Good Charlotte: ‘You Get F**king Robbed Blind’ In The Music Industry

They may have eight albums under their belt and a massive world tour on the horizon, but Good Charlotte had to fight for the success they’ve had.

In an upcoming interview with The Music in support of the band’s recently announced 2026 Motel Du Cap Australian tour, Joel and Benji Madden reflected on their self-titled debut album, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in September.

Joel admits that listening to the record used to be “really painful”.

“I remember being so excited and we had no experience, so we didn't know what the music industry was,” he said.

“We didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. And then the years to follow were very difficult to navigate the bullshit of the music business and was painful for me because I thought I hit the lottery when I got a record deal.

“I thought all my troubles were over and it was a moment of relief from the 18 years of fucking trouble and pain, and fucking turmoil that I had grown up in.

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“You hear it on that record, we vomited it all over that record,” he continued. “It was such a relief to get a record deal. And we bought our mum a house and we went on the road and we started working our asses off. And then come the years of having a career and dealing with all this bullshit.”

Benji added that they were “lucky” they had each other.

“You get your innocence completely taken in the music industry. You get robbed, you get fucking robbed blind,” he said. “And it happens to you once. It happens to you twice. It happens to you three times.”

The guitarist recalled the first time they travelled to New York with the band, noting they had to drive everywhere before they had a record deal.

“We had everything we owned in this little car that we were living out of because we were in between places,” he remembered.

The duo revealed that “everything got stolen”, including all their instruments.

“They broke into the truck and everything got stolen and we just cried. Literally, we had nothing. Literally, but we had the clothes on our backs,” Benji said.

“We didn't let it jade us. We didn't let it turn us into negative people. And we made a bunch of friends along the way. Now we can look back and we have a career. We have really inspired businesses that we love. It's like, ‘We're not working. We're doing shit that we love.’”

Good Charlotte will tour Australia in February with support from Yellowcard and Kisschasy.