Benji Madden

Benji Madden
Benji Madden
Background information
Birth name	Benjamin Levi Combs
Born	March 11 1979 (1979-03-11) (age 29)[1]
Origin	Waldorf, Maryland, U.S.
Genre(s)	Pop punk, Punk rock
Occupation(s)	Guitarist, backup vocalist
Instrument(s)	Guitar
Years active	1996–present
Label(s)	Epic Records, Daylight Records
Website	www.goodcharlotte.com

Benjamin Levi Madden (born March 11, 1979) is the guitarist and backup vocalist of the band Good Charlotte.

Biography

Early life

Madden was born to a working class Irish-American family. He has an identical twin brother, Joel Madden, who sings lead in Good Charlotte. He has an older brother named Josh, and a younger sister named Sarah. Madden attended La Plata High School in La Plata, Maryland. When Madden was 15-years-old, his father left the family, causing financial hardship for the family. Madden took up various odd jobs as a teenager to help with the family's bills. While in his early 20's Madden changed his last name from Combs, his father's name, to his mother's maiden name, Madden.^[2]

Good Charlotte

In 1995, at the age of 16, Madden attended the Beastie Boys Ill Communication Tour with his brother Joel. Drawing from music introduced to them by their older brother Josh, such as Rancid and Social Distortion, as well as the influence of the Beastie Boys concert, the two started their own band with a friend. The band was short lived and the Maddens eventually recruited fellow high schoolers Paul Thomas and Aaron Escolopio to form Good Charlotte.^[3]

Other projects

In the 2001 film Not Another Teen Movie, Benji and the other Good Charlotte members made a cameo as the band at the school's prom and in the 2006 film Material Girls with his brother Joel. Madden started a clothing line called MADE Clothing along with his brothers Joel and Josh. The line is now defunct. In early 2006 MADE Clothing became DCMA Collective. The line is owned by himself, his brothers Joel Madden, Josh Madden, and friend Tal Cooperman.

Personal life

Benji is currently living in America, but there was talk about him moving to Australia, possibly to the Gold Coast. He later confirmed this information by announcing at Good Charlotte concerts he is moving. His fiancée, Sophie Monk, lives there.

Other appearances

• Goldfinger's, "January", from the Open Your Eyes album.
• Rancid's, "Fall Back Down", music video.
• Mest's, "Jaded (These Years)", from the Mest album.
• MxPx's, "It's Alright", from the Before Everything & After album.
• MxPx's, "On The Outs", from the Before Everything & After album.
• Ben Lee's, "Sex Without Love", from the Ripe album.

References

External links

• Benji Madden at the Internet Movie Database
• Benji Madden at MySpace
• DCMA Collective (Benji's clothing line)
• Official Good Charlotte Website
• BBC Review