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["Perfect" by Simple Plan]
[Pierre, speaking English] What are you doing here?
[cameraman] What are you doing here?
I'm practicing.
[cameraman] Why do you guys need to practice?
Because we suck!
[crowd cheering]
[crowd chanting] Simple Plan! Simple Plan!
Simple Plan! Simple Plan!
[drums]
Simple Plan! Simple Plan!
[heartbeat pounding]
[guitar feedback]
[crowd cheering]
[Pierre] We are Simple Plan.
Everybody make some noise!
["I'd Do Anything" by Simple Plan]
[Jeff] Sometimes I feel like I accidentally got here.
I was angry back then. I didn't fit in.
My life just didn't make sense, and music was my escape.
[crowd screaming]
[Pierre] Have you ever seen a zombie movie?
[woman] They are the definition of brotherhood.
You love your brother,
but you wanna fucking strangle him sometimes.
This is Pierre, he's my friend.
Yeah, my friend. I'm Chuck.
Yeah, we're friends.
["I'd Do Anything" by Simple Plan continues]
[David] I was collecting all these rejection letters, like,
"Although you guys are good, it's not for us at this point."
Nothing was happening with the band,
and I went back to school, and then, boom!
Nothing came easy, I mean, they worked.
[Jeff] You think you know, but you have no idea.
[Chuck] What's going on?
[Nardwuar] Good guys, bad band!
[man 1] You guys are too pop for punk.
These guys are new, they're gonna have
to pay their dues.
["I'd Do Anything" by Simple Plan continues]
[man 2] Normally, the bands, they don't wanna work as hard.
But these guys did it.
[man 3] Sometimes, I wanna just shake them
and say like, "Just go and have fun."
[Jeff] We're leaving on tour. Once again.
[Avril Lavigne] We're really just kids being kids.
- Yeah!! - Yeah!!
[Jeff] I lost my mind when
we started being successful.
This is a private jet!
[Chuck] I'm a millionaire, now, 'cause of SP so. No, I'm not!
I sold a million records, though!
[Pierre] The mix of being naive,
and young, I wasn't processing
all that stuff a whole lot.
[both] This is huge!
[Pierre] Now put your hands up!
[Sébastien] I didn't really feel close to the guys,
I was living my own stuff. It was kind of like a shock.
[Mark McGrath] The second hardest thing in the world
in the music business is having a hit song.
The hardest thing is staying there.
[Pierre] We have had so much hate in this band.
I can't believe after 20 plus years,
we're still here doing this shit.
- 40 years from now, these guys
will still be out there kicking ass.
[Pierre] My mom asked me when I was six,
"What do you want to do in life?"
And I told her, "I wanna be a rock star."
And she's like, "Well, go be a rock star."
[crowd screaming]
[guitar riffs]
You guys remember this song?
Yeah, this song is called, "I'm Just A Kid".
Were you one of those kids
that was playing this song in your bedroom
at your parents' house?
And you were playing it over and over and over again?
And your parents said, "God damn, shut that shit off!"
[crowd cheering]
And then, you said something like,
"You don't understand.
You don't understand,
I love this song, I love this band."
[crowd cheering]
"This band is part of who I am."
And then, your mom or your dad would say something like,
"Oh don't worry, sweetie, it's just a phase,
it's just a phase".
[crowd cheering]
And then you said, "Mom, Dad, it was never a phase!"
["I'm Just a Kid" by Simple Plan]
[crowd singing along]
[soft piano music]
[speaking French] This right here,
that’s how the Simple Plan movie should start.
What do you think?
Rolling?
[cameraman, speaking English] Yes.
- The way that I was introduced
to Southern California pop-punk or punk rock
was definitely through skateboarding
and snowboarding movies.
[punk rock music]
There was bands on there
like The Offspring, and Bad Religion.
And I remember hearing that for the first time,
and going like, "Wow, this sounds so cool."
And it was also so fast, like,
"Dah-dah, dah-da-dah da-dah!"
And I was, I just was super excited by it,
I thought it was way different
and it just felt like,
"Wow, this is what I wanna listen to."
Everything about it was just magical to me.
[punk rock music]
[Chuck] When we were teenagers,
and like in the 94, 95, 96 era,
Montreal was the mecca of punk rock.
It's the weirdest thing, I don't know why.
Punk rock bands on Fat Records and Epitaph
were rock stars here.
Growing up and being fans of that music in Montreal,
it was the perfect place at the perfect time.
Sometimes, there were so many shows, my parents
wouldn't let me go to like,
there was Bad Religion on Wednesday,
and there was like, Good Riddance on Friday night,
and then Strung Out was playing on Saturday night, it was crazy.
[cameraman] So what was it that really drew you to music?
[Chuck] I think we went to see NOFX, it was probably our
first real punk rock show.
And I think the one thing that was really cool for me
was that, it wasn't like the band was
different than the kids, it felt like, it was almost like you,
I could've been on stage. You know what I mean?
[speaking French] I've lost all other identity
I may have had; I’m Chuck's dad.
Charles came in one morning, it was his birthday,
and he said: "I found a drum set."
I told my wife Françoise: "Don't worry, it's just a phase.
In a few weeks, he'll be done with it."
But I was very wrong. Because...
["Grow Up" by Simple Plan]
The day the drum set arrived, the friends also came with it.
Then came the guitars,
and a few days later, they were making music.
[speaking English] When did we figure out
he would be on a different path?
He just, music was an important part of his life,
and he started writing at a very young age.
["Grow Up" by Simple Plan continues]
[Pierre] I knew how to play a bit of guitar,
my brother played guitar, my dad played guitar.
But it really began when I started going
to Chuck's parents' basement to play there.
[in French] The first time I met Pierre,
he showed up with orange hair.
I was slightly worried.
"Who’s this new friend?"
[in English] My teacher at school recommended like,
"You guys should start a band, play at the talent show
at the lunch period.
We were like, "Yeah.
We should be in a band together."
[heavy rock music]
[in French] Come on, what is that?
[in English] That gave us, sort of like that little bug of like,
"Wow, that was really fun, that was cool to have people,
people watching."
[punk rock music]
- I remember him telling me one day,
"I can't write love songs, I'm 16 years old!"
[Pierre] Let's get ready to rumble!
Reset was kind of like learning the ropes.
I remember playing my first show my parents came to,
there was maybe 50 people there,
and we were terrible. I swore a lot on stage,
I screamed, my back was to the audience, and I was just,
"Yeah, yeah!" And I walked off stage,
and my mom was like, "Oh, that was so bad.
Why are you screaming so much?"
And I was, "I don't care, that's who I am."
[punk rock music]
- The songs, I must say, were... not so great.
They were just very wild, aggressive.
[Pierre] That's what punk rock is,
it's just giving you this confidence,
even though you might not necessarily
have that much to be confident about.
You're just like, "This is me, It's unapologetic.
Take it or leave it, I don't care."
I guess I was a counter-culture kind of kid.
Being in a band in Montreal that had a bit of notoriety,
it was really fulfilling, and it made me feel cool.
[crowd cheering]
[crew speaking indistinctly]
Yeah.
I first met the guys from Simple Plan
when they were in their former band called Reset.
Blink was touring, and we were kind,
we were still a baby band,
and we were kind of getting popular
in south... Southern California.
And then we were on tour, and we stopped
at, uh, French Canada, in Quebec.
- And we got invited to play on this mini tour,
Sno-Jam.
And this band called Blink 182 was on it.
We ended up talking to them, just because we were
on that tour as well. And when they came on stage,
all the girls lost their minds!
Like it was,
something was like, you could feel
the energy shifted. They really had a buzz going on.
[Mark Hoppus] Reset were a lot younger than we were,
so I always felt like they were younger brothers.
Like, Chuck was always like my younger brother
who I felt like I needed to watch out for.
But I also treated him like a younger brother,
and when he talked about his band and stuff,
I was like, "Yeah, cool bud. Cool.
Give it up, keep your chin up, kid!"
And he was always just this kid that came to all the shows,
and was a big supporter,
and was always hyping up his own band.
[director] Back in the Reset days, you kicked him out?
Yup, uh, we did.
[soft music]
[Pierre] We started this band when we were like 14 years old.
And by the time we were 18, we were on tour across Canada,
with MXPX, in tight quarters.
You're sleeping sometimes in people's houses,
sometimes in your own van.
["Friend" by Reset]
It was a lot for a bunch of kids that didn't really know
how to appreciate each other,
and how to give each other some space.
And our personalities just started to clash.
I remember having a conversation with my guitar player, Phil,
and I think we were in a hotel room.
And we were talking about Chuck,
and Chuck happened to be just outside.
[Chuck] And the door was closed, but I could hear them talk.
"Fuck Chuck, we don't need him anymore,
we're gonna be better off without him."
And I just sat there for 40 minutes,
while they made a whole plan about
kicking me out of the band.
And that they didn't,
that I was a pain in the ass, that we're always fighting,
and he's not that good anyways, and bla, bla, bla.
And um,
I remember, I finally, I walked in, it's like,
"Yeah, you don't have to kick me out, I quit."
You know? That was my baby, I cared so much, right?
