Joel Madden from Good Charlotte does not consider himself a celebrity and is very uncomfortable with the tabloid attention he receives.
Speaking to Undercover today, Joel explained that he has been a musician for 14 year and the other stuff just came recently. “I have been in my band for the last 14 years and I’ve been playing music every day,” he tells Undercover. “The last 4 years have only been when that became a factor in my life”.Joel suddenly became a “celebrity” when he started going out with Nicole Richie. “It is not something that I ever relate to myself. I relate it to the person I am with,” he says. “To me that is like Nicole’s world. That is the stuff she has to deal with. Neither of us likes it. She is much better dealing with it because she has been dealing with it much longer than me. For me, it is something that I just try and stay away from. I try to avoid it at all costs because I’m just not comfortable with it”.
He says he just accepts it is what it is. “It’s not like I’m complaining or hate those people, I am just not comfortable,” he says. “I’d rather just be on tour or in the studio. It’s weird, if someone comes up to me and sticks a camera in my face and asks how the record is going I have no problem answering that. But the minute people come up and ask those weird, irrelevant questions I just shut-down. I’m sure I come across sometimes as an asshole but the truth is I am just uncomfortable”.
Joel’s escape is getting back into the workload with Good Charlotte. “The only time I am truly comfortable is when I am playing music, or a video or on stage,” he says. “It has got to be about a music show. It is this weird, awkward kind of thing that I have to navigate through and do your best to get around it”.
Good Charlotte will be in Australia for Megarampage in October with The Offspring, Wu Tang Clan, COG, Mammal, Shaman Son and Kelley James.
Megarampage will be held at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne on October 31.
