Joel Madden loves NZ, having been "lucky enough" to spend a lot of time here over Good Charlotte's decades-long career.

Still, it's been eight years since the band's last show in Aotearoa, so it's a good job I found time to teach him a thing or two about our little corner of the world before they take over the Auckland Domain early next year.

It's clear that Joel's excited to be a rockstar again after spending a lot of time focusing on being a dad and husband. Good Charlotte took a five-year hiatus in 2011, returning with two more records in the late 2010s. 

Things went quiet again when the pandemic hit, but in 2023, Joel's younger sister-in-law Sofia Richie asked if he, his twin brother Benji and the rest of Good Charlotte would reunite to play her wedding reception. 

The answer was a resounding 'yes', leading to the band playing a "supercharged, fun show" in the basement of Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in France, which then became the inspiration for a brand new album, 'Motel Du Cap'. 

Check out our full chat with Joel Madden below:

"We're all drinking and... we're like, 'You guys want to make a record?' And we're like, 'Yeah'," Joel explained.

"And then the next week, we called each other, and we were like, 'You guys serious?' And everyone's like, 'Yeah, let's go.'"

It was one of those rare drunken declarations no one regretted, and once the album was done, it made sense to schedule some shows. 

"We put a lot of effort into making this the best Good Charlotte show that we've ever done," said Joel, adding that the band "can't wait" to bring it to New Zealand. 

They'll also be bringing their wives - two of whom happen to be A-listers Nicole Richie and Cameron Diaz - and kids. It is a family band, after all. Joel said he had done a lot of the "touristy stuff" on his previous NZ trips, but was stoked to learn about Zorbing, which, when I said it out loud, did sound made up.

After kicking his kids down a hill in a giant plastic ball, Joel is looking forward to just "being there, enjoying the food and coffee and the chill vibe of staring out at the frickin' ocean". 

"It's really a beautiful, really nice place to be," he said.

Our chat soon turned into a crash course in Kiwi culture, with Joel noting down both Six60 and L.A.B as local bands to read up on - thank me later, lads - as well as trying out "Tūtira mai ngā iwi' as a foolproof way to get the crowd at The Domain screaming 'Aue!' back at them.

Having mastered the mana wave, Joel quickly saw an opportunity to jump on the double meaning of 'GC' as an acronym for both 'Good Charlotte' and 'good c**t', the latter being one of the highest compliments in the Kiwi vernacular.

"Well, now we gotta do a New Zealand only shirt!" he said.

As if you needed any more reason to get down to the Domain on February 27th next year. In the meantime, check out our Good Charlotte playlist here.