Bruce Springsteen could not run away from “Born to Run” on a 747, so he’s leaned into it, an attitude embraced by Johnny Rzeznik and “Iris.”

Even the most loyal fan of Nicholas Cage and Meg Ryan is more apt to know the title song from their 1998 movie “City of Angels” than the film itself. “Iris,” written and performed by Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls, is the hit that keeps on hitting.

“It’s freakish how it’s been around for so long,” Rzeznik said in a recent interview with the Star-Telegram. “A couple of weeks ago I noticed it was in the global top 20. It’s just, ‘Wow, it just keeps happening.’ This song just keeps, ‘boom,’ blowing up, over and over and over.

“You can’t do that twice. That song was such an anomaly. You still go out and play all your other songs, and people love those but ‘Iris’ is a unicorn in that respect.”

“Iris” recently eclipsed 5 billion streams world wide. There may be a 0.0002 percent level of fatigue performing the single, but Rzeznik knows what that song means. The audience. To his life. When he performs it, he makes sure to include a sentence or two or five to the audience that is entirely about gratitude.

“If I didn’t have that song, I don’t know that I would be sitting here talking to you right now,” he said. “That song has been a gateway for people to discover other parts of our catalog that they actually like.

“Does the song cast an enormous shadow over the rest of our songs? Definitely. Because that song was such a bizarre phenomenon.”

Beginning July 13, Rzeznik and The Goo Goo Dolls will start their “Summer Anthem Tour 2025.” They are scheduled to appear at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth on July 16.

In a 25-minute conversation he talked about opening for The Rolling Stones, starting a band today, and why he values his plumber more than his psychiatrist.

When you were younger, what was one of those quiet validating moments you received from someone you admired or looked up to?

We opened for the Rolling Stones. Just the thought it was insane. Mick Jagger was on the side of the stage, where we could see him. You can see he’s watching us, and he didn’t walk away. He actually watched. We came off the stage, and he said, ‘Great set! Great set!’ I didn’t know what to say. What do you say to Mick Jagger?

You gave college a try, but dropped out after a year. What was about that experience that you said, ‘College is not for me?’

I was going to college because I had nothing else to do. I went to a vocational training school, which I am very in favor of; I’m in favor of people learning trades. My plumber, the guy that fixes my plumbing, he’s a freaking millionaire. He charges me $250 an hour. That’s what I pay my shrink. And I’ll tell you, I get better advice from my plumber than I do my shrink.

Sorry, I went off on a tangent. I met (Goo Goo Dolls bassist) Robbie Takac when I was just starting in college, and I was playing in a band with his cousin. Then he and I started our own band, and then we quickly wrote four songs, made a demo, sent it out to clubs all over the place.

So I’m in college (in Buffalo), and if I fail this math class, I flunk out. But I had a gig in Toronto that day, and I asked the professor, ‘Listen, I got this gig. Can you just let me take the test when I get back?’ He said, ‘If you don’t show up for this test, I’m failing you.’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, (bleep) it.’

I played the gig, and I had lost my Plan B. It actually turned out to be a good thing not having a backup plan; I don’t recommend not having a backup plan. Because you should, because you have to make a living; but I would have been perfectly happy being a bartender the rest of my life, playing in a band on the weekends.

You have been a judge on music talent shows, and you’re in the business; are there new music groups for this upcoming generation, like the “Goo Goo Dolls,” or the “Rolling Stones?”

Yes, but starting out now in the music business is insanely difficult, compared to the way it used to be. You write songs, and you work very hard, and it’s expensive to record in a proper studio, and that’s why a lot of music sounds horrible now. Nobody has any money to make records.

They do it on laptops in their bedrooms; the record companies aren’t signing bands and giving them enough money to do proper recordings. There’s no artist development. Everything is based on algorithms and TikTok streams and all this bulls(***). The attention span of the general public is so much shorter than it used to be. So you’re working in short attention span theater here.

I work in a studio, and I see these Tiktok kids coming in and out. It looks exhausting, because they constantly have to have the camera. They’re creating content constantly. It’s this obsession with creating content, and, it’s like, ‘No, content is your music. Work on your music more than your brand.’ Be an artist before you become a social media influencer or whatever.

I have friends who started out as musicians and writers, and then they decided that they want to make a ton of money, so they go into the music business; you’ve got to remember what got you there. I think good art will poke its head out always. But it is so hard for the young guys because you’ve got to make money on the road. Now there’s no there’s no more selling a million records. There’s no more platinum albums. It’s all about streams.

