In the two decades they've been together, McFly have partied with pop icons such as Sir Rod Stewart and Liam Gallagher.
But they reckon the biggest hellraiser of them all was the late Lily Savage star, Paul O’Grady. As they take over the Sunday Mirror's No Filter column, the group – who wrote The Paul O’Grady Show theme tune – reveal how the comic was secretly one of their closest showbiz mates and would often whisk them off to clubs where he drank them under the table.
Danny Jones says: “We had two crazy nights out with Paul, ending up at a burlesque club. We got more and more excited and more and more drunk… it was amazing. He completely outpartied me.”
Bassist Dougie Poynter adds: “Paul was your burlesque go-to man. He taught us all how to eat fire, too… it burns and it’s terrifying!” Reflecting on their deep bond, drummer Harry Judd hailed Paul, who died last month, for having zero fakery in an industry where it’s hard to know who your real friends are.
He says: “A lot of celebrities are extroverts but as we’re quite quiet, we’ve not made many celebrity mates along the way.
“Paul was one we really had a chemistry with. We met on his TV show and he always made us laugh. He was genuinely interested in us.”
McFly – whose new single God of Rock ’n’ Roll, inspired by Netflix show Stranger Things, drops on Wednesday – have clearly learned a thing or two about being genuine.
Although they confess to selling out in the past by making pop bangers for radio play, they are now staying true to their rock roots.
Power to Play, out on June 9, is full of guitar riffs inspired by Led Zeppelin and Van Halen.
Harry says: “When we were younger, we were lucky to have hit songs without really thinking. Then, with our fifth album, Above the Noise, we worked with R&B writers and producers and look back and think, ‘What were we doing?’ We were chasing radio but it wasn’t us.
“We’re a guitar band so this time, we’ve just been like, ‘F*** it. Let’s just do songs we really want to do’.”
Danny adds: “We get called a boy band because we’re commercial and we’ve been sold like that, but we’ve functioned like a rock band since day one.”
Tom Fletcher, who joins us in the studio after weeks in bed with a flu-like condition, adds: “We’re privileged to have a fanbase of 20 years that lets us say, ‘It’s not going on the radio but who cares? We’ll do it just because it makes us happy’.”
As rivals Busted celebrate their own 20th anniversary with an album of reimagined songs and a tour, Dougie says: “They’re just doing a nostalgia thing – they’re flogging a dead horse!” And Harry adds: “We wanted to do new music and keep moving forward.”
No reunion imminent for their supergroup McBusted, then…
