After a nonstop year of touring and making their sixth studio album, Canadian pop punk act Simple Plan just wrapped up their last tour of the year (or decade) here in Australia as part of Good Things Festival (our Melb coverage here) and their sideshows.

When Wall of Sound writer (and longtime SP fan) Tamara May spoke with the guys in Melbourne for our ‘Good People Doing Good Things‘ special podcast, the subject turned to collaborations and who the band’s favourite was over the two decades they’ve been together. Looking back, they’ve recorded some pretty memorable team-ups/duets including the likes of Mark Hoppus, Natasha Beddingfield, Alex Gaskarth, Joel Madden (Good Charlotte), We The Kings and State Champs, Jordan Pundik (New Found Glory), rappers Nelly and Sean Paul… the list goes on.

But drummer Chuck Comeau, upon reflection, brought it all the way back to the early days in 2002 and their debut album No Pads, No Helmets…Just Balls:

“If I had to narrow down the one collaboration that has meant the most to us and that made the biggest difference in our career and that has been the most special, to me it was probably the first album with Mark Hoppus from blink-182 being on ‘I’d Do Anything’. (It) changed everything for us in a big way… It’s the first song that ever reached radio and MTV and I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that he gave us that endorsement and he said ‘I’m one of the biggest rock stars in the world and I want to be on this unknown band’s new song’ and that just changed everything for us…”

It was really special to have a chance to have him on the record. Blink was our favourite band of all time, (they were) a big influence so it was gigantic – Chuck Comeau on

He’s right though, Simple Plan absolutely exploded internationally after the release of that debut album and if they believe Hoppus was to thank for that, then absolutely, it worked wonders teaming up with him at the time.

Chuck explained because of Mark’s kind gesture (teaming up with them), they’re now ‘paying it forward’ (so to say) with new bands that emerge and hit them up for a collaboration:

“When I look back and I think about it, it was such a game changer for us… I think that we try to do the same thing with younger bands, like if bands come up to us and ask us ‘hey can we be on this tour’ or ‘can you be on our song’ it’s kind of like you remember what people did for you and you try to do the same thing for them.”

“So I would say that was definitely for me the most consequential and the most special one” – Chuck Comeau on teaming up with Mark Hoppus

With the band finishing off their next album right now, Tam pushed about when their next Australian tour would be, to which guitarist Jeff Stinco replied with possibly a little teaser of what’s ahead for the band:

“We were here twice on the last record so why not make it happen again… Hint Hint you know! There’s a few anniversaries coming up as well you know so…”

Taking a look at what he could be alluding to, they were just here for the 15th Anniversary of No Pads, No Helmets… Just Balls back in 2018 so cross that one off. Still Not Getting Any… turns 16 in 2020, their self-titled album is 12 and Get Your Heart On will be 9 next year so the best bet would be a Still Not Getting Any Anniversary Tour considering the amount of time it’s been between release day and now + it’s the next album in chronological order OR they could just go against all of that and just celebrate 21 Years of Simple Plan with a big old party/tour after they hit the stage in support of their new album first…

Stay tuned for another big year from Simple Plan in 2020!

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