It does feel really good when you play a new song, and it's the loudest singalong of the night. It means just as much when we're playing the old songs, and people are singing along to those, too.
Benji Madden
There's an interesting thing I've seen with Australian bands: when you put them side-by-side with bands from other parts of the world, they're just more musical. They're just better.
We don't take ourselves seriously; we make the records for fun.
We didn't leave home until we graduated high school, but when we did, we genuinely left. We went out into the world with 50 bucks, backpacks, and acoustic guitars.
You find, as the years go on and you have some success, people kind of start to say yes when they should say no.
I got a little tattoo on my face. I'll never be able to work another real job, so I consider that to be kinda forcing myself to stick to music.
Nothing worries me in life anymore. When you find that best friend, that love, all your worries kind of go away.
The American Dream - I believe in that cliche because I know what having nothing feels like.
There's this wave of new pop-punk bands that has come out that's bigger than ever. I'm really glad that we got to be a part of helping push that forward, if we did at all. I wouldn't have had it any other way.
A lot of time, I have to be the person who just goes, 'Hey dude, don't even trip. Don't worry about it.'
One of the most harmful things in the music industry is 'record-by-committee,' where 10 people from the label gather around, and they make you write a 100 songs and decide which one's a hit. That takes the inspiration out of it.
You've got to think, when we started our band, none of us had a computer until we were 21.
It's really hard to do this life - to be a human being alone.
One thing I never worry about is money, because I have my health and my family, and I can always go back to work.
Both of us are lucky because we married women who are amazing cooks.
Good Charlotte became more than a band and more than the songs: it became something that the fans owned.
I've started to see records as just a snapshot, a portrait of where you were at at that time. And if you're comfortable with that, sometimes it's like an old high school year book picture - it makes you blush a little bit, but you gotta learn to really appreciate each stage of your life and where you're at.
I think Good Charlotte has definitely always been for the underdogs and the misfits. We haven't ever really been the critics' darlings.
What we're most known for is the catchy choruses and the big hooks.
I think we live in a time where we can all distract ourselves from facing the pain or the reality of all of our lives - tons of ways to hide, to kill pain, to deal with pain.
I'm always happy to work with my brother and especially to be a part of 'The Voice Kids.'
Good Charlotte, for us, comes from a place of youth for us, back when we were struggling and fighting for every inch, just trying to get by.
Prince led by example. As prolific as he was as an artist, he was just as courageous in the business.
Australian bands are so self-deprecating - then they go on stage and blow every other band off the stage.
We grew up in the middle of nowhere. We didn't have a rich uncle in the music industry or some contact through someone that our dad worked with. And we went into the world blindly, and just through believing, dreaming, and working hard, Good Charlotte came to fruition.
Our music contradicts our look.
Hopefully, the people that would look at a Good Charlotte record and dismiss it for maybe what they think is a certain kind of content, if they do discover something meaningful, then it's a nice surprise. I like those kinds of contradictions.
I feel like we've had a front row seat for the last 20 years to watching culture and youth.
As a kid, you're like, 'Do they have Preakness everywhere or just in Maryland?' You hear people talking about it, and it was like, 'Oh, everyone goes there to hang out and party.' I didn't even know it was a race until I got older.
Good Charlotte fit in a lot of different genres - it's one of the coolest things our band has been able to do.
We were all 16 and 17. When you're that age, you're just daydreaming all day. We had bands we loved - Green Day, Weezer, a lot of bands in the '90s - and we just wanted to have fun. We didn't overthink it too much.
We were kids that didn't have any education. None of our parents were in the music business or even college graduates. We didn't have someone guiding us. We were just uneducated kids from the middle of nowhere that suddenly had a band going around the world.
I prefer a good review. A bad review that dismisses us... I take it with a grain of salt. I go, 'Okay, they didn't even try.'
Good Charlotte's the first band we've ever been in, and back then, critics didn't matter. There were no rules. There was no one we had to impress.
Good Charlotte is very special to us. It's something we really cherish.
A lot of our fans have grown up, but they've stuck by us for the songs that dig a little deeper.
There are so many bands I am starting to see: Waterparks, Potty Mouth - they're all garage bands that started in the garage. Kids are loving them.
Anyone who's followed our band through the years has heard about the teenage angst.
I always jump at the chance to mentor kids when it comes to music.
It's hard to talk about childhood trauma. It's hard to talk about depression. It's hard to talk about anxiety. And we thought - I wonder if we just open up our subconscious and the things that we think about and hide from people every day and just let them come out in some of these lyrics.
I think about people whose lives maybe hadn't turned out as well as me and Joel's lives, and I just think it's just pure luck and the grace of God. I also think we were lucky to have each other as brothers.
All we can do is just think about what we can put into the world - not really kind of what we can get out of it.
I think that 'Prayers' is a really interesting one because we wrote it well before the border crisis was happening, and in that first verse, I was actually writing about the experience of me and my wife's relationship and finding someone who you feel safe with and you relate to and can ponder existence with.
I didn't fly on a plane until I was 19.
I feel like, if you're writing the same songs you were writing when you were 17 in your 30s, something's wrong. As a grown man, you're more confident, and you have less to prove.
Straight up, I'm from Waldorf, Maryland, you guys. Let's not forget that.
I think the soul of Good Charlotte is just feeling good.
I think what defines our band is really that, you know, we're just living our dream and making records that we love and having a good time.
'Nevermind' by Nirvana. That was a big one for me.
That's just the music industry. They always want you to write something like the one that was popular.
