To John Rzeznik and Rob Takac, the Goo Goo Dolls is just like breathing; it’s an everyday thing for them and it’s a part of their being. The guys have come a long way from their punk roots as the Sex Maggots dating back almost 30 years ago. The band released their tenth studio album Magnetic in 2013 and has been road warriors ever since hitting the road to support it. This summer, the band hit the road with Daughtry and The Plain White T’s and has been packing houses and amphitheatres on every stop. I caught up with bassist Rob Takac early one morning over tea as he was coming down from the emotional high of the previous night’s show and preparing for another one later that day.
Well, let’s jump right into this so that I don’t take up too much of your time this morning. I remember seeing the Rolling Stone article a while back for Summer 2014 Hottest Tours and your tour with Daughtry was on their list. There are a lot of summer tours to fight against, so it must have been a good feeling to get on that list?
Yeah, I’m beginning to think it was the hottest summer tour because, man, it has been a really hot summer (laughs). We usually do a couple of summer trips after every album and you always hope that they stop and notice. There aren’t a lot of enormous, mainstream rock publications anymore so when one as established as Rolling Stone picks up on your tour, it definitely helps a lot. It’s been a pretty amazing summer so far.
I saw that you were a few weeks into the tour and other than possibly renaming it the “Sweaty Wedgies Tour”, how have things been going?
I think you nailed it right there (laughs)! I think the really cool thing about this tour is that there are definitely Goo Goo Dolls fans there, there are definitely Daughtry fans there and there are Plain White T’s fans there, but there are also people there who listen to the radio. Here you have three bands that have a lot of success over the decades by having songs on the radio fairly consistently, so it makes for a really good crowd.
There are definitely a lot of radio songs that I am sure people are going into the show wanting to hear. How tough is it to work out a setlist for a show like this one?
Obviously, it gets harder and harder every year and there are at least a dozen songs that we know we’re not going to get out of the building if we don’t play them. We touring and promoting a new album, so we like to try and work in about five songs from that as well. Then, there are songs that we just love to play and they make their way in and out of the set. Last summer, we were out with Matchbox 20 and we were in Daughtry’s spot, so our set was about 75 minutes and that was pretty difficult to do. This time, we’re in the position to do the full 95 minute show, so it’s pretty happening.
These outdoor summer shows can prove to be a bit tricky depending on what kind of mood Mother Nature is in. I saw on your Facebook page that it poured rain during the show in Cincinnati. How do you prepare for that added twist of impending bad weather to your show?
At that show in Cincinnati, they were watching the radar because they knew the storm was coming and we actually started about 45 minutes late because there was way too much lightning in the area. If there’s no lightning, then it’s ok for us to go ahead and play and we actually did a DVD back in 2004 in Buffalo, called Live from Buffalo believe it or not, and we got caught in the middle of a rain storm of biblical proportions. As long as the lightning stops, there’s really not that much danger in playing. Well, there are high powered cables underneath a lot of water, so I guess that’s probably kind of dangerous, but you definitely don’t want lightning to hit the stage. It’s kind of fun to play in the rain; it’s like Survivor at a rock concert.
Watch The Goo Goo Dolls “Come to Me” Video
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I’ve been to a few shows where it poured rain and it can definitely make for a fun and memorable show. Now, you guys have been touring off of this album for about a year and it’s been a while since your released your last single “Come to Me.” Is there a chance of a third single being released?
You know, there’s been some talk and we’ve seen some ideas for lyric videos, but we haven’t settled on anything just yet. I did just get word the other day that there is another leg of the tour being booked after the summer. We a tour a little while ago called the Otis Midnight Sessions where we did about a dozen acoustic shows and the response was really great, so it looks like we’re going to be out a little while longer. Yeah, the chance of a third single is pretty real at this point.
I don’t know if this is a touchy subject or not and if you don’t want to talk about it, then we can move to another topic. I wanted to talk to you about Mike (Malinin) leaving the band last December. I know it has to be tough to lose someone that’s been with the group for so many years.
Right now we’re playing with Craig McIntyre who is an amazing drummer and a ton of fun to play with and Ricky Woolstenhulme from Lifehouse, who we’ve been friends with for 20 years, has been helping us out at some shows as well. You know, I’ve played with two drummers since I was 20 years old and it’s a bit jarring to lose a member like that. It’s a bit of a cannonball in the pool kind of thing, especially between a bass player and a drummer; it’s all about their foot and my hand, you know? It kind of gave us a chance to take a look at our old songs again; we hadn’t done that in decades. We looked at how the older songs fit together and how they worked, so it actually turned out to be a great exercise for us.
It’s always good when you pull something positive out of a bad situation like that.
Yeah, John and I were faced with a similar scenario 20 years ago when we made our first change of a drummer and we just looked at each other and knew we have to keep on and move forward.
It’s been almost thirty years now and you guys have managed to keep moving forward. How do you do that? What keeps that fire burning inside of you?
Well, we just do because it’s what we do. I mean, how do you wake up in the morning? You just do and you make it happen and I think that’s largely what it’s like to us. Since we’ve been kids, this has been what we do, so we figure out how to make it happen and not feel like we’re kidding ourselves. You try to keep it real and moving forward for as long as we can.
Do you guys have any pre-show rituals that you do before taking the stage?
Yeah, John’s got some warm-up stuff that he does with our keyboard player. I tend to wrap most of my fingers up so that I don’t leave a bloody mess after the show. Everyone seems to go into their own little world before a show. We tend to get yelled at three of four times by our tour manager because we’re not moving fast enough and then the show starts (laughs).
When you’re getting ready to go out and tour and you’re packing your personal bag, do you have two to three tour essentials that you have to make sure and pack?
That’s funny, I’m touching it as we speak and I’m actually talking about my teapot. I wake up in the morning and I love to have my tea because it helps me feel civilized. Obviously, the I-pad has become very important as well especially when you’re on a bus. It’s tough to lay in those submarine, coffin beds and try to work on a laptop (laughs). I also tend to have a pretty steady collection of candles too because we tend to stay in a lot of hotel rooms and there’s just something about the open flame of a candle that breathes a familiarity for me.
What are the best and worst foods that you’ve come across while being out on the road?
This trip’s a little different for us because we actually have someone cooking for us. Yeah, caterers are a crap shoot and you just never know how it’s going to be. One time it can be amazing and the next you have two tinfoil pans that show up from a guy with a dirty t-shirt on (laughs). You know, doing these shows and everything around it is great and it’s why I got into doing what I do. 22 hours a day are spent around preparing and doing a show and travelling to the next one. If you have an adventurous spirit at all, then this is a pretty amazing thing to do. In an hour, I’m going to walk out of this hotel and I don’t know what I’m going to run into. You just put it on random and it’s amazing the great places that you can find. I love Asian and Indian food and I tend to find some pretty amazing ethnic dinners as we travel around.
Well, I guess I should let you get ready to go into random mode and explore. Do you any closing words for the readers?
Yeah, we hope to see all of you at a show this summer. The tour is a blast and we’re having a ton of fun, so come join us!
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by Johnny Price, Lead Senior RockRevolt Magazine Journalist