And to have it ripped away from me was so painful.
I mean, it's a life-defining event for me.
[Pierre] I feel really bad about that conversation.
But I think Chuck's personality, with my personality,
needed that breakup for both of us to, uh,
mature a bit, and understand a little bit more
about life in a band, and what it means to...
compromise and sacrifice for the greater good.
[Jeff] We're high school buddies.
I was playing with Sébastien's brother
in other bands, and we were very young.
The guys were 13, I was 14,
and we learned how to play music,
you know, alongside.
My mom bought me a guitar in sixth grade,
and I saw Hendrix on TV, and I thought it was a cool--
He was burning the guitar, he was not even like playing it.
But I thought it was a powerful image.
And it was like, I wanna do this too.
I was angry back then. I was like, I didn't fit in,
I just didn't really understand the world.
I couldn't get a girlfriend. My life just didn't make sense.
And music was my escape.
When I heard that Chuck had been kicked out of Reset,
I let him chill a little bit, because I knew it was
hard for him to swallow, but I called him up,
and I asked him if he was ready to start a new band.
And he was like, "No, absolutely not!"
He had stopped music, and went to law school.
And I thought it was a shame. Chuck underplays
his abilities as a drummer.
He's such a great performer,
powerful drummer. I valued that.
And I bugged him quite a long time
before he actually accepted to play with me.
We just basically started jamming the two of us.
And then I got Chuck motivated again to be in a band.
- Jeff is intense. - Rawr!
[Chuck] He has mellowed out a lot over the years,
but when we first met,
we would argue a lot, he was very passionate
and, a lot of time, he would be like,
"Fuck this, I'm leaving. I quit."
We would have to go and calm him down,
it's like, "C'mon, Jeff, come back."
As far as like, being a musician,
he was way, way ahead of all of us.
He had just finished like, classical guitar
at the Conservatory in Montreal, like he had an actual
diploma in music, which we absolutely did not.
It was just me and Jeff, and uh,
we were looking for guitar players.
And then, Jeff's friend was like, "Just try my brother."
But he was two years younger than me,
and three years younger than Jeff,
and he had like, a little bit of a,
at the time,
it didn't feel like he was the coolest dude around.
Reluctantly, we said, "Okay, we'll give him a shot."
[punk rock music]
- And I was probably 13... 12 or 13
is when I picked up the guitar.
It was sort of musical in the house.
My brother showed me a couple of chords, and that was it.
And I was just like, "Okay, I'm playing guitar."
[Bob] How did you pick up the guitar? I mean...
[Sébastien] I videotaped a Green Day show on TV,
and I was just watching it and watching it,
and did the same thing he did
with my fingers, and I, that's how I went out--
[Bob] You figured out how to play guitar
- watching a Green Day video? - Yes.
- You rock, dude. - Thank you, Bob Rock!
My first memory is probably coming down the stairs
at Chuck's parents',
going into the basement,
and I knew that this is where Reset was practicing before,
and it was just like, "Okay, this is a little intimidating,
but I can do this."
- He arrived with his guitar on his back,
in like a soft case, rollerblading, with like,
the Oakley sunglasses, and I was like,
this is not gonna work out. [laughing]
It's no way this guy's in our band.
And then, we started playing,
Yeah!
And man, like, he was great.
Like, he was so solid.
- Hello, caméra, my name is Seb,
and I come from Canada.
[Chuck] Okay, we have our guitar player now.
We knew the first thing we had to do
was to get a lead singer.
We tried so many singers.
And in my head, having been in a band
with Pierre, he was the bar.
[laughing]
[Jeff] It took about two, three years of playing
with a lot of musicians that didn't really work out.
Now, in hindsight, I know precisely why.
Chuck never really saw being in a band without Pierre.
I kept thinking, like,
it should be Pierre.
He's the one.
He's the one that should be in the band.
So I had to step on, on my ego,
'cause we didn't talk for two years.
Like, we were best friends in the world,
- and then we hated each other. - What the fuck?
I bumped into Chuck, uh, a couple of years later
at a Sugar Ray concert.
[Chuck] So when I saw him, I was like, it's been two years,
like, that's kind of stupid here, like,
we should make amends.
- In hindsight, I think it was probably
his plan all along to get me to join his band.
- It wasn't just like, "I want to be friends again,"
it's like, "You should be in the band, you know?
"You should come and play with us."
[guitar riff]
[Sébastien] The first riff that I had brought to the band,
Pierre ran with it.
[Pierre] I used to drive a truck for my dad,
which would be like 14 hours in a day.
And I put it in the tape deck, I listened to it,
and listened to it, and listened to it.
And then I came up with the chorus for
"I'd Do Anything".
[humming melody]
Oh yeah, like, I'd do anything.
["I'd Do Anything" by Simple Plan]
What I was inspired by was writing songs
about positive things, like falling in love with someone,
because in Reset, there was not one song about girls.
It was like about politics, and so for me
to write a love song was like,
wow, that's so refreshing. And I don't know
how I came up with it, but it just kind of came out.
[Chuck] He sang it, and I was like,
"That's it, we got it."
And that was our first song.
Pretty much, the only song we jammed for the next month
afterwards, you know?
And that's how we became a band.
["I'd Do Anything" by Simple Plan ends]
[crowd cheering]
[in French] Thank you for being here for our first show ever!
- Very glad you’re here! - Our first-ever show!
[crowd cheering]
[Pierre, in English] We are Simple Plan.
[in French] Everybody, make some noise!
[crowd cheering]
[drum beat]
[guitar riff]
[crowd cheering]
Oof!
- When your first album came out,
I was 7 years old. Music wasn't a part of my life then.
It all started with I'd Do Anything.
I swear! I remember the feeling I had,
sitting in the back seat of the car.
I never liked music before that.
My dad couldn't stand hearing you anymore.
Nice!
Alright, thanks so much.
- I still have the CD my dad burned for me when I was 14.
I still play it in my fucking car.
- I love it when you meet people who go:
"I'm not a fan of Simple Plan, but I fucking loved Reset."
[in English] Thanks for letting me know, bro!
[in French] That's a small? A medium, then.
Do you want a poutine?
A classic?
Two medium classic poutines, please.
[in English] Nothing like an after-show poutine.
That's when you know you're in your hometown, Quebec.
[in French] To be honest,
all my life, I heard your songs...
and I thought you were American.
I don't have an accent
because I learned French and English at the same time.
Are you Québécois?
- Yes. My mom is anglophone and my dad is francophone.
- I'm touched that you're Québécois.
- Good night. - Take care.
Thanks for the kind words.
[Patrick, in English] Stick around,
we got a great show.
Simple Plan is here.
This is Patrick's new look.
- How you doing? - How you doing?
My name is Patrick Langlois,
uh, friends with Simple Plan for over 30 years.
I think I was their very first fan.
I was definitely their very first employee.
Patrick, they want a CD.
- For you, Seb. I've been waiting for you.
And we had met this guy Pat,
he became like my best friend, we bonded
over our love for punk rock and Blink.
- Pat was the ever-going funny guy,
so sure of himself, really annoying!
- The fan-proclaimed sixth member of the band.
[girl 1] It's not Simple Plan, it's--
[girls] Pat and the band!
[Jeff] He took way too much space,
did not know when to stop.
[crowd cheering]
But it brought a lot of balance, Pat was important.
We were not great
at stopping and enjoying the moment, you know?
Pat was definitely great at that.
[Patrick] I had a video camera. As you can probably see
by these archives, I learned by myself.
[screaming, laughing]
I am Jeff's brother, believe it or not.
All of the best moments of my life,
I lived with these guys.
I got to live what it's like being in a band,
without having learned a single note of music.
[singing]
Pierre in Simple Plan, the first shows, he was playing bass.
And I think that they knew that they wanted
Pierre to just have a bit more liberty on stage.
[singing]
They wanted vocal harmonies as well.
And they're in need of a new singer,
they find this guy David from Matane.
[crowd cheering]
[Jeff] He's a super great musician,
played drums, bass, guitar.
He kicked my ass at guitar, I was so frustrated back then.
[Patrick] David could sing, David could play bass, and so
that just made it the perfect storm to add David to the mix.
[David] These are the days of our lives.
[drum beat]
[Sébastien] We all, you know, got our money together,
we went to an awesome little studio in Montreal,
and we made a demo.
And printed as many as we could afford,
and then we FedExed them to the Yellow Pages of rock.
[Jeff, in French] 522-****.
[in English] It was a book with every single major label.
It had all the management companies, the agents.
Their addresses were listed, and their phone numbers
were listed.
So, it was like, well,
I'm gonna harass every single person
in that book!
We have this band called Simple Plan, they're awesome!
You have to hear them. I was collecting
all these rejection letters, like,
"You guys are good,
it's not for us at this point."
I had a nice big collection of those.
[Sébastien] And that lasted, probably like a year,
or a year and a half.
Because six months later, nothing was happening
with the band. And I went back to school
for like a couple of classes, just to, you know,
say that I wasn't just sitting on my couch doing nothing.
[Chuck] I'd just dropped out of school,
and my parents were like "You're not gonna sleep
until noon and do nothing all day,
"You're gonna work, you're gonna be proactive about this band."
