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Category: Liam Payne

  • Liam Payne Drank Heavily To Deal With One Direction Fame

    Liam Payne Drank Heavily To Deal With One Direction Fame

    “I used to get off stage, high off the endorphins and get horrendously drunk, get up at five in the afternoon and do it all again.”

    One Direction, the wildly popular boy band from the UK, first gained fame from performing on The X Factor in 2010. They then scored their first number one single a year later. Years of fame and success followed, but as former 1D member Liam Payne recalls, the sudden rise to pop stardom “nearly killed” him before he cleaned up his act.

    As Payne explained on Table Manners with Jessie Ware podcast, “I went through a stage in the band when I was drinking really heavily—I put weight on and didn’t notice,” to the point where he was called the “fat one” in One Direction.

    “I was just really drunk every day… I used to just get wasted and say whatever I wanted. Our schedule time was just a mess, I used to get off stage, high off the endorphins and get horrendously drunk, get up at five in the afternoon and do it all again.”

    Reality Check

    The singer added, “I didn’t see what was looking back at me in the mirror.” It wasn’t until he saw an unflattering paparazzi picture of himself that he decided he needed to get help.

    “I was surprised I’d become that guy,” he says. “It was worth it to make me realize what life’s made of.”

    Payne ultimately realized, “You’re either gonna end up a crazy child star who dies at whatever age or you’re gonna live, laugh and actually get on with it properly.”

    It’s been hard for Payne to adjust to life post-stardom, but he says, “I needed to stop, definitely. It would have killed me. One hundred percent. I literally spent the last two years of this, in and out of doing the music, trying to learn to be a person, if that makes sense.”

    Life After One Direction

    In recent years, Payne has talked openly about his mental health struggles as a famous pop star. It was hard to hit the stage for hundreds of concerts when he didn’t feel good, and as he told Men’s Health Australia, “It’s almost like putting the Disney costume on before you step up on stage. I was pissed (drunk) quite a lot of the time because there was no other way to get your head around what was going on.”

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • One Direction’s Liam Payne Gets Candid About Fame, Mental Health

    One Direction’s Liam Payne Gets Candid About Fame, Mental Health

    Payne revealed that he sometimes turned to alcohol as a coping mechanism during the height of One Direction’s fame.

    Liam Payne knows from experience that rising to fame at a young age comes with a price. 

    Payne was one of five members of the boy band, One Direction, which rose to fame after appearing on The X Factor in 2010. 

    Payne, who was just a teenager at that time, recently spoke to Men’s Health Australia about his time in the band—specifically about facing so much pressure at such a young age.

    “When you’re doing hundreds and hundreds of (concerts) and it’s the same 22 songs at the same time every single day, even if you’re not happy, you’ve got to go out there,” Payne said.

    In such situations, Payne says he often found himself turning to alcohol as a way to cope before taking the stage. 

    “It’s almost like putting the Disney costume on before you step up on stage and underneath the Disney costume I was pissed (drunk) quite a lot of the time because there was no other way to get your head around what was going on,” he said. “I mean, it was fun. We had an absolute blast, but there were certain parts of it where it just got a little bit toxic.”

    At the end of 2015, One Direction members announced they would be taking a hiatus. In the time since, Payne says he has had the time to reflect on the journey and how it affected him, specifically his mental health. 

    “It literally was the perfect storm,” Payne said. “There were so many scenarios that had to fall into line for that to happen. It’s not something that can easily be recreated or probably ever will be because of the way the internet was kicking off, the way The X Factor kicked off. I just think it was just dumb luck.”

    Payne also alluded that he was not the only band member facing difficulties when it came to mental health and noted it’s a problem that has been facing the music industry for years. 

    “It’s difficult when you have the level of fame that we had in the band,” he told Men’s Health. “There have been a lot of people in trouble with mental health that aren’t really getting the help that they need and I think that’s a bit of a problem in our industry. It’s the same shit that happens to everyone, that’s been happening since the ’70s. You know what the traps are and if you are lucky enough, like me, to be able to get out of that scenario and back into a sense of normality, then you know it’s a bit different.”

    View the original article at thefix.com