A star of the band Busted has hit back at criticism for their noughties song lyrics.

Busted came to dominate much of the charts in the early 00s, with their pop punk style that captured kids and teens alike. The trio, made up of Charlie Simpson, Matt Willis and James Bourne, had a string of hits including Year 3000 and Crashed the Wedding.

But looking back on the band's career, the band have been hit with backlash due to some of the band's lyrics. For example, one of the band's tracks - "What I Go to School For", features lyrics on a schoolboy's crush on his teacher.

In another song, 'Air Hostess', the band sings the line: "That uniform you're wearing, so hot I can't stop staring. You're putting on an awesome show." Now, guitarist Charlie has hit out at calls to rewrite the lyrics, saying they were a product of their time.

Speaking to Metro newspaper's Guilty Pleasures column, the Masked Singer winner exclaimed: "Some of the lyrical content of those songs we just wouldn’t write now, so there’s definitely that kind of [gross] feeling. But they’re so well known by our audience that it doesn’t really matter.

"It’s not like we’re coming out with a new song that sounds like those old songs, or lyrics that sound like those," he added. "It captures a moment in time so we can just play them on and on."

Simpson did concede that the band made one change to their lyrics in order to reflect their age. In "What I Go to School For", the band opted to age Miss Mackenzie up to 53, instead of the original 33.

"We didn’t want to change them too much, that’s what people want to hear, it’s what they remember. But making the teacher older was a joke change … otherwise, the teacher would be younger than us now!" Charlie said.

Busted ended up disbanding in January 2005 after Charlie opted to quit the band to dedicate himself entirely to his metal band Fightstar. After a decade, however, the band re-united and Charlie has not looked back since.

"I don’t regret one thing," Simpson said. "I think everything that has happened in the past has led us to this point now, which is Busted in the best place it’s ever been and I’m really happy with how everything is going.

"It might not have been that way, had history not gone the way it did, you know? Even when I left in 2005, that’s not something I regret, because it was right for me at the time and it was an important part of my journey. So, no regrets!"