So, every day, I would wake up and I would do that.
I'm committed to this band, 100%. I will do anything...
to bring it to the top of the charts,
top of the pop, motherfuckers!
[guitar riffs] [Pierre] Melbourne, Australia!
[crowd cheering] Jump!
[guitar riffs and drums]
Get the fuck up!
- Uh, just starting to walk now.
Who's locking all these doors?
["Jump" by Simple Plan]
[cheering]
[cheering, whistling]
[Patrick] Eric, you're looking good today.
Thank you.
[Patrick] Why don't you give us your best camera face?
Is that it?
- Someone kept calling the office saying,
"I'm the manager for Simple Plan,
my name is Charles.
I really think that this band is something special,
but we need help outside of Quebec,
and can you listen to our music? You know, it's pop-punk."
And, dude, I don't like pop-punk.
I said, why don't we do this. Invite these guys
to come to Toronto, they're gonna probably suck,
and then I can tell them to go home
and they'll stop bugging us and everything,
and we can carry on with our lives.
["Addicted" by Simple Plan]
[Eric] And they set up. I'm sure my face was like this.
Like...
And then they started playing,
and I'm like, looking around, like...
Fuck, these guys are good.
["Addicted" by Simple Plan continues]
Everything that you see on stage now was going on.
Two minutes, changed my mind completely.
Whoo!
[applause]
[Eric] And then I said to them like,
"Hey, where is this manager,
like, I only see band guys.
Chuck puts his hand up.
He goes, "I figured that if I called the office,
I would get some respect if I said I was the manager
instead of the drummer."
And I instantly liked Chuck.
[Chuck] So we're like maybe a year, year and a half
into the band. For us, in our heads,
it's been a long time. We've been working hard
at this thing, and we're a bit desperate
for something, for the next step to happen.
And we were still missing the record label part.
And Eric Lawrence had a really good relationship
with Sony Canada. We played for them,
we showed them our songs.
And they were really interested.
So finally, they're like,
"This is it, we're gonna sign you guys."
So they're drawing up the contracts and everything.
And then out of nowhere,
Sony Canada's president gets fired.
And this new person comes in, and she's like,
"I'm not feeling that band. I don't like it,
I'm not signing you guys."
And that was a huge blow
for the band and for me personally,
'cause I was trying to tell my parents,
"Hey, it's happening, look I told you,
like, it was a good idea to drop out of school,
like, this is gonna work." And then, boom, like,
a huge slap in the face,
like, we're not getting signed anymore.
[soft music]
Out of nowhere,
Patrick got a job at Aquarius Records,
as an intern, or something like that, and he calls me up,
and he's like, "Dude, you're not gonna believe what's happening."
[Patrick] Andy Karp from Atlantic Records was gonna
be coming into town to see another band
that was signed to the record label I worked with.
We organized kind of a secret show
to make sure that Andy could go see them.
[in French] Patrick's been pretty useless up until now.
[Chuck, in English] The problem for us was that,
it was four days out.
- We basically had to call every single bar in Montreal
to find a spot.
- We had nowhere to play, we had nothing.
- Didn't have an audience, right?
Uh, so we called up all our friends and told them,
two dollar beers. Let's go!
- Say whoa! - [woman] Woo!
Okay, this one's called "Anything".
It's an old song.
It's pretty rocking. If you wanna dance,
you come on down, you dance with me, you ready?
Chuck?
- [Chuck] I'm fucking ready, man!
[guitar riff]
And at the time, it felt desperate.
It felt like, if this doesn't work,
maybe this is it, it's not gonna work for us,
it's not meant to be.
[Jeff] And we were playing the same songs over and over,
stopping, drinking with them, mingling,
but we had someone at the door,
waiting for Andy Karp to come in.
[Patrick] I was at dinner with Andy Karp, under disguise,
'cause I'm working for the other record label,
and I'm texting Chuck, we're still at dinner.
You need to push the showcase back.
[Chuck] The owner's like,
"It's 10:30, get on stage. What are you doing?"
["I'd Do Anything" by Simple Plan]
And then this guy finally walks into the door.
We gave it everything we had.
[Jeff] Everybody was hammered.
We had handed out lyrics sheets
to everybody, so everybody knew the lyrics to the songs.
And it looked like the craziest show you could ever imagine.
It was all our friends.
[Chuck] We played our hearts out. Like,
it felt like it was the last chance.
["I'd Do Anything" by Simple Plan ends]
[crowd cheering]
After the show,
we sat down and he asked us all these questions,
like what's your vision for the band,
what kind of record do you want to make?
He's like, thank you so much, guys,
appreciated it, thanks for the time.
And the next day at the airport,
he called Rob, and he says like,
"Let's make a record. I'm signing Simple Plan."
[laughing] Sorry,
I'm getting emotional to think about it,
but yeah.
- [woman] You can have a seat. - Thank you.
- You're welcome.
[in French] I'm a municipal lawyer in Québec.
[in English] We're signing a contract!
[André, in French] I read his contract...
I didn't understand much.
But one thing struck me:
"The territory: the world."
[in English] It worked, you know?
And I think it worked because
it was coming from our hearts, you know?
And it was real.
And he could feel it.
And he said, like, "When I sign bands,
I sign bands that I feel
could be somebody's favorite band.
[crowd cheering]
Could this band's poster be in somebody's room?
[Louise] They got their contract and he was 21 years old
and that was it.
[punk rock music]
[Jason Flom] Atlantic Records, you want the best,
you deserve the best.
Those guys weren't available tonight, so instead,
we're gonna have Simple Plan! Give it up!
[applause]
[Patrick] That's a fucking money shot!
That's right, that's what I'm talking about.
All of a sudden, we were making an album!
- I'm here in Toronto, where Simple Plan are recording
their debut record. How have you been, bro? Okay!
They've got a big-screen TV. There's Chuck,
he's on the computer. Oh my God,
they got a kitchen here.
[Sébastien] So this is Chuck going to bed right now.
- Normally, the bands, they don't want
to work as hard. But these guys did.
[Sébastien] What's wrong with you?
- What the fuck are you looking at?
[guitar intro]
[Jeff] Fuck. Let's do it again.
One more.
Let's do it again.
I'm getting there!
Most challenging musical experience of my life, for sure.
- Hey not so Simple Plan, I'll be back in a few minutes.
[Patrick] Alright, see you later.
[Chuck] Alright.
Making the first record,
it was like playing tug of war
with Arnold Lanni, the producer.
We always had an opinion about how something should sound,
how we should record it, and he was always saying,
"No, let's do it this way instead."
And it was really hard for a young band
to always feel like it was us against him.
Okay, enough of this shit, let's go.
[Chuck] We wanted to be a Warped Tour band,
and Arnold, he wanted to turn us into
like, this quirky, power pop band.
[Arnold] I think they came into it with the right attitude,
but they underestimated
just how much I was gonna kick their ass.
Now, 25 years later,
I feel like the approach could have been different.
[maniacal laughter]
[Chuck] We were going a little crazy.
We would work all day,
and he would come in and listen to something,
"I don't like it, do it again."
["The Worst Day Ever" by Simple Plan]
- Do it again, do it again, do it again.
[Chuck] We'd be like, ah, fucking Arnold, he's crazy.
Why does he want us to do that?
I've been here for six months.
[Patrick] How many takes did you guys do yesterday?
- Eight thousand. And now we're realizing that they all suck.
- I put them up in my studio. - This is what Simple Plan
does in the studio. Look at this.
- No, it's not! - It was like a frat house.
- We're just a bunch of lonely guys in here!
[Arnold] Party until three in the morning, go to sleep,
and then wake up and start it again.
- [Patrick] How's it going? - Good.
They're all still asleep.
Every day.
["One Day" by Simple Plan]
[Pierre] Woo!
Dude, we must have re-recorded that album
20 times? Maybe more.
Looking back, I think that might have created some of the magic
of what that first record is.
- The way we care about harmony, uh,
the way we care about melody.
That stems from working with Arnold.
- I don't remember the first time that I heard
"I'd Do Anything",
but it was far beyond
what they had been doing in Reset.
And so from the beginning, I was like,
that song has something special about
it, keep doing that.
- I'm sitting in my parents' basement,
and I get this email.
"Hey Chuck, I've been listening
to your demo all day, and right now,
"I'd Do Anything" is my favorite song.
Let me know whatever I can do to help you guys out, I will.
I think I made a conference call with everyone,
reading them the email.
- I just thought that I was helping out my friends,
and it's kind of what people in punk rock did.
Like, that's what I love about the punk rock community
is that when a band gets some shine
and gets some light on them, they bring their friends.
And Simple Plan was one of the first bands
that I felt like I could help out.
[Pierre] What are we doing? [Chuck] Oh, we're going
to this place called Studio West.
We'll have Mark Hoppus,
from a small band called Blink 182,
sing on the record. It's gonna be wicked.
[Mark Hoppus] Chuck has said, "Oh, we're tracking this song,
and we'd love to have you on it."
And I was like, "Oh cool, yeah,
if you can get out here, uh, sure, I'll do it."
I kind of made it a little difficult,
and then he flew his ass out.
