Good Charlotte

On this week's In Service Of Good Charlotte brothers Benji and Joel Madden sit down for an incredibly deep and revealing conversation with Steve Baltin about family, Ozzy and Bruce Springsteen, growing more comfortable with their sound and this next chapter of their career.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hey, it's Steve Balton, and this week I have a really,
really phenomenal conversation with longtime friends Benji and Joel Madden
from Good Charlotte. This is an incredibly revealing, fascinating conversation
on how their priorities have changed. They've gotten older, being
family guys, the influences they got from people like Ozzioshborn,

(00:30):
Bruce Fringsteen, why they're back in music today, how their
career has changed from being not just artists now managers
and executives, and you know, most importantly though, at the
end of the day, fathers and husbands. Really enjoyed this
conversation known Benji and Joel forever, and they're back in

(00:50):
a great place. I'm very much ready for the next
chef of Good Charlotte, So hope you enjoyed this one
as much.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Elided. It's very different talking to another interviewer like Cameron
Crowe became one of my closest friends from doing interviews

(01:16):
with him, and then like I remember interviewing Mark Maren
and I was like, wait a second, now, now, all
of a sudden, I'm interviewing Joela as a host here.
So it's funny because for you doing Artists Friendly and
we'll come on to the record in the second, which
is awesome. But you know, there's a two part question.
First of all, are people that you've learned the most
from doing Artist Friendly? And then second part of it,

(01:39):
So much of music I found is you know, subconscious.
So then when you go back and listen to this album,
are there things you'd hear in there that maybe you
didn't even notice at first? We're influenced by other artists
that you spoke to.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
First of all, I love I'm really I'm really happy
that you even notice that I'm doing Artists Friendly because
it's like, the is my favorite thing that I do.
I just love getting the chance to sit with people
and get a sense of them in the flesh, you know.

Speaker 4 (02:16):
And that's the thing.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
The annoying thing about Artist Friendly is you have to
come to the studio in Burbank and take your time
to sit down in the chair and like and hang.
And so the people that come and participate, I really
appreciate their time because I know how busy everyone is, you.

Speaker 4 (02:32):
Know, and me, I'm the worst. I barely have time to.

Speaker 3 (02:37):
Do anything, so to be, but that the way we
get to do that show is that people on their schedule,
if they're available on Thursday at two, We're going on
Thursday at two. And I make the time for that
thing every single time because I care so much about
any artist that wants to come do it is such
a so exciting for me. I get so be I learned.

(03:02):
I kind of learned from everyone, but I got to
tell you, the people that I've learned from the most
tend to be the people that it's interesting. Like I
got to sit with Cameron Benj's wife, I got to
sit with the Rock I got to sit with.

Speaker 4 (03:19):
Adam Levine. I would say these people that stand out.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
Noah from bad Omens, who's very focused on his music.
He does not how he doesn't he's not that interested
in press. It just does not how who covers his band.
It's not how his brain worked. I've found that the
people that are doing the really high level, making art

(03:43):
at the highest level, they have this way of they
they're very present. They get in the chair and they're
as locked in as me. They're there as ready to
go and ready to participate. They're not they're not confused,

(04:05):
they're not second guessing, they're not they're just they're there, present,
and they're there, they're they I've found that they're them whole,
They're they're they're themselves, they're holy themselves. So they sit
in the chair, you feel like, whereas maybe I've seen
with some younger or newer artists or people who maybe
haven't worked out some of these things, it takes a

(04:29):
little while to get to the conversation because it feels
like they're more conflicted about maybe what they can can't say,
what they you know. So I think there's this presence
that people with experience and maybe people.

Speaker 4 (04:42):
That have.

Speaker 3 (04:46):
Executed things at a high level to to what maybe
that satisfies their artistic vision. There's like a presence and
a focus they have that I've taken away. Its neo
be more present and more focused and less like when
it's go time, we can't be confused, Like when I

(05:06):
go on stage. Now, even i'd say, going back to
the Charlotte, I go on stage, I'm fully present, fully focused,
fully locked in, and there's no confusion.

Speaker 4 (05:14):
I'm not second guessing. And I used to do that
a lot.

Speaker 3 (05:17):
I think it was an experienced thing or but I'd
say that that the people that I've I've I've sat
with that that I would say, and there's and the
list goes on. I mean Landy Wilson is one that
stands out. I remember talking to her and feeling like
really present, really locked in and really like knows herself.

(05:39):
I've got such a list now, I think we're like
one hundred and thirty plus episodes, so I've.

Speaker 4 (05:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (05:46):
I think that's one thing that I've taken away across
all these people is like a real acceptance of self
and present and focused and like here we go versus
kind of having a mental dialogue with yourself about where
you are, what you're doing, why you're doing it, Can.

Speaker 2 (06:03):
I do this?

Speaker 4 (06:04):
Things like that?

Speaker 3 (06:05):
So that's one thing. And then I find with the
music artist, which is my favorite. That's the core of
the show or a music show, So we really tend
to focus on eighty percent I'd say music. And I
like to be open to all these other things, but
music is my first love, and I find with the
music artists the music first, when the music comes first.

(06:34):
I saw it with Chase Atlannik, I see it with Idris,
I see it with I seen it with so many
different people, producers.

Speaker 4 (06:42):
You know, like hit Boy, I talked to him, and
I felt the same way.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
There's a real like music first, and that keeps I
do think it keeps you making the right decisions and
staying true to something that you just that you're fighting for,
that you belie even that you you're.

Speaker 4 (07:01):
Passionate and about.

Speaker 3 (07:02):
And I think that there's another thing that's a through
line that I keep pulling away as like, I find
that the artists who continue to follow the music follow
their own vision, their own idea of what that means.
There's a clarity there that I really liked. So I
do feel like I've had this show has changed my life.
I really do feel like I've learned so much from

(07:24):
all these people. I can only imagine what you've learned
over the years from all the people you've talked to,
because you have such an illustrious kind of guest list
in your you know, your your resume of conversations. I
do think that there's something that there's a through line.

Speaker 4 (07:41):
There really is, and I think that it's really affected
me in my own life and my own work.

Speaker 2 (07:47):
It's really interesting, and it's funny because I always like
to say I'm just lucky I talk to people who
are way smarter than me, you know. So, but going
back to this for a second, Benji, you know, I
want to involve you as well. It's funny because you know,
when you talk about the idea of being more present,
I also think that something that just as you get older,
you know, it becomes easier you appreciate things work. So

(08:09):
for you guys in making this album, which is the
first one in seven years, because I was just talking
about with the from Nana of Monss, meant right, they
didn't need to make another album. It's a different label,
like they could have just said like okay, cool whatever,
you know, and they all have families, they have different stuff.
So now when you guys are making an album, it's like,
we really want to make a fucking good Charlotte record.

(08:31):
This is something that is important to us.

Speaker 4 (08:35):
That's it.

Speaker 5 (08:37):
Yeah, yeah, you know, And I'm really lucky I get
to watch Joel do his thing with the podcast, like
from a pedestrian sort of point of view, which I
really enjoy.

Speaker 4 (08:47):
And I really like that whether we're working with.

