John Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls, telling the Autograzzi - "I'm Gonna Sign until My Fucking Signature is Worthless"

In recent months I have been focusing on celebrity event shooting, but when I was a "Fan Paparazzi" I used to have to wait until the exits at an event or After Party to photograph my subjects, sometimes I miss doing this, hanging with my "fan" friends, a few of my paparazzi friends, this is a great time to really talk about the war stories of the celebrity business. Last week I schedule my jaunt to NYC purposely so I could hang out with a few of my "photo with" and "autograzzi" friends. Since I left the business has grown tremendously, with at least two dozen new faces out in the field. Every year the "Songwriters Hall of Fame" is held at the Marriott Marquis. Most of the people in this picture are there for 'graphs or "photos with". The peps to the left are checking out who is coming down the escalators and to leave. Last Thursday one of the honorees was John Rzeznik from the Goo Goo Dolls

As John Rzeznik exited the hotel a feeding frenzy of sorts took over with the autograzzi jostling each other to get his signature on a CD, a guitar pick guard, a photo etc., while the photo with people try and get a shot "with" here are some of the folks getting the guitar guards signed Since I left, I see this family has started a business, here's a mom digging guitar guards out of a bag, at 1AM last Thursday, to give to her hmm what 10 year old to get signed (Dad's getting things signed too.) This is about the time that John Rzeznik gleefully states, give them to me, "I am going to sign every fucking one so none of you bastards make a dime off of me." He signed, and signed and signed for a good 15 minutes, until finally he broke free from the frenzied crowd. (did you ever see "Suddenly Last Summer", well in the last scene where Sebastian gets devoured by the boys cash grabbing boys, this is what this scenario reminds me. It was disgusting, and shocking to see. (I guess both obtaining 'graphs and doing paparazzi work isn't very pretty as we try and satisfy the demand for the paying public) and no worse for the wear John Rzeznik and his beautiful girlfriend were off Here's a link to the speech he gave that night at the "Songwriters Hall of Fame"