Ed GregoryOver the weekend, the Goo Goo Dolls capped off a run of shows in Brazil with an appearance at the Rock in Rio festival. Later this week, they’ll perform in Peru. Lead singer Johnny Rzeznik says it blows his mind when thousands of people who don’t speak English are singing his lyrics back to him — he thinks it truly shows how music transcends borders.
“That’s pretty amazing,” he tells ABC Audio. “Because, I mean, the world is in such a chaotic state. And then you’re standing there in front of 10,000 people and they’re all singing together. That’s a real connection…it’s like, ‘Fine, if the music is the catalyst to get 10,000 people in the same room and actually communicating with each other….'”
And it’s not just borders. Johnny says during their summer U.S. tour, it became clear to him that music transcends politics as well.
“I had a strange observation, where we were in front of about 10,000 people and I thought to myself, ‘Theoretically half this audience voted for Hillary Clinton, the other half voted for Trump, more or less,'” he tells ABC Audio. “But everybody was singing the words to the same song! So it was like, ‘O.K. well they all agree on one thing and, you know…that’s a start!'”
After their show in Peru, the band kicks off their fall headlining tour October 25 in Austin, Texas, in support of their new album Miracle Pill.
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