Speaker 3 (08:52):
Whether we're partnered with artists and we're working with them
in some aspect of their career, or we're building something
I really love to have like a stream and view
of things, just like walking around in the world seeing
how it feels to me as a fan. It's fun
to still be a fan, you know, and how and
it's you got to protect that some you know, in
some way to not get jaded and not be able

(09:14):
to just experience things as a fan.

Speaker 4 (09:17):
And I think that's something.

Speaker 3 (09:19):
That you're right with age, right and having the experiences,
like you start to see how valuable certain things are
that when you're young, you don't really quite have the perspective.
It's like when you're young, it's like you don't pair
if you live or die sort of you're just running
through the world and just like you don't realize how
what a privilege it is to to to age and

(09:40):
to to you know, to continue on.

Speaker 4 (09:43):
And I think we have this amazing perspective.

Speaker 3 (09:48):
Like we get to relive all these these things with
artists that we work with in MDDN where it feels
like our you know, when when we are helping someone
make decisions, Like we have this really unique way of
being able to put ourselves in the band and say, well,
what would I want, like what would I want from
an agent or what would I want from the label,

(10:10):
what would I want from the manager?

Speaker 4 (10:11):
And then what do I know now about how the
game actually works? And how can I.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
Marry the reality and the information with the need to
be you know, protected and make smart decisions?

Speaker 4 (10:24):
And like all this experience has given us like such.

Speaker 3 (10:28):
A great such a great place to exist in our
own with our own thing where we we we we have.
We have real gratitude for the career that we've had,
We have real gratitude for the ability to still do it.
And then also an understanding of the game, an understanding

(10:48):
that like, you know, protect the art while it's being made.

Speaker 4 (10:51):
Don't let the commerce come into the studio.

Speaker 3 (10:54):
Don't let that mess with the soup, the meal, whatever
you're making, don't let that mess with it. And then
once it's made, then let's go and talk about strategy.
Then let's go see what we have and see how
you feel about it. And like being able to do
that and learn that like allowed us to go into
to have a creative space.

Speaker 4 (11:13):
But no one gets to touch, not the fans, not
the not not the you know, the the industry, not
the marketing, not the commerce. None of it gets to touch.
We get to we get to create, whether whatever.

Speaker 3 (11:28):
We're going to do with it, we can hit delete afterwards,
whatever we're going to do with it.

Speaker 4 (11:32):
We get to throw.

Speaker 3 (11:32):
Paint on the canvas, right and we get to just create,
and then we were protected, you know, and then we
can go and talk about strategy. And that's something that's
given us like such a I don't know, you know,
we came into it that way just out of sheer ignorance,
which is a beautiful thing, man like youthful and unknowing
of just like wanting to charge forward. But as you

(11:55):
get you know, as you mature in front of everyone
right by the way, like when you're when you're when
you're in your early twenties, you're not fully formed. Your
brain is not you don't have experience, but you have
you know, you're sort of like a little kid in
an adult's body, and you know you're just mature in
front of everybody.

Speaker 4 (12:12):
So going through that experience.

Speaker 3 (12:14):
And getting maybe not I don't know if we ever
let ourselves get jaded, but we.

Speaker 4 (12:18):
Definitely we we're team players, man.

Speaker 3 (12:20):
We want to we we really are like we're like dogs, man,
We're loyal and we also want to please people.

Speaker 4 (12:25):
We we we we when people believe in us and
partner with us.

Speaker 3 (12:28):
We want to man. We want to play for the team.
We want to win for the team. We want to
be a.

Speaker 4 (12:33):
Part of a team.

Speaker 3 (12:34):
And and getting the opportunity to to mature and to
you know, to make lives and to make you know,
careers that don't look anything like anybody else's. We've learned
to take a lot of joy in that and a
lot of pride in that that like we are us,
we can only be us in this lifetime. It really
the best thing we can do is just be the

(12:56):
Madden Brothers. And and so the able to make a
record with all that experience and all that even even
from the last eight years right where we spent all
of our time you know, sort of in a lot
of ways in service of other people, which is which
is amazing actually, Like if anyone gets a chance to
do that, it's an amazing thing.

Speaker 4 (13:18):
You learned so much and you gained so much.

Speaker 3 (13:21):
And and then also just figuring out who are we
because we don't we you know, when we when we
made this record, it was a feeling. It was like,
you know, really Joel said, I got some stuff. I
feel like I need to write some songs.

Speaker 4 (13:35):
And I was like me too, you know, and should
we should we try one? Should we just try one?

Speaker 5 (13:41):
Right?

Speaker 4 (13:41):
We have the safety of our own studio. We don't
know what's going to come out. Doesn't matter, like I said,
we can always hit delete. And we made the song
Rejects and it was like, hey, that feels really good.
We didn't even know what it was about.

Speaker 3 (13:52):
It was like literally, and that was a goal of ours,
was to not control, not control what came out, just
see what out, you know. And that was the whole
point of the record, was to see where we're at
right now, because another thing for us is being comfortable
in our own skin is really important to us right
now at this point, it's like we don't want to

(14:14):
be you know, we're forty six, going to be forty seven.

Speaker 4 (14:18):
We just want to be us. We want to be
forty six, forty seven. I don't want to go This
is my favorite era of my life, you know.

Speaker 3 (14:27):
And so can we just express ourselves like we did
when we were younger because that was appropriate to that time,
you know, And can we just express ourselves like honestly
and do something that feels that feels good. Maybe some
of it feels fun, maybe something some of it feels meaningful,
maybe some of it feels poignant to us.

Speaker 4 (14:47):
But it all doesn't have to be.

Speaker 3 (14:48):
It doesn't have to be some masterpiece like you know,
when is that you know, is there is there some
way that we can just that we can just do
sort of what we did when we were younger.

Speaker 4 (14:59):
Which was be ambitious in some moments and be and.

Speaker 3 (15:03):
Be you know, give our commentary and other moments and
other moments is like not thinking too deep into just
this little commentary that's kicking around and just kind of
throwing it out. And that's exactly the mentality we went
in with this, and it felt really good to just
do it.

Speaker 4 (15:18):
And I think that was the first goal. The first
goal was to just make something we could share with our.

Speaker 3 (15:23):
Families and friends and ourselves and just go like, this
is the vibe, this is this is this feels good
and at you know, forty six, forty seven years old,
I feel comfortable playing these songs and singing these songs.
It feels it feels natural to me. And it was
kind of as simple as that. And we learned a
lot of that we've learned along the way from our

(15:45):
own experience, and these experiences we have like Joel San
with his podcast and you know, with with MVDN or
Madden that some people call it like getting to work
with just artists that like Noah and Poppy and Idris
and Chase Atlantic and architects. You know, it's like that

(16:06):
these are so these artists are so authentic to themselves.

Speaker 4 (16:10):
It's contagious. It's it's it's it's.

Speaker 3 (16:14):
Not an aggressive like fuck you or I don't give
a fuck at all. It's a very sweet, respectful like, oh,
that doesn't make sense to me to follow someone that

(16:36):
does that feels uncomfortably, to feel uncomfortable to me to
fall someone I'm only comfortable being myself.

Speaker 4 (16:41):
And you just have so much admiration for that.

Speaker 3 (16:43):
And it's contagious and and it's a beautiful thing. It's
a gift that we get from from all these and
even artists that we don't work with, you know, like
just people that we tend.

