John Rzeznik
I'm ashamed to say, but as a teen, there were times when I had to go to the church and get help.Collection: Teen
I've met very lonely people who have 10,000 friends on Facebook. And it's just not real. We've set up this artificial society in cyberspace. And that's supposed to be a community, like a real community. It's supposed to be where people go to get solace or friendship or have fun.Collection: Friendship
I like Valentine's Day. It's fun.Collection: Valentines
One of the things about live music that's so incredibly important and can't be replaced and automated is the common focus of a room full of people having that human contact and being immersed in the sensory overload of a rock concert.
I never underestimate luck and working hard.
I was brought up by four older sisters, so there's trouble right there. We are Catholic, very religious, and that sort of colors my world and my music.
A little renovation and reinvention is a positive thing.
I just feel really lucky to have had some hits because we had a lot of time where we didn't have them. It's better to have a hit. You can ask anyone - U2, Green Day - and they'll tell you the same thing.
John Shanks is probably the biggest workaholic I've ever met in my life.
Whether you are happy or miserable is completely a choice.
Everybody was a democrat where we grew up. It was a blue-collar town and the democrats represented the working class and the unions. But very, very super-conservative Catholic, very proud immigrant community, very stoic.
Sometimes it doesn't feel like I'm in control but that I'm going along for the ride. And I'm a lousy passenger; I love to drive.
I think about my daughter when I'm doing stuff, and I want to see it through her eyes, and I want her to be proud of me, for what I do.
When I'm afraid of something, I'm going at it twice as hard. I don't believe any fear can be conquered by avoiding it.
As a society, when you have your mortality slapped in your face, it changes you.
I just want my daughter to be respectful and nice to people. I want her to understand the importance of being humble.
I don't want to raise someone who feels entitled.
The scary part of alcoholism and addiction and that is until a person is ready to stop, they're not gonna, and there's nothing anyone can do. There's nothing anyone can say or do. And the unfortunate part is sometimes people die because of that.
In my family, my earliest memory of you get out of line is - BAM! It was a lot of corporal punishment. But you can't do that.
I don't want people messing with my sound, my stuff.
I want to cultivate my own sound in my own atmosphere, where the clock is not running.
I need a long, cold winter.
I had good parents, and even though they weren't around, they were always an influence on me.
Just call us the band that wouldn't die.
It's really weird how the rock world is quickly becoming like the jazz world. How if you do OK, or get a tiny bit of success, that's considered a sellout, whether you did anything different or not.
I think people get a little resentful when they were there at the beginning, when they supported you when you played in front of nobody - which we still do. They get a little resentful when they have to share with new people. That's why I want to really look out for the people who've been with us from the beginning.
We're doing everything we can to help bands from Buffalo.
When KROQ played 'Name,' that was the turning point for us.
You can hate my band, I really don't care what your opinion is.
For me, social media is a one-way deal. It's like all the traffic goes one direction and I don't care how many people follow me, I don't care how many people like what I do, give me a thumbs up or whatever it is. I am here to share a piece of information that I've decided is relevant to our relationship as musician and audience member.
There's a lot of shiny, pretty objects out there that when you actually touch them, they just fall apart. And it's like, you need to be authentic, you need to be yourself.
The first guitar I ever owned was a Kay SG copy. That cost like $35. Man, that was a terrible guitar.
There was always a guitar hanging around the house when I was a kid. It was a much lower impact instrument than me playing the drums, which is what I really wanted to do. My mother put a stop to the drumming.
Punk was key to the early part of me playing guitar. I was really into melodic punk-rock. I related to punk more than Lynyrd Skynyrd or Yes or Van Halen.
I got into alternative rock in the early 80s, bands like Husker Du and The Replacements. Bob Mould's playing was a huge influence. It was very heavy with a lot of open tunings, which was great because I played in trios, so I used open tunings to get a fuller sound.
The first record we made in three days. We literally stayed up for three days making the first album. It was crazy, crazy, crazy for us to do that. We couldn't believe anyone would give us a record deal. I look back on that record fondly but with just the slightest bit of a cringe.
I thought 'Gutterflower' was a really good record, but the album before that got so big that everyone expected us to go through that again.
I no longer feel the pressure of trying to write hits for the radio anymore.
We were never hip, which is fine with me. We aren't that interested in that whole situation. But all the times how we tried and failed to get across in our music, we actually succeeded on 'Superstar Car Wash.'
I love the Smithsonian. I'm a real dork for that kind of stuff.
I enjoy watching Chris Matthews a lot. He reminds me of a throwback to the older school kind of pundits like Tim Russert.
I like George Will, I don't agree with him particularly, but he's probably the smartest conservative out there.
I refuse to listen to Rush Limbaugh. I listen to a lot of conservative radio when I drive around in my car. I refuse to listen to him because he's just ridiculous, just a clown. I love Rachel Maddow obviously.
I write about everyday people, everyday lives.
We're living pretty interesting lives, we are traveling the world, we are going everywhere... it has been pretty cool! I'm so lucky to have been able to do all of that.
It's a crazy world!
Performing with a hologram in a three-dimensional world feels somewhat strange. But you know, the experience of playing live in a room full of people is most exciting, it's something that the social media has not been able to recreate. There's some kind of intensity about it, something that the social media doesn't capture.
I get nervous around famous people.
Our society's sort of turning into a two-class system, where... most of the wealth and privileges are being concentrated into the hands of fewer and fewer people. And there's the rest of us... that have to go out and work and struggle and live and die and try to find some happiness and contentment and security.
There's always those few people that are like, 'Why don't you play any of the material off your first two records?' And I'm like, 'For the same reason that I don't play with G.I. Joe dolls anymore.' It's like, 'I'm a grown-up.' I wrote that music when I was a kid.