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The Goo Goo Dolls are happy to be part of the Buffalo Bills’ celebratory goodbye to Highmark Stadium.
The Buffalo Bills won their final game at Highmark Stadium against the New York Jets 35-8 on Sunday, Jan. 4, before heading to the playoffs and moving to a new venue next season. According to Billboard, the night ended with a fireworks show and emotional singalongs to The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside” and Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” as well as a highlight reel set to Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris” — which marked the last song played during the Bills’ tenure at the stadium.
On Tuesday, Jan. 6, the Goo Goo Dolls shared footage of the moment to Instagram and expressed appreciation to the team.
The band, which features John Rzeznik and Robby Takac, wrote in the post’s caption, “What an incredible honor to have “Iris” played as the very last song at @highmark_stadium – home to the @buffalobills for 53 seasons !!!!”
Released in 1998, “Iris” peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song is recognized as Goo Goo Dolls’ signature hit, and it’s been certified diamond in the U.S. for selling more than 10 million units.
Rzeznik and Takac were both born in Buffalo and formed the band there in 1986. In an interview with OnMilwaukee published in 2022, Rzeznik explained that Goo Goo Dolls had a “difficult” time finding “places to play” in Buffalo at the start of their careers, as many clubs “wanted cover bands.”
“The music scene in Buffalo wasn’t right for us in the early ’80s. There were no alt-rock clubs then, so we created our own,” said Rzeznik at the time. “We rented a hall, put up the posters ourselves, anything to create some awareness for the music we wanted to play. That’s risky because you never know if anyone’s going to listen. But we were lucky. People began coming to the shows and the band caught fire.”
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According to The New York Times, the Buffalo Bills will move “across Abbott Road” to a new weatherproof stadium next season with more than $2 billion going into its construction.
Speaking to the publication about the leaving Highmark Stadium, Bills cornerback Tre’Davious White said, “When you think about the stadium, you can’t think about the present players.”
“You’ve got to think about the guys that laid the foundation before us. A lot of guys on this team will be able to make memories across the street,” he continued. “So I think it’s fitting to think about the guys that came before us.”
