Last year The Goo Goo Dolls's "Iris" was the biggest streaming song of the 1990s decade after it went viral, thanks to a surge in listening by Gen-Z. "Iris" became “the top searched song of the summer,” which helped boost the 28-year-old song to more than three billion listens on Spotify.
For John Rzeznik, who wrote "Iris," finding a new generation of fans with his hit single is a bittersweet moment, after fronting the band for the past 40 years.
"After I got over, [thinking] ‘Oh, my God, I'm old!’ I was just like, ‘Wow, this is this is a really great thing," he tells iHeartRadio's Ruby Carr. "I'm grateful, you know, but look, I'm not gonna lie to you. Sometimes I wish somebody would listen to another song besides that one. But one, that's more than most people get."
While The Goo Goo Dolls have produced a number of hits in their time, "Iris" has had phenomal staying power. From topping the singles chart in Canada all the way back in the summer of 1998 to soundtracking a memorable moment in 2024's Deadpool & Wolverine, the song has had many different lives. Rzeznik credits Taylor Swift inviting him to sing the song with her on stage at Madison Square Garden in 2011 as a real turning point.
"The weird resurgence of the song and all that, you know, we've never stopped putting albums out," Rzeznik says. "We've never stopped making music. And I'm grateful especially to Taylor Swift for allowing me to get on stage and sing that song with her. That was a really pivotal moment. And I'm grateful to her. She's an icon."
It also helps that a number of artists have covered the song over the years, everyone from Phoebe Bridgers and Maggie Rogers to Boyz II Men and New Found Glory. "To have all the other people cover that song and, and to give it a new life and using that song for people to find our other material is starting to happen, which is really good," he adds.
As for how Rzeznik feels about his song and having to play it so many times over the years, he explains that his relationship with "Iris" has been up and down. But he's learned that with all of the success came a lot of gratitued.
"My perspective 10 or 11 years ago was much different than it is now, mostly because I've been sober for 11 years now," he says. "Alcoholism is a disease of loneliness and self-pity, and once I could get over those things and start seeing what I'm supposed to be grateful for and what I should be grateful for, it became a gift. That's it. That's how I perceive it. And no matter where I've been in the world - and this is humbling, even though it does feel really good - sticking that microphone out into the audience [at the 2019 Rock in Rio festival] in Rio and 100,000 people singing those words back to you, it was unbelievable."
Another memorable live performance of the song he will forever remember was singing the song at the wedding of massive Goo Goo Dolls fan Demi Lovato and Jordan “Jutes” Lutes. Rzeznik was invited to perform "Iris" the the couple's first dance at their wedding in May 2025.
"When I when I got to meet her I was struck by what a special soul she has," he says. "I don't know, maybe that sounds weird, but I was struck by that. And then when she wanted me to sing at her wedding, I was like, ‘Absolutely. Of course I'll do it.’ So I drove up to Santa Barbara, this beautiful place, and, I'm singing the song and I'm so happy for her."
An unexpected celebrity encounter, however, prevented Rzeznik from sticking around after the performance. "I saw Paris Hilton sitting at a table, and I was like, ‘I'm out of here!’" he says with a chuckle. "I packed up my guitar, threw it in the car, and just drove back to L.A. I didn't stay for the party."
Rzeznik and the band will be returning to Canada next month for a cross-country tour with emo favs Dashboard Confessional that kicks off in Victoria, BC at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre on March 19. Having grown up in a border city like Buffalo, NY, he says he always enjoys visiting his northern neighbour.
"We haven't done a proper Canadian tour in a while. It's just fun to get back because I love Canada," he says. "It's a great country and an enormous part of our youth growing up. To get to go to Toronto, which was like the closest real city, that was a lot of fun."
Watch the full interview below.