Speaker 4 (16:54):
To gravitate to towards. And it's been a.

Speaker 3 (16:58):
Real genuine, it's been a really genuine, beautiful chapter leading
up to what this record is.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah, so okay, before it draw you answered, you know,
I love what you said though about like being you know,
forty six forty seven, being authentic because it's funny. The
last interview I did with Ozzie was two years ago,
and the one thing he said to me was, you know,
like we're talking, we're talking about giving back and the charity,

(17:26):
and he was saying, well, you know, it was so
important to him to do so. He's like, the music
industry has been so good to me. He's like, it's
fucking fun being Ozzy Osbourne. Do you feel like that
at this point that it's fun being the matter brothers?

Speaker 4 (17:41):
I do, I'm I do. I think oz was such
a great example of someone who figured it out.

Speaker 3 (17:51):
You know, we watched this, We watched him say goodbye
to the world, not knowing we were watching that, you know,
but you saw the love that his family has for him.
That to me signals the success of someone who's who's

(18:12):
when you think about someone who's achieved great success, great fame,
great fortune, great all the things. The fantasies they sell
us of why you do this, why you want to
be a rock star, it's actually a lie.

Speaker 4 (18:25):
The truth is is.

Speaker 3 (18:29):
Is actually what you give the world. It's how you
make the world an easier place to be. It's how
you make the world suffer less. It's how you make
the world a more exciting place or fun place, or
easier place, or a more beautiful place, a place that
sounds better.

Speaker 4 (18:47):
And if you can do that.

Speaker 3 (18:49):
And not lose your loved ones, if you can do
that and keep love, keep.

Speaker 4 (18:56):
Keep a family, you win.

Speaker 3 (19:03):
To me, that was the greatest legacy that that that
Ozzie left. Besides the the character, the mystical character. We
saw Ozzy as the rock and roll like we loved that,
it was the family that that mourned his loss, that

(19:24):
were devastated by his loss. You saw how much they
loved him and how much they love him.

Speaker 4 (19:30):
And that's his legacy.

Speaker 3 (19:32):
The stories his family will tell, the stories the fans
will tell.

Speaker 4 (19:36):
The artists around that got to meet him, you know that.

Speaker 3 (19:39):
You see young Blood out there telling his story about
how how much he inspired him and how much meeting
him meant to him.

Speaker 4 (19:47):
But that's a person meeting people.

Speaker 3 (19:48):
That's not that's not some out of touch person who
lives in like their own hall of mirrors. That's a
person who's actually grounded and being able to share with
people and connect with people. That to me was the
most compelling thing that that I saw over the last

(20:11):
few years.

Speaker 4 (20:12):
Uh. And the stories you hear about Ozzie because he
loved his family, he just that was his world. And
so to me.

Speaker 3 (20:22):
That I think that's actually when it becomes fun, though,
is when you get in your own skin and you
live in your real life and you have memories.

Speaker 4 (20:30):
With real people who love you and you love them.

Speaker 3 (20:34):
And I could say that I have teenagers, and I'm
like every other parent trying to raise teenagers.

Speaker 4 (20:41):
It's all kinds of things. You're just you're just you're
in a range of emotions because.

Speaker 3 (20:45):
They're becoming adults and you're letting go of them a
little bit, and it's like really emotional, you know, You're
just like it's sad because you just those those wonderful
like years of having little kids and so cute and fun.

Speaker 4 (20:59):
I'm glad I didn't miss and that was worth all
the time off the road and all the time away
was the number one reason was my family.

Speaker 3 (21:11):
And I look at people like Azzie, who his legacy
was he was a father, his kids love him, and
his relationship was sharing. They were together a long time,
and you look at that and you go, you know
what that takes if you're married. If you know if
you're married, you know the work it takes to put
put the years together.

Speaker 4 (21:34):
It's almost like anyone with sobriety. It's like over time.
You know, when someone says I'm twenty years sober, you
respect it. You're like, I know what that takes. I
know the day at a time that that takes. And
I model those are the models I look to when
I look at my own life.

Speaker 3 (21:49):
And because I don't taut myself as some marriage expert
at all, I say this on my pot on my
on my show, I'm like, nah, I'm trying my best
like everyone else.

Speaker 4 (21:59):
And we're just trying to parent, and we're.

Speaker 3 (22:03):
Trying to be married, and we're trying to live in
our real life. We're not trying to be more than
we are. We're not trying to limit ourselves either. We're
just trying to build a life in reality where we
can try to be our best, try to continue to
like improve, try to be the best version of ourselves
that we can. I think, and I do think, we

(22:23):
live in a time where people, most people look at
personal growth and they're all doing some version of it.
I think there's a lot of access to information and
conversations that encourage that. But my role models are people
like Ozzie. They have a musical legacy, but if you
look deeper, the real legacy is the person, and the

(22:46):
real legacy is family, and the real legacy is love.

Speaker 4 (22:49):
So and the love they have for the world, the
love they have, and the gratitude they.

Speaker 3 (22:53):
Have for their career, and the respect and love and
gratitude they have for the family and the people that
love them, the people closest to them.

Speaker 4 (23:02):
So I think that looks like success to me.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
And if we get it right, it can be fun
to be us, if we just accept this is what
we are.

Speaker 4 (23:13):
For a long time I dismissed good Charlotte is not important.

Speaker 3 (23:18):
Enough, And then at some point I looked at it
and I was like, at this realization, like, well, one,
they don't make them like they used to, and so
we are some version of a classic car they're never
going to make again.

Speaker 4 (23:34):
And if we take the time.

Speaker 3 (23:37):
To just love that thing and modify it where we
think it could be cool, and fix it where we
think it needs to be fixed, and take really good
care of it. When you do take that car out.
However often you do, people will love it too as
much as you because you put all this time, this effort.
If you ever go we love cars so where. Every

(23:58):
now and then me and Benje will go to a
a cruise night or a car show or a place where,
and we'll look at these beautiful cars that these guys
have poured hours and toiled over the details of these
cars you just never see. Each one is unique to
itself and these are going to be things of the past.
They're going to be And so when I look at

(24:21):
Good Charlotte, I feel that way. I feel like, well,
this is what we got and it's a beautiful old car.
We love it, and we're putting a little time to
all of time and effort and care into the details.

Speaker 4 (24:33):
And when we take it out now it's really fun.

Speaker 3 (24:35):
Because people they participate in the thing, and so it
makes us feel like excited. It's not so much about
how much and how often, but more about when we
do it feels like a spectacle. It feels like an event,
and it feels like really special.

Speaker 4 (24:55):
And that's kind of how I see it these days.

Speaker 3 (24:58):
I just see it as this thing going to make
another one like us, and so we gotta we got
to take our time and take our care and really
try to cherish the thing and enjoy it and and
really protect it and make it feel special.

Speaker 2 (25:15):
Well, I was gonna say to that two things. First
of all, I love what you said about Oz, And
because it is funny, I did get to know him.
I interviewed him for twenty years, and that was special
about him, was I realized when he passed. It's like,
you know, not only did that guy look family and everything.
You know, you can't even really be sad because no
one fucking took more out of life like that guy

(25:37):
loved life and he appreciated it and he got so
much of it. But it's interesting going back to what
you were saying about good Charlotte, and you know, for
a while not feeling it was important. Do you now
realize though as well, because it's like from the perspective
of you know, realizing, like you know, sometimes when you
get older, you get perspective and you're able to look

(25:58):
at it from other people, and you realize from other
people like, all right, well maybe it's not important to
us because we have these other things, but it's like
it's fucking important to other people, Like when you know
people grew up on it, people have memories with it.
It's like it was an important part of people's lives.