He showed up in San Diego and made it happen.
[Patrick] Chuck's about to call Mr. Hoppus--
[Chuck] Don't film me!
[Patrick] We are, we are in San Diego, yes, we are.
It was kind of like stepping into a world
that we so wanted to be a part of.
[Chuck, in French] I'm so stressed out.
- You? - Yeah.
["I'd Do Anything" by Simple Plan]
[Pierre, speaking English] How'd that feel for you?
[Mark Hoppus] Like a big shitburger.
[Pierre] Okay, so let's do it again.
[Mark Hoppus] They directed me how to sing it,
and so I sang it.
[Pierre] Follow the rhythm, go, "Put you in the past".
[singing]
Yeah, that's gonna sound good. We just gotta nail it.
[Chuck] And again, when I think about it now,
like, he had no reason to do this.
I think it changed everything for us.
["I'd Do Anything" by Simple Plan]
Then we had to make a music video,
and again, we had to ask for one more favor.
It's like, hey, you sang on the song, now,
would you be in the music video? [chuckling]
I feel like every time I call Mark, it's for like,
"Hey, could you help us?" I feel fucking terrible.
- Chuck was like, "Oh, we're doing the video
for 'I'd Do Anything', and uh, we want you to be in it."
And I was like, "Oh, I'm busy, I'm on tour."
And then, uh, I was like, "Oh, but you know,
we're playing a show in Cleveland,
maybe if you guys could get to Cleveland
and make it happen, we can do that."
And he got his ass to Cleveland!
With a fucking crew and everything.
- Gonna shoot a video today. This is where we shoot.
- And they're like, "Okay, the shoots tomorrow
at whatever it was, two o'clock in the afternoon."
And I was like, "What do you mean, tomorrow?
I'm in Cleveland." And they're like, "Yeah,
we got the crew and everything, it's all set up,
we got a location, you just have to be there."
And I was like, "Goddamnit! Okay, fine."
Showed up, and it actually turned out really cool,
but again, it's Chuck just taking the ball
and running with it.
["I'd Do Anything" by Simple Plan continues]
[Chuck] It was the seal of approval,
of the biggest band,
the most credible band in pop-punk.
[crew] Look at the camera.
[Pierre] Ohh!
Look at the camera, guys.
What the fuck!
This is Seb Lefebvre,
reporting for Simple Plan.com
- Revenge! - Almost died.
We almost died.
We're filming a movie right now.
[guitar riff]
[Jeff] It took forever.
Over a year to record that first album.
And we wanted to play shows. We were ready.
[Sébastien] As soon as we were done with the album,
and the mixes were done, and that the mastering was done,
we went on tour with Sugar Ray.
[in French] We're going to Chicago tomorrow
to play with Sugar Ray.
- A lot of people are counting on you
to put the Montreal punk rock scene on the map.
They'll be famous everywhere in North America!
[crowd cheering]
[in English] Hey, what's up, everybody? It's Mark McGrath,
from the band Sugar Ray, off the charts
but always in our hearts.
And the first time I ever heard about Simple Plan was from um,
our record label at the time. We were doing a college tour,
and I thought it would be perfect for them.
You know, young, teenage audiences,
I think this would be a good match.
[Pierre] I think it was a great way to kick it off.
We had just gotten signed, the record was coming out
a couple of weeks later.
So having this tour with Sugar Ray
was just like, this is good times.
[Sébastien] There was two legs to this tour,
it was three weeks and three weeks.
The first bit of it, we did in a Winnebago,
with Pierre's dad driving us.
["God Must Hate Me" by Simple Plan]
[in French] I’ll turn that off.
[Réal Bouvier, speaking English] Is nobody gonna save me?
[laughing]
[Simple Plan ringtone]
[in French] Sorry.
[director, in English] Is that your ringtone?
[in French] Yes!
[Pierre, speaking English] On our first tour,
I had told my parents we were gonna rent a van,
with a trailer in the back, and we're gonna be
driving, a lot of times through the night.
And my dad at the dinner table one day, he said like,
"Oh, I can drive you guys, you know."
And my mom was like, "Oh Réal,
you're not gonna drive these kids.
"You could never do it." And then, my dad's like...
[scoffs] "Of course, I could!"
[Réal] Rock and roll! [man] You ready to go?
[Réal] Yes sir! Let 'er go!
[Pierre] For the record, that's not my dad!
[laughter]
[in French] Hey, Pierre!
[Patrick, in English] We got Pierre's dad handling the map.
Where we're going, Peoria.
[Chuck] We cross the border, going into the United States
for the beginning of the tour, and in the front seat
is my dad driving.
And we pull up at two in the morning,
at the border crossing, my dad opens the window.
[Réal] Where are you going?
[in French] I'm going to Peoria, Illinois.
[in English] "And what are you going there for?"
- And my dad, super excited to be there, says,
"We're in a rock band!"
The customs officer looks at my dad in this big RV,
and he's like, "You know what? Just go ahead."
- Out here, first Sugar Ray date.
Perori, Peoria, Illinois.
[Patrick] That's our ride. And this is not.
[Pierre] It's called the automatic hair spikers.
[Patrick] Alright! Ready to play a show.
[Mark McGrath] They were like little puppies let out of an RV,
ready to take on the world and have their dream come true.
- First night of the Sugar Ray tour, I swear,
Simple Plan are gonna make it or break it.
- Break a leg. - We will.
[Pierre] Hey, what's up Peoria!
[crowd cheering]
[guitar riffs and drums]
We went on tour with Sugar Ray, and nobody knew who we were.
They're from Montreal, Canada.
Their record's coming out tomorrow,
and, you know, you couldn't meet
a cooler group of guys, man.
Give it up for Simple Plan.
- We're going to buy our record.
'Cause it came out today!
[Sébastien] I want one record today, one!
- We might not have it. What was the name of the album?
[Jeff] Uh, "No Pads, No Helmets, Just Balls." Simple Plan.
That's the name of the band.
[coughs]
Doesn't look too good, eh?
Gimme one second, okay?
[Patrick] If you guys don't have it, you're in trouble.
[Jeff] The album came out, it was such an underwhelming
moment, very anticlimactic.
It was not available.
It just wasn't going well at all.
[Chuck] "I'm Just A Kid" came out, and it's stiff.
It tanked so bad, like, no radio station played it.
[Pierre] I think we were realistic about it, we knew
the record was gonna come out, and it wasn't gonna be a hit
right away, we had to turn it into a hit.
I think getting a record deal and putting out a record,
that's the starting line.
[host] What is your simple plan?
- Where do you guys want to be? - [Pierre] Just more touring.
- We're leaving on tour, once again.
- That's right. - I have to drive this,
we're gonna die.
[Patrick] Very slowly, they had to,
to just keep pushing and keep working,
and nothing came easy.
And they worked, they worked.
[Jeff] We were just chasing opportunities.
So it was very all over the map,
we were travelling quite a bit.
And we would do promo tours, live shows.
It was very chaotic, not very organized.
- [beeping] - [Patrick] That's us
running out of gas.
Whatcha doing there?
[Sébastien] It was no plan, we would just grab whatever
was coming our way. Nobody knew us,
we were a brand new band, and we were starting to play
on a few radio stations here and there.
[Chuck] I remember, we were on the Pop Disaster tour,
which was Blink and Green Day.
[crowd cheering]
- I think they played in the parking lots.
- How's it going in the parking lot? Yeah!
[Chuck] Before people got into the venue,
they had built this little stage in the parking lot.
And we were the band playing there.
[Jeff] We actually were walking around with Discmen
and headphones, and we were playing music to anybody
who would listen, and invite them to the show.
And we would gather these pretty immense crowds,
from all that hustling throughout the day.
And it kind of created a buzz.
[punk rock music]
[Patrick] We were young kids in our twenties.
No kids, no wives,
girlfriends came and went.
Like, we'd go home and we couldn't wait
to go back on tour.
[Jeff] We basically were chasing
whatever was happening, you know?
So if someone wanted to have us
to play a show in Germany,
we would fly to Germany and play a show.
We're here in Hanover.
Simple Plan just took the stage,
I'm just gonna go check out what it's like inside.
["The Worst Day Ever" by Simple Plan]
The official headcount is about 12 people.
- You didn't film this, did you? [Patrick] Yeah.
Fuck!
[Patrick] And the relationships were great. We were friends,
and very quickly kind of all became brothers.
- This is Pat's favourite jelly. Shh!
["You Don't Mean Anything" by Simple Plan]
Mmph...
[laughter]
[Pierre] I think that being in a band
with four other guys is like probably the ultimate
test of your friendship.
[choking]
We're together 24 hours a day, we basically, you know,
sleep together.
We wash together. We, you know,
hang out together, eat together. We brush our teeth together,
and we're still having a great time, we still love it.
We're still best friends, they're my only friends.
I don't even have any other friends, so...
- It's just a bond that will never die.
But we travel in this cylinder with wheels.
Holy shit!
[punk rock music]
We've been on tour for about a year now. Everyday, nonstop,
we've been playing shows, and this has been our home.
[Pierre] Everywhere that we played a show,
we could see record sales have a little bump.
