Here’s a funny thing about being famous: Millions of people who aren’t famous wish they could be. And many of the select few who are famous sometimes wish they weren’t.

Why?

To people on the outside of fame, the glitz and glamour and power to make people happy seem alluring. Who wouldn’t find it thrilling to rock an arena jammed with screaming fans?

But to people who are in the spotlight, the daily rigors of travel, rehearsal, interviews – all on an extreme lack of sleep – sometimes obscure the excitement.

A while back, Robby Takac of the Goo Goo Dolls talked about this with LSY! teen reporters Julie Moslow and Jamie McPhail. During an interview inside his recording studio, GCR Audio in Buffalo, here’s what he said:

“It’s super, super busy. I don’t think it’s really what people think. You go into town every night and you’re the party. It’s a lot of fun for a while. But after about a year and a half, you’re like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me. We have to do this again?’ You really get that feeling sometimes.

“The first time that happened to me it was probably 15 years ago.  I never felt like such a jerk in my life! I was standing there on the side of the stage with my guitar. There were thousands of kids out there and I’m like, ‘Oh man, do I really have to go out there and do this again?’”

The thought hit Robby hard. Do I have to do this again? He couldn’t believe he was questioning it. Before the Goo Goo Dolls became international rock stars, they drove around in a van for 10 years, playing anywhere they could and barely scraping by.

Robby was exhausted from a long, grueling tour. But he settled that inner argument by stepping onstage and doing his thing: rocking out.

“Once you get out there, man, and this thing starts happening – that thing that happens between people – you see some kid in South Africa singing your song back to you – it all changes,” he said. “That fast” – Robby snapped his fingers – “it all changes, and it all makes sense at that point.”