Top 66 Benji Madden Quotes

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.

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.

I always jump at the chance to mentor kids when it comes to music.

The one thing that nobody else in the world can touch is the coffee in Australia.

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 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.

What we’re most known for is the catchy choruses and the big hooks.

‘Nevermind’ by Nirvana. That was a big one for me.

There’s definitely a lot of moments in my life now where I go, ‘Wow, I get paid for this.’ I’ve had worse jobs.

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 really love ‘Cold Song.’ If anyone really listens to that song and thinks about their life, there’s a lot of good material deep down in there. I think if you listen to the lyrics, it may take you on some sort of a journey.

We don’t take ourselves seriously; we make the records for fun.

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.

Jessie J’s a funny, funny woman. What she does is she reels you in.

As young kids, we had a lot of tenacity. Life was tough at home, so it was easy to go out in the world and try.

I read all the reviews. I remember the first review I ever read about our band was, ‘They’ll be gone tomorrow; they’ll be gone quicker than they came.’

Prince led by example. As prolific as he was as an artist, he was just as courageous in the business.

I answer the questions I want, and I don’t the ones I don’t.

I think Good Charlotte has definitely always been for the underdogs and the misfits. We haven’t ever really been the critics’ darlings.

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.

To write a song and have it embraced by someone, even one person, I don’t think that’s something that everyone gets to experience.

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.

Our fans are very much like us; they like the same things we do.

Both of us are lucky because we married women who are amazing cooks.

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.

I love the gym; I do a lot of curls.

You don’t know how a song is gonna do; you don’t know where it’s gonna live. You know if it feels real, if it feels authentic.

When you’re making an album, it’s kind of like having a baby. You have to really put everything into it.

Coffee in Italy and some places in Europe is great, but there’s just something about Australian coffee.

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.

The American Dream – I believe in that cliche because I know what having nothing feels like.

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 think, a lot of times, people think they know what they want, but what they really want is something that’s genuine.

The songwriting process is different on every record because you’re never coming from the same place when you’re writing.

I have a great family, so I’m lucky I’ve gotten to experience all the joys of having a family.

When I have kids, they’re definitely gonna work.

The only time I only really made out with a girl in high school, my mom caught me.

I didn’t fly on a plane until I was 19.

We have known each other for a long time, and I’ve always known the real Paris. I always knew she was like wife material or serious girlfriend material.

Good Charlotte became more than a band and more than the songs: it became something that the fans owned.

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.

Today, somewhere in America, there’s a kid who’s got a laptop and a guitar and a couple of his friends he’s putting together to play drums and bass, who’s gonna change the way we say things, the way that we dress, the way we view things, the music we hear, everything.

It’s important for artists to value themselves – whatever that means. Everyone’s going to take that in a different way. If you don’t value yourself, you will be bought and sold.

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.

Every time we go to New Zealand, it gets harder to leave. Everyone’s always treated us like we’re at home.

I’m always happy to work with my brother and especially to be a part of ‘The Voice Kids.’

It’s really hard to do this life – to be a human being alone.

Anyone who’s followed our band through the years has heard about the teenage angst.

Good Charlotte is very special to us. It’s something we really cherish.

You’ve got to think, when we started our band, none of us had a computer until we were 21.

Australian bands are so self-deprecating – then they go on stage and blow every other band off the stage.

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.

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.

We’ve made a lot of party music; we’re definitely not Thom Yorke. But there’s also depth to our records; we get emotional.

All of our lyrics are really personal, and we get a lot of personal letters.

We’ve all had a million day jobs. We got by fine then.

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.

I think the soul of Good Charlotte is just feeling good.

That’s just the music industry. They always want you to write something like the one that was popular.

Straight up, I’m from Waldorf, Maryland, you guys. Let’s not forget that.

A lot of our fans have grown up, but they’ve stuck by us for the songs that dig a little deeper.

I kind of live by this old thing that time will tell whether people are going to write about this or that; all we can do is be who we are and make records we love, and everything else will sort itself out.

You find, as the years go on and you have some success, people kind of start to say yes when they should say no.

The Madden Brothers is definitely not a side project.

I feel like we’ve had a front row seat for the last 20 years to watching culture and youth.

I’m a really easy guy to read.