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You couldn't turn on a radio in the '90s without hearing a Goo Goo Dolls song.

The alternative rock band, fronted by lead singer John Rzeznik, was king of the charts with singles such as "Name," "Slide" and "Iris," the latter of which spent 18 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. Since 1986, they've released 11 albums and sold more than 10 million records. They'll perform Saturday at Pikes Peak Center.

Rzeznik is grateful for the band's staying power, but also believes it's an aberration. "It feels like we're hanging on by a thread," he says. "I think that the generation of musicians we came up with have all but disappeared - those who got popular around the same time we did. There seems to be an in-between generation between grunge and whatever the hell's going on now. A lot of these bands have gotten lost in the shuffle - they're the lost generation."

He also knows there's a fine line between being seen as a nostalgia act and a band that still produces relevant music, but he doesn't spend too much time worrying about it.

"I am myself all the time," he says. "I have no role to play and nothing to prove. All I'm left with is my truth and my version of the truth, in my estimation. Hopefully I can still write a good song and put on a good show for people. That's all I ever want or cared about."

The Dolls' latest album, "Boxes," dropped in April and for the first time, Rzeznik co-wrote the album with a number of other musicians, including band co-founder and bassist Robby Takac. The new music addresses the "simple, human desire to feel connected," he's said in interviews.

"I've always had a sort of outsider's view of things," he says. "I've always felt like a misfit. It's something you carry around with you your whole life. I've gotten used to it. As I get older, the more I feel this need for connection. We always want that. I make myself as vulnerable as possible and it doesn't always work. I'm not the kind of person who has a big Rolodex of friends. I have a few very close friends and my family, and I guess that's all you really need."

Rzeznik cites being the only boy in a family of four daughters as the start of his outsider status. The feeling compounded later in life as the only student at his Buffalo, N.Y., high school who loved alternative rock music. It was in college that he met Takac, who jived with his musical tastes and wanted to start a band. They played for a decade before hitting the commercial success jackpot in 1995 with their fifth album "A Boy Named Goo."

Though his love affair with the music business has been on and off - he often credits Takac with keeping him in the game - Rzeznik's personal life is good. He got married a couple of years ago and is expecting his first child in December.

"I do love what I do," he says. "It's like when you grow up in the place where I grew up and around the people who I grew up with, you don't get the opportunity to do what you love. You get whatever is given to you, so for me it's been an unbelievable blessing."
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