Harry Judd reveals McFly were torn apart by ‘jealousy’ as they announce reunion
McFLY announced their reunion after three years away – admitting they were kept apart by “jealousy” of each other after cracks formed in their friendships.
Since their last album in 2010, Tom Fletcher has become a best-selling children’s author, Danny Jones has joined the panel of The Voice Kids, Dougie Poynter has become an environmental campaigner while Harry Judd has entertained West End audiences in Rip It Up.
But in an exclusive interview, Harry said: “There was a bit of jealousy creeping in, I think with people doing their own thing, like, 'What's he doing? Why's he doing that? Why aren't we talking about McFly?'
“I think there's been moments if I'm honest where each of us have done things that we've all found really difficult.
“I know I did a show with Tom, and Dougie and Danny came to watch, and they were like, 'That sucks that you two are doing that.' And then I went to watch Danny's show and I was like, 'I'm kind of happy for you but that sucks.'”
They teamed up with Busted’s James Bourne and Matt Willis to form McBusted from 2013 to 2015, but confessed the supergroup took a toll on the future of their own band.
Harry continued: “And also the dynamic of McBusted changed things a bit - two great guys joined the band for a bit, but the friendships were shifting and things were a bit weird.
“There was unspoken tension, no one dealt with it and the issues got bigger and bigger. It was literally like, how has this happened?
“We had always taken such pride in our friendship of McFly and it was seemingly starting to crack.
“We were this solid band, like brothers, and suddenly we weren't even really talking.”
Tom added: “A lot of the things that were blocking the band were only happening because the band wasn't happening.”
But having not played live together since 2016, they have now booked in a landmark show on November 20 at London’s O2 Arena – a venue they have never performed in as McFly.
And in the meantime, they will be releasing a song each week which will form a collection called The Lost Songs, made up of tracks which were recorded seven years ago.
Explaining how the decision came about, Tom said: “We'd been trying to work out how to get the band back on track and it's something we all wanted but we just couldn't do it, it was a struggle.
“Our manager knew of that and had the same frustrations so took matters into his own hands and he said, 'Well I've booked The O2 if you want to do it.'”
Danny added: “The timing as our evolution of a band, we'd have burnt out if we didn't have this break and we didn't sort this out. It would have maybe lasted two years, but now it can go on. Here's to the next 16 years because we're all on the same page.”
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Fans can expect more after the one-off London show, with schedules cleared so they can hopefully record and release an album next year – a decade after their last record Above The Noise.
Asked about the prospect of finally putting out a sixth album, Tom said: “It feels like a very apt time to do it. We're just ready to do it anyway.
“Putting The Lost Songs out puts a line under these songs and I feel like we'll be ready to do that. Timing wise it feels really perfect.”
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