Joel Madden (Good Charlotte) Releases Statement About Adam "MCA" Yauch Death

Good Charlotte frontman Joel Madden has released a lengthy statement regarding the recent death of The Beastie Boys' Adam "MCA" Yauch. Madden has always been very vocal about how the group impacted his life growing up and were one of the main influences for Good Charlotte.

Check out the statement below.

"The Beastie Boys changed my life. As young guys growing up in a small town, and feeling like outsiders we had yet to find our heroes until they came a long. Where we grew up Sports ruled all and in high school if you weren’t good at those, you pretty much felt like a nobody. Pretty typical stuff, but at 14 that was our world and we were always looking for a place to fit in. I think everyone feels that way in HighSchool. Anyways, I’ll never forget when my older brother gave me Check Your head. I listened to that until the cassette tape broke, and was a Bboy fan for life. I went back and listened Learned Paul’s Boutique and License to ill from cover to cover so i could claim i was an OG fan even though those albums came out when i was 5 - 8 years old. I would claim Egg Raid on Mojo was my favorite song, trying to be way old school. We started buying every magazine article we could find, posters for our walls, t-shirsts, anything that said Beastie Boys really. We wanted to dress like them, talk like them, and we wanted to make music like them. Then came ill communications. Benj and I went to the record store the day that record came out and bought our Cd’s and i think a poster and t-shirt along with it. We Went home and spent the next 2 weeks listening to that album, sleeve in hand, looking at the pics, reading the linear notes, and learning all the words. We felt like true fans and we were proud of it. In 1995 came the ill communications tour. I’ll never forget getting up at 4am and getting a ride to the mall which, was about an hour away, getting in line with Benj at the record store, and buying those tickets. We had never been to a show before. Even standing in line for the tickets hearing all the other fans talk, most of them older than us, was so intimidating. They all look so cool to me. They had on all the right adidas and puma sneakers. They smoked and talked about shit i had no idea of. All kinds of music and style that we hadn’t been exposed to in our pretty strict Christian household. We got our tickets and counted down the days for that show. Our first live musical experience. After getting in trouble for sneaking out and buying the tickets, my mom eventually got over it and had decided to let us go to the show. My parents who were having trouble at the time, my dad had left and come back a few times and my mom and him were really trying to work it out, i think they saw this as an opportunity to try and bond with us, and relieve some of the stress i think they felt they were putting us through with the breakdown of their marriage. We took full advantage of that and had them get us there early the night of the show. The venue was The Patriot Center and we must have gotten there 2 hours early. They dropped us off, and we went to stand in line, again watching listening to all the other Beastie fans. It was a magical night. We finally got to our seats way up in the nosebleeds and sat quietly in awe of the whole thing. I’ll never forget that was the first place i smelled people smoking weed. We were pretty late bloomers and hadn’t seen a whole lot then so it was all surreal. First came Jon Spencer’s Blues Explosion then The roots. In between bands we got up and bought a t-shirt from each band and their Cd’s. Then Came the Beastie Boys onstage and they did their thing. I’ll never forget watching the show and sining along with Benj. We watched in awe. At a time in my life when everything was falling apart. I hated going to school, i hated going home. My brother Josh had left home already unable to deal with the family turmoil, i was scared without him, and I missed him. The Beastie boys opened my world up, gave me confidence and a reason to feel cool. They gave us a place to go. They made things a little easier to deal. From there We got into punk and hardcore, cause i read about how they started. i’ll never forget buying a Bad Brains t-shirt and album cause i saw MCA wearing it. We got into hip-hop. I skateboarded, and i basically just tried my best to be a Beastie Boy. The night we got home from that show, we decided we were were gonna learn how to play, and start our own band. I got a bass, and benj a guitar. I was stoked when i learned how to play Gratitude on the bass. Then In ‘96 Benj, myself and kid named Paul Thomas started our band called Good Charlotte. Our Goal was to play The Patriot Center like the Beastie Boys did. We eventually found our way around the music and got our line-up together, and started living & breathing the music. Benj and Myself cared about nothing else but trying to get signed. We always marked the Beasties as our biggest influence even tho our music was way more poppy and not much Beastie sounding at all, we really didn’t know the difference. We always just kind of wanted to be them.

16 years later here i am living in Los Angeles, making music, writing songs, producing records and living my dream with my Brothers. The dream that started after seeing the Beastie Boys that night, has afforded me a life i never believed i would have. In place where we felt no one believed, we really felt like the Beasties believed in us as much as we did them. We did end up playing The Patriot Center, And it was just as special as i thought it would be. Those dreams all started from watching MCA, Adrock, and Mike D.

I know this is long, and i would hate to come off as self indulgent or like i knew the man because i never did. I am a fan who is sad by the loss of one of my Favorite Artists. MCA you meant that much to us. You, Mike D and Adrock were our Heroes. You will always be remembered, loved, and celebrated. And Myself my brothers, and many many others will always be your fans.

Rest In Peace"