We'd sell a few hundred records in that city.
[Sébastien] This is where we're playing tonight.
[Pierre] Our record label would tell us,
keep doing that and keep doing that, and we did.
We kept doing it.
Thank you very much, you guys fucking rock!
[crowd cheering]
[Chuck] We just played our first show in Japan, like,
it was sold out tour.
The people are so nice, so friendly.
It was awesome, it was so different.
That was the first time that we really felt like rock stars.
For real, like Japan makes you feel like you're
the biggest band in the world, which is a good feeling!
[Patrick] Who's your favorite member?
- Jeff!! - Yeah!!
[screaming]
Ohh, thank you!
[cheering]
- We wanted to make music that we love,
but we were hoping that that music that we love
was gonna bring us into like,
the big stages and having
some commercial success and all that.
[Pierre] Uh-huh!
[guitar riffs and drums]
[Chuck] But we also knew that that was gonna come with,
you know, some backlash.
- Simple Plan was never cool, unfortunately.
We called them, what did we call them?
GGBB.
That was, "Good guys, bad band."
[Nardwuar] Good guys, bad band.
- Oh, maybe. - Good guys, bad band.
Have you encountered that, like, good guys, "Oh,
you're great guys", but bad band?
- Uh, it happened. - You know what, usually--
- You don't like us, do you? - Yes, I do like you!
- Cool, awesome. - What would this,
why, why would you think I would not like you?
- I was just asking, I wasn't sure.
[Leslie] It seemed like Simple Plan liked being liked.
It did appear formulaic, and it might have looked
like it was concocted.
- There was a lot of bands that made me feel like
we weren't enough or weren't good enough,
or the fact that we sounded different and more poppy,
I felt that they were looking at me like,
"Heh. Wow, that band sucks."
- "No Pads, No Helmets, Just Balls",
is the worst album title I have ever heard.
[laughing]
Who came up with that, the marketing department?
- There's always a big debate on what it means
to be punk rock.
- We just do what we love, and I mean, if it's punk,
if it's punk-pop, if it's punk, if it's emo, it's like,
it doesn't really matter. It's like, I think being punk,
one thing about that is just doing whatever you wanna do,
and not listen to what everybody else tells you to do.
- When we came out, we never said,
"We're a pop-punk band." That was a very media thing.
Okay, I guess we're a pop-punk band now. It was always
the press and the media would always put you in something.
- They pretty much called any band that got popular
pop-punk. Because, you know, popular punk.
But that's not what they meant by it,
they meant by this sound that is easy listening.
- We've been called everything from punk
to, to just rock, to terrible!
- [laughter] - Pop, pop-punk.
Courtney, Courtney Love said, "You guys are a great pop band."
- And that was the thing is it always made you
kind of shudder, because pop, the word pop
is like the antithesis to punk typically, right?
[Mark Hoppus] When it started bubbling up into popular culture
bands that were going from the underground,
and the underground labels, were actually being played
on the radio, and so there was
this whole backlash from the punk rock community
about, "Don't sell out our community
to these big corporations."
There was definitely this gatekeeping thing,
and it kind of was around the time that the Warped Tour
became really popular.
[Chuck] The Warped Tour really started with some of
the classic punk bands like Rancid, Bad Religion, NOFX.
[Mark Hoppus] The Warped Tour was such a huge part
of the punk rock community,
and also the punk rock community becoming so mainstream.
- It was different. It was community.
All the bands kind of, we were all in it together.
There was no hierarchy.
- If you came here to throw fucking dirt,
come back so we can kick your ass
and show you what real punk rock's about.
You came here to see bands, this is bullshit!
- Anybody that was vaguely pop,
was really bullied on that tour.
- Warped Tour will test you, they're like, those kind
of bands that have been around a while, that were on
the Warped Tour, they're gonna be standoffish at first,
'cause you're the new band on the block.
People that are precious about punk,
they'll shit on you if they don't feel
like you belong in that club.
["I'm Just A Kid" by Simple Plan]
[crowd cheering]
[Pierre speaking indistinctly]
Take care of yourselves.
That was fucking close!
See ya.
[Chuck] People started throwing bottles at us on stage.
At the end of the set, they had to bring brooms,
to like get rid of all the bottles.
Like, it was literally, like this high,
everywhere. And people were putting rocks in them,
and like, piss in them,
like it was, it was pretty brutal.
[Pierre] You guys ready? Let's do it!
[Sébastien] I definitely did try to focus on the people
in the front row that were having fun.
I just thought it was dumb.
You know, like, you're playing at big festivals,
there's like, I don't know, 30 bands.
And you decide to come watch the band you don't like?
Like, that's just... You're just an idiot.
[Chuck] I remember like, the message board at the time
and all that, like, it was like, "Man, these guys fucking suck."
"I hope they choke on broken glass."
I remember reading that, and going like, "Man, wow.
That is intense." It was hurtful.
[Jeff] You guys are too pop for punk.
It's always like, not enough, or, of something.
And I started believing people.
[Pierre] So we get faced with this choice.
We have an opening slot possibility with Avril Lavigne
on her first tour ever.
It's arenas, sold out,
and we could be the support band.
And we knew that if we would take the Avril Lavigne
opening slot, a lot of rock radios would just be like,
"We thought about maybe playing you,
but now we're not gonna, because now you're a pop band,
and we're not doing that.
So we had to decide, what do we wanna do?
Do we wanna keep chasing this dream of being
played by rock radio? Or do we wanna go open up
for Avril Lavigne in front of 25,000 people
every night, and hopefully gain some new fans
and see where that goes?
[Patrick] Do you fight to be in a club that you'll always
feel like you're not really a part of?
Or do you create your own path?
- My next guests will be on tour with Avril Lavigne
beginning April 15th,
they're here tonight performing a song
from their current CD, "No Pads, No Helmets,
Just Balls." Please welcome Simple Plan!
[crowd cheering]
["Addicted" by Simple Plan]
Hi!
Hey!
[in French] Hello!
How's it going?
Our albums are...
[in English] That sounded, so what?
Like, our albums came out at the exact same time, in 2002.
And I feel like we were both supporting each other.
It was really cool for me to bring another band
out on the road, and expose them to my fan base, and vice versa.
We were all living on tour buses,
just kids being kids.
Hanging out in each other's dressing rooms,
drinking beer and getting into some kind of trouble.
[Pierre] When we played that tour, pop radio really started
playing us. I think in some ways,
it's what made us into a "pop" pop-punk band,
instead of a "punk" pop-punk band.
- Simple Plan is not gonna be able to sign any autographs,
'cause there's too many people.
Move away from the door, they're not in there!
["Addicted" by Simple Plan]
- Just like Pierre quotes, we're back again,
it's 20 years later.
Sometimes it feels like nothing's changed!
[drum intro]
[Pierre] Come on!
Warped Tour 2003 was the year
where we were like, "Okay, we're a big band now."
It was the explosive year of Simple Plan.
[Sébastien] The fact that we went from the Avril tour
to Warped Tour is a good example of the type of band
we are, and wanted to be.
[Chuck] You were not supposed to be on both sides,
and we were trying to do that. In our minds, it made sense.
["Grow Up" by Simple Plan]
[Eric] We made a conscious effort to like,
let's get ourselves on Warped Tour
and keep aligning with those bands.
The bands that they love.
They kept adjusting and adjusting,
so there's no slow songs,
like, all like fast, fast, fast, fast, fast.
["Grow Up" by Simple Plan continues ]
And I think that was key
to the band, because they just kept
going back, and back, and back,
and people stopped throwing shit.
[Jeff] It was not a very linear path.
It was all like little steps, gradually, gradually, gradually.
The tipping point?
There were none.
It was a long process.
Thank you!
[crowd screaming]
[La La] Welcome to TRL!
We're live from Times Square. I'm Lala, this is D.
I'm Damien.
TRL could literally
send your album to number one.
You have to understand, we didn't have social media,
so you would rush home from school,
watch your favorite celebrities
on this live television show.
- MTV at the time was the pinnacle
of mainstream music success.
To get on TRL was a huge deal.
Every major band did.
- [Patrick] Operation MTV! - [Pierre] TRL, baby!
- Let's go check out the set, I'm nervous.
[Pierre] Hey, what's up? We're Simple Plan
from Montreal, Canada. It's time to go crazy!
[crowd cheering]
["I'd Do Anything" by Simple Plan ]
- That's when things started to completely change for us.
[Pierre] From then on, it was just like a whirlwind.
We got caught up in a crazy adventure.
["I'd Do Anything" by Simple Plan continues]
[Pierre] We're all over MTV, we're all over MuchMusic.
We're all over radio.
[Chuck] Montreal, TRL.
- There's probably a cut-out poster of us at Walmart.
- We are joined by le Simple Plan.
- It's a Canadian Simple Plan bonanza.
- It was so fast, it was a tornado.
[Pierre] When I look back at those years when we were on TRL,
and we were doing all these things, it feels a bit surreal.
- Our next guests have become fixtures on the Billboard chart.
- [in French] They're back from Japan.
- [in English] Please welcome Simple Plan.
- Simple Plan. - Simple Plan!
