Busted star thanks McFly for fundraising efforts for addiction project

Musician Matt Willis said his new series exploring addiction and recovery aims to tackle the "stigma" addicts face in "getting back into the workplace".

In the three-part documentary, the Busted star, who has spoken openly about his own battles with addiction, will set up a business in south Wales, employing people in "various stages" of addiction recovery.

With a camera crew following every step, Willis thought they would help open "way more doors" when it came to funding the project, but admitted that was not the case.

Instead he turned to McFly, once his band's "rivals" in the early noughties pop scene, describing them as "unbelievably kind" for agreeing to a one-off fundraiser gig.

Having been to rehab four times, Willis has been clean for almost nine years - something he calls a "miracle".

"I never thought I would be completely clean and sober, but I am," he told BBC Wales.

Willis said the lack of funding and resources for addiction recovery schemes was the "elephant in the room" when filming his personal journey in 2023.

Three years later, he is tackling what he calls the stigma around addiction, as he said levels of drug-related deaths are getting "aggressively worse".

In the new documentary Matt Willis: The Recovery Project, he develops a programme to help people in recovery rebuild their lives through work and help from the local community.

"The thing that I found really shocking was the stigma that addicts face getting back into the workplace, which was something which I never thought about," he said.

"And the more people I met, if you have a history of addiction and you've got big gaps in your CV, or maybe you've not ever had a job, the barrier to getting into the workplace was huge."

But funding the project has not been straight forward.

"We've been trying to fundraise for a long time and it has been hard," he said, adding that he thought doing the project "with TV cameras would open way more doors... but that wasn't the case".

"I think there's still a stigma around addiction," he said, adding that they had "struggled with getting people behind" the project.

This left Willis wanting to do what he does best to raise money - perform.

A gig with his platinum-selling band Busted was not an option for the frontman, after the group vowed not to perform while guitarist James Bourne was ill.

But Willis knew who his next call would be to.

He said: "I literally phoned up McFly and was like, 'Guys, will you? I know this is a big ask, but will you come and play a show for free for me in Cardiff?"

"They're an arena-selling band and they're playing a 2000 [capacity] venue for me for free, which is epic."

"I can't thank them enough."

On Instagram, Willis said he "might even get up" on stage during the performance in Cardiff on 22 March.

Willis said he could not say much about the project covered in the documentary, but described it as "really bold", saying that he wanted to see it as a "UK-wide initiative".

"We have an initiative to try and get people back into the workplace – we are going to be running a business and employing people in recovery within that business.

"Everyone that works there will be in recovery at different stages," he said.

"The reason we're doing it on telly is we want to kind of break that stigma down," he said.

"Addiction happens to you, in my case, it's in me, and I think there are lots of people out there that just aren't given these opportunities or don't know where to go for help.

"I think that's exactly what this can do," he said.