Goo Goo Dolls Johnny Rzeznik Gets Snubbed by Sting

InterviewSeptember 14, 2010Unknown source

Over a nearly 25-year career, the Goo Goo Dolls have met their share of rock stars. With the band still going strong -- their latest album, 'Something for the Rest of Us,' recently debuted at No. 7 on the charts -- frontman Johnny Rzeznik reveals to Spinner that their longevity may be due to the lessons he's learned from some of these celebrity encounters, even if they were less than memorable.

"We opened for the Stones. It wasn't like we were hanging out with them all the time, but you get to talk to Keith Richards every day," Rzeznik recalls. "That was really amazing to see one of my heroes from probably one of the first albums I ever listened to be that humble and cool. It just really amazed me because I worked with 'rock stars' that were just pains in the ass."

What kind of stuff did he talk about with Richards? "They always had some 90-year-old blues guy sitting in their dressing room playing the guitar or something, and he was talking about drinking. That's really one thing I remember," Rzeznik says. "He was saying, 'This is vodka and orange soda -- this isn't drinking. Jack Daniel's, that's drinking.'"

As for the pains in the ass, one rocker stands out. "I met Sting once and I didn't know what to say to the guy, so I said, 'I really love your band. You guys were a huge influence on us musically,'" Rzeznik recalls. "And he looked at me and said, 'Don't blame me.' I was like, 'Wow, you're a real d---.'"

As disappointing as that encounter may have been, Rzeznik learned from it. "I talk to young bands all the time and I get guys' CDs all the time. They want to talk about what to do in the music business. I love taking the time to talk to them and to impart whatever knowledge I have, my experience to them," he says. "You don't want to be that guy."

'Something for the Rest of Us' is available via Warner Bros.

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