Future Goo Goo Dolls singer and songwriter John Rzeznik was raised in a large family in Buffalo, New York, and his childhood and teen years were characterized by family dysfunction, rebellion, and crime. Rzeznik's father, Joe Rzeznik, was a hard-drinking postal service worker, per The Buffalo News, and his mother, Edith, was an elementary school teacher. In fact, Rzeznik's second-grade teacher was his mother. "She couldn't help me. I had to get help with my homework from my sisters," Rzeznik said in an interview with The Buffalo News, referring to his four older siblings. "She would definitely let you know when you were wrong," he added. "Smack you when you got out of line."
Rzeznik had a distant relationship with his father, which he believes his mother fostered. According to Us Weekly, when Rzeznik was 11 years old, his parents' marriage had suffered to the point where they got divorced, with Edith Rzeznik citing her husband's excessive drinking and physical abuse as the inciting factors. But Joe Rzeznik didn't go away, still living in the family home in an attached apartment.
That environment led to Rzeznik's teenage rebellion. "I'd get back at my dad through vandalism," he said, explaining that he once spread blacktop fluid across a funeral parlor and often stole money from his father's wallet.
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