American rock band Goo Goo Dolls performed at Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, led by their frontmen John Rzeznik and Robby Takac. The duo sang their 1998 hit song Iris with the live audience singing along the lines:“I just want you to know who I am.”Rzeznik, 60, is the founding member, lead vocalist, and guitarist of Goo Goo Dolls. He, along with bassist-vocalist Takac, 61, formed the band in their hometown of Buffalo, New York, in 1985.Ahead of the now-viral performance, Goo Goo Dolls shared their excitement via an Instagram post on December 29. It was captioned:“It’s been 30 years since the first time that we performed on @RockinEve!!!! We can’t wait to do it again on New Year’s Eve at 8/7c on @ABC #RockinEve.”The post came with a series of pictures from the Goo Goo Dolls’ bygone shows. A video footage titled “Before the ball drops with Goo Goo Dolls” also showed John Rzeznik, who said:“Uhh, wait. Start over!” before revealing his favorite tour/ fan/ show experience from 2025, aka the Summer Anthem Tour with Dashboard Confessional. View this post on Instagram Instagram PostTakac added, “We had all the kids out and stuff. It was a lot of fun, man.”All about John RzeznikJohn Joseph Theodore Rzeznik was born in Buffalo, NY, in December 1965 to a Polish-American immigrant family and was raised alongside four older sisters. He lost his parents, Edith Pomeroy and Joe Rzeznik, to a heart attack and alcohol abuse-induced diabetic coma, respectively, when he was a teenager.However, his parents left behind musical influences for young John, as they both played clarinet and flute, alongside running a bar and his dad working as a postal clerk.Apart from being the founder and frontman of Goo Goo Dolls, John is also a singer, songwriter, and music producer who specializes in rock, punk rock, pop rock, and alternative rock.The band’s famous songs include Slide and Name. However, their breakthrough album was Dizzy Up the Girl in 1998, which contained the blockbuster single, Iris, later included on the soundtrack of the Nicolas Cage film City of Angels.Other notable works include Jed, Hold Me Up, Superstar Car Wash, A Boy Named Goo, Gutterflower, Let Love In, and Miracle Pill, among others. Its last studio album, Chaos in Bloom, came out in 2022. View this post on Instagram Instagram PostJohn Rzeznik also gained fame for his 2002 solo single I’m Still Here for the soundtrack of the movie Treasure Planet. The Good Morning, Miami theme song, Once in a Lifetime, was also created by Rzeznik.His collaborators include Cash Cash, Okean Elzy, Ian Gillian, Steve Morse, The Yardbirds, Paul Westerberg, and Limp Bizkit. Rzeznik even called Westerberg his “obvious influence” and co-wrote the Goo Goo Dolls song We Are the Normal with him.John Rzeznik was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008 and has multiple Grammy nominations in his name.Rzeznik has been married twice, first to model Laurie Firanacci and then to Melina Gallo. The first marriage lasted for a decade until 2003. He dated Gallo for eight years before tying the knot in 2013. Their daughter was born two years later. John now resides with his family in Westfield, New Jersey.During a July 2023 appearance on Seven’s The Morning Show, John Rzeznik spoke about Iris reaching a billion streams on Spotify and whether he expected it.“You always hope, but no… You hope that you build something that will last. There are people who do it better than me,” he stated.Rzeznik also talked about his sobriety journey, changed look, upcoming tours, and the new generation making covers of their songs on TikTok.Around the same time, John Rzeznik interviewed with USA Today and shared how the pandemic affected his life. “You can tend to sort of take it for granted. Our lives were upended… having it taken away was eye-opening. The hardest part for me was feeling the loss of purpose. And I think a lot of people felt that.”About being in the music industry for over four decades, John Rzeznik stated:“I still have ideas for songs in my head. I’m not ready to just hang it up and be a nostalgia act. I’m still swinging. That’s all you can ask for.”Last year in December, around the time of his birthday, John was hospitalized with pneumonia, and Goo Goo Dolls had to postpone their South Africa shows. Rzeznik shared in a video message how “truly sorry” he was, adding he was focusing on his recovery and getting back to the stage at the earliest.He later returned during the Stagecoach Country Music Festival in California in April 2025, before embarking on other tours throughout the year.More about this year’s New Year’s Rockin’ EveIn their latest IG post announcing their New Year’s Rockin’ Eve gig, Robby Takac shared in an interview clip that his New Year’s energy was “more alcohol-fueled” until a few years ago, but now it’s just “good wishes.”Goo Goo Dolls, Rob Thomas And Lisa Loeb Perform Live For SiriusXM And Pandora Present PopRocks The Holidays In New York City - Source: GettyJohn Rzeznik, for his part, said his 2026 energy was “hope.”About reappearing on New Year’s Rockin’ Eve 30 years later, he recalled how “amazing” Dick Clark was back then when he was hosting.“He actually stopped at a supermarket and got us a bag of Goo Goo clusters and brought them to us and said, ‘Here you go, Goo Goo Dolls!’ … It was like, wow, Dick Clark, Holy…” John Rzeznik explained, while Robby Takac added it was “fun.”Now, the New Year’s Rockin’ Eve is hosted by Ryan Seacrest and Rita Ora in New York City, Chance the Rapper in Chicago, and Rob Gronkowski and Julianne Hough in Las Vegas.As many as 39 artists were scheduled to take the stage this year from these locations, including the headliner Diana Ross, 50 Cent, Charlie Puth, Madison Beer, Mariah Carey, Post Malone, Chappell Roan, Ciara, and Demi Lovato.The broadcast was on ABC from 8 PM (on December 31) to 4 AM (January 1) ET.Following the success of their 2025 Summer Anthem Tour with Dashboard Confessional, Goo Goo Dolls is set to return to tour with them in the spring of 2026, starting with several locations across Canada, followed by a five-concert residency in Las Vegas.John Rzeznik and his bandmates are also scheduled to tour with Neon Trees in the upcoming summer, kicking off in California in July and wrapping up in Connecticut in September.