No matter how many times musicians have a “we should get the band back together” chat, it can often take years for it to actually happen, assuming it happens at all. Fortunately for lovers of early 2000s pop punk, a family wedding was the impetus that Good Charlotte needed to embark on a long-awaited reunion following their hiatus in the late aughts.
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Their resurgence in the scene coincides with the rise of nostalgic acts like My Chemical Romance and Blink-182. If it hadn’t been for Joel Madden’s younger sister-in-law getting married in 2023, Good Charlotte might have missed the mohawk and lip ring-clad tidal wave of the emo revival.
How a Wedding Helped Good Charlotte Create a New Record
Some musical genres can be more difficult to perform after a certain age, and particularly defiant ones like emo and pop-punk are certainly no exceptions. There’s something inherently young and naive about these rock ‘n’ roll offshoots. These genres blend a sort of “up yours” attitude while also remaining surprisingly emotionally vulnerable. The world sucks, but here’s a list of things or a relationship that would make it better. Bands like Good Charlotte capitalized on this energy with hits like “The Anthem”.
And while the band continued into the late aughts, the death of twins Benji and Joel Madden put the brakes on their creative output. As Benji told the Los Angeles Times, “Our band was born out of a time when we hated our dad. First couple records, you can hear all about it.” After their father died, Joel added, “It kind of f***ed us up a little bit.” So, the brothers parted ways to pursue other familial and artistic endeavors. Thanks to the wedding of Joel’s younger sister-in-law, Sofia Richie, the brothers blended the two in 2023.
Richie, who had known Joel since she was a little kid, when he first started dating her older sister, Nicole Richie, asked the Madden twins to perform at her wedding in France. “I knew they were gonna play all the vibes,” she told the LA Times. “The room just erupted. Every single person was singing every single word. It was electric.”
After the success of their wedding gig, the Maddens felt inspired to get back in the studio. That reunion produced their eighth studio album, Motel Du Cap, which Good Charlotte released in early August 2025.
Reconnecting With Family Roots and Exploring New Genres
If you were looking for the same sulky 2000s guitar-distortion-in-a-major-key sound from Good Charlotte’s reunion album, we regret to inform you that you’re in for a disappointment. The pop punk icons are branching out into new genres (and potential familial bloodlines) in Motel Du Cap, including what the Los Angeles Times described as a “pretty credible country tune,” “Deserve You”. Joel and Benji Madden grew up around country music, which makes this foray into the genre a little less surprising.
But as Benji put it, “there’s a little bit of lore” about the Madden twins’ potential kinship to country star Luke Combs. The brothers’ father’s last name is Combs, and his family was from North Carolina, which is where Luke is from. “We’ve sort of loosely connected our grandfathers,” Benji said.
For the Good Charlotte frontman, change is exactly what he was looking for out of this reunion. “Where Good Charlotte’s at now, we can definitely play any rock festival, but also your whole family can come to our show. That’s one of the things I’m happiest about, is that we’re not trying to relive something that we were at 22.”
Photo by Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage
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