Avenged Sevenfold's M. Shadows credits Good Charlotte with helping the band at a time when they most needed it. During a recent appearance on the Tuna on Toast With Stryker podcast, Shadows explained that the band's 2005 album, City Of Evil, had just been released to dismal reception. Good Charlotte's Joel and Benji Madden opted to take Avenged Sevenfold on MTV's TRL with them anyway to play the band's song “Bat Country,” which turned everything around for them.
Shadows said, “They (Good Charlotte) said, ‘We get to bring on an artist that we want,’ and they brought on Avenged Sevenfold. They played our video and it never left TRL after that. And it went all the way to No. 1. And then we ended up winning video music of the year (Best New Artist). It really was because Benji and Joel saw something, Good Charlotte saw something that no one else saw, and they took us on there and it had a mainstream audience. The video was killer, the song worked, and then all of a sudden everything just started going. It was like, here we go.”
Shadows also revealed that while Avenged Sevenfold's next album is almost done, they don't know when it will be released due to Covid and touring protocol with the ongoing pandemic. He said, “We’re just not willing to compromise on it. And at the end of the day, everyone needs to decide I’m ready to go support a record. We’re gonna release it when we want to release it. That’s the bottom line.”
