Returning for what will be their first UK appearances in over seven years, Good Charlotte are set to headline Slam Dunk Festival 2026. Fresh off the back of excellent eighth album Motel Du Cap, vocalist/guitarist Benji Madden looks ahead to a pair of “special” shows more than worth the wait…
Benji Madden is buzzing on a random Monday afternoon in mid-September. It’s understandable. Having flown with brother Joel and their bandmates into Good Charlotte’s hometown of Baltimore, Maryland yesterday, the pop-punk overlords are booked to play a halftime show at the 71,000-cap M&T Bank Stadium as their beloved Baltimore Ravens take on the Detroit Lions. That match might end in a 30 – 38 defeat for the Ravens, but it’s a full-throttle thriller for neutrals nonetheless.
Equally thrilling for the boys is getting to announce that they’ll be headlining Slam Dunk 2026. Not just their first UK shows since an epic headline at Alexandra Palace in London on February 20, 2019, but their only scheduled European dates of this leg of the Motel Du Cap tour, the performances in Hatfield and Leeds will be a chance to reconnect with a fervent UK fanbase who’ve been waiting far too long.
Ruminating on how they’ll be making up for lost time, Benji points us back to Joel’s words in their recent Kerrang! cover story: “We want to create experiences that people will remember. We’re not going to do 150 shows a year ever again. But if we do 30 or 40 or 50, we’re going to make every one of them matter. It’s about creating moments that touch people, to which they feel emotionally connected, moments which create memories which allow us to become part of their story.” So even hardcore fans should strap in for the kind of events we’ve never seen before…
Hey Benji, how does it feel to be coming back to Slam Dunk?
“It’s been a minute! We haven’t gotten to play the UK in a long time – seven years, I think, since we did Ally Pally. So we’re just really excited. And getting to do it at Slam Dunk is the ideal way to come back and kick things off again. As we’ve said already, we’re starting our new chapter so we’re going to be bringing something really special to these shows!”
Last time you played Slam Dunk, back in 2018, the festival felt like a launchpad for Generation Rx. Now it’s the first place UK fans will hear songs from Motel Du Cap. What draws you to it?
“Firstly, we love the folks at Slam Dunk. Beyond that, it covers all the bases when it come to different elements and variations within the [alternative] scene. You have pop-punk. You have the new school of hardcore. You have screamo and metalcore. It feels great to see all those facets to be acknowledged. And they do go hand-in-hand. As a fan, I could names from every different area that I love. Slam Dunk has always been about that variety since day one. We’re not doing a ton of shows. We’re trying to pick our moments and make them special. In terms of a way to do that while coming back to say ‘Hi!’ to everyone in the UK, there isn’t a stage much better than Slam Dunk. It’s very Good Charlotte!”
Indeed, there’s no such thing as ‘MDDN fest’, but if there were, it’d look something like this…
“It would be very similar, right?!”
These are the only European shows you’ve announced, too…
“I hope that fans travel in from other cities – and countries – to catch them. We’re going to bring it. We’ve had quite a career all over Europe, but the UK is where we launched it. Our first UK show at the Camden Barfly is a core memory for Good Charlotte. We have lots of core memories in the UK. That’s not lost on us. So when the conversation came up it felt organic that we would do these special shows at Slam Dunk before moving to any of our other plans.”
What are your memories from the last time you were in Leeds and Hatfield?
“Mostly, I just remember loving those shows start-to-finish. It had been a minute when we played those shows, too, and we were conscious that they had some of the biggest sing-alongs of our whole careers. That meant a lot to us. We played the hits, for sure, but we had also played a lot of songs that we loved from our different eras. This time, we’ll be going deep in the song selections again. We’re doing deep recon with fan groups and digging deep online to try to get a grasp of what songs people really want to hear. We’ve also been bringing back a few songs [for ourselves] that we haven’t played in a long time. If you ask any artist, they’ll tell you that there’s no better feeling than bringing back an album cut that they love and seeing the crowd singing it back as if it were a hit single. Those are such warm moments in shows. And those sorts of moments are the ones that UK audiences are great at giving us. Leaving the stage at that last Slam Dunk they made us so happy to be there. Those same moments make us so excited to come back!”
How have things gone since the release of Motel Du Cap?
