In the town of Waldorf, Maryland, on March 11, 1979, Joel Madden came into the world with his twin brother Benji by his side, raised into a lower middle class family.
Growing up, the brothers dedicated themselves to their music. Benji began teaching himself guitar at 16 and Joel leaned towards lead vocals. "We'd go straight to our rooms after school, singing and playing for hours everyday," Benji recalls. They had almost no money for equipment and no connections in the industry. They cut their first demo, wrote their own bio, and began mailing packages off to a list of record companies obtained from a magazine.
Benji and Joel graduated high school in June 1997, and for a graduation present the twins' mother presented them with a pair of open airline tickets to California. Extremely inspired and more determined than ever after returning to Maryland, the boys moved to Annapolis and played many shows and worked many jobs. "It was a struggling time in our lives, but it was also a great time," said Benji.
When Billy joined on second guitar, Good Charlotte was complete. The band won a local contest and attracted the interest of a manager. The band Lit offered a support slot of a series of sold out East-Coast dates. Benji remembers, "By the time we played New York with Lit in December 1999, all the labels turned out. We signed our deal in May 2000, in the studio where we were recording, and the album Good Charlotte (Epic) came out in September."

What was Joel like in high school?
Here he describes his life as a seventeen year old.

"When I was 17, I was attracted to really hot girls-ones I couldn't have. I liked this one girl who didn't pay attention to me. I followed her around and offered to carry her stuff... I was self-concious about everything-especially the way I looked. I couldn't afford cool clothes, so I felt like I didn't fit in... I spent my money on bills for my family. We didn't get an allowance, so I worked to pay the electric bills... I was very angry and full of hate. I would get in fights all the time with everyone-even people on the street." (Seventeen)

The Basics
Full Name: Joel Madden
Nickname: Sickboy
Age: 24
Birthdate: March 11, 1979
Hometown: Waldorf, MD
Height: 5'9"
Eye Color: Brown
High School And Graduation: La Plata High, 1997

What Joel Loves
Food: Cookies
Color: Baby Blue
Movie: Trainspotting and Starwars
TV Show: The Simpsons
Holiday: Christmas
Ice Cream: Mint Chocolate Cookie
Drink: Water. "Its pretty much all I drink."
Superhero: Spiderman
Restaurant: Rubios (on the west coast) and Acme (in Naptown)
Bands And Musical Influences: Cash Money Millionaires, Beasty Boys, Weezer, The Smiths, The Cure, Greenday, Social Distortion, The Clash, Jimmies Chicken Shack, Everclear, Nirvana
Favorite Part About Being In GC: "Our fans are always really cool and interesting people, and traveling around the country, and hopefully the world, meeting them is awesome. Especially with my bros."
Hobbies: "I love collecting Mcfarlend action figures, and many other action figures, I also collect crucifixes, I like to read, and I love hanging out with my family and my dog Cash."

Other Interesting Stuff
Worst Habit: Spitting. "I spit a lot. I spit when I walk down the street all the time. I don't spit when I'm indoors, but if I'm outside or on stage I spit a lot. I don't know why."
About His Tattoos: "I got these stars on my wrist. That hurt. I got my knee done and that hurt really bad. I got the ankle deal and that was horrible. Anywhere on your leg is near the bone and that hurts."
Best/Worst Thing About Being A Twin: "The best thing is being really close. The worst thing is being really close."
First Kiss: 10th grade. "It was a horrible day."
If He Wasn't In The Band: He'd probably be shampooing hair in a salon. "I had that job once."
Quote: "Whats great about being punk is being myself, saying and doing whatever I want and not following anyone's standards."




from-http://www.geocities.com/markwahlberg2003/punk4life.html