Goo Goo Dolls
Guest contributor: Amanda Fazzino
Goo Goo Dolls will headline the 26th Wildflower! Arts & Music Festival, Saturday, May 19, 2018 on the Methodist Richardson Amphitheater Stage. Goo Goo Dolls were the soundtrack of the late 1990’s, with their rock ballads on steady radio repeat. Alt rock song “Name” released in 1995 and reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Goo Goo Dolls successfully rocketed into stardom with “Iris.” Written for the City of Angels soundtrack, and later released on the 1998 album Dizzy Up The Girl, “Iris” was #1 on the Billboard’s Pop Chart for four weeks and also nominated for two Grammy Awards.
John Rzeznik, the group’s lead vocalist and guitarist, and Robby Takac on bass, have been creating music together for over two decades and released a greatest hit album in 2007, which included “Slide,” “Broadway,” and “Better Days.” The band from Buffalo, New York continues to create, having produced six studio albums since Dizzy Up the Girl. Most recently released was You Should Be Happy, a five-song EP with four new songs and a re-mix of “Boxes.” Goo Goo Dolls have made a steady progression with each of their records, going into new places where the ideas lead, often inspired by what’s going on in life around them, and, the same time holding on to their rock roots. Sweet melodies in songs like “Come to Me” and energetic rhythms in “Rebel Beat” have built a broadly appealing catalog of music.
This Spring season has limited U.S. tour dates, as the band has been recording new music, and will be touring in Europe later in 2018. Concert goers can expect to hear a mix of old and new music.
Takac reflected last year, “[We] try not to disappoint anybody by leaving out anything they’ve come to hear.”
Rzeznik told Billboard’s Taylor Weatherby that he never tires of playing the band’s biggest hit, “Iris.”
“When the mandolin comes into the top, it’s like people recognize the song and there’s this rush of energy. It’s as new as the first day I played it,” says Rzeznik
“It’s pretty gratifying to have a song that big and made such a big impact and have a life for so long. I just always find myself grateful that song came into my life… It’s one of those things like getting hit by lightening: It doesn’t happen very often. When people tell me their stories about their connection to that song, sometimes it’s really moving. I’m overwhelmed, because I’m a guy from Buffalo who was in a garage band.”
Tickets for the 26th Wildflower! Arts & Music Festival go on sale March 15th at www.wildflowerfestival.com and includes six stages of entertainment during the three-day weekend set for May 18-20, 2018 in Richardson, Texas. #WAMFest2018