Name	John Rzeznik
Height
Naionality	American
Date of Birth	December 5, 19
Place of Birth	Buffalo, NY, U.S.
Famous for	Singing

John Rzeznik is an American guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, and producer. He is best known as the guitarist, vocalist, front man, and primary songwriter of the rock band the Goo Goo Dolls, of which he is a founding member and with whom he has recorded nine studio albums. In 1985, he formed the band that became the Goo Goo Dolls with Robby Takac. Previously John had been in a band with Takac's cousin, called The Beaumonts.

It is thought the band was originally called The Sex Maggots, however Rzeznik admitted this was a joke on stage one night, and he was "never actually in a band called The Sex Maggots". They got the name Goo Goo Dolls from an ad in a True Detective magazine when a concert promoter asked them. In the early days of The Goo Goo Dolls, the band performed at gigs relentlessly, with Robby as the front man (Rzeznik gradually becoming the front man over the next few albums, as each new album contained more songs sung by Rzeznik than the last). They were soon picked up by a small record label, Celluloid. Under Celluloid they released their first eponymous album (later the re-prints would be referred to as "First Release") on a $750 budget. This attracted the attention of a larger record label, Metal Blade, who released their next few albums. For the next few years the band toured, produced albums and held down regular jobs. Most of the music Rzeznik listened to while growing up was influenced by his sisters, and comprised mostly classic rock such as, The Rolling Stones and The Kinks. The youngest of his four older sisters moved towards punk music and Rzeznik became interested in bands such as the Ramones and The Clash. Rzeznik attributes his gift for melody to listening to bands such as KISS, Cheap Trick, The Cure and Rush in the early 1980s.

Rzeznik also cites Paul Westerberg as an "obvious influence" on his music. Rzeznik is well known for his distinctive and unusual guitar tunings. Many of his newer songs, particularly the more acoustic-oriented ones, are performed with his guitars tuned to an open chord with several of the strings tuned to the same note but in different octaves. This gives the guitar a shimmery, jangly sound almost like a 12-string guitar. Perhaps the most famous example of this is the B-D-D-D-D-D tuning of his signature hit "Iris", but other examples include "Name," "Black Balloon," "Think About Me," and "Here Is Gone." Conversely, on earlier albums such as "Superstar Car Wash" and "A Boy Named Goo," Rzeznik often utilized a conventional standard tuning. Rzeznik believes that writing is not just an inspirational thing but that writing music is "ninety nine percent perspiration." He says that when writing a song, he often "runs tape and screws around with stuff," and that his songs are often both biographical and autobiographical. According to Rzeznik, before penning down the song "Iris", he was on the verge of leaving the band; because he had been writing songs for the past nine years and it had been a low. However, Rzeznik was approached for writing the sound track of the movie "City of Angels", and after watching the movie, Rzeznik penned down the song, which changed the career graph of the band.