Matt Willis, famous for his role as bassist and co-lead vocalist in the band Busted has opened up about being recruited into the Church of Scientology after leaving rehab in a candid new interview.
Speaking on his podcast On The Mend, Willis describes how he was approached by a recruiter outside a Scientology property in London and invited to do a stress test. He was subsequently sold a course, which he completed before it was suggested his wife – TV presenter Emma Willis – was a Suppressive Person. Rather than break up his marriage, he decided to leave and explains “since then I’ve found out lots of crazy stuff about that place that I’m really glad that I got out when I did.”
Here’s the transcript:
I didn’t want to be a drug addict anymore. I wanted to have recovery. But I was bouncing in and out. I wasn’t doing what I was told. I was trying to rebel, trying to do things my own way by my own will. And I couldn’t do it. And I was falling down again, again, again. And I was I was quite off my head one day. And I was in central London and I was walking down the street and some guy in a suit came up to me and went, “Are you okay?” And I was like, “No, how do you know?” You know, he’s like, “Come with me.” And I was like, “All right.”Â
[He] basically took me into this shop. I was like, “What’s going on here?” He took me downstairs and like we went into this room and basically I held these two metal rods and he told me asked me loads of questions and there was a little kind of like meter going be like with electricity from my body or something. I don’t know. And I was off my head right and I was like what’s going on? He was asking me questions. I was like yeah that’s right. I do feel like that. I do feel like this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I said it’s so crazy.
I didn’t know what was going on, right? And he said, “Right, okay. Tomorrow, come to this address.” I was like, “Absolutely.” He’s like, “We’ve got answers for you. We know what’s wrong with you.” And he was asking me questions and I was agreeing with what he said and they were making sense to me. And I was like, “Yeah, I do feel like that. I do feel lost. I do need something.”
At the time, I was lost. I was trying to find anything I could to to to hold on to to make my life make sense, to make me make sense in the world. I couldn’t I I couldn’t work out how I was supposed to live a normal life without drink and drugs. It just like everything about my life revolved around drink and drugs. And I’d removed that from me, but I hadn’t healed any of that stuff. And I was looking for something. I was actively searching.
And so the next day I rocked up at this big building. And on the top of it, it said Church of Scientology. I was like, “What’s this?” No, I’m pretty sure Tom Cruise has got something to do with this place. And like, he seems to be doing well. Cool. Great. So I walked in there, right? And I didn’t know anything about it.
Interviewer: Had you been religious ever before?
Matt Willis: No. When I was a kid, my Mum went to church, I went to Sunday school for a little while to get into a better school where we grew up because the best school was a Catholic school. So I had to go to Sunday school for a little while in preparation to go to school. But I never really believed. I was never really religious person. And in rehab, they talked about a higher power all the time. You know, you need to find a higher power. You need to pray to something. You need to be something greater than yourself can remove this from you. I didn’t have that. And I was always battling with that.
So I was like, “All right, okay. Maybe this is the answer. And so I walked into this this building which had the Church of Scientology on the top. And I went into this room and basically it was like study. But I sat in this room on my own with another geezer and we worked through.. I bought a course which was a certain amount of money and I finished that course which was like a few days.. and at the end of it, it said you need to do another course to find out the answer to your and I was like okay cool.
So I bought the other course, got the books, bought loads of other big massive books which I never read. And I’m like tell me the answers. What’s wrong with me? What’s going on? So then I got through this other course and everything was pointing to some kind of like negative influence in my life that was draining me.. like, some person. And I was asking questions, who is that? They’re like, only you know that. I was like, I don’t know what you’re talking about, man. The problem is me. Like really, I’m making all these problems happen.
It was a really weird thing. Slowly but surely, I was like, I think you’re talking about my wife. They were like, “It’s probably the closest person to you.” And part of me thinks now when I’m looking at it that they just wanted me… they didn’t want me to have any kind of outside connections. They wanted me to just be connected to this. And so it took me about maybe two weeks to go, “No, mate. This is bollocks. So I never got any answers. Did all the paid-for these things, did all the courses, got nothing.
Matt Willis on his time in Scientology (Podcast: On The Mend)
Willis then goes on to explain how during his vulnerable moments, he was seeking a connection to a higher power. Struggling with addiction, he was looking for hope and answers.. but soon realised Scientology wasn’t for him.
What I slowly found out was that it wasn’t in there. And actually then I just had to remove myself from that organisation. Since then I found out lots of crazy stuff about that place that I’m really glad that I got out when I did. But some people I’m sure it benefits them, right? It’s like each to your own. Do what you want with your life, you know. As long as you’re not hurting people, you do you, babe. But for me, that wasn’t my trajectory.Â
Matt Willis on his time in Scientology (Podcast: On The Mend)
Scientology uses a complex system of deceit and manipulation to exploit people’s vulnerabilities in order to sell their ideology to new recruits. In one policy letter, founder L. Ron Hubbard describes how a sales person has to invade somebody’s privacy in order to sell them Dianetics.
Matt Willis is the first major UK celebrity to publicly depart Scientology, and although his stint in the group was brief, it signifies a growing concern among the British public of the organisation’s harmful practices. Scientology were rejected charity status by the Charity Commission in 1999 after it ruled “it does not benefit the public”, and residents local to their UK headquarters in East Grinstead, Sussex have been taking to social media to complain about the “chaos” and “disruption” their annual IAS event brings to the town.
According to their hit 2003 song, Busted went to the year 3,000.. but they clearly didn’t find Xenu – or Target 2 there for that matter.
You can watch the full podcast episode below:
