MTV Access caught up with the Busted boys as they travelled Americafor their new MTV show, America Or Busted!

If, like us, you're of the opinion that you can't ever have too much Busted in your life, you're in for a huge treat this month. Yep, after months of patiently waiting, the day has finally come when their brand new show America Or Busted debuts on MTV, and it's well worth the wait.
But guess what? MTV Access was there with the boys every step of the way, the highs, the lows, the tears and the tantrums and we've got exclusive pics and a brand new interview! So did the boys manage to do what so many other British bands have tried and failed? Have they broken the USof A? Only one way to find out..

TV stars, eh? So how was trying to break America then chaps?
Matt: Hard! We didn't really know what we were up against. American is such a big place that you'd have to work solidly for two years before you could crack it. We were only there for a short period of time, so only time will tell if we managed it or not.
James: England is a lake and America is an ocean. Starting off in the US with nothing, you're like a fish in the ocean, but cos we've been going for a long time, we're like a whale in the ocean.
Charlie: It's weird going back to the beginning when no one knows who you are. You forget how it is not to have people come up to you. So if we didn't break America, at least there's a big place I can go where no one will recognise me!

What was it like being followedround 24 hours a day?
James: It was gruelling - by the end of it we were literally just ready to walk. We were like, 'Why did we agree to do this?' Then we thought, 'OK, people will get to see the real us and that's what we wanted.' Stuff we don't even want going out is on the show!
Matt: You never really get used to it. You're doing something then you turn around and the camera is there in your face.
Charlie: The good thing was they didn't come into the toilet with us so we got a bit of privacy sometimes!

It must've been really hard for you Matt, cos your mum had a stroke just before you went..
Matt: It was so hard. She was really ill, and it freaked me out a bit that if something went wrong I was thousands of miles away and I couldn't get back quickly. I didworry, but she had great people around her looking after her and she's fine now.

Did you run up a massive phone bill calling home?
Matt: No, cos I lost my mobile just before the trip. The replacement phone got sent to my parents' house. Weirdly, it was quite nice not having a mobile. I liked being inconspicuous!

The Americans seem quite keen to market you as a pop band. That didn't go down too well, did it?!
Charlie: Yeah, we had a few disputes! We felt we weren't being perceived how we wanted to be and at one point we got really angry but the record company ended up seeing it our way.

How do you want to be seen over there?
Charlie: Just as a band who play. Over here it's hard to be pop and get taken seriously but out there it's easier. Bands like Maroon 5, Good Charlotte and Simple Plan are treated as bands but they're pop music.
James: With places like Japan and Spain, we're perceived exactly the way we want and that's cool. In England, we're big, but people have been misled about the kind of band we are. I think that we've learnt from our mistakes and in America we wanted to be perceived the right way, or not at all. We literally said, 'If you make us do the pop things, we're going home.'

Did you end up rowing cos you were spending so much time together?
Matt: Only one time when me and James went horse riding and he scared my horse, so I freaked out.
Charlie: The producers wanted us to row more! They were like, 'Fight! Fight!'

Did you spend loads of money when you were out there?
James: Yep! I had to buy loads of stuff for my family. My brothers and sisters all wanted iPods so I had to buy them and my girlfriend was with me when we were out there..

Are you two still together cos in the first episode you say you've split up..
James: We are now. Anyway she was there so I gave her some money to spend. Actually I spent $350 on a really cool Justin Timberlake style trilby. I haven't got anything that goes with it but it's an incredible hat. I wear it round the house, I play ping-pong in it. It's a magic hat.
Charlie: Actually, it was ridiculously cheap out there! Buying guitars was amazing cos it's literally half price. I bought one for me and my brother.

Did you get sick of being on the tour bus all the time?
James: I love the tour bus. I love the driver. One time, we were in the middle of America and it was night-time and there were thousands of bugs splatting on the windscreen. I'm sitting at the front of the bus with Ward the driver and everyone else is asleep, and all you can hear is splat, splat, splat.

How else do you keep yourselves amused on the bus?
Charlie: Erm, there's one point where James eats Matt's scab!
James: And Matt and Charlie had this book fight. They're smacking each other as hard as they can with this book and the book's called something really inoffensive, like the friendly something, and they're taking it in turns to smack each other as hard as they can.
Charlie: It was a pain endurance test. It got harder and harder and we ended up with blistering arms. I think we'll just say it was a draw!

Did you play any huge gigs?
Matt: Erm, well we played a gig upstairs in Planet Hollywood. There were about 250 people there crammed into this tiny area and we walked off thinking it was one of our best gigs. Nobody really knew us, and it was like 'Either you like us, or you don't.' After two tracks they all loved it and were going mad.

So was that the biggest gig?
Matt: One of the bigger ones! We played in this tiny little venue and there were only about 27 people in the audience! It was a good place - Nirvana played there once.

What's your favourite part of the show so far?
James: The Playboy Mansion. Hugh Hefnor was wearing his crimson robe. They have this room in the Playboy Mansion where the floor is like a bed. This playmate was like, 'Notice anything different about this room? This is where people come to make-out!' There was a whole corridor of make-out rooms! How cool?
Matt: Can you believe it? We went to a party at The Playboy Mansion! It was the most unbelievable place and we met Hugh Hefner!

Sounds liek you had fun!
Matt: Yeah and we went to the VMAs. It was awesome. Marilyn Manson sat in front of us. I didn't chat to him, but I wanted to. I was too nervous.
James: One of my favourite things when we were in New York was pointing up at the sky and going, 'Oh my god! Go Spiderman!' Fletch, Matt and Charlie were embarrassed that they were with me!

Did you go to any weird US towns?
James: We were in the middle of nowhere and we dared each other to go into this service station just wearing our boxer shorts. We bought rude mags, condoms and baby oil in just our boxer shorts. We all did it. They just didn't really react at all!
Matt: It was awesome going to little radio stations in places like Tennessee. You travel for like nine hours and when you look out of the window it all still looks the same!

If thisdoesn't work, will you still keep trying in America?br> James: We've played shows to fans out there who love us the same way the fans do over here. They're no different from kids over here. Americans are a little bit more cheesy crazy. I like going to America, as long as we can play shows there, we'll be happy.
Charlie: If it doesn't work, we've released the stuff anyway and if it sells, great. It'll be good if we crack the market but Busted have done well enough over here to carry on. We're cool about it.