Good Charlotte is an American pop punk band from Waldorf, Maryland that was formed in 1996.
The present band consists of Joel Madden, Benji Madden, Billy Martin, Paul Thomas and Dean Butterworth. The drummer of the band has been changed three times in total, the first drummer being Aaron Escolopio when the band first formed. He left Good Charlotte in 2001 to join another band, Wakefield, with his brother. Another drummer, Chris Wilson came into the band in 2003 before he left in 2005 due to drug use. Dean Butterworth entered Good Charlotte in 2005 and is the present drummer.
Each original member of the band attended La Plata High School in Maryland and earned attention by playing at local bars, clubs and parties.
Good Charlotte has been a huge and active supporter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Joel Madden
Joel Reuben Madden, who was born as Joel Reuben Combs was born on March 11, 1979 in Waldorf, Maryland as the son of Robin Madden and Roger Combs. He is the lead vocalist for Good Charlotte and The Madden Brothers. He is one of a set of identical twins, the other one being Benji Madden. He has an older brother called Josh and a younger sister called Sarah. 
 Joel started dating actress and singer Hilary Duff in 2004 when she was only 16 and he was 26. They denied their relationship until a few months before she turned 18 and they split up later in 2006 after nearly two and a half years together. |  The family were harmed by Roger's struggles with drugs, alcohol and losing many jobs. Roger left them on Christmas Eve in 1995 and they then lived with nearby relatives. Eventually, they moved into a small farmhouse but living was hard with Robin suffering from lupus which led to her being admitted in hospital frequently. Therefore, Josh, Joel and Benji were forced to work a series of jobs to keep their family afloat.
 He started dating television personality Nicole Richie in late 2006 and had two children, Harlow Winter Kate Richie Madden (born on January 11, 2008) and Sparrow James Midnight Madden (born on September 9, 2009). Joel and Nicole got engaged in 2010 and married later in the year.
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Joel has been a judge on The Voice Australia since the start of the television in 2012. He is the only judge that has been on all seasons and also judges The Voice Kids with his brother Benji. He has won many awards for the shows and has also helped to write and produce songs and albums with superstar bands One Direction and 5 Seconds of Summer. He has houses in Los Angeles, California and Sydney in Australia. He presently lives in Sydney because of his commitments to being a judge on The Voice. He has a trademark and a habit of chewing toothpicks and carries a packet in his pocket at all times. This is to help reduce his craving to smoke and to help his psychiatric disorder, ADHD. He also owns a clothing line called DCMA Collection with his brothers Benji and Josh and his close friend Tal Cooperman.
In June 2013, Joel's hotel room was raided by police after a cleaner found a small amount of marijuana in his Sydney hotel room but he was not charged over it.
In 2007, Joel and Nicole created the Richie Madden Children Foundation to inspire people to purchase things for parents and families in need. Joel is a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and contributes to many charity organisations.
Benjamin Madden
Benjamin ''Benji'' Levi Madden, who was born as Benjamin Levi Combs, was born on March 11, 1979 in Waldorf, Maryland. He went to school at La Plata High School in La Plata, Maryland. He is the lead guitarist and backing vocalist for Good Charlotte and The Madden Brothers. He is one of a set of identical twins, the other one being Joel Madden. He started playing guitar at 16 and Joel and himself decided that they wanted to make a band. For their graduation present in 1997, their mother gave them each a ticket to travel to California to play where other famous pop punk bands like Greendayhad started. Good Charlotte was born. |  |
Benji's trademarks are his 150 hours worth of tattoos on his body and his lip piercings.
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While still playing in Good Charlotte, Benji wrote and produced for other artists such as Hilary Duff, Kalin and Myles and 5 Seconds of Summer. He also has appeared as a back up singer for many artists such as Tonight Alive, MxPx, Mest, The 69 Eyes, Sean Kingston and Three 6 Mafia.
He currently lives in Beverly Hills, California but is looking to live in Australia to be closer to Joel and his family.
Benji started dating Australian singer, model and actress Sophie Monk in 2008 and got engaged in 2007. Media reports flew around in January 2008 that they had split up, but Good Charlotte was quick to confirm that they hadn't and they were very happy together. In late February it was announced that they had split up. |  |
Benji dated Paris Hilton from when he and Sophie broke up until November that year and then dated television personality Holly Madison from late 2009 until early 2010, but they remain very close and good friends. He also dated Eliza Doolittle from 2011 to 2012.
Benji has been dating American actress Cameron Diaz since middle 2014.
Billy Martin
William Dean ''Billy'' Martin was born on June 15, 1981 in Annapolis, Maryland. He is the guitarist and keyboardist of Good Charlotte since it was first formed in 1996. He started playing guitar when he was 11 years old and was in a band, Overflow, before Good Charlotte was created. Billy went attended high school at La Plata High School in Maryland with Joel, Benji and Paul. |  |
Billy is best known as the vegetarian and animal lover of the band. He created the album cover for The Chronicles of Life and Death and designed the artwork for the music videos of 'Predictable' and 'The Chronicles of Life and Death''. He has written children's books and released a clothing line called Level 27.
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In 2008 he married his 8 year long girlfriend, Linzi Williamson and in early 2009 had a son, Dreavyn Kingslee Martin and had another son in 2012 called Zandler Jace Martin.
Paul thomas
Paul Thomas was born on October 5, 1980 in Waldorf, Maryland. He is the bass guitarist for Good Charlotte since it first formed in 1996. His first instrument that he learnt was the acoustic guitar, but later learnt bass guitar. He attended high school with Joel, Benji and Billy.  |  |
In October 2010, his first daughter Willow Monroe Thomas was born.
Dean butterworth
Dean Butterworth was born on September 26, 1966 in Rochdale in England. He is the drummer for Good Charlotte since 2005 and currently works as a drummer with Joel and Benji Madden for The Madden Brothers. He started playing drums when he was 12 years old and focused on jazz and fusion drumming, but as The Police switched from one style to another he learnt other styles of drumming. He also sings, plays piano and writes his own songs. Dean has worked with many artists such as The Innocent Criminals, Ben Harper, Donavon Frankenreiter, Weezer and Anthony Green and went on tour twicewith Morrissey. |  |
When Good Charlotte said farewell to their previous drummer Chris Wilson because of drug use, Dean was a temporary replacement but was later turned into a permanent job. He made the fans more excited and enthusiastic and is described the best Good Charlotte drummer that there has ever been.
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