GOO GOO DOLLS

Sometimes you've got to go home to find yourself.

The Goo Goo Dolls Let Love In and Counting Crows Tour Scedule 

That's what the Goo Goo Dolls discovered when they began writing songs for Let Love In, the band's eighth album. .

Since forming in 1986, the Goo Goo Dolls have evolved from a scrappy punk-influenced trio into the platinum-selling, chart-topping act behind such radio staples as "Name," "Iris," "Slide," and "Here is Gone." Along the way, founding members John Rzeznik and Robby Takac left Buffalo, N.Y. for Los Angeles, but Rzeznik soon found that L.A. isn't everything it's cracked up to be. .

"I wasn't really feeling any kind of real inspiration in Los Angeles," he admits. "I was sitting here just beating my head against the wall trying to write songs and I wasn't feeling inspired at all." .

The quest to rekindle his muse led Rzeznik to pack his recording gear and guitars in a U-Haul truck and drive across country to his hometown. He met his band mates Robby Takac and drummer Mike Malinin, and set up shop in a 100-year-old Masonic Ballroom. .

After the incredible success of "Iris," the landmark power ballad recorded for the City of Angels soundtrack, and the Goo Goo Dolls' 1998 blockbuster Dizzy Up the Girl, Rzeznik became a Los Angeles resident. But he soon found that the commercial success that the band strove for and obtained came with a price. .

"Nobody likes to hear a fucking rock star talk about his problems," he says, "but it was really kind of alienating and strange to me. All of a sudden people really change how they treat you. I found a lot of people being disingenuous. So my circle of friends tightened, as in there are fewer of them." .

Recalls Takac, "When John and I met each other, I really didn't know how to write a song and he really didn't know how to keep a band together. We started learning from each other, and as we moved forward, it became easier for us to complete our own sentences with the help from each other." .

The bassist and original voice of the Goo Goo Dolls worked days at a local recording studio, giving the aspiring band a place to hone its craft and record demos at night. Armed with the demos and a photo, the pair drove to New York intent on scoring a record deal and ended up signing with Celluloid Records, which issued the band's first album in 1987. .

Warner Bros., that the Goo Goo Dolls began the transformation from thrash-playing punks to respectable rockers unafraid to wear their hearts on their sleeves. "My biggest influences were the Replacements, Husker Du, the Clash, and Elvis Costello," Rzeznik says. "I didn't feel like screaming constantly. I wanted to do what Paul Westerberg was doing. I wanted to be Westerberg." .

Although the Goo Goo Dolls have gone on to reach the commercial heights that eluded most of their heroes, Rzeznik has not forgotten. "Guys like Bob Mould, Paul Westerberg, Michael Stipe and Peter Buck, they paved the highway we drive on," he says. .

The Goo Goo Dolls also have put in plenty of work and not only survived but also thrived over two decades, a milestone that hasn't gone unnoticed by the band. "One of the things that we've managed to do -- as simply put as possible - is stay together," Takac says. "That's awfully difficult for a lot of bands." .

For Let Love In, Rzeznik and Takac renewed their writing partnership. "John and I wrote together on this record," Takac says. "We had done some stuff lyrically together, but the last time we actually wrote completely together on SuperstarCarWash." .

Writing the songs for Let Love In, Rzeznik found similar inspiration in his hometown. "When you drive down the street and you see the park and the bleachers where you first a kissed a girl, you drive past the house you grew up in and you remember them taking your mother out in an ambulance, you see the post office where your father worked, you drive through a neighborhood that used to be all factories and now it's just leveled, or you drive by a street and see a beautiful little shop that just opened and how people are really thriving there," he says. "It gives you a lot of hope and perspective." .

That feeling, hope, and perspective informs Let Love In. "That whole experience kind of opened up my heart," Rzeznik says of the Buffalo sessions. "It was good to feel again. I don't need to feel good all the time. I just want to be able to feel." .

Listening to Let Love In -- recorded with acclaimed producer Glen Ballard -- it's apparent that Rzeznik isn't only sharing his own feelings, he's tapped into consciousness to such an extent that some of the Goo Goo Dolls' songs have become anthems. Take "Better Days" for example, a song from Let Love In with such power and empathy it was adopted by CNN as an anthem of sorts for the recovery efforts following Hurricane Katrina. .

"I was just looking at the situation in the world," Rzeznik says of the song. "Fear makes people do frightening things. Fear is a catalyst for selfishness and war. Sometimes I fear that we're losing our ability to reason. I needed some hope to hang onto. That's why I wrote 'Better Days'". .

"Let's just hit the reset button," he says. "Let's say I'm sorry and start over again. That was basically the message. Something better is going to come." .

With that hope, the Goo Goo Dolls have offered Let Love In, a rare work of naked honesty and emotion in songs that will stick in your head for the weeks, months, and years to come. .

Here's hoping that you, too, will open the door. .

Click Here to View the Trailer for Let Love In !

Click Here to view the video for the Goo Goo Dolls latest video "Stay With You"