McFly’s Danny Jones has admitted that he originally wasn’t a fan of the band’s name.
The musician, who sings and plays guitar in the group, shared the update while appearing as a contestant on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, and told fellow campmates that he had to be convinced to go along with the name.
According to Jones, his bandmates – Tom Fletcher, Harry Judd and Dougie Poynter – came up with the name and wanted it as a nod to the classic 1985 Robert Zemeckis film Back To The Future. This comes as the main character’s name is Marty McFly, and played by Michael J. Fox.
“We were trying to come up with a name. We had a few in the pipeline and McFly was one of them,” he recalled. “I hated it. So James and Tom sat me down to watch Back To The Future.”
Later, he recalled how he had “never seen” the film before then, and there was one moment in particular that won him over when it came to deciding the band name.
“As I’m watching it, Biff crashes into the manure truck and I saw it said on the side: D. Jones Manure Manufacturing… [after that] I was like ‘McFly it is’,” he added.
For Jones, the appearance on the ITV reality series comes as McFly have continued celebrating their 21st anniversary as a band in recent months. Their latest album arrived last year in the form of ‘Power To Play’, which peaked at Number Two on the UK album charts.
Since then, they have gone on to play two surprise shows in one day at London’s Underworld, as well as a slot at the Royal Variety Performance, a sold-out gig at Alexandra Palace, and the two shows at The O2.
More recently, the stage at one of their UK shows was stormed by Busted, and the two announced that they’d be hitting the road together in 2025.
They later went on to extend the upcoming run of tour dates – with 10 extra shows being confirmed for 2025. Tickets are live now and available here.
In the summer, they’ll also perform at Download 2025, alongside Green Day, Sleep Token, KoRn, Weezer, Sex Pistols featuring Frank Carter, Jimmy Eat World, Poppy, The Darkness, Spiritbox, Meshuggah, Steel Panther, Cradle Of Filth and Alien Ant Farm.