John Rzeznik
Guitarist/Singer/Songwriter
John Rzeznik(pronouned Rez-nick, or if you want to get fancy, the polish was is to pronounce it "Zheznik", almost a J sound there with the "rz" Thanks to Dusty and Serenity for the correction!) was born into a Polish family on December 5th, 1965. At the age of 8 or 9, John was forced to learn how to play the accordian, on which he's quoted as being "the geekiest instrument you could ever play!".
He had a love for guitars at an early age. When both his parents passed away at the age of 15, John independently went out and started living on his own. From then on, he was very into punk rock such as The Replacements, The Ramones, The Sex Pistoles, Gang of Four, The English Beat, etc.
John has come a long way since then, he was an aspiring plumber, but on his first day of cleaning gutters he said "Screw this, I'm going to college!" Other jobs that John has had in the past include being a hot dog vendor (in which he says that he used to "park my cart next to the payphone and all my friends would call me, I'd leave the phone off the hook, make a hot dog and go back talking on the phone" and a bartender. (Which later, added on to the passing of his father, inspired him to write the song Broadway.)
Shortly after John started college, he was in a band called The Beaumonts (named after Hugh Beaumonts (Leave it to Beaver))with Robby's cousin, Paul. That's how Robby and John met. Since then, the rest seems to take on history.
Also Carina informs us that John drives a Jeep!
