So, uh, yeah, I went to an ice show recently with Mona.

And, uh, yeah, it was even my suggestion.

I was putting together the weekly budget of events, saw the Goo Goo Dolls were going to be headlining an ice show that featured, among other great skaters, one of my favorites, Orange County’s Sasha Cohen, and I relayed that to Mona.

“That might be cool,” I said.

She agreed and next thing I know she’s ordering tickets.

She bought tickets near the top of the stadium, but when we got to the Honda Center in Anaheim and we looked for our seats someone who works there asked if we’d like an upgrade.

“Is this a trick?” I thought.

“Well, sure, but why?” we both wondered.

“We just need to fill up some seats below for the cameras.”

We were eager to get closer. Mona wasn’t happy that we spent a pretty good buck on what appeared to be seats that were relatively far away from the fun.

You never know these days. Some woman in the parking lot tried to sell me Goo Goo Dolls bumper stickers. “You’ve been found driving under the influence of the Goo Goo Dolls,” she blurted out as soon as I stepped out of my car. It took me a few moments to realize she was like some figure out of the Great Depression era selling pencils out of a tin cup. So sad. I declined. I don’t need Goo Goo Dolls bumper stickers as I don’t have any notebooks that need decorating for fifth-period study hall anymore.

Anyway, we took the upgraded tickets, hoping it wasn’t a scam, and found to our delight they were legitimate and they put us in some of the best seats in the house. What luck. That meant I got a chance to test out my new camera with some action shots.

Mona was having her usual field day posting snapshots to Facebook, wondering where Borat was — she was confusing Sasha Cohen with Sacha Baron Cohen, the comedian known best as the clueless Kazakhstan newsman. I think she knew the difference and was putting one over on me in Sacha Cohen fashion. Either way, Borat on ice — or even Bruno on ice — is a pretty funny concept, I must admit.

When the Goo Goo Dolls opened the show with a song, we both had the same thought. Mona turned to me and said, “Do you think (Johnny Rzeznik) is thinking right now, ‘What am I doing here?’ ”

I had to laugh. I thought exactly that. I told her I interviewed him about 15 years ago when I did a little rock critic writing for a suburban Chicago daily newspaper. With the blessing of the entertainment section’s editor — who wanted all the help she could get — I helped breathe some life into the music section. This was before the information was so readily available on the Internet, so I had to go to the local library to get names and addresses of the major record labels. I sent them letters telling them we wanted to review records and do concert previews and included copies of our paper. And then we waited, like gardeners.

Nothing.

Then, one day I got a package. We were so excited. A couple of CDs arrived. How nice.

Then the avalanche. They kept coming and coming. It was amazing. One day I called up Warner Brothers and asked if I could interview the Goo Goo Dolls before a concert they were having in Chicago. I was already a fan and thought it should be relatively easy — they weren’t very popular. And they happily agreed. I had a great interview with Johnny. In fact, it went overtime. He said his publicist was trying to get him to move on to the next interview, so I told him, “Oh, it’s OK. You can go if you have to. I have enough to go on.”

“Nah, that’s OK. I like talking to you. This is the first real interview I’ve gotten all day.”

“Really? Have the others been bad?”

“You wouldn’t believe it. My last interview, they asked me what’s my favorite breakfast cereal.”

“What the hell’s the point of that?” I asked. “I just want to talk to you about your music.”

Which he said is all he wanted too.

Then I went in for the real good stuff that I wanted, figuring I had earned enough good will. Being the hard-news guy, I wanted to know what he thought of Replacements guitarist Bob Stinson’s then-recent death. Now, see, that might be kind of a tough question in a fluff interview in any context, but it was especially so then since the Goos were sensitive to the criticism that they were just ‘Mats ripoffs. I figured the best way to approach this sensitive topic was to just acknowledge it. He seemed grateful for that and let loose. He told me how sad it was, as I expected, and that he saw Bob Stinson not long before his death and just knew it was going to end badly. It was such a loss for rock ‘n’ roll we both agreed.

Anyway, there were a few things that always struck me about that interview. First of all, the term “rock journalism” is pretty much an oxymoron since there’s a larger proportion of yahoos in entertainment reporting, so if you do your homework you can get great interviews from musicians. Secondly, Johnny Rzeznik was a really down-to-earth guy and probably always would be no matter how successful he’d be. And, finally, how lucky was I that right around that time the Goo Goo Dolls scored the hit that made them the GOO GOO DOLLS — their first hit song, “Name.” I heard that at a thousand graduations in the years that followed.

So, yeah, when Rzeznik appeared to laugh as one of the skaters came out to dance to his band’s music I thought he must be wondering how the hell his career got him to playing the soundtrack to an NBC Christmas special (shot in October!) on figure skating in an event sponsored by WalMart and Amway. But by the end of the show he was hugging and chatting with the skaters and I thought, yeah, I had him pegged right — he’d always be a nice guy no matter how big a rock star he’d become.

It’s sad such a great event couldn’t draw a bigger crowd, but it’s a sign of the times. All we can do — especially when we’re so fortunate like Mona and I that we can afford a ticket at all — is to just enjoy those nice moments when they present themselves and do our best to get through the hard times. To all of you out their struggling in this awful economy, try to hang in there. It’s bound to get better. As John Lennon sings in, “Getting Better,” it couldn’t get much worse.

Goo Goo Dolls frontman Johnny Rzeznik gets a kick out of supplying the soundtrack.

Sasha Cohen looking like a figure in a Degas painting.

Shae-Lynn Bourne whispers in Johnny’s ear during her routine (don’t you wonder what she was saying?).

Sasha again…

And again… looking like something that popped out of a music box.

“Fancy Nancy” Kerrigan showing she’s still got it.

All skate!!

Mona, upset that her iPhone wouldn’t zoom, grabbed my camera and captured this moment.

The skaters pull Johnny out onto the ice for their final bows.

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