Interview: Goo Goo Dolls

When the Goo Goo Dolls single “Iris” was released on April 1, 1998 following its inclusion on the soundtrack of the 1998 film “City of Angels,” no one had any idea what started out as an add-on cut for the film would become one of the best-selling singles of all time. Nearly three decades later, this ubiquitous ‘90s power ballad has experienced a modern-day rebirth.

In addition to the Goos playing it alongside contestant Mattie Pruitt on the season finale of “American Idol,” a clip of the band performing the song at Coachella’s Stagecoach Festival went viral on a number of social media platforms and even fueled a significant uptick in ticket sales for the band’s Summer Anthem Tour 2025. It’s all been pretty humbling for founding members Robby Takac and John Rzeznick.

“We played the Stagecoach Festival at Coachella and it was crazy because Instagram and TikTok exploded with Goo Goo Dolls that weekend,” Takac explained in a recent interview. “It was that and “American Idol.” John played at Demi Lovato’s wedding. It all happened on the same weekend. We played Stagecoach and the next day, when all those kids woke up, they all posted their videos. We sold 15,000 tickets that day for our tour, which is insane. That’s like four times the amount of tickets we would sell. We’ve been pretty fortunate recipients and gotten a lot of advantage from these social media outlets. These viral moments are really driving things right now.”

Founded in 1986 in Buffalo, Goo Goo Dolls evolved from being a scrappy punk-leaning outfit lumped in alongside peers The Replacements and Soul Asylum to becoming a guitar-driven pop act that’s churned out a series of Top 40 hits. And while the 1995 single “Name” was a breakthrough hit, that song lit the fuse for the commercial explosion that followed with “Iris.”

“[‘Iris’] was phase two of everything changing,” Takac recalled. “We did ‘Name’ and definitely felt like there was a shift there. When we were doing ‘Iris,’ it was before we recorded (the album) “Dizzy Up the Girl.” We recorded it for the “City of Angels” soundtrack. It was recorded as a one-off with (producer) Rob Cavallo. We went in and recorded just the body of the song with the idea of putting strings on it. We brought David Campbell aboard and after playing the song for him, he thought it should be a huge production.

“I remember John and I were sitting on the floor, looking through the studio glass and these 30 people were setting up in the studio getting ready to record and doing that stereotypical orchestra tuning,” he continued. “We looked at each other and there was an era beginning. We didn’t know what was happening, but we knew something was happening. As far as having a hit record, that was really the last thing on our minds.”

With the band reaching its 40th anniversary this year, Goo Goo Dolls could easily transition into becoming a ‘90s alt-pop nostalgia act. Instead, Rzeznick has been in the studio mixing the band’s yet-untitled 15th studio album, while the band has released a deluxe anniversary edition of their hit album “Let Love In” and is headlining an extensive summer tour. Takac is looking forward to being back on concert stages.

“You’re going to hear a whole bunch of great songs in one night, which I think is a great thing,” he said. “We’re really looking forward to that. It’s going to be a great summer.”

With plenty of material to sift through, Takac admits it’s a first-world challenge to craft set lists. Longtime fans will be happy to know that the Goos occasionally go as far back as the 1990 album “Hold Me Up” for material. For the two longtime friends and bandmates, song choices can occasionally be the source of disagreements.

“Some of the biggest arguments we get into arise from our trying to put a set list together,” Takac said. “I know some people do this, but we can’t do three-hour shows every night. It would just kill us -- we do too many shows. We have to figure out the 23 or 24 songs we can come out and play. We have the dirty dozen, the ones you’re pretty sure you’ve got to play. Most of those make it in. That’s what the arguments end up being about. Then we have a whole bunch of B-sidesy songs that we’ve always loved and have been crowd favorites over the years. We have quite an arsenal of those.”

He added, “We have cover songs that we like to throw in and some new songs. You’re picking and choosing from all that and trying to figure out how to bring it in under a couple of hours without boring the hell out of people. As John has said, it’s a luxury to have too many songs.”

While “Name” lit the fuse for the M-80 of commercial success that was “Iris,” the blue-collar sweat equity infused into the first decade of the Goo Goo Dolls’ history was the blueprint for later success. The D.I.Y. notion of putting in the work, hopping in a van to play markets large and small around the country and visiting as many radio stations to spread the Goo Goo Dolls gospel has stuck. Takac has a hard time believing the band’s wild ride happened in an age where so many current artists have the gift of technology.

“I feel like it’s an era gone by,” he said. “But there’s also a whole other set of resources and tools people have now that they just didn’t have back then. For us, it was a four-track cassette recorder and a Xerox machine. That’s what we built our career on when we were kids. Now, you can make a record in your house.”