Trivia

Some Gooey facts you might've missed

The Goo Goo Dolls started out as a four piece band: Robby on bass, John on guitar, George on drums, and John’s girlfriend on keyboards.

Long before forming the Goos, John played in another band called the Triangles. They tried to cover songs such as the Rolling Stones' “Gimme Shelter” and Creedance Clearwater Revival's “Down on the Corner” (which both later appeared on the Goos' 1989 album Jed), but according to John they "just couldn't do it." He added, "That's why I love this band (the Goo Goo Dolls). I couldn't do a lot of things I wanted to do with other bands, but I can do it with this band." The Triangles played at the McKinley High School Rock Ensemble in 1981 and were also known to cover “The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em)” by the Greg Kihn Band.

Other album titles John says were considered for the Goos' seventh release, Gutterflower, were Liquor, Guns and Ammo and Kingdom of Satan (somehow I think he was kidding). A Boy Named Goo was originally called You Ain't the Boss of Me, according to Buffalo Beat.

Aliases the Goos have used over the years for secret shows include the Suicide Doors, Freedom Rock, and the Jack Ruby Tuesdays.

John used to have a tattoo on his right calf which he thought was poorly done, but because he couldn't go through with the laser to remove it, he decided to cover it up instead. In its place there's now a cartoon of a man hoisting a gigantic question mark above his head -- a character created by Saul Steinberg, a cartoonist for The New Yorker. John said, "It was just something that I saw and wanted tattooed on me if I ever got a tattoo. Then finally I had enough money and I had it done."

John, Robby, and Mike have all been arrested at least once for minor offences. One of the things Robby was charged for was vagrancy. He said, "If you don't have $18 to your name, they can give you a ticket that you can't pay." Mike spent about five hours "at the poke" for public drunkenness. He said, "They slapped me around a little bit, sobered me up, sent me home. That was enough. I was scared straight."

“Kevin's Song,” from the Goos' third album, Hold Me Up, was named after Kevin McCarthy, an old friend of the band from the mid-1980's. He once jokingly suggested to John that he write a song about him, so John took his advice and did just that.

The Goos and Tonic faced off at a softball game on November 5, 1999 in Irmo, South Carolina while they were on tour together. While it was all in good fun, the Goos lost rather badly, with a final score of 33-11.

The Goos used to live in an apartment above the Essex Street Pub in Buffalo where they could let go of a bowling ball and it would roll through the entire apartment and end up in the bathroom every time.

At a show on a military base in Kentucky, the Goos convinced the military police, who were the security for the event, to arrest Dishwalla on stage in the middle of the show as a joke. They were handcuffed, thrown in the back of the paddy wagon, and held for five to ten minutes before the military police started laughing at them and they found out it was just a prank.

At a "redneck festival in Florida" (as Robby called it) with the Toadies on the Fourth of July, someone threw a firecracker on stage which set Mike's bass drum on fire.

Laurie Kwasnik, John's former girlfriend who helped him apply to and get into Buffalo State College, directed the Goos' very first video for “No Way Out.”

The Goos' first time overseas was on the Superstar Car Wash tour, when they played a bunch of "empty little pubs" in Europe, starting in Belgium.

At the end of the Goos' version of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” someone can be heard exclaiming, "Oh, what a game!" While it sounds nothing like him, this is John Rzeznik’s voice masked by a noseplug.

The thank yous in the Dizzy Up the Girl liner notes end with some mysterious initials: E.L.S.T.T.J.C.D.L.M. This stands for "Extra Loving Special Thanks to Jesus Christ." The last three letters, D.L.M., John has said he either threw in to confuse people or just can't remember what they stand for.