[Jeff] I was still broke. But we were selling
90,000 records a week!
[Pierre] That's right, Video Music Awards!
Apparently, I'm a nominee. I don't believe it, but hey!
[Patrick] It was always a "pinch me" moment.
"Yo, do you realize that P!nk knows who I am?"
- The Red Carpet at the MTV Awards was just nuts.
We started this band four years ago,
and never even knew where it was gonna take us.
With all those celebrities, I'm sitting there as a nominee,
it's like a big dream come true.
Thank you!
[crowd screaming]
[Jeff] And then, "Perfect" started playing on the radio,
which really changed our lives.
["Perfect" by Simple Plan]
[crowd singing along]
[Pierre] I started seeing the reaction of people
tearing up at the show, crying.
Seeing fans respond when that song came out,
I was like, "Okay, this is way more than just a good song,
this is, something's happening."
["Perfect" by Simple Plan continues]
[Chuck] We never had anyone cry when we played a show.
That was not the kind of music we were making.
All of a sudden, there was a new dimension to Simple Plan.
[banging on car]
Don't open the car, Dad!
[banging]
[laughing]
[screaming]
[Patrick] Do you like making records?
I love making records.
As soon as we figured that we were done
touring the first album,
we started writing the second album,
and as soon as we had enough songs that we liked,
we booked the studio and went right into it.
- We want the band to sound bigger, more rock.
♪ We have a simple plan ♪
♪ We got a simple plan ♪♪
[Sébastien] That's why we decided to record it
with Bob Rock, which had made fantastic albums.
- He made the Black album for Metallica.
Don't ever, ever
point that fucking thing at me again.
- Oh, don't! - [laughter]
[guitar riff]
That's better.
[Chuck] He has a studio in, on Maui.
Beautiful, on the beach, like, it's paradise.
After touring for almost three years
on "No Pads, No Helmets, Just Balls",
we were like, "Nah man."
Like, we wanna make the record at Studio Piccolo in Montreal!
["Shut Up" by Simple Plan]
We rented like, an apartment in downtown Montreal,
we would record all day and we would go out at night,
like all together as a band. It was the best summer ever.
["Shut Up" by Simple Plan continues]
- [song ends] - [Bob] Second half.
[Chuck] This is the most important record of our career.
It's not good enough, we need more songs,
it needs to be better. I was definitely pushing that
a lot on Pierre.
It keeps going, and going.
[Pierre] It's like a Dylan song.
Most songs for Simple Plan
start with an idea for a lyric.
Chuck has a lyric book, he writes a bunch of lyrics
or words, or a sentence
that will kind of kickstart everything
as a concept. And from there, we'll build on it together
and write everything else.
[Chuck] To me, it was just words on paper,
and then he would take it,
and he would magically turn it into a song.
- I think "Welcome To My Life" is one of
my favorite songs we've ever written.
["Welcome To My Life" by Simple Plan]
[Chuck] I remember thinking like, welcome to my life,
that's a cool line. And then Pierre came up
with an amazing way to sing those words.
Gave me goosebumps when he came up with it.
- When it was done, I remember us just being like,
"Holy shit, this is a really good song!"
["Welcome To My Life" by Simple Plan continues]
It stood the test of time. I can listen to it today,
and still feel the same way.
["Welcome To My Life" by Simple Plan plays live]
[crowd singing]
[crowd] Welcome to my life!
Hey!
[crowd cheering]
[Chuck] I remember, we looked at each other
and we said like, "We got it, that's it."
It's a new record.
[guitar riffs and drums]
This is a private jet,
and we are the coolest people in the world,
because we're in it!
We don't usually do this, but uh, it was urgent.
We have to go to New York City.
- Our record is coming out. - Kind of big deal.
Hi, we're in Times Square, New York City.
We're gonna go buy our record. Remember last time,
on the other DVD when we tried to buy our record
and they didn't have it? Well, hopefully,
this time, they have it.
[Patrick] There's a pretty solid jump between the first
and the second in that, things did blow up.
We got 3 million records sold,
and 3 million records sold is a big deal.
[Pierre] Yeah!
[crowd screaming]
[all screaming]
Oh my God! Oh my God!
[screaming]
[crowd chanting] Simple Plan!
Simple Plan!
[all screaming]
[sirens blaring]
[singing "Welcome To My Life" by Simple Plan]
[crowd singing in unison]
[screaming]
[Jeff] Felt like the Beatles there. Holy shit!
Thank you.
[in French] Please welcome Québec’s most popular band
in the world. Here is Simple Plan.
[singing "Crazy" by Simple Plan]
[crowd cheering]
[in English] Told you we were huge!
[fans screaming]
They're kind of the only band
from Montreal who are doing what they did.
Simple Plan had to leave Montreal to tour
around the world to break big.
[Jeff] Man, we were doing so well.
"Welcome To My Life" was huge.
It was on TV all the time, on the radio.
And we were playing pretty spectacular crowds.
[in French] Make some noise!
[Chuck, in English] We went to South Africa, we went to Brazil
for the first time.
- One more stamp in the passport.
[Chuck] Went back to Southeast Asia.
We toured nonstop.
["Shut Up" by Simple Plan]
[music stops]
[crowd singing in unison]
[music resumes]
[crowd chanting] Simple Plan! Simple Plan! Simple Plan!
[crowd screaming]
I love this!
[Jeff] Honestly, I lost my mind
when we started being successful.
I mean,
the rock world has always sort of...
valued, you know, crazy backstage stories.
[laughter]
It is quite irresponsible
from record labels not to have a support system
for their artists.
- Not gonna remember anything about it.
That's the way it goes.
[Pierre] The mix of being sort of immature,
being naive and young,
I didn't really realize what it is we were doing,
I was just kind of like going where I was told,
this was fun, these people are great,
there's fans outside.
I wasn't processing all that stuff a whole lot.
[Joel] There's something really magical about the size
of the pop star.
About the fantasy of the life they get to live.
And when you've gone into that, which certainly Simple Plan
have this pop success,
of course they're gonna come out of that
with some scars,
and they're gonna have to make sense of it.
And that can be a lifelong endeavor, 'cause the pop thing
can fuck you up.
It can leave you really desolate.
[man] Boss.
What time is the lobby call?
[woman] 6:15.
[in French] I'm fucking fed up, man. I need a break.
[Joel, in English] Do I wanna be as big as Elvis?
Well, if I have to die the way he did, I don't.
[piano music]
[Pierre] It's kind of a departure for us,
at the same time, it's still Simple Plan,
but it definitely is a new beginning.
[Jeff] The third record for me was just a disaster.
I don't know, like, I love the music,
I think it's great. But that moment in time
was really not a great time for me.
I was on the verge of getting separated.
When we were making that record,
I didn't really feel close to the guys,
I was living my own stuff.
[Chuck] Yeah, that was a bit of a tough time.
In the band's lives, there was a lot going on.
I was really in love with someone and it didn't work out,
and it really broke my heart.
[Pierre] We were coming off two very successful records,
and at this point, we didn't really know
exactly which way to go or what to do.
It's a darker record in a lot of ways.
My brother was going through cancer at the time,
and that was really hard.
- What was happening is that our style of music
was not on the radio anymore.
[hip-hop music]
People were into Justin Timberlake
and awesome R&B artists, not guitars.
Is this a shift we're taking musically?
Like, are we a band that suddenly tries
different things and incorporates that
into the music? Or, do we stick to our guns
and go all out on guitars?
[in French] The label spent so much on this album!
It must have cost them millions!
[Pierre, speaking English] Don't be a fucking asshole.
[Jeff] Fuck you! I'm not an asshole, you're--
[Pierre] You're so intense, it's just one chord!
- Thought Chuck had something to say.
- I'm not talking anymore. - [Pierre] Awesome.
[Chuck] It's your update.
[Pierre] Good news!
[guitar riff]
[Chuck] We thought it was gonna be the biggest thing
in the world. That didn't really happen.
[Jeff] You could see the attendance at the shows
was definitely going down.
Wow, we're still a band.
People still sort of care, it's good.
Single's going to the fucking toilet,
the radio situation is horrible
and it's hard to keep up. I'm pretty depressed.
[Jeff] When you're actually living your real, first big low,
holy shit, it's traumatic.
[Chuck] And when you start playing like five, six, seven
thousand people, that becomes your normal real quick.
If one night is not like that, you're like, "What's going on?"
[Sébastien] We were very tired. We decided to pause.
- I did not know if we could survive that one,
I wasn't sure.
[Pierre] As a singer, you have to be on top of your game.
And everything falls on you, in the sense that
if I can't perform, no one's coming.
I get really worried about not being able to...
be okay for the show.
I used to wake up in the mornings and I'd be like...
[clears throat] Oh my God. Oh my God.
My voice. And it's been a struggle for me,
because singing doesn't come naturally,
I wasn't born singing. I could never win American Idol,
I could never do that kind of stuff.
But I know that I'm good at what I do, but when I sing,
it's taxing on me. It's not comfortable.
I deal with anxiety, and maybe 12 years ago,
I had my first full-blown panic attack.
Didn't know what the hell was going on.
