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Matt Willis has opened up on his bandmate James Bourne’s absence from Busted’s latest tour, admitting it was a ‘really difficult time’.
James, 42, has revealed he’s set to undergo ‘major surgery to extend his life’ after a six-month-long break from the spotlight.
The guitarist and singer left fans devastated last year when he was forced to pull out of Busted’s tour with McFly the day before it kicked off due to an unknown illness.
Matt, his bandmate and close friend of two decades, has now opened up on his break from music and decision to not go ahead with the 2025 tour, telling Metro he and Charlie Simpson had fears about performing without James.
‘It was a real shame, we’ve never done a show without James and it was really hard. There was a real moment of “are we gonna do this or not? Should we do this?”
‘We were talking to him and he was like “you should still do it, I just can’t be there.” It was a really difficult time for us. It all happened so quickly.’
James’s bandmates, Matt and Charlie, frequently mentioned him during the tour, with Matt telling fans through tears he was ‘really f***ing sick’.
‘It was the week of the first show where we found this out and it all kind of escalated, so we didn’t have time to really think about it.
‘We asked him and he was cool with it and we were like “right, let’s do it without him”.
‘It was strange; it was weird. I don’t ever want to do it again,’ Matt, 42, told us.
‘It was a weird tour. It was still great, we put on as good a show as we could, but we were definitely missing something.’
James shared that he is preparing to have ‘major surgery to extend his life’ – but insisted ‘there is hope’.
‘I realised it’s been about six months since I posted last,’ he wrote on his Instagram Story.
‘I have a plan in place to have a major surgery that should extend my life and hopefully make me well enough to come back to what I love the most which is touring and making music. It really sucks to be out of the game. But there is hope!’
Matt revealed how fortunate he feels to still be performing alongside his best friends, telling Metro: ‘I love those boys so much. I love the fact I’m still able to do it.
‘The fact that we wrote songs in our bedroom when we were 16 for a laugh. The whole idea of playing a local venue and maybe some people would come, and now I’m 42 and playing arenas, singing these songs, it’s just incredible.
‘I don’t take any of it for granted.’
Matt Willis stars as Emcee at the Kit Kat Club at London’s Playhouse until 23 May 2026.
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