You get your ‘streams up,’ all to create a viral moment. It’s just like, ‘Shut up. Just shut up.’ I’m gonna go and play.

You have had a lot of success writing & performing songs for soundtracks. What is the process of doing a soundtrack song?

I got a little caught up in that scene, and I really dug it. You meet with a music supervisor, you meet with the director, you read the script, you see the film. And I just asked a lot of questions.

I enjoyed it because I had my subject matter in front of me. So then you start to ask yourself, ‘What would I say if I were in this situation?’ And you look at the script very closely, and you look for themes, and things that you can pull from and then you’re there.

What I love about it is that I’m in a supportive role, that I’m there to support the director and the writer’s vision. I really enjoy being on that team. It’s fun. But, like everything else in the music business, that dried up,

You performed what sounded like a hit “I’m Still Here” for the 2002 Disney movie, “Treasure Planet.” The movie didn’t find a huge audience, but the song is great. Does a movie have to be hit for title song to be a hit?

That’s a good question. Sometimes what resonates with me doesn’t resonate with with other people. That one was a tough one, because that movie was the last hand drawn Disney feature. And it was such a shame, because it was such a good movie.

On the 20th anniversary of that film, they were gushing article in The New York Times about, ‘Wow, what a great movie this was. Why didn’t this movie find its audience?’ And how people were finding the movie 20 years later.

I got emotionally attached to the film because I came into the project and worked with this giant team of animators and writers. It was like taking a master class in this unbelievably well oiled machine.

The character development was so deep, and I began to think of this character, Jim, as real. I remember having conversations with the guy who was animating that character, and just talking about him like he was a real person. It became a labor of love.

It was disappointing (that it wasn’t a hit), but you have to keep going. You’re not going to hit every one into the stands.

You all performed a cover Supertramp’s “Give a Little Bit” which turned out great. Is there any risk doing a cover when you’re an established band?

I didn’t really feel like it was a risk. Every once in a while, and I don’t know if it’s still this way, but you’ve got to throw a cover tune out there. You’ve got to cover somebody else’s song once every 10 years.

We had been doing it in our show and we thought, ‘Let’s record it.’ And it became another hit for a second time. If you listen to our version, and Supertramp’s version back to back, theirs is about twice as long as ours.

We did a very condensed version of the song. I was listening to the song, going, ‘OK, let’s just pick out all the good parts, leave the rest behind.’

Go back to the start of your career, you had a gig that paid you next to nothing, in front of nobody. What was it?

The lowest paying gig we had was in San Francisco, at a place called the Mason Jar, and there was literally nobody but the people that worked there. Maybe one person. The guy that owned the club not only did not pay us, but he had his staff physically remove our musical equipment from the bar. Yeah, in a pretty rough fashion. They basically threw us out. That was a bit of a shocker.

I used to work in a nightclub in Buffalo, and downstairs was a punk rock bar. Upstairs was a dance club and called ‘The Continental’ where I was a bartender.

The guy who owned it was one of the only people that that really did believe in me and what I was doing. When we went out on our first tour, he folded up a $100 bill and handed it to me. He said, ‘Stick that in your shoe.’ And I did. And he said, ‘You got my phone number. You get in trouble, give me a call.’

And then he said, ‘Whether there’s, 10 people or 10,000 people, you play to those 10 people as if it were 10,000. Don’t take it out on your audience, because those are the people that showed up.’ That was great advice, because it’s so easy to go out see five people in the audience and go, ‘Screw it.’ Or embrace it. Be like, “Thank you. Thank you guys for showing up.”

You are from Buffalo, New York and all Buffalo residents are required to be a fan of the Buffalo Bills. Tell us, is this the year the Bills will win their first Super Bowl?

It’s so funny, no matter where you are in the world, if you are from Buffalo, you will find Buffalo people. I’ve been in Stockholm, and Perth, Australia, and somebody has always come up to me from Buffalo. It’s such a great place, and people are so good there.

Yes, this is their year. I mean, if not, that’s such a great team. Like, who cares? You get that close. It’s a respectable showing, you know? I was never really good at sports. I didn’t really play team sports, but I hope for (the Bills) to win because it would be so good for that city. From a civic standpoint, it would be so good for that place.

We really appreciate your time and wish you the best on the upcoming tour and hope you keep playing for as long as you want.

Thanks a lot and hope to see you at the show.