changed.
“What
happens is the point of reference changes a little bit. There’s a huge
generation of kids who look at Blink-182 the way that I look at the
Rolling Stones. That’s almost inconceivable to me. They don’t know about
the Buzzcocks and they don’t wanna — ’cause that’s old music.”
But he doesn’t waste time letting a new generation’s lack of interest in rock history get him down.
“You
just go with what people know and appreciate that they’re digging what
you’re doing and embrace it. Everybody’s influences and stimuli are
different. There’s no chance I could have a conversation about a Roberta
Flack with a lot of these folks — but they don’t need to know about
Roberta Flack. It was people from my generation who were stealing from
those records.”
He does have advice for young bands, however.
“I
hope the thing people take away from playing or touring with us is the
idea that you’ve gotta work to make this happen. You can’t stop doing
the things that help make the connection with your fans — reaching out,
making people feel a part of what you’re doing when you’re onstage.
Those fans are the ones that are going to make it possible for you to do
this thing you love. You can’t become so important that it’s all about
you. It’s not about you. It’s about everyone.”
After 25 years,
thousands of shows and millions of records, there’s no doubt the Goo Goo
Dolls know a thing or two about keeping fans happy.