Speaker 3 (26:14):
Yeah, And I would say, to be clear, it was
always the most important thing to us. It was our
We poured everything into it, We poured our whole life
into it.

Speaker 4 (26:24):
It was the measurements I was holding it against. I
think I was measuring it against other things.

Speaker 3 (26:30):
I was measuring against awards we maybe never got our,
or or maybe things that we never achieved that I thought, Oh, in.

Speaker 4 (26:37):
Order to be important, you got to have number ones.
In order to be important, you got to win Grammys
in order to be important.

Speaker 3 (26:43):
By the way, all great things. I don't discount what
it means to achieve a Grammy or a number one.

Speaker 4 (26:49):
I celebrate the artists that do.

Speaker 3 (26:52):
But for some reason, I didn't put myself in that club.
And I think I was, if I'm being honest, I
think I was. I think was a self esteem thing,
because I do think we struggled early on, really really struggled.

Speaker 4 (27:05):
But I think.

Speaker 3 (27:07):
I maybe limited myself to what we could achieve because
of maybe I thought I didn't deserve it, or and
it was always important to us, and I think the
thing that kept the heartbeat of that always pumping was
the people who love it. There was always a club

(27:29):
I'd see him to this day. Every day I go out,
I meet one person who's like your second record or
your third record, this song, or.

Speaker 4 (27:38):
They share a memory, or they share a family story.

Speaker 3 (27:41):
It's it's really pretty crazy how that happens every day
in my life. I meant one person in the world
that tells me good Charlotte meant something to them, and
that is a heartbeat that's always kind of been beating
and has always stayed alive.

Speaker 4 (27:57):
And then going out.

Speaker 3 (27:58):
More recently and doing some of the biggest shows of
our lives. We feel it too. We see it and
we feel it. It's crazy to to feel that, so
I think, But I do think I was limiting myself
and the band on what was possible for us, because
I think I always put myself below or outside of

(28:21):
they're really important or successful er, And so I do
think it was a self thing.

Speaker 4 (28:28):
I really do. Yeah, self esteem, self esteem stuff you
know we had to work on as we get older.

Speaker 2 (28:37):
Well, I was gonna say with that in mind, keep
in mind led Zeppelin ever want to grab me during
their life and second off, because you know it's so funny.
I worked through Rolling Stones twice. Now we get yelled
at so much for people like Rolling Stone was always
mean to me, and I'm like, dude, they hated led
Zeppelin too, so you're.

Speaker 4 (28:53):
Yeah, yeah, and yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
So I'm just gonna say that was so many our
I mean, when you have one fan, when you've heard
from someone like your song saved my life or whatever,
that means way more than you know. And I'm friends
with like Harvey Mason. At the Grammys, they're just rebectul
the Grammys, but when your song connects with the person,
it's way more important.

Speaker 4 (29:13):
And by the way, I think, I think it's very
possible for us to win a Grammy in the future.
I do.

Speaker 3 (29:22):
I think we're writing our best songs. Ever, I think
we're continuing to find our way and tell a story.
And I think that's the great that's the art. It's
telling stories and all the way along, I look at
Bruce Springsteen, I look at like people that my heroes,
people that I admire Ozzie, and they never stop telling stories.

(29:45):
They never stop captivating our imagination with their point of view,
with their storytelling, with their perspective, with their songs.

Speaker 4 (29:52):
So I look at Dylan, I look at Springsteen, I
look at a bunch of bands that I love, and
I go, oh, there's still there's still another chapter in
another era and more stories to tell, and our perspective

(30:13):
is going to be our perspective.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
And I do think that, like, there's a lot of
possibility for our band.

Speaker 4 (30:18):
I really do. I think there's a lot that's possible.
I'm not and and and.

Speaker 3 (30:22):
I'm excited about it when Loser draw, I'm excited. Like
you said, is it fun? I think we are discovering
just how fun it is. And and we're we're we're
tapped in, I think, in our own way to the
meaning of life for us, you know what I mean.
I think we It's so great to hear you guys

(30:43):
talk about Ozzie. I feel like Ozzie is such a
beautiful example of the best fucking case scenario of of
of a of a bona fide, real genuine rock star
that came from nothing and built his career and had
edge and had fucking danger, but also was a sweet,

(31:03):
beautiful man. Because so many like people, you know, at
the heart of their music, people never get to know
what a beautiful soul they are. And like he did
it all the way even to like Joel said, he
came out and said goodbye with all these people celebrating.
Now we didn't know he was saying goodbye, but but

(31:24):
it may you know, but maybe he didn't either, but
his instincts were so strong in his core and like
what a beautiful like to me, he did it.

Speaker 4 (31:34):
He did it.

Speaker 3 (31:35):
He put the cap on, like on defining entire, a
legacy and then to have the like you like Joel
was saying, like do you want it to do you
want your your list of achievements on your on your
headstone or do you want you know your your the
title of great? You know a loving husband, you know,

(31:58):
loving father. It's like we say that all the time.
I'll take that one.

Speaker 6 (32:03):
Now.

Speaker 4 (32:03):
I think you can do both.

Speaker 3 (32:05):
I think there's a balance though, you know what I mean,
there's a balance, And I think he struck it so
well and was able to connect. And so that's a
that's actually beautiful to hear you guys talk about it.
It's really poignant actually, But like I think, you know,
we are a new era of our career where we
have we it's like we we did all this stuff
really young, and then we kind of went back to school,

(32:27):
you know what I mean, And we we've we've we
dug in and we tried to be helpful to people,
and it turns out we were pretty helpful.

Speaker 4 (32:35):
And we've we've had we've built some.

Speaker 3 (32:36):
Interesting, compelling things and partnered with some you know, it
turns out we have a pretty good eye.

Speaker 4 (32:42):
And we've we've part we we've we've we've we've we've
partnered with some amazing, really compelling artists.

Speaker 3 (32:48):
And I mean, I think, as far as good Charlotte goes,
we're in a new era and there's no there's no
reason in the world why we couldn't have our own
sort of Springsteen moment or Aerosmith moment, or or Frankie
Valley moment. You know, there's there's so many one great
careers where artists got some experience and told some new

(33:08):
stories that really connected with people. And and we we
love storytelling and we love writing songs. It's something that
we've always said. It's given us the confidence to take
chances in life because we always say to each other, hey,
no matter what happens, all we need is a guitar,
and we can and we can write some songs.

Speaker 4 (33:28):
So you take everything we have.

Speaker 3 (33:30):
If we have a if we have access to a
guitar in a studio, we have we we we're gonna
be We're gonna be fine, you know. And and so
we can always write songs. And and we have a
way as brothers of of tapping in together. And so
we're very lucky for that we survive together, and we'll
always survive together.

Speaker 4 (33:50):
And at the core of us and it's as old
as time.

Speaker 3 (33:58):
We're just another a Mayor story right where another the
American dream.

