“There is nobody who ever encountered him that has a bad word to say about Liam. He was nice to everybody.”
The showbiz mogul watched and listened in a state disbelief as it was revealed that former One Direction star Liam Payne had been found dead at his hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at the age of 31.
It was the second time in his career that Mayo man Walsh had been confronted with the sudden death of a former boyband star close to him.
Boyzone’s Stephen Gately died in Spain 15 years ago this month at the age of 33 from an undiagnosed heart condition.
“I was absolutely shocked when I saw Liam Payne’s death coming up on Sky News,” Louis told the Sunday World interview as he reflects on this latest tragedy.
“I couldn’t believe it because he was so young and he had so much more to give. It was such a bad, sad ending for a great guy.
“There is nobody who ever encountered him that has a bad word to say about Liam. He was nice to everybody.”
One Direction
Looking back, Louis recalls first meeting Payne in 2008 when he auditioned for The X Factor at the tender age of 14.
“Liam was so young and so charming,” he remembers. “We loved him, but he was too young and, while we had to let him go at the time, we told him to come back again.”
Two years later, the ambitious young 16-year-old Payne was back before The X Factor judges and would ultimately become a member of One Direction, the boyband formed on the show during that series in 2010.
“Liam came back again, he could sing and he ticked all the boxes on The X Factor,” Louis says.
“On the show I saw One Direction in the building every week. We saw the girls outside the studio getting bigger…it started off with 10, then there were 20 and soon it was up to a hundred.
Louis Walsh
“The boys charmed everybody every week on the show. Simon Cowell worked hard on the songs for them and they were building and building. Even though they came third that year, One Direction left the show with a massive fan base. There was a massive need for them in the UK at the time. There was no other pop band like Take That and Westlife. There was a massive gap and it was there for them.”
While it had been a gradual build for boybands like Westlife, fame came like a tsunami for One Direction as they instantly exploded around the globe.
“Literally overnight Liam’s life totally changed,” Louis says.
“One Direction became so big and so popular that he couldn’t go anywhere. He was Liam Payne from One Direction. I’m sure he loved most of it, but not all of it. He would have loved it at the beginning. That’s what he wanted, that’s what they all wanted…it’s why they queued up to audition for The X Factor.”
Tributes to Liam in Buenos Aires
A forensics team at the scene of Liam’s death
Liam’s father Geoff Payne leaving the hotel
Walsh wasn’t involved in the career of One Direction after The X Factor and had no contact with them.
He says: “They were travelling the world and they probably didn’t have time to even think because they were so busy. Their life was crazy, but I think they all loved it at the start.
“After a while I’m sure it gets too much. They don’t have any private life, they can’t go anywhere because everything is reported…especially now with the internet and camera phones, everybody is taking pictures and videos everywhere. There is no privacy.
“Young people who want to go into the business don’t understand that it’s a very tough life. You have to give up your ordinary life and say, ‘this is what I want to do.’ You have to be focused, you have to get your sleep and you have to look after your health. But you have to remember that you’re public property whether you like it or not.
Liam and Kate Cassidy
“Do I think there is enough support in the music industry for these young people? If you have a good tour manager and good security with you, you’re fine. One Direction had a great team around them…a tour manager, top-class security who looked after them like big brothers, a stylist, a public relations person…a whole posse of people was with them everywhere they went. They’re not just there on their own. Anything they wanted, they got.”
Walsh says he has no insight into Liam Payne’s personal struggles in life, but he suspects that the young star’s inability to achieve success as a solo artist was one of them.
Despite his enormous talent, post-One Direction he was the least successful of his band mates that included Niall Horan from Mullingar.
Liam and Irish bandmate Niall Horan
“As I said, I wasn’t in contact with him in recent years, so I can only speculate that he struggled mentally with the fact that his solo career didn’t take off like it should have done,” Louis says.
“Harry was the obvious heart-throb. They were all in Harry Styles’ shadow. He was the stand-out star. He worked it and he got the hits. But Liam should have been successful as well. He should have had more hits than he had.
“Liam ticked every box…he could really sing, he wrote songs, he had a great record deal and he looked brilliant.”
One Direction members ‘devastated’ and will miss Liam Payne ‘terribly’
