Busted have revealed that James Bourne is ‘really sick’ after he was forced to step down from their latest tour.
Earlier this week it was announced that the musician had quit the Busted Vs McFly tour just over 24 hours before it had been due to kick off.
Posting on Instagram, he shared: ‘The VS tour kicks off tomorrow night in Birminham and as excited as l’ve been all year for this tour to begin.
‘I’m really sorry to say that over the last 8 days it has become clear that I am not in good enough health to play these shows 🙁’
He didn’t share any further details on his health issues, but James noted his bandmates Matt Willis and Charlie Simpson supported his decision to step away for now.
During the first show in Birmingham on Tuesday night, the band addressed James’ absence.
‘You may have noticed our best friend is not here tonight,’ Matt Willis began.
‘He’s really f***ing sick, and we love him and we miss him,’ he added, as the crowd could be heard cheering in support of their bandmember.
He went on: ‘And this is the first show we’ve ever played without him. And it’s really weird, but we are going to do the best we can.
‘This happened fast. Health is health and wealth is wealth and we told him that he needed to look after himself.
‘This is supposed to be all meaningful…we were like “James, what do you want to do about this? We’ve got a tour, should we do it or not do it?”, and he told us to do it.
‘We told him we wanted to do it and didn’t want to let anyone down, but told him it was going to be f***ing weird on stage without him, and we need to get someone else to play guitar.’
Matt then joked that he suggested one of the members of McFly could step up, to which James declared: ‘Absolutely not.’
‘We suggested it, but James was adamant that was not a choice.’
They then brought out James’ younger brother Chris on stage to step up into the spot.
In his original announcement, James also explained: ‘There’s a lot of information I still don’t have about my condition but my bandmates, management and I are unanimous in deciding that I should focus on the medical stuff for now,’ he continued.
The former Son of Dork frontman promised fans they will still get ‘an amazing show’, and he’s hopeful he can get back to doing what he loves ‘further down the line.
He added: ‘I really hope I can be in a position to come back further down the line. It’s still going to be an amazing show and I will miss being there! See you all as soon as possible.’
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