Speaker 4 (34:04):
We're just another American story that we're telling.

Speaker 3 (34:09):
It's ours, right, but we need that, we continue to
need that, we continue I think these days we continue
to need to connect with one another and tell our
stories without all the things we could all fight over.

Speaker 4 (34:36):
At the core of Charlotte, that's all it is.

Speaker 3 (34:38):
It's just another American story of we grow up in
a small town, don't have any family in the industry,
don't have any any inheritance to your name, don't have
anything that you know, you would say is a real shot,
and that you got songs though you went and wrote
some songs, and you tried real hard, and you w

(35:00):
down into the world and you tried your best, and
you kept working, and it's possible. And we're sitting here
in our lives today much different scenarios than what we
grew how we grew up, and people still need to
hear those stories because that is still the American dream,
and the possibilities that are here for us are still

(35:20):
very real.

Speaker 4 (35:22):
And I feel compelled.

Speaker 3 (35:25):
To try and encourage people to to bet on themselves
and to work hard and to to to to get
after it, because every day I wake up, I never
it never escapes me.

Speaker 4 (35:39):
I always feel for whatever reason.

Speaker 3 (35:40):
And maybe it's getting to know my dad later in life,
and and and having the relationship I got to have
with him and going back home, you know, a few
times the year.

Speaker 4 (35:52):
I'm always I wake up every day grateful and I
feel like that I worked really hard, but.

Speaker 3 (36:05):
I live in a place where it's possible, and and
I at the same time, at the same time, we
wake up every day feeling anxious because that's where we
came from.

Speaker 4 (36:17):
And it's hard to shake.

Speaker 3 (36:18):
And you know what I mean, life life is like
you know what I mean, Like life's real yeah, life
is is real and and we we we we we're
so lucky to to to get to work together, to
have each other, to be close as brothers, because you
you know, it's really easy if you're not aware of it,
to let like and I think we did that in

(36:40):
the first half of our career. Sometimes we let the
past kind of kind of fuck up the future in
some ways, you know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (36:47):
Just from just from you know, like.

Speaker 3 (36:50):
Past damage and now we we like you said, see
like being present is like it's a thing that comes
with age. I think it's a thing that comes with
experience when you realize, you know, starting to realize that
where you're at now is not where you were and
and you don't have to worry about where you're going
to be, like it's just being present every day and

(37:13):
moving forward.

Speaker 4 (37:13):
And we get to do that now. And like, like
Joel said, there.

Speaker 3 (37:17):
Are so many moment there's there's there's so many moments
every single day where you're just it's not even about
something you're achieving, it's not about something you have.

Speaker 4 (37:26):
It's actually just the just being grateful just to be
right where you're at and.

Speaker 3 (37:30):
Just being like, oh man, I am actually living the
life of a guy who didn't leave. You know, it
isn't like separated from his loved ones and separated from
his kids, has a peaceful house and all this stuff
that you have to work, you know, work for.

Speaker 4 (37:49):
It's a really it's amazing to be present.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
So all right, wait now there's so many things to
ask about before we wrap up, but now just were
fun for both of you. What's your time?

Speaker 4 (38:04):
What's that we got time?

Speaker 2 (38:06):
What's your favorite story song for each of you?

Speaker 4 (38:10):
That's a good question. Oh my god, favorite story.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
Favorite story song? Yeah, you know, it's like I think of, like,
you know, for example, Dylan Hurricane.

Speaker 4 (38:21):
Or I was gonna say Hurricane. Dude, that's so funny
you said that. I was just that's the first.

Speaker 3 (38:26):
Song that popped into my head because he did it
so well. He told that story. It's like a movie
every time you listen to it, you.

Speaker 2 (38:34):
Know what I mean?

Speaker 4 (38:35):
Yeah, no one, no one better than Dylan, so freaking
so good. That's why he's Dylan, right, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:44):
It's true. It's like it takes you into a whole world.

Speaker 6 (38:49):
There are some other good ones, though, gosh, it's probably
gonna come down to like recent something recent ever has
been in my head, Like.

Speaker 4 (39:04):
Man, that's a hard one favorite story song.

Speaker 3 (39:08):
I mean when Johnny Cash did it pretty well, like
like with the say Dylan and Cast did it, like
in my mind they did.

Speaker 4 (39:16):
They told those stories the best. But you know's doing
it now? Who's doing it now? Like, man, Luke is
doing it, Luke Colmbs is doing it. I could tell
you so many of those, like I would say, I
would say Where the Wild Things Are is one of
the better modern kind of stories, like when it's really
captivates your imagination. What yeah, and you you just dive.

Speaker 3 (39:40):
Into that story, like you know, thinking about you know,
this story and his big brother going you know, going.

Speaker 4 (39:47):
Out to l A and like, God, I think.

Speaker 3 (39:56):
For me, Hurricane came first that that song came right
into my mind and what a what a story, and
then Johnny Cash came into my mind. Yeah, my lately
one My my one lately is either it's got to

(40:17):
be something off of Luke's record, Fathers and Sons, hunting alone.

Speaker 4 (40:26):
Hunting by yourself is like literally yeah, hunting by yourself.

Speaker 3 (40:32):
I got literally got choked up, Like the first time
I heard it, I got choked up, which is so
hard that you know how many times has that.

Speaker 4 (40:40):
Happened to you? And then remember him that.

Speaker 3 (40:45):
Way was one that actually got me choked up to
I was, I was, like, that's such a good story song.

Speaker 4 (40:50):
Like it's so visual when he's.

Speaker 3 (40:51):
Saying like he's throwing up, you know, throwing, throwing, playing
catching cowboy boots, you know, like like with a beer
in his hand. You know, like like it's it's like
it really got me, It really got me. So that
that for me, the modern kind of story songs, it's
like I think, I think Luke Comes is doing it

(41:13):
really really well. The two for me would be Hurricane
and I Hung My Head by Johnny Cash.

Speaker 4 (41:20):
All.

Speaker 2 (41:20):
Wait, now that's separate question. What songs did you joked
up the most? Because I love that as well.

Speaker 4 (41:27):
It choked up? Yeah, yeah, yeah, Hunting by Yourself got
me choked up.

Speaker 3 (41:32):
I got choked up writing the Castle in the Sand
on our.

Speaker 4 (41:36):
New record, I got choked up.

Speaker 3 (41:40):
I got choked up you know, recording it, which was
which was powerful, Like I said, that doesn't happen that often,
and so I was, I was that meant something to me.

Speaker 2 (41:50):
You know.

Speaker 3 (41:51):
Also it also weirdly, it's like when you get choked up,
you know, recording it, then you get a little actually
read when you play it for people.

Speaker 4 (42:02):
You know, so that's a good thing. And I see
it as a good.

Speaker 3 (42:04):
Thing when you feel when you all of a sudden
you're like, wait, why do I feel so like shy
right now? Playing this for and then you know you're
not thinking about it until you hit play, say hey,
you want to check out the song, and then you know,
so that one. There's a song by Nickel Creek called
when You Come Back Down that I really get choked up.

Speaker 4 (42:25):
Makes me think about my.

Speaker 3 (42:28):
Especially makes me think about my daughter, my little girl
who's now grown.

Speaker 4 (42:36):
But it's how you feel.

