ARTVOICE V9n32 August13-August 19,1998 page7-----pt2
"Well tonight the influences are the Tiki Tones and the Mills Brothers," said Johnny laughingly. But I would say the main influences are the usual stuff, Beatles, Stones, Who, Kinks, Husker Du, Elvis Costello, Replacements. Everyday things influence you. But you know I actually started to listen to music that I normally wouldn`t listen to when I started making this record and it shocked my head off. I never ever listened to Led Zeppelin and I never listened to Pink Floyd, except for what I heard on the radio. Some of it was really good, some of it was really crap. I really love Jimmy Page as a guitar player, musician, producer, a real innovator. But Robert Plant bugs the hell out of me. A lot of what he sings is just nonsense. I wish I had a nickel fo everytime that guy said baby. He does have a nickel for everytime he said baby. He probably got like fifty bucks for everytime he said baby."
The Goo Goo Dolls have always taken pride in the fact that they continue to cling to their Buffalo roots. In fact, even though they`re living in L.A., land of musicians, they are currently auditioning keyboard players from Buffalo in hopes of finding one to tour with them. But it must be difficult to keep a sense of "home" when your almost never there. "Not true," said Johnny, "because I know where Laurie is (his wife) and I know where my stuff is, and I can go there anytime I want. There`s support there visible and invisible. But I need to be where I am now getting my job done, you know? But I talk to home everyday."
If you`ve been to Goo Goo Doll`s concerts in the past, you`re undoubtedly familiar with their power trio brand of rock. They`ve made changes to that formula. at the show in the Palace Hotel, they not only had a new guitar player, Nathan December-hired to play for their tour-they also had a small string orchestra behind them when they played "Iris". The effect was really overwhelming. "Nathan played on two songs on the record," said Johnny. "He was the tour guitar player for REM...He`s kind of a hired gun for a few bands. He has his own band...well, hehad his own band. We pretty much ruined that for him. So he`s going to play with us for a couple years." When asked if playing at Artpark had some special significance for them, the Goos seemed surprised. "Artpark? I`ve never been even there," said Johnny. "I went to clown scholl there once," said Robby. "But I`m really into playing outside though. It`s so much more fun. There`s such a vibe that goes on."
Asked if he was going to be like Mick Jagger and keep on rockin` till he was a septuagenarian, Johnny was unequivical in his answer. "No!" "Mick Jagger`s amazing because he can still do it," said Johnny. But I don`t want to be doing this in thirty years. You know what I want to do? I`d like to make enough money to do something like open a soup kitchen or something cool like that, because I`ve gotten so much. I`m so unbelievably lucky I can`t even believe it, you know? I just want to have a good life that`s all." It seems hard to imagine a rock star believing that opening a soup kitchen would be a dream come true. But stranger things have happened. One thing for certain Johnny definitely has a charitable character. The Artpark concert will be donating a dollar from every ticket sold to Compass House, a local youth service center providing couseling and shelter to runaways and homeless kids. Why Compass House? "I had a girlfriend when I was in High school that lived at Compass House," siad Johnny. "She ran away from home and I`m glad she had someplace to go because she could have gotten herself in a lot of trouble. Iwould walk her home to Compass House from school and it just seemed like a cool place. I can`t imagine not having a place to go, because if you go home you`re being mistreated or you`re not wanted. Ultimately they helped her fix her relationship with her parents."
So the Artpark concert will not only be the tune up for the Goos next crack at the world, it will also be another opportunity for them to give something back. "Iris" was a mega-hit, hopefully Dizzy Up the Girl, will be one as well. We`ll have to wait and see. But I`ve heard several songs from the CD and I think they sound spectacular. "You know," said Johnny, "even if this record doesn`t sell, you know, even if the whole world says it sucks, I don`t crae because I did it and I just needed to prove I could still do it. You just keep trying, and I did the best that I could." ARTVOICE--Jamie Moses