Advertisement

Busted's Charlie Simpson interview: 'I take credit for Ed Sheeran'

If you’ve been to the Year 3000, let us know if Busted are still playing.

You wouldn’t put it past Noughties trio James Bourne, Charlie Simpson and Matt Willis — who are still going strong 19 years on.

We strolled down memory lane with singer and guitarist Charlie.

If your house was falling into a sinkhole, what would you save?

Aged 16, I spent my first pay cheque after we signed our Busted contract on a silver Paul Reed Smith guitar. I’ve used it on every album I’ve ever recorded, so I’d save that.

Best celebrity fan?

I take credit for Ed Sheeran. His dad brought 12-year-old Ed to one of our gigs, and he said: “I’m going to do that one day, Dad.”

Career highlight?

Playing Glastonbury is on the bucket list as a musician. They had to shut the entire area down in 2018 because too many thousands of fans came to watch us. It was in one of the smaller tents.

What would you do with a time machine to the Noughties?

I look back at some of the outfits I wore and ask: “What on earth were you thinking?” I had a fringe in 2007 that looked like a mop on my head. When I dyed the front bleach-blond and left the rest natural, that was also horrendous.

What do you miss from the Noughties?

Blockbuster video. I miss trawling the aisles for the Shawshank Redemption DVDs. I can never watch that film enough.

Worst job you’ve worked?

Picking oats in a field at 5am aged 14 in Suffolk. I really wanted a motorbike, and this was my way of saving up for one.

Last time you went weak at the knees?

I turned into a little schoolgirl when I met Chino Moreno from Deftones on a red carpet and just gushed “I think you’re the best band in the world” rather than asking anything interesting.

What would you go back to school for?

To learn another language. As a nation we’re so lazy when it comes to learning languages.

A word you’d ban from the English language?

Brexit. If there’s one word I hear too much, it’s that.