Busted’s Charlie Simpson: ‘Nobody’s More Shocked By This Reunion Than I Am’

About two hours ago, all of our teenage dreams came true as Busted confirmed the worst kept secret in showbiz: they’re back, and they have Charlie Simpson in tow.

After quitting the hugely successful band almost eleven years ago due to ‘creative differences’, Charlie stunned everybody when he agreed to team up with his former bandmates, Matt Willis and James Bourne, for some new music and a tour across the UK and Ireland.

[Copyright: Rex]

Speaking at a press conference earlier today, the husky-voiced star explained: “I have honestly lost count of the amount of times that I said that I would never do this again.

“I genuinely meant it; there wasn’t a time where I said that and I didn’t wholeheartedly believe it, I have changed my mind and that’s due to circumstance.

“We went to Philadelphia and we wrote new music and that’s where everything changes. I was prepared to go there and come back saying ‘this doesn’t feel right’, but the fact that it did feel right was as much of a shock to me as it is to everyone else.

“It’s been a weird journey but a very natural one, and it’s nice that we have been able to connect as friends again, it feels right and we’re not doing this for any other reason.”

When asked how he felt about the potential backlash from both old-time Busted fans and followers of his rock band, Fightstar, Charlie shared: “If people have a problem with the decisions I make then I totally respect that.

“I can’t live my life by what other people think; I hope they are supportive, if they are supportive of me as a person then they’ll be supportive of the decisions I make.”

Matt and James reignited their singing careers two years ago, when they teamed up with their good friends McFly and created supergroup McBusted, with James insisting that nothing will change between them and their fellow McBusted bandmates, explaining: “McBusted was always two bands; a broken band and a not broken band.

“They were still McFly within McBusted, and McFly still have eachother. They are very supportive of this and have been texting this morning to wish us all the best.

“It doesn’t have to be over forever; we just had a chance to go home.”

Does anybody else have a tear in their eye?

Charlie also revealed that when James and Matt teamed up with McFly, he was finally rid of the guilt that he felt for tearing apart their band all those years ago.

He admitted: “I wasn’t jealous of McBusted but I was really happy for the guys. In a way, it sort of alleviated some of the guilt I had from back in 2005.

“I did take this band away from them - McBusted wasn’t right for me but I had an overwhelming sense of happiness that Matt and James were having a great time.”

So what can we expect from the Busted tour of 2016? Matt had all the details: “We’re definitely going to do some new music,” he told us, “There might be new music before the tour if we get our act together.

“Busted only had two albums so we’re probably going to play every song that you know then start from the beginning and play it all again.

“Pretty much every single Busted song.”

Needless to say, we couldn’t be any more excited.

Tickets for Busted’s 2016 Tour go on sale this Friday