It’s official: Good Charlotte will be making their return to Australia very soon.
In a forthcoming interview with Rolling Stone AU/NZ in support of Motel Du Cap‘s release this Friday – the US band’s first album in seven years – frontman Joel Madden confirmed that they intend to hit Australia in early 2026 for arena shows around the country.
“We were trying to surprise dates this year, but it’s been too hard with something with the venues or something,” Madden revealed.
“I don’t know. It’s been too hard to get dates, whatever the complications have been this year, because we wanted to drop [the dates] around when the record comes. I think it’ll be arena shows, so it’s harder to move those things around. So I think we’re gonna come as quickly as we can at the top of ’26.
“That’s what we’re talking about right now.”
The trip would be Good Charlotte’s first run of Australia since they featured on the 2018 Download Festival line-up and if Madden’s comments are accurate, it would rule the band out of playing Good Things festival this year, which the line-up for is set to be revealed on Tuesday, August 12th.
Motel Du Cap will be the band’s first full length release since 2018’s Generation Rx. In 2020, Good Charlotte released the single “Last December.” Since then, band leaders and brothers Joel and Benji Madden have focused on various business ventures outside of music, including livestream platform Veeps, Joel’s Artist Friendly podcast, and an entire artist management company MDDN.
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Earlier this year, Good Charlotte seemingly began to tease the new project on social media when they shared a cryptic video featuring old clips from the band’s early days. “GC 2025,” the caption read. Since then, Good Charlotte have announced multiple festival appearances for 2025, including Ocean’s Calling and Aftershock. Last month, the band played at Welcome to Rockville for their first show since 2023.
The full interview with Madden will be published on the Rolling Stone AU/NZ this Friday.