Speaker 3 (42:38):
You want to let them go and go fly and
do their thing and go all the way and run, run, run,
because they hit like eighteen and they just want to charge.

Speaker 4 (42:48):
And as a parent you're just like, but you gotta
let them.

Speaker 3 (42:50):
You gotta let them get after it. You gotta let
them go. And that song perfectly worded it. I know
there's some more though, because I have a whole playlist.

Speaker 2 (43:04):
All right, well wait, let's go back to Castle Made
of Sam for a second. It's funny because you know
it's it's I mean again going back to the idea
of so much music being sub conscious, that especially writing.
So you know, I talked about this with like, I mean,
I remember, you know you asked me about the illustrious
people I got to interview, and it's like again, like
I said, I just get to interview people who are

(43:24):
fucking smarter than me. So, you know, I was talking
a couple of years ago with Mike Stoller of Lieber
and Stoller, ninety years old co wrote stand By Me,
which is, to me, the greatest song ever co wrote rock.
He's like ninety old. He was talking about it. He's like,
I have no idea where songs come from. No one does.
So there's like a bit of channel and it just
comes up. So when you hit a song like Castle

(43:47):
made the SAMD choke up, is there a sense of
like not just pride, but surprised to find that you're
even thinking that.

Speaker 4 (44:06):
There.

Speaker 3 (44:07):
Yeah, there's definitely just a sense of gratitude because you're
just like, it happens so fast, at least for us,
Like we're we're not like you know, these master painters
who are like you know, we're we're like we're chaotic
and we're we're we're heartfelt, but like we're you know, yeah,

(44:27):
energetic and and and yeah that that that happened.

Speaker 4 (44:31):
On every one of them.

Speaker 3 (44:32):
I mean, you know, like Joel starts singing rejects day
one in the studio and I'm just like, yeah, keep
singing that.

Speaker 4 (44:37):
Whatever you're singing right now, keep singing that. I don't
even know what you're talking about. And then you record
the song and then you.

Speaker 3 (44:42):
Realize how deep it is with like the self esteem,
ship and the the you know, the childhood stuff that's
like all woven throughout that song.

Speaker 4 (44:51):
Like it's it's it's not like you have this plan,
it just comes. It just comes out, you know. And
and the Castle in the Sand was like so fast.
We were in the studio.

Speaker 3 (45:04):
Actually, Katie built a studio in Santa Barbara, beautiful studio.

Speaker 4 (45:08):
She just built in this.

Speaker 3 (45:10):
Two hundred year old adobe and she left it very
much like it was like it's such a vibe. And
and Johann Carlson, who is a good friend of ours,
was just we we were there and he just started
playing something on the piano and I was like, what
is that And he was just like, you know, he's

(45:30):
got this like Swedish accent, and he's like, it's just
what the piano.

Speaker 4 (45:33):
Told me to play, you know, and like and I'm like,
can I sing? Can I sing something to it?

Speaker 3 (45:38):
And we started humming along and then the song like
lyric after lyric, and it was done in fifteen minutes.

Speaker 4 (45:45):
It literally was done in fifteen minutes.

Speaker 3 (45:47):
And I was like, oh, man, like that, that's like
one of my favorite songs that you.

Speaker 4 (45:52):
Know, I've ever been a part of. And it was
just like that.

Speaker 3 (45:56):
So you just kind of go like, yeah, just kind
of go thank you wherever that came from, thank you.

Speaker 4 (46:04):
You know so well.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
I think it's funny. I mean, I think most people
will tell you that oftentimes it's like the best songs
that just come from nowhere, and it's like and they
do come quickly. Jimmy Cliff told me he wrote the
Heart of the Comet, which one of the greatest songs
ever is like I wrote it in ten minutes on
the way to the studio. So are there songs you
look back on now in your career that like you

(46:29):
just are again there's still a sense of amazing, like
okay again. Going back to this recurring theme of interviewing
people who are smarter than me. Nick Cave to me
is like probably the smartest person in the world. And
I to get Tim to talk to him once and
he was talking about the fact that he says in
Faith Help and Carnage. You know, I'll be on stage
in a year and a half later, I'll be like, oh,
that's what that song means. Have you guys had that experience?

Speaker 4 (46:51):
Yes, one one thousand percent.

Speaker 3 (46:55):
Man, almost every time, almost every time, you didn't realize
what you were saying.

Speaker 4 (47:01):
And a lot of people, you know, it's funny because
a lot of people.

Speaker 3 (47:04):
Oh man, it's a great example, dude, Like a lot
of people will tell you what your song means, and
you're kind of like, okay, okay, yeah, that's.

Speaker 4 (47:12):
What it means to you. Like, I don't know if
I'm not you know, that's that's that's not correct to me.
But I'm not going to argue with you, and I'm
not going to make this less fun for you. So
I'm going to kind of go, yeah, cool, yeah, okay.

Speaker 3 (47:24):
You know, but you know we did it on this record,
on I Don't work here anymore. You know, we wrote
a song really emotionally whatever it was the day that
we did that song, me and Joel were like, there
was a little bit of tension, there was a little
bit of aggression, there was a little bit of like
any anxiety, and we were we were writing this song

(47:45):
and it was the song was happening very easily, but
we were it was chaotic.

Speaker 4 (47:49):
We were going back and forth and Joel's like, no, no,
I want to sing this line.

Speaker 3 (47:52):
And he sung it and it had like an attitude
to it and like a vibe and like it just
sounded cool.

Speaker 4 (47:57):
So we were like, Okay, yeah, I don't work here anymore.
On the way home right literally that day, because when
we do songs, we pretty much are doing.

Speaker 3 (48:05):
The final take while we're writing it, so if it
wasn't a good take, we redo it, you know what
I mean. And so we're kind of doing the final
take on the way home with the board mix.

Speaker 4 (48:16):
I got choked up.

Speaker 7 (48:18):
Yeah, me too, Me too, And I didn't know why,
and like, I didn't realize how much I needed to
say that to myself. And even though I'm in a
different place in my life, I never quite said it
the right way, and I didn't know how much I
needed to say, Like I finally believe in myself.

Speaker 4 (48:37):
And I don't work here anymore. It's not just about
quitting a job. It's like it's about quitting a job.
It's not about quitting a job at all.

Speaker 3 (48:45):
It's about betting on yourself. It's about standing up for yourself.
It's about going your own way in life period. It's
about believing yourself. It's about loving yourself. It's about backing yourself.
It's about it's about like getting hit, because.

Speaker 4 (49:02):
Every single person gets hit, and it's about getting back up.

Speaker 3 (49:07):
And we have like a thing with me and Joel
where we tell each other like, come on, man, get
back up, like you know, anything in life, right, anything,
Come on, dude, get back up.

Speaker 4 (49:17):
We gotta keep going, like get back up.

Speaker 3 (49:19):
And that's been the thing that's got us through everything
in life from the time we were you know, seven
years old, so you know, we had that instinct.

Speaker 4 (49:27):
I don't know where it came from, but the instinct
was get back up. And that's what that song says.

Speaker 3 (49:32):
That song says like, you know what, I don't work
here anymore, Like I'm I'm out, like I'm betting on myself.

Speaker 4 (49:39):
I'm going my way, I'm doing it my way. I'm
being me and I'm gonna and I'm.

