"You can always tell the bands who are just started out touring. They come back to the hotel, the music's blasting, there's sweat running down the windows, there's like 60 people crammed into one hotel room, standing around the bed, TV blasting." These are Robby's helpful pointers in spotting a new band. Johnny goes on to explain the Goo's own brand of fun. "Every once in a while we go totally ape-shit and do something really wild and rock 'n roll-like get a pizza!"
Robby's helpfully getting into the true rock and roll spirit. "Do you want to see us whip a TV into the pool? C'mon, Johnny!" But of course the Goo’s have to take the fine art one step further. "I want to get a 100 foot extension cord and then throw a TV into the pool. All the lights in the whole hotel will go out and blow a serious fuse!"
Anything to electrify the time here in Asbury Park. One look around makes you understand why Bruce Springsteen wrote all those songs about leaving town. "Last time we were here, there were all these rocker girls who were like, 'Yo, come here, baby!'" With that comment Johnny also sums up the atmosphere for this night's show, with numerous leather-clad females stalking him after the show. And then there's the band who opens their show. They don't deserve to have their name mentioned (see B-Side live review, Apr/ May 91) and they already have a reputation for their rock star attitude. When the Goo’s rolled into town, they were immediately confronted with the other band's bus (as opposed to the Goo's van) and things didn't get better after that. Witness Robby's glamorous dinner encounter. "The guy who works at the restaurant, where it took us a freaking' hour to get our dinner, we walked in and the guy goes, 'what do you want?' We just walked into a restaurant, what the fuck do you think we want? 'Oh, we just came in to soak up some of the wonderful atmosphere."
But none of this gets the Goo's off their mark, and when it finally comes time to take the stage, the Goo’s give the crowd what they came for. The Goo's easily make the average band look like amateurs when it comes to wild energy and amazing stamina. Their bare feet never stand still for long, even during the acoustic numbers, and this in turns stimulates their audiences to new heights of stupidity. Says Robby, "The last time we were here, the crowd was completely nuts! They grabbed Johnny and drug him into the audience and he disappeared. So one of the guys on the crew goes over to find him, and he pulls the guitar out of the crowd, but there's no Johnny attached to it. It was really wild. We have the whole thing on video." And this time around the crowd isn't much different, reacting on total overdrive. And there's reasons for the reactions, according to Robby who explains the guys generally relate to him and the girls go for Johnny because "he looks like that Gene Loves Jezebel guy." So who goes for the hunky hippie George? Hmmm!
Even the dank, dripping, hole-in-the-wall of a dressing room doesn't bring the band down, Robby claiming he has friends whose houses look like this so it doesn't bother him much. George has a wet butt and Johnny finally escapes the female attention to flee downstairs. Only come time for photos he's afraid to go back up. He needs some karate lessons against pushy leather clad females!
Just seeing one show makes one a true believer in the Goo Goo Dolls (I signed up...Editor!). The more shows, the more the belief... a not so a simple musical math equation. Or something like that!
AND NOW A ROAD STORY
This is a band with their share of road stories, presented in their lively manner. George has his fond memories of the Goo's first tour. "We went with five people and our equipment in a cargo van with no windows, for three months, in July, across the desert. I remember the last date was in Cleveland, it was about 7:30 in the morning, the sun had come up and it was already 85. We step out of the van, we had no clean clothes left. I'd been wearing the same pair of shorts for a week and I had no shirts left and there was just dirt on me. And we were in the parking lot of a 7-11 and between us we had enough money for one cup of coffee, and I said, 'Well, Robby, you gotta go in cause I ain't got no shirt.' And he said, 'But I don't have any shoes on!' I had to give him my shoes so he could go in."
WHOSE BEEN SLEEPING IN MY BED?
It happens to the best of bands during a tour: sometimes band members have to share a double bed. Needless to say it can get interesting when someone, half asleep, feels a body next to them, and pulls a classic act of mistaken identity...thinking it's their girlfriend...
George: "It's funny you should bring that up. Sometimes I roll over and I know it's Robby and I just go to town anyway."
Robby: "John woke up one time and was exploring the inter depths of my... And we went like this, 'AAAHHHHHH!!'"
"I touched his...package," confesses Johnny. "I thought it was my girlfriend!"
"She's got one?" exclaims George.
"Rob's is bigger though," jests Johnny. "I fell asleep and I just kinda.. you know..."
"I was wide awake! But I was pretending I didn't notice," grins Robby.
"And as I'm screaming and writhing in horror, with my hand like this," as he thrusts it away from him as if contaminated, "he's lying there like this," he demonstrating Robby's spread eagle smirk.
George is curious. "Did you get a rise out of him?"
"It felt kind of hard! It was traumatic! I went and slept in the corner curled up in a ball with my face against the wall," complains Johnny.
No wonder Robby would rather have the cot. It's safer.
SMILE WHEN YOU SING THAT
So what about that epic of video film making 'There You Are' starring the Goo’s, Niagara Falls and... wait, it wasn't the Goo’s?
"I wasn't there," claims George.
"Yeah, we had Tony Curtis play George," explains Robby.
"I had Tony Randall come and play me and we hired Tony..." begins Johnny as Robby cuts in, "Tony Orlando?"
"Tony DeFranco?" queries George.
"No, Tony Danza!"
"No, Danny Devito!" George completely gets off the track.
But they're not off the theory.
"Hey, did you see M.C. Hammer in our video? The security guard is M.C. Hammer," claims Johnny.
At this point if my leg gets pulled much harder it will end up out in that horrible swimming pool.
"No, really, he's a big baseball fan and he came to check out the stadium," claims George.
"And our manager knows his..." confides Johnny.
"And we were filming video and we're like 'Hey, why don't you put on that security uniform?" describes George. Un-huh.
"It was kind of weird because the make-up lady filled in the lines on the sides of his head and stuff. It would have been breach of his contract (to be in the video) but he wanted to be in it. It's so obvious it's him, it is to me, anyway, but I was standing right next to him," defends Johnny. Uh-huh. And that pool downstairs is safe for swimming.
At last our interview draws to a close, but not before we gather more insights into the Goo Goo Dolls psyche. When the subject somehow turns to astrology, Johnny proves to be a believer. He excitedly starts to describe the personalities of various astrological signs. "Leos are nuts! They're crazy! They're like Sagittarius out of control. I'm into all that yo-yo bullshit."
Just as abruptly he falls philosophical. "People who pick on people who are in love with them are assholes," Johnny claims. "If somebody's a fool, and you know they're a fool, what kind of person does it make you if you take advantage of the fact that they're a fool?"
This question is met with a decided silence until Robby mutters, "Every interview we do turns into a freaking' encounter session!"
Johnny rightly retorts, "It's a lot more interesting that 'where did you get your name?'"
Robby goes on, "It's getting really weird because we do a lot of interviews now, and 90% of the people who've interviewed us have been so bad. It's like they came up with a list of questions, Xeroxed it and sent it to everyone. Everywhere we go, it's the same thing."
We can probably guess the most typical question. "'Where did you get your name?'" mocks Robby. "That's why we refuse to answer it anymore. And 'what are your main influences?'"
"A lot of journalists," explains Johnny, "have the basic who, what, where, when and why questions. Which is good rudimentary journalism."
Robby squelches any good intentions there. "It's also boring." If any journalist makes the Goo Goo Dolls out to be boring, they deserve a good long swim in that questionable pool. At night. In the winter. Starting with a swan dive from the fifth floor balcony!