Sometimes like, when I'm on tour
I'll be pacing in my hotel room, and like after 20 minutes
of that, I have to remind myself, like,
"Bro. Put on some music and take some breaths."
And stop thinking about all this stuff I keep thinking.
And also the pressure of, people are coming to hear me
sing these songs, but how's my voice,
how's this, how's this? Like, I'm not helping myself.
I need to just relax.
[piano melody]
["Astronaut" by Simple Plan]
[crowd singing along]
[Pierre] When you're going through struggles,
feeling like nobody understands what you're going through,
and you're going through something so unique,
that nobody gets you, that's really hard.
And now I know, okay, I can handle the anxiety,
and if I prioritize my health in my downtime,
it's better for us in the long run.
It's a balancing act, and it's something that
I've learned over the years, you know.
To, when to put my foot down.
You know, because I know that,
you know, for this documentary,
you've probably realized that Chuck
is the driving force behind
so much of what we need to do.
And, Chuck doesn't have the same pressures that I have.
And it's counterintuitive for me to be like,
"I need this time for myself."
What? Oh, picture.
Always more content.
["The End" by Simple Plan]
Okay, what is going on here? Will Smith with another
"I'm Just A Kid" video challenge?
It's his fifth one, and this time,
with the Williams sisters?
Am I dreaming? Is this real life?
The "I'm Just A Kid" challenge is the greatest gift
that we could have ever received from social media.
- It's sort of like having a number one hit single,
after 25 years of being in a band.
- Alright, well I guess we're making TikToks now.
Oh my God!
[woman] Okay!
- What it takes to be an artist today,
you have to be an artist, a singer, an actor,
an athlete, and a model!
[laughter]
Sing a song about your dad!
♪ Welcome to... ♪♪
Because he's seeing the success of the social media,
it's pushing him to be like, "I'm fucking right,
let's do more, let's do more."
I'm okay with doing all this stuff,
you just have to explain to Chuck
that when you add things,
at some point you have to subtract other things.
[director] Walk and stop.
Okay, three, two, one.
We're in Brazil, of course we eat Biscoito.
Bolacha, dude?
[Jeff] They just still have certain parts of their dynamic
that they're bringing back from their teenage years.
- I don't have to do anything. I'm fine with it.
Tell me what you want me to say.
- We don't need pre-show with all this, we're that good.
- We had a pre-show argument!
[Jeff] They had a band,
Pierre threw Chuck out of the band,
that's some hurt right there.
And I'm not sure it's resolved
really after all these years.
It's always been that way.
["What If" by Simple Plan]
[in French] Seriously, man.
[in English] You know what? Maybe I'm wrong. Fine.
You just can't fucking let it go.
[crowd cheering]
They're always together.
[Jeff] It really is like a brotherly relationship
between those two.
[indistinct chatter]
- Chuck usually plays a lot better when he's pissed off.
[Chuck] Pierre's my best friend in the whole world,
and he's the only guy I played music with for my whole life.
I cherish that relationship a lot.
It's hard to be in a band with people you know
from your high school, because the dynamic
of teenage years sort of stays.
- My relationship with Chuck has been very difficult
on me, but it's also been the reason
why I have accomplished so much in my life.
Yeah sure, we get into some fights here and there,
but at the end of the day, we're family.
[laughter]
[Chuck] I don't care about this thing!
[Pierre] Easy now, easy now.
[Patrick] Forever, they will love each other,
but also they can also hate each other.
Might be the recipe for their success, right?
[Chuck] The coolest things I ever did in my life,
I did with Pierre.
[Pierre] That tug of war is what created Simple Plan,
and I don't wanna kick you out of the band,
you don't want to kick me out of the band,
we know this is forever.
Chuck, thank you for being my best friend.
Thank you for being my business partner.
Thank you for being my brother, I love you.
[in French] I love you.
[in English] I love you so much!
- I don't know if you know this, but...
we actually ran for school president,
me and him. And uh, we won.
Uh, I was the vice-president, he was the president.
'Cause I knew he was the,
he was the guy, right?
Maybe he has things that I wish I had that I don't.
You know?
But I saw it.
I saw it when I was like 14 years old.
[soft piano music]
♪ I knew it was you ♪♪
- [Pierre] Are you on a mission? - [Chuck] I'm on a mission
to kick your ass. [mocking]
- Whole thing. - The whole thing?
Go, go, go, go, go!
[both] Come on in.
[soft piano music]
[Pierre] It's not the end.
♪ Miss me when I'm gone ♪♪
[Chuck] After the third record,
we had a band meeting, and we said like,
"Hey, we gotta make this fun again."
Otherwise, like I can't do a tour like we just did.
We gotta get back to having fun on the road,
having fun as a band.
[crowd cheering]
["Jet Lag" by Simple Plan]
[crowd screaming]
[both] And I'm feeling like an astronaut!
- Hello. - Oh shit, it's Pierre Bouvier!
- Oh my God, let's take a picture.
- This is gonna be such a good concert,
- Can I, are they gonna see this?
- [cameraman] Probably! - Oh my God, yes!
So ringside, Summer Paradise,
such an underrated song.
["Summer Paradise" by Simple Plan]
[Chuck] The label was like, "Well, maybe we don't,
we're gonna drop these guys, they don't have hits
like they used to." And then all of a sudden, boom.
We're 10, 11 years into our career and all of a sudden,
we have a hot song again. It kind of saved our career
to have that song.
[director] So Sean Paul saved your life?
- Sean Paul saved my life. [laughter]
- Simple Plan, Sean Paul. Right now, sunset on the beach!
- Sean Paul and Simple Plan! - Hold on, Pierre!
Mad ting. Good, man!
[Pierre] So what song are we tracking today?
- Today is a very special song, it's called,
"This Song Saved My Life".
- We had this idea of reaching out to our fans and say,
"Hey, tell us how you feel about the band
and what these songs mean to you." And it was like,
brrr! All these cool ideas
and concepts for lyrics came up.
It was a song that was written with the help of our fans.
["This Song Saved My Life" by Simple Plan]
[crowd singing along]
[crowd cheering]
[Pierre] It's almost like a celebration of...
you understand me.
And when you can find a band, or an artist,
or something that makes you feel like,
"Oh my God, I'm not alone in this?"
That's magic.
[Jacoby Shaddix] In a world full of judgment,
what better thing to give somebody, right?
Through music, a place to feel part of.
That's good shit right there, for real.
[all] Simple Plan!
[Jeff] What year was it? It was 2005.
- 2005. [Jacoby] The first time I met
the boys in Simple Plan, I was in Germany,
out on festival season.
[yodeling]
[Pierre] What do you think of Simple Plan?
[Jacoby] Okay, all I gotta say is Ditka versus Simple Plan,
most definitely Simple Plan!
- Ohhh! - That's what I gotta say!
There's an authenticity that comes out of Simple Plan.
- You okay? - Yes!
[Jacoby] It's beautiful what they've done with their music
and being able to be inclusive, right?
And it's like, that's special.
Hi!
- Good to see you, buddy. Thank you.
[indistinct chatter]
[André, French] We had a PO box for Simple Plan's fan mail.
The post office would call me: "Mr. Comeau,
there's a lot of mail."
There were literally bags of letters.
That's when I realized
how much of an impact they were having on kids around the world.
[in English] "Your music comforted me
in the moments I needed..."
- I feel like listening to Simple Plan
has shaped me as a person so much.
I like keeping my feelings to myself.
By listening to the songs that talked about how I felt,
I felt heard.
- "This Song Saved My Life" just pieced together for me
everything that I've always felt about this band,
and everything that they mean to me
and they've done for me.
I don't think I would have gotten through that if it wasn't
for these guys.
- Life gets tough, you know what I'm saying?
It's like... I even, one of their songs,
"Nobody knows when I'm alone in the world",
you know what I'm saying? It's like, that feeling
of loneliness and like, putting yourself in this song,
and all of a sudden you feel part of.
You know what I mean?
- They're a cornerstone for a lot of people's growing up.
And Simple Plan helped propel
a generation of people
that might have felt misunderstood.
- I connected with feelings that I've felt before,
and I was a kid. I just wanted to hug them
and tell them, like, "You molded me.
You helped me through a lot."
- I've struggled with a lot of mental health issues,
so it's really meant a lot.
- You just kind of know that there's someone always with you.
- By hearing their songs, it just reminds me
that there's something for someone out there
to remind you that life is worth living.
- They have been with me since, all through my self-harm.
Oh yeah, I'll never forget like, the feeling
when I first found them.
I never thought I'd even be alive to see them.
[in French] As I read their mail,
there were quite a few letters
sad letters.
It led to the idea of setting up the Simple Plan Foundation.
That’s another thing Simple Plan has allowed me to embrace:
philanthropy.
[applause]
[host, in English] Ladies and gentlemen, the 2012 recipients
of the Alan Waters Humanitarian Award,
please welcome Simple Plan!
- We have a lot of thank-yous to say,
but I wanna say first off,
thank you to Chuck's parents.
[in French] We couldn't do this without you.
[in English] We had no idea how rewarding
and gratifying getting involved
and giving back would be.
Our foundation has become
an integral part of who we are as a band,
and as people,
and we're determined to keep it that way.