Speaker 3 (49:43):
Going to be proud to do to do me and
and you know, so anyone who's taking that song at
face value just you know, I don't mind.

Speaker 4 (49:53):
But but like you know, if they go, how can
you write a song? I don't work here anymore.

Speaker 3 (49:58):
You you guys are rich and you guys are rock
stars from your time, you're twenty one. Like it's like, oh,
well that is, I can't If you can't go a
layer deeper in this song, then I can't help you. Like,
you'll have to find it on your own. Like, and
if that's what you're taking it, that's that's fine. But
that's a that's a great example of a song where

(50:19):
it it is a deeper meaning. And there are so
many songs where you know, we we kind of realized
that after we wrote it, but there's songs from our first, second, third,
fourth album that literally we said, like a month ago, Dael,
I'll forget what song it was, but we're like, damn, man,
that song was just straight up about depression.

Speaker 4 (50:41):
And I didn't even know it, and you know, so
it happened all the time.

Speaker 3 (50:47):
Man.

Speaker 4 (50:47):
It's it's good, but it's cool, it's fun. Like that. Man,
it's like a painting. You don't know what the painting.

Speaker 3 (50:51):
Was until you know five years later you're like, oh, fuck, man,
that's what that painting.

Speaker 4 (50:56):
It was to me, that's what That's why I painted that.

Speaker 2 (51:00):
Know well, Joel, you mentioned Springsteen. Springsteon is my favorite
artist of all time, right and me too. Eighty seven
eighty eight when he did the Tunnel of Glove tour.
When he was doing it, he onencourd was born to
run Acousta and I always remember him saying this. He
said he was thinking about how much that song was
him and how much he didn't want it to be him.

(51:22):
And I always found that so interesting. So now for
you guys, what songs do you think of from your
past that you realize that you wanted to be Yale?

Speaker 4 (51:35):
All the hits I think, you know. I always struggled with.

Speaker 3 (51:43):
Lifestyles of the rich and famous because it was always misconceived.
I always felt like people to get the point everyone
thought we were celebrating lifestyles of the rich and famous.
We were actually just so hungry.

Speaker 4 (51:59):
That we want it.

Speaker 3 (52:01):
And and at the time we were like, give it
if you don't like it so much, if it's so bad,
give it to me, I'll do better, right, And and
there was some, there was some, There was some there's
some deep commentary in there about like.

Speaker 4 (52:20):
About the complexity of.

Speaker 3 (52:25):
People and their relationship with with the all with with
this this fantasy that we're sold about fame, and now
we live in a world where.

Speaker 4 (52:38):
Every money, fame and money and.

Speaker 3 (52:40):
Having it fixes everything, and it doesn't. And we live
in a world now where everybody's famous, and it's not
fixing shit.

Speaker 4 (52:51):
It's not better, it's not.

Speaker 3 (52:53):
And until we all get until we all become desensitized fame,
where we don't give a fuck about it, and we
get back to just being people and relating to one
another as people. Then and I don't know if that's possible.

Speaker 4 (53:09):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (53:10):
But that song, I always wrestled with it, and I
fucking hated it for so long.

Speaker 4 (53:14):
Now I actually love it. And it's the same with
the anthem.

Speaker 3 (53:19):
I always struggled with that song because my least favorite
song and ended up becoming one of the.

Speaker 4 (53:25):
Songs that everybody knows was for It wasn't at the time.

Speaker 3 (53:28):
Actually, it was just a fan favorite, to be honest,
And and and now I love that song, but I
always struggle with it because I thought people missed the
point of it.

Speaker 4 (53:44):
Because I didn't. It wasn't as much of a protest
song as everyone thought.

Speaker 3 (53:48):
It was, just it was about believing in yourself and
going your own way and going like, no, I'm not
just gonna get in line with what I'm supposed to do.
I'm gonna think about what I want to do, and
I'm going to try and live a life that feels
like it's worth living.

Speaker 4 (54:02):
And I get to be myself. So it's so funny
in yourself, it is really funny.

Speaker 3 (54:06):
It is really funny because it is one of those
things where you go, yeah, where people people will even
to this day, wow, how does it feel now? You know,
like your first hit twenty five twenty years ago is
lifestyles that are rich and famous and look at you.

Speaker 4 (54:21):
Guys, now you're you're rich and famous, and you go, no, no, yeah,
that was the point.

Speaker 3 (54:30):
We said, if you don't want it, we'll take it.
And yeah, we were fucking broke, and guess what we're
doing now. We're taking care of it and we're grateful,
and you know what, we're having a fucking ball.

Speaker 4 (54:44):
We're Ozzy we're taking Ozzy's example.

Speaker 3 (54:47):
Okay, we're running the Azzy program, which is those guys
we look to Ozzy Springsteen.

Speaker 4 (54:56):
Yeah, those are the guys we look to and go,
how do I want to grow up? How do I
want to be?

Speaker 8 (55:00):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (55:00):
When I am a grown ass man?

Speaker 7 (55:02):
Right?

Speaker 4 (55:03):
Well, what do I want to do? I want to
you know me me. I want to be with my
wife till we're old. I want my kids to be
close to me. I want to be you know, I
want people to, you know, like say, I'm glad I
knew that guy more than I love that song. You know.

Speaker 3 (55:17):
So if you think about if you think about those
great artists, you think about like Springsteen, he strikes me.

Speaker 4 (55:26):
I was like, he's glad you like his music. I
don't think that's how.

Speaker 3 (55:29):
I don't think he walks around all day, every day
in his real life, concerned too much about his music.
I think he's actually like living a real life. He
loves his family, he's like participating, you know what I mean.
And I just think that's my example when I look
at someone like I want to be like that guy.
Adam Sandler is a great example. I fucking love Adam

(55:50):
Sandler and I look at him as an example. It's like,
can you be an artist and be a real ass dude,
to be real and make art and participate in the
world and be who everyone thinks you are and and
and not be bitter about it. Meet people where they're
at and like and be grateful, because that's how I
feel when I meet someone and maybe they got me wrong.

(56:12):
They're like, you're the guy from Good Charlotte. They only
see me from fifteen years ago. They still relate to
me that way, And I meet him.

Speaker 4 (56:19):
Where they're at.

Speaker 3 (56:19):
I don't want to spoil their time like this is,
you know, not at any cost, but for the most part,
you can go through the world and and and give
people something to remember and at no cost to you,
but be in your real life and not let that dictate,
like where you are at right now. I look at Sandler,

(56:40):
I look at Springsteen, I look at like storytellers. They're
just telling stories and they're in In order to do that,
they have to live a real.

Speaker 4 (56:49):
Life every day and be in it. And I again,
I say Sandler because Adam Sandler, like is participating in
the arts to this day. He's making relevant shit, but
he's living a real life, his kids love him, he's
got he figured it out. And that's the thing that
I think we look at and go, let's keep trying
to tell the stories and some of them might hit,

(57:11):
lots of them probably won't. That's okay, because if one does,
it'll all have been worth it. But let's not give
up our real lives and our families to do it.

Speaker 3 (57:22):
And let's try to like, let's try to be in
our real life every day and then and let's wear
the same clothes on stage that we wear every day,
so we don't exactly worry about characters.