“It’s been awesome! We’re about a month out since release and the key thing for us is that we’re still having the best time. I think that this might be the happiest we’ve ever been. A lot of that has to do with that we’re doing it our own way. To have the license to do it your own way necessitated a lot of maturing to get in the right headspace. Some people just have that maturity. Matt [M. Shadows] from Avenged Sevenfold has a born confidence where nothing knocks him off his stride. Sam Carter from Architects is another born killer. We’ve grown [into it]. We’ve gotten older and become dads and come back to the band out of pure love and enjoyment. I think fans can feel that. We’re finding creative ways to do all sorts of things where we enjoy them. Ultimately, that’s the most important thing: doing things we’re excited to do at a pace that’s enjoyable for us.”
Have you been surprised by any of the fan reactions?
“I’m not sure that anything surprised me. I think that even with songs that some fans might not ‘get’ there’s been an acceptance and a happiness to see us doing things that we love. That’s a healthy relationship. I don’t believe that fans really just want you to create based on what they want. They want to get to know you a little bit. They want to see you be inspired. The best thing between to come out of this record is that mutual enjoyment of us being ourselves.”
Writing a record full of bangers doesn’t hurt matters…
“We often do things that seem obvious, but people need to look a little deeper. Like Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous. It sounds like we’re talking about celebrities complaining, but there’s actually a much deeper meaning about needing, about poverty, about going, ‘Hey, if you don’t want it, I’ll take it!’ On this album, I Don’t Work Here Anymore is a great example of that. It sounds like we’re saying, ‘I quit!’ But we’re self-aware of [the guys we’ve become]. I was thinking about listening back to the rough mix of that song and how it got me choked up thinking about how far we’ve come. We love to make music where you could listen from a superficial standpoint, but there’s a deeper level that’s much more complex. As artists, you have to learn to be okay with people not getting it sometimes. But real core fans – listeners who go deep – appreciate it. It’s so satisfying when a listener goes deep, really sees you and tells you how it hit them. The UK fans are particularly great at that lyric-driven appreciation of songs. It feels good to be understood!”
Have you got plans for any specific Motel Du Cap production for your big Slammy D shows? We can imagine a big neon ‘NO VACANCIES’ sign and each of you emerging from a separate ‘room’…
“It’ll be different from any show we’ve ever done in the UK before. That’s for sure. As we wrap up 2025, we’ve got lots of time to really work on the creative. Musically, there will be a lot of new stuff but also plenty for those fans who’ve ben with us for years. And we’ll be bringing a full production. We’re having fun imagining new things for this tour. This show will be a one of one.”
Well, ‘two of two’, we guess. You’ve played some huge shows like I Wanna Be fest in Brazil, the New York State Fair and at Liv Golf in Chicago this summer. And Slam Dunk has grown into a behemoth in its own right. Are shows of that size something of a double-edged sword sometimes, especially when Motel Du Cap connects back to your earlier days in smaller rooms?
“The big shows are great. More people get to come to those, and if we’re not doing that many shows we’re cognisant of giving everyone who wants to the opportunity to come out and see us. Also, it’s very cool to bring a big production and have our visuals come to life. And those big, big sing-alongs are always hard to beat. But we will look for opportunities to do those smaller shows: underplays where we get to do a club or a theatre. In those environments, you do get to do more of the ‘live storyteller’ thing we love. Collectively, fans’ attention-spans at shows like that. I compare it to meeting fans outside of shows. If you’re the person signing autographs, it can be quite overwhelming, going out to see 100 people where you might get to 30 of them. You don’t want to let anyone down. On the other hand, if you meet someone on the street away from the show altogether, you might have a 20-minute conversation and really get to know that person. Being in the smaller venues when you can take your time and tell stories and bring songs back that might ‘lose the audience’ at a show to 40,000 people is more like meeting a fan on the street. We will try to play some shows like that [in the not so distant future]. But right now it’s all about Slam Dunk and creating memorable moments that those fans will never forget!”
Are there any plans for fringe events around Slam Dunk?
“We are going to do something specifically for the hardcore fans in London. I’ll say that I’ve got a studio set up where I’m going to be painting my ass off for the next couple of months. We’re working on something musical, something visual, something to bring with us to say ‘Thank you!’ to those hardcore fans who’ve been waiting for so long. Again, we want to make some memories!”
Finally, what else have you got planned going through the rest of 2025 and into 2026?
“We have a bunch of announcements coming. We have a few festivals left this year, then after that we’re gonna work on a few creative things. We’re having a lot of fun ideating on expanding this album. Plus, there’s something that we’ve kept in our ‘little jewellery box’ for a long time that we’re looking forward to getting out into the world. I think it will be an interesting next 12 months. Between all that and our families, there will be plenty to keep us busy!”
Good Charlotte will play Slam Dunk Festival at Hatfield Park on May 23 and Leeds Temple Newsam on May 24, 2026. Motel Du Cap is out now via Atlantic.
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