Billboard Magazine July 20, 1996
The Modern Age
By Bradley Bambarger

Inspired by the plaintive visions of such ace songwriters as Paul Westerberg, Bob Mould, and Afghan Whigs' Greg Dulli, Goo Goo Dolls singer/guitarist Johnny Rzeznik has gradually developed his own deft, distinctive take on the bittersweet side of the street. "I don't know if sad songs are the best songs, but I think they definitely make the most interesting ones," Rzeznik says. "I've written a lot of music when I've been in the midst of personal bullshit. It's a good way of dealing with things--better than getting drunk and wrecking your car." No. 29 on Modern Rock Tracks this week, "Long Way Down" continues in the forlorn vein of "Naked" and "Name," the two previous Modern Rock hits from the Goo Goo Dolls' fifth album, "A Boy Named Goo" (Metal Blade/Warner Bros.). Yet the song's presentation as a flat-out rocker can belie its emotional depth. "Some alternative elitist snobs think `Long Way Down' is a little too `rock,' but I don't care," Rzeznik says. "A lot more people tell me it's their favorite tune on the record." "Long Way Down" concerns "the baggage we all bring into relationships," Rzeznik says. "Someone else's past--someone you're intimately involved with--can affect you greatly. But as I see it, you got to take a punch for your friend, a punch from your friend. I know my wife has dealt with all my idiotic shit for years." After years of slugging it out in the trenches, the Goo Goo Dolls have begun to experience a marked upswing in their quality of life thanks to the success of "A Boy Named Goo." So it would seem that Rzeznik and his bandmates, bassist Robby Takac and drummer Mike Malinin, could lack the inspiration to concoct a set of sad-sack sing-alongs to rival "Name," "Naked," "Only One," "Ain't That Unusual," and the probable next single, the potent "Eyes Wide Open." But don't count on it, Rzeznik says: "I have a real knack for making myself miserable.