Singer Joel Madden and his guitar-playing twin brother Benji were inspired to start their Maryland-based, pop-punk quintet Good Charlotte when they were 16 years old, after seeing a life-changing Beastie Boys concert in 1995. Although the twins had literally zero experience playing music, they had no trouble recruiting two high school friends--bassist Paul and drummer Aaron (the band members prefer to use only their first names)--to form the original, four-piece incarnation of Good Charlotte. Benji taught himself to play on a cheap guitar that had been collecting dust in a closet (with the help of Paul, who showed him a few basic pointers), and gradually the band improved; by the time they were high school seniors, they were a full-fledged rock combo with a following in the Baltimore/D.C. area and legitimate gigs at WHFS's annual HFSFestival.

    Naturally, upon graduating high school, the boys decided to skip college to pursue their musical dream. Moving from the Maryland suburb of Waldorf to Annapolis, the four Good Charlotte members struggled to make ends meet with menial day jobs as waiters, stock boys, and shampoo attendants at a local beauty salon. But then they met guitarist Billy, who was playing in a local band called Overflow. Impressed by a Good Charlotte gig, Billy became fast friends with the Madden brothers, even allowing them to crash at his place after they were kicked out of their apartment. He started jamming with Joel and Benji and eventually became an official member of Good Charlotte, after which things really took off for the young, fledgling band: Airplay on WHFS and Philadelphia's Y100, as well as gigs with the likes of Blink 182, Lit, Eve 6, Nine Days, and Bad Religion, eventually led to a contract with Epic Records, which released Good Charlotte's upbeat self-titled debut album in 2000. The group's lively, '70s-inspired punk rock was well-received among fans of bands like Blink 182, Green Day, and Sum 41, and the Maddens' stint as VJs on the MTV show All Things Rock helped boost their pop profile even higher--thus perfectly setting up their 2002 sophomore effort, The Young & The Hopeless.

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