Biography
Paul, a school friend, taught Benji some basic chords on the guitar and Aaron, another school friend, played drums and lent his house as studio space. The bands first practice was a week later. In 1998, all four guys moved to Annapolis, deciding to skip college and risk their schooling for a serious music career. The boys worked as stock boys, waiters, and shampoo boys at a beauty salon to earn money as they began to build their fan base in the Baltimore/DC area. Billy didn't join until he showed up to see the twins play an acoustic set at a local hangout. Although Billy was in another band called Overflow, the twins moved into Billy's house when they were kicked out of their apartment and Billy joined a practice, then a show with the guys.
Although unsigned, Good Charlotte began to play with Blink 182, Bad Religion, and Lit. GC continued to gain fans, playing for charity and the local radio station WHFS' HFSTIVAL, first on the local's only stage, and then in 2000, to the street stage. The band's popularity spread when a demo of "The Little Things" was picked up by Philadelphia's Y100 and broke a record on the station's show as it was chosen for 15 nights over other competing songs. Soon the band was offered record deals, and they signed with Epic Records in 2000. GC's producer Don Gilmore helped the band through their first album which was a dream come true for the boys. The twins write all of the songs, and as Joel says, "Me and Benji have always written from personal experiences," He gestures to his heart: "Everything comes from here." The boys write about everything from political issues ("All I wanna do is kick the welfare") to love ("So Complicated/Overrated/This feeling is love") to growing up ("Today I screwed up again").
MTV picked up the first single off of the album "Little Things" and played it on MTV and MTV2 along with GC's second single "Motivation Proclamation". Benji and Joel guest-starred on a popular MTV show and the band was asked to write/perform the theme song to the MTV show "The Undergrads". The next single will be "Festival Song" inspired by the HFSTIVAL which gave GC their first big break. The boys played at the 2001 2 day festival, first on the street stage and then on the main stage for the first time. The video was also filmed at the Festival. Aaron left the band to join his brother's band, Wakefield, and the other 4 guys say that they talked it over and came to that decision together. More and more people are starting to appreciate the band's music and GC keeps getting lots of fan support. And if you ask the guys, it all still seems like a dream to them.
From the site goodcharlottefan.com
GC's original drummer was Aaron Escolopio. Why did he leave? To join his brother in the band Wakefield.
From goodcharlotte.com: Hello everyone its Benji, Paul, Joel and Billy, We have some news that we wanted to tell all of you ourselves ... Aaron has left Good Charlotte to pursue his own band effort. All five of us talked about this and made a mutual decision. As supporters of Good Charlotte, we hope you understand and respect everyone's feelings on this. We wish Aaron well. Thanks for your support and we will see you on the Warped Tour this summer.
From wakefieldrocks.com: Hey guys, Yeah its true, I've been fortunate enough to join Wakefield. It took a lot of thought, but I've always wanted to play in a band with my brother Ryan. And I've been helping out Wakefield for a long time now. The hard part was leaving four guys thats been a part of my life for the past six years. Good Charlotte has been good to me, I'll miss those guys a lot and wish them the best. Sometimes you have to do things that don't make sense when your heart tells you to, and this was just one of those times. I'm not going to say goodbye to all the fans that supported me in Good Charlotte, cause I hope you will support me in Wakefield. So what I am going to say is, I love you guys very much and I'll see you at the show.
Dusty
Dusty replaced Aaron as drummer. He is in the band "Jesuseater" from Washington DC. He was just a temporary drummer and stayed for about a year. From Benji on goodcharlotte.com: I have to announce something that will make you sad as much as it does us ... Dusty won't be playing drums with us any longer. We will really miss having Dusty on tour as he has become one of our closest friends but we also knew he wouldn't be able to stay with us forever. You all can expect to hear a lot of great stuff from the other projects he is involved in. And we hope you will support him as much we do. We knew this day would come but we did get attached. We would appreciate it if you guys didn't email us with questions, comments and complaints. It will be a long time till we decide who the drummer of Good Charlotte is. Paul, Joel, Billy and I have been making music together for nearly 7 years and adding someone is gonna take time. Until that day comes, we ask that you guys treat all the drummers that may play with us with kindness and respect, as you did with Dusty. You guys have been positive and supportive and we appreciate it.
Josh Freese
Replaced Dusty as temporary drummer and drummed on the album "The Young and the Hopeless". From the band "The Vandals".More info on josh go to www.joshfreese.com
This Info was found ongoodcharlottefan.com