Michael J. Fox Reveals Marty McFly Inspired John Mayer and Chris Martin to Be Rockstars

Without Michael J. Fox’s Marty McFly, the world may never have heard the music made by John Mayer.

The Back to the Future star, 64, sat down with Stephen Colbert during the Tuesday, October 21, episode of The Late Show where the host asked if it’s true that his iconic character inspired “real-life rockstars” to pick up a guitar.

“That’s what I hear,” Fox said. “John Mayer told me [that the character] inspired him to play guitar… and Chris Martin of Coldplay, a famous Back to the Future fan — I played ‘Johnny B. [Goode]’ with them at MetLife Stadium and played ‘Fix You’ with them at Glastonbury in front of 300,000 people.”

The beloved time travel movie turned 40 earlier this year, which also marks four decades since the Gibson guitar played by Fox’s character in the film was reported missing.

“In the decades since the movie’s release, the guitar used in ‘Johnny B. Goode’ has grown more important for what it isn’t than what it is,” Fox wrote in his newest book, Future Boy. “What it isn’t is available.”

“I wish I could claim to possess it,” he continued, “but I didn’t have the foresight to know how valuable it would become.”

“Somebody did, though, and whether it’s in their active collection or stashed in their attic or home studio, they’re not speaking up,” he added. “Perhaps they’re waiting for the statute of limitations on vintage guitar theft to expire.”

According to Fox, the scene in the film in which McFly gets on stage at his parents’ 1955 school dance was his “favorite scene.”

“It represents dreams coming to fruition; me doing for me what Marty did for himself,” he wrote. “What was happening in my life at that moment was no less transformative than what was happening in Marty’s.”