April 14th 2002

Billy, the guitarist from Good Charlotte sat down with Sweetbob backstage at a show and chatted with him about many things. Mandy Moore, girls backstage, and future tour plans were discussed.

Bobby Roberts - What was your biggest motivation in wanting to become a professional musician?
Billy � The music I grew up listening to when I was younger. I also liked to put pictures all over my wall all the time. I would just look up at the wall and just want to be like those people.

Bobby - I noticed that in your �Little Things� video you were graced with the presence of a woman we like to call Mandy Moore. I was lucky enough to actually �run into� her a few months ago. She is really nice to people who don�t watch where they are going. How did you get her to do your video?
Billy � Well, the thing with Mandy is that she is on the same label as us, Epic. We wanted a hot chick to be in the video. WE were just like let�s see what we were do. Joel is being attacked right now. (laughs)

Bobby - How long has Good Charlotte been together?
Billy - For about 6 years now.

Bobby � How old were you guys?
Billy - Well, the other 4 joined when they were in high school. I joined about 2 years ago or so.

Bobby - What were some of your influences musically growing up?
Billy - I guess everyone is really different, Benji really likes Rancid and Minor Threat and the punk stuff. Joel really likes the older stuff like the Smiths and the Cure. I really like Silverchair, Incubus, the Deftones, Helmet, and a lot of the older stuff. Paul really likes the Misfits and the Pixies are his favorite band.

Benji � YAYAYAYAYAYAYA BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH!!! (screaming)

Billy � (laughs) That was an escaped llama. Everyone is really diverse.

Bobby - Your album is a mix of reggae, pop punk, and some slight hip-hop, if I may be so bold. I really like �Complicated,� �Motivation Proclamation,� and �Seasons� the most on the album. Are you planning on releasing anything else from your self-titled album?
Billy � Well, we released Motivation already and we released Festival Song a couple weeks ago. We�ll see what goes around with that.

Bobby - What are some bands on the Vans Warped tour that you are really having a good time being on the tour with?
Billy � Well, some of my best friends now are the guys from Alien Any Farm and Benji really likes Rancid and they have taken us under their wings like little brothers. Them and h2o have been great.

Bobby - Where do you see yourself, as a group, in 5 years?
Billy � Hopefully we will be doing the same thing on a bigger level.

Bobby - Where are some of the best places you�ve played so far since your album came out?
Billy � Salt Lake City was great, Minneapolis was great, all the California shows were great as well. Today was really, really good too. We had a great reaction out there today.

Bobby - Have you noticed that it�s harder or easier to find a date or a lady to keep you company since you�ve been out on tour?
Billy � I don�t know, I guess I�m not really into having girls getting backstage and stuff.

(at this point Joel and Benji goes jumping into a crowd of girls)

Bobby � Not as much as your other compadres huh?
Billy - I�m not really into that. If girls want to meet us and all that�s cool, but the rest I�m not really into all that.

Bobby � What do you have planned for the rest of the year?
Billy � We are gonna tour this fall and we are gonna headline a little. Once this finishes we are gonna do 2 weeks of Blink-182 in Canada. They are taking us up there. After our fall tour, we are gonna record our new album hopefully.

Bobby - If someone hasn�t heard of Good Charlotte before, how would you describe yourselves and your music to them?
Billy � Well, we get categorized as punk bands all the time, but we are a rock band with options. Some of our stuff has a hip-hop feel, but a lot of our stuff is just like a rock band.