Benji Madden

Joel Madden has come a long way since his early days of Good Charlotte. He’s 31 years old, engaged to Nicole Richie and a father of two. Joel recently finished wrapping up his latest album which he co-wrote and produced with his identical twin Benji Madden for their rock Band Good Charlotte.

Joel took time away from his busy schedule to talk about his inspiration behind his latest album. He told Hollyscoop EXCLUSIVELY, “Our lives have been [lived] inwardly and obviously people don’t get to see a lot of it. It’s a roller coaster of being on tour, making records and living your life. And then for me, the last two years [have been about] slowing down and starting a family and really taking some time back for myself and doing what I want to do which is to have a family.”

Nicole Richie and Joel Madden Engaged to be Married!

He continued, “It’s been really good for me finding myself as a person and separating myself as a artist and as a person. You know you just live and you learn and you experience and it all kind of collects. These songs are a great example of it.”

One particular song on the album sticks out for Joel, and it’s all about his two kids. “There’s a Harlow song, its one I wrote for Harlow and Sparrow and it’s a really personal song for me. When you hear truth in a song its always nice. I think people are going to enjoy that.”

And speaking of the kids, Joel says they’ve really made a huge difference in his life and in his career, and that’s what makes him work so hard. "At the end of the day we try to work hard and be really appreciative that we have jobs especially in this time in America. We just feel very fortunate we go out there with a smile and luckily I have a really good support system.”

Nicole Richie: Wedding is Soon

And Joel definitely puts family first! He told us he won’t even be hitting the road this year because of the little ones at home. He said, “I don’t think we are on this tour. Harlow’s first year of her life she was on tour with me. She did do great—she’s a little entertainer. Right now they are a little too young to be living on the road and i feel like I don’t want that for them."

And since Joel and Nicole work on so many projects together, we wanted to know they would ever collaborate on music together! But Joel was quick to squash our idea, saying, “Me and Nicole absolutely we do not work together on anything. We barely know about each other’s work, but we support each other. We have a foundation--Benji and me and Nicole--we don’t work together, we never will, never going to happen."

The reason? "We prefer it," Joel explains. "We would fight. It's better we come home and we're like, 'How was work? It was great.' That's the best.”

Benji on the other hand, dug our idea. He joked, “Actually me and Nicole, we can form a male-female pop duo.”

We love the sarcasm, which definitely runs in the family, and comes across often on Joel's twitter posts. "Twitter is a double edge sword," he told us. "If you say something, everyone takes it and makes it this thing like 'You said this,’ and you're just being sarcastic."

And the key to their happiness is being able to laugh at themselves. Joel told us, "We can laugh at ourselves constantly cause when you think about it, everyone should laugh at themselves. Who is really that cool...not that many people."

We happen to think the Madden brothers are pretty cool, but that's just us!