The Goo Goo Dolls Interview #2!

The Goo Goo Dolls are currently on tour with Daughtry and The Plain White Tees supporting their 2013 record Magnetic. We had the chance to catch up with bassist Robby Takac before their show at Red Rocks in Colorodo. Interview conducted by Ally Marcus.

Stage Right Secrets: How is the tour with Daughtry and The Plain White Tees going?

Robby: Its going great. We’re about 7 weeks into it now so thats about 40 shows up to this point. It’s been a great tour, a great summer.

SRS: How did that lineup come about?

Robby: We’ve been with Daughtry a couple times over the years and our album cycles coincided a little bit this time. This is our second summer actually with Magnetic so we’ve been out for a pretty long time and we had a summer under our belt with the record already so it was nice to be able to pull Daughtry in. Plain White Tees were a huge surprise to us. We had no idea. We were kind of sniffing around for a certain band and when we found out they were available it was just such a great bill at that point. Lot of songs you know at the show, thats for sure.

SRS: What is your favorite memory from this current tour?

Robby: As of recently, the other night we were playing in Saratoga, CA, sort of a winery type place, and there was a little kid eating a freezie-pop at the corner of the stage and it was super hot and I offered him 5 bucks for his freezie-pop and he ran off and bought me a bunch of them during the show. So thats probably my favorite moment at the moment.

SRS: What is your favorite type of venue to play?

Robby: They’re all good, you know. You sort of have to morph yourself into what you’re doing in this job depending on what the situation is. When you’re playing big amphitheaters its fun. Tonight we’re playing a tiny little stage in the middle of a pool and that’s fun too. Its funny, I’ve seen bands play at that stage, Red Rocks, before but I’ve never actually played there before so it should be a lot of fun to do.

SRS: I hear that you have been recording a live album on the road. When can we expect that to be released and what are your plans post-tour?

Robby: Yes, we do. We did an acoustic tour called The Otis Midnight Sessions recently and recorded a bunch of those so we’re in the process of going through the shows and stuff and we’ve got some video from those shows as well that will probably be needed for something so eventually that project will come together. We’ve been trying to do it as we’ve been out here on tour. This is a pretty full time job when you’re out here, playing six nights a week but eventually we’ll be finished with it. I think there will be a few more of those shows coming up. We were looking at a bit of a longer tour at one point but its looks like we’ll probably schedule a few more shows then we’ll probably start on another record again.

SRS: What advice would you go back and give your 20 year old self?

Robby: No one is going to come and drink all the beer. I could pace myself and I could drink it all. Yeah, pace yourself young man, thats what I would say.

SRS: What is your favorite guilty pleasure song/artist to listen to?

Robby: I listen to a lot of Japanese rock music cause my wife’s from Japan and I work with a lot of Japanese bands so there’s a lot if J-pop I end up listening to. Probably thats weird for a 50 year old guy to listen to I guess.

SRS: Back in the 80s did you ever know anyone who owned one of those creepy Goo Goo Doll toys or did a fan ever give you one or did you ever end up owning one?

Robby: We’ve gotten a couple of them actually. A couple of different things over the years. The creepiest one was a basket that you held and in the basket was a baby and you put your hand in it, like a puppet of a baby. That was definitely the creepiest one because you could move its face around and stuff, it was really freaky. There’s been a whole bunch of things that people have claimed were Goo Goo Dolls but the original I have never seen. The original we only ever saw in magazines when we were kids. One will pop up someday.

    Their summer tour with Daughtry and The Plain White Tees goes through the end of August. You can get more information including dates and tickets here.