Speaker 4 (57:36):
We don't have to like dress up and be characters,
you know what I mean. So, yeah, I don't know
our last.

Speaker 2 (57:44):
Questions We've been on for a while, but uh.

Speaker 4 (57:46):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (57:46):
I'll let you guys go, but I have to ask
now because it's funny when you were talking earlier about
your kids getting older for both of you, you know,
it's funny like there's this resurgence, you know, and things
are like, you know, there's so much interstagird, Charlotte and
you know this in this world. But for both of you,
do you find your kids like you're still just not cool?
To your kids.

Speaker 3 (58:07):
Yeah, my kids are. They think it's cool what I do.
They respect it, but I'm not that. They don't look
at me as the epitome of cool. In fact, if
I tell them something, I've learned not to try and
tell them what version I think is the best version

(58:30):
of something, because they won't take it with like it's credible.

Speaker 4 (58:36):
So they're in the discovery phase of.

Speaker 3 (58:39):
Music and art and all that, and I'm letting them
just run wild and discover it on their own because
if I tell them, hey, well you know that came
where that came from, or you know who did that
first or whatever, they just think I'm old and out
of such and sound like I'm on the lawn yelling
at people.

Speaker 4 (58:58):
My kids are just too young right now.

Speaker 3 (59:02):
But but my daughter did make the suggestion like a
couple of weeks ago, because she said, Daddy, you know
there's a lady playing at the farmers market playing music
at the farmer's market, and she said, you know.

Speaker 4 (59:17):
You could go play there. And I was like, that's
a kid. I was like, that's a great idea.

Speaker 3 (59:22):
I thought that was the sweetest, greatest. I just thought
that was such a great, little, great idea. That, you know,
So I thought I took that very much as her
being interested in, you know, the fact that I can
play music, but it's very much not what she's asking
to listen to at all.

Speaker 4 (59:41):
So yeah, but it's sweet.

Speaker 2 (59:44):
It just makes me laugh because right to me, the
coolest person in the world is Patty Smith. Right, No,
there's no one cooler Patty Smith. And I remember talking
with her one and She's like, when I'm at home,
I'm just doing laundry. I'm just mom, Like you're Patty Smith,
you know, like did because the night Braderick all these
amazing songs. But I have found from talking to everybody

(01:00:06):
in the world that doesn't matter who you are to
your own kids, you simply can't be cool.

Speaker 3 (01:00:11):
Well, dude, we were we were out. We were out
the other day at a restaurant. You will you would
laugh so hard, right because because we're being Cameron, our
kids were out of the restaurant and like, we're just
have one of those moments. It's right before, we stayed
a little too late. It's fucking bedtime. We we didn't
get that. We didn't fly the plane, right, So one

(01:00:32):
of our kids is starting to have like a little
bit of a meltdown. You know, it's just time to
get them that we need to get home, We need
to get and the other one is it, you know,
she's having a ball. She's probably like you know, like
also overtired and just like you know, jumping all over
the place.

Speaker 4 (01:00:47):
And I don't want to like cause a.

Speaker 3 (01:00:49):
Scene in the restaurant or anything, so I'm just trying
to like, okay, guys, okay, So I'm getting my my
you know, we're getting together, and somebody sees Cameron and
gets excited.

Speaker 4 (01:00:59):
Very understandable, right, They're like, oh, you're my favorite. Oh
my god, you're my favorite. Comes over and we're in
the middle of just hey, like family chaos, and they say, guys,
can we have a photo?

Speaker 3 (01:01:11):
And I just look up and they've got food on
me and they'll drink spills and the thing, right, and
it's just like normal. Anyone who has kids has gone
through this, and we just like we're just like like,
you know, it's like your kids don't give a they
don't give a fuck, and it's the best thing ever.

Speaker 4 (01:01:28):
You come home.

Speaker 3 (01:01:31):
You can win a Grammy, right, amazing love it. Hope
we do at some point one day. Guess what doesn't
matter if we do or we don't. Got to come home,
change a diaper, get bedtime done, in time, do bathtime,
do the thing.

Speaker 4 (01:01:45):
You could.

Speaker 3 (01:01:45):
You could lose, you could, you could have a record
come out and no one knows about it.

Speaker 4 (01:01:49):
You still got to come home.

Speaker 3 (01:01:51):
But you gotta think that that's probably why Patty Smith.

Speaker 4 (01:01:54):
Is so fucking cool is because she doesn't give a fuck.
She's that home doing the fucking laundry. And and and
it's a gift though, it's a gift because it does.
That's what I'm saying is like she gets it.

Speaker 3 (01:02:09):
She's got the gift, like the gift, the thing if
she If she didn't, she wouldn't be at home doing
the laundry, she'd be out chasing some other accolade, some
other achievement. How many achievements can we have? Of course
we love to get them. It's not that they're great,
but like you measure.

Speaker 4 (01:02:29):
Like the time, the costs, and you try to you
try to get it right. We haven't gotten it at all.

Speaker 3 (01:02:34):
Right, Me and Nicole sit there and we look back
and we got wish you would have done that a
little different, Wish you would have done that a little different,
but like all we can do is try our best
and still go to work because we got because we got.

Speaker 4 (01:02:46):
People have to work. If you don't, I think you
you you know.

Speaker 3 (01:02:50):
But I look at all those those rock stars and
I go the ones who found the We go back
to Ozzie, we go to Springsteen, we go to Adam
Sandler and Patti Smith, and we go to all the
ones that you go, That's what I want to be, like,
I want to try and find that balance of of

(01:03:13):
I want to still tell stories more than anything.

Speaker 4 (01:03:15):
I hope we can tell one more story. You know,
that's the era, but that's the era that that's the
era we're in.

Speaker 3 (01:03:22):
So if you see us out, if you see us
at a show, where you see us at an event.

Speaker 4 (01:03:27):
And we look like shit, and we looked like we
didn't and we did.

Speaker 3 (01:03:31):
We look like we didn't have the hair and makeup,
and we look like we didn't have this because we
it's because we just came from a birthday party and
and doing you know, dinner and bedtime, and we went
and that's how it is, and we fulfilled the commitment
we had to whoever to come to whatever.

Speaker 4 (01:03:48):
You got to know that's the era we're in, you
know what I mean. So that's uh, that's something that's funny.

Speaker 3 (01:03:54):
We laugh about it and we but we enjoy it
and it's just something that, like you said, it's it's
something that actually behind you know, behind it all you go.

Speaker 8 (01:04:03):
You know what, man, at the end of the day,
I'll be happy with whatever my career is. I'll be
happy because I gave it the all that I could
not sacrificing the all that I had to give to.

Speaker 4 (01:04:15):
The people that I love in real life. And it's
a pretty sweet place to be. We're lucky to be here.

Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
Awesome. Well, that does feel like a fucking great route. Notes.
Is any you guys want to add that we didn't
talk about because we talked about a lot.

Speaker 4 (01:04:30):
Yeah, no, I think dude, you're You're easy, bro, You're always.

Speaker 3 (01:04:33):
Easy, So so you know, and and and look, we
can talk more about the book when we have. We
got to do it right though, We've got to have
the time. And I also feel that the story is
not fully written, you know what I mean. I feel
like we I feel like we're in the in the
midst of a story that's developing.

Speaker 4 (01:04:50):
So