Aww, you got all the red ink on me!
[Chuck] It's pretty amazing how lucky we've been.
We were the kids in the crowd, and somehow,
we got on stage.
How you guys doing, you alright?
- [crowd] Yeah! - [Chuck] Want me to do it?
Yeah, 'cause I'm shaking!
[Chuck] I don't think we ever lost the connection,
or we ever forgot
what it's like to be a fan of a band.
Thanks for sharing that, appreciate it.
- Thank you. - Stay strong, huh?
- Thank you! - Okay, you got this.
It's her dream to meet you.
- [sobbing] - How you doing, you good?
Yeah!
What's going on?
- She's pregnant! - Don't cry,
I'm gonna start crying too!
What's that old deal about
being a rock star and not being able
to talk to people who come to see your shows?
I think it's just like very artificial,
and we don't buy into that.
[Chuck] To me, to go out and spend an hour,
an hour or two every show,
and sign and talk and get to know
who likes your band,
that's probably my favourite part
- of playing shows. - How are you?
- I feel like that's why they're so relatable
to so many different people,
is that they remind them of themselves.
I genuinely believe that these are the people
that they are, and they love what they're doing,
and they love their fans.
[screaming]
- Thank you, thank you very much!
- No way! I get to pick one? - Yeah!
- Nice, sweet! - Thank you so much!
- Thanks for coming out. Enjoy the show, alright?
- You're a fucking legend, man!
[Chuck] Take your time. Aww!
[indistinct chatter]
I'm going to cry!
[Jeff] You good?
[harmonica playing]
[Chuck] There. You alright, buddy?
Hey, we're in LA.
♪ Hey, we're in LA ♪
We're making our fifth record.
- ♪ We're making our fifth record ♪
And it's going really awesome.
♪ It's going pretty good ♪♪
[all] Ooh!
- [bongo drum] - It was sort of a throwback
to the very first album.
We're all just living at Chuck's house,
going to the studio every day.
I remember, specifically
writing the song "Boom".
It's one of my favorite songs.
["Boom" by Simple Plan]
That song relates to my relationship with my wife,
and how I feel like after all this time,
still crazy about you.
["Boom" by Simple Plan continues]
My kid loved the song too. Boom-boom-boom!
[crowd cheering]
We made it!
We're in LA, people.
- I was here last week! - [Sébastien] What's up, daddy?
- [Chuck] I'm the car. - Doot, doot, doot, doot.
- Good, good, good, good, good.
[in French] Will you come to the studio?
Yeah!
[pop punk music]
[Pierre, in English] Funny enough, I was a dishwasher
before I was in a band.
Harder than it looks!
[singing "The Antidote" by Simple Plan]
- We were tired, we were sick of being embarrassed
of sounding like Simple Plan,
or thinking that was a problem. And we just said,
"Fuck it, we're gonna embrace it."
And we're gonna make the most quintessential
Simple Plan record.
[Pierre] On this record, I think it was time for me
to step into that role,
in a place of confidence, where in the past,
I had always done it, but I felt like
I even myself just brushed it off.
Now, I've come to a place in my ability to be like,
"No, I'm producing this record."
[Sébastien] Let's do this on our own.
I think it's my favorite album that we've ever made.
[Jeff] And we had no idea what was coming up.
- Uh, one day in July, 2020, I got a call from Chuck.
And he says, "You and I need to talk about something,
we need to pay attention to something."
Something's going down, and it involves David.
SIMPLE PLAN'S BASSIST
QUITS THE BAND AMID ALLEGATIONS
- I mean, so many different emotions
went through my head.
[crowd screaming]
I was devastated.
It was really hard to accept.
It was like the biggest crisis that we've ever encountered.
- We had to make a decision at the time,
for him to step back from the band.
[Sébastien] I kind of understood rationally
what needed to happen,
and that made me very, very sad.
[Jeff] I had been touring
for the better part of my adult life with David.
You don't let go of 20 plus years of touring
without a lot of hurt.
[David, in French] Do you think it's safe?
[Pierre] Do it.
- Careful, Charles, I don't want to fall.
Go.
[Sébastien, in English] It was kind of like a trauma
for everybody,
and I think it was kind of like a shock.
And it made us want to be
the best version of ourselves,
and make sure that our shows
and everything that surrounds this band is a safe space.
[ambient music]
[birds chirping]
[clucking]
[children playing]
It's quite beautiful.
[Sébastien] We were always very serious about what the band was,
and what the band had to do, but not so much personally,
or as people.
[in French] I'll miss you a lot.
[Pierre, in English] It is very pretty, isn't it?
It's fun when people put a lot of resources
into creating something very magical.
When we first started the band,
we were married to each other,
in some weird way, and to the career.
And as we all developed lives on the outside,
when you have large responsibilities like children,
children are everything, and now I don't want to go
on tour as much 'cause I don't wanna be gone too much.
[indistinct chatter]
[in French] I always saw myself as someone who’s on tour.
I was in a band, on the road and sometimes I’d go home.
Now, I'm a husband and a father.
I love being at home. And sometimes, I go on tour.
Do you like being on tour? You like the pace?
- Yeah, you like it! - I love it!
I'm so happy you're here.
Being together makes it so much better.
Instead of video calls, you're here.
It changes everything.
[in English] Being a dad has inspired me to be
a better member of the band Simple Plan,
to be a harder working man,
and to just be better as a human, you know?
Appreciate it.
We went to being this little
band in the basement
to people getting to know us.
I was a really, really shy guy before,
now I'm just really shy.
You know?
I kind of always approached it, the band is famous.
I'm very incognito.
It still happens to this day that I'll be at a coffee shop
with Pierre, and people recognize him,
and I'm the one taking the picture!
It's like, they don't see it and that's okay,
like, it makes me laugh.
[soft piano music]
[Jeff] Chuck gave me a stat, he told me that we've played
234 shows over the last two years.
That's insane.
That's just crazy, like how do you manage personal lives?
We didn't, like, it was just impossible, it's very hard.
But family life, personal life,
being in a band, like, what a weird life that is.
We'd play those super crazy shows,
and we come back home, and we're stay-at-home dads.
[beeping]
[sighs]
- [in French] Hello! - Hi London, how's it going?
- Good. - Look.
Cute, right?
They're all photos of you.
[Chuck, in English] I think it's important for him,
you know, it's like,
"Hey, I'm thinking about you. Even if I'm not there,
you're always on my mind."
I love you.
And I call my dad and my mom every night.
[in French] I just got to the hotel,
just wanted to say good night.
[in English] When Simple Plan was starting up,
Chuck was definitely leaving something
a little more significant behind than I was,
because he was going to law school, so I think Chuck
was tapping into the fact that like, my parents
don't understand me, they don't understand
what I want to do.
[in French] The dream was so big
that it eclipsed everything else in his life.
[Chuck, in English] I wanna drop out, I wanna be in a rock band.
I get it. Like, in his world, it wasn't possible.
I think he didn't want me to fuck up my life.
[André, in French] Charles would come upstairs
to do his homework,
and he'd say: "I'm dropping out of school."
"No, Charles, you're not."
He explained that music couldn’t wait, it had to happen now.
I remember Sébastien wanting to study engineering.
Jeff was at the Classical Music Conservatory.
At home, I was the one encouraging them.
I felt slightly guilty towards the other parents.
He makes beautiful songs.
And the lyrics, they hit home...
not only for me, but for a lot of other people as well.
That's it.
[Pierre, in English] My dad is the biggest
Simple Plan fan ever.
My mom had to finally stop him
from laminating every single article
or things he would find.
There was a literal shrine of me
going up the hallway and the stairs.
[Jeff] I think about my dad during "Perfect",
and I wish he would have seen this whole thing unfold.
I kind of have a feeling that he's kind of there somewhere.
[in French] We have to nurture our kid's dreams
to see where those dreams will lead us.
[Chuck, in English] I definitely put
my parent's through the wringer.
It led to like, one of the most important songs we ever wrote.
[crowd cheering]
[acoustic guitar riff]
["Perfect" by Simple Plan]
[crowd singing in unison]
[all singing along]
[Pierre] Everybody make some noise!
["Perfect" by Simple Plan continues]
[song ends]
This is our first practice for the song called "Perfect",
and just as you can see, it's not perfect yet.
This is my basement,
we've been practicing here for 10 years,
and this band, probably three years.
And my parents hate it! [laughing]
- We gotta keep on working, so get out of here!
[Patrick] That's good for the end.
Let's keep on touring, though.
[tense string music]
[indistinct chatter]
[crowd cheering]
[crowd chanting] Simple Plan! Simple Plan!
Simple Plan! Simple Plan!
[guitar feedback]
[Pierre] We are so grateful to be here,
because there was a time
when we didn't know how to fit in.
And we found a home in this music,
in this music scene here.
[crowd cheering]
And I don't know, I don't know where you are from,
how long you had to travel to get here today,
but I can tell you one thing right here, right now.
All of you guys, all of us,
this is where we belong!
[crowd cheering]
So put your hands up!
["Where I Belong" by Simple Plan]
["Nothing Changes" by Simple Plan]