Harry Styles says Liam Payne’s death made him rethink his life and music career

Harry Styles has said the death of his former One Direction bandmate Liam Payne made him re-evaluate his own career in music.

The 32-year-old explained that Payne’s shock death at the age of 31, after he fell from a hotel balcony in Argentina in 2024, had proved to be “a really important moment for me in terms of taking a look at my life”.

Reflecting on his difficulties talking about Payne’s passing, he told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe: “It was a really important moment for me in terms of taking a look at my life and being able to say to myself, ‘OK, what do I want to do with my life? How do I want to live my life?’

“And I think the greatest way you can honour your friends who pass away is by living your life to the fullest.”

The ‘Aperture’ singer added: “I think what has been interesting is kind of allowing myself to even have that thought process.

“I think for a long time even having that conversation with myself, I thought like, ‘Oh, you’re so ungrateful, like how can you ever think about deciding not to do it?’, and stuff like that.”

Explaining the “struggle” of Payne’s passing, he went on: “I think there was a period when he passed away, where I really struggled with kind of like acknowledging how strange it is to have people own part of your grief in a way.

“I have such strong feelings around my friend passing away, and then suddenly being, you know, like aware of there’s maybe a desire from other people of you to convey that in some way, or it means you’re not feeling what you’re feeling or something.

“It’s difficult to lose any friend, but it’s so difficult to lose a friend who is so like you in so many ways. It’s like, I saw someone with the kindest heart who just wanted to be great.”

Styles and Payne experienced their first taste at global fame together as part of One Direction, after forming on The X Factor as teenagers and going on to become one of the world’s most successful boybands.

The group all attended Payne’s funeral to pay tribute to their friend and former bandmate.

In the same interview with Lowe, Styles explained the joy of listening to an artist “discover themselves”.

“I think the thing that makes someone like an artist, is letting them watch you be an ordinary person,” he said.

“It’s not about being ‘I am this mystic thing’. I think the difference is we’re all ordinary people and there’s some people who let other people watch you be an ordinary person.

“And I think that is kind of the key in a lot of ways – for me anyway.”

Tomorrow sees Styles release his fourth solo album Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally. In a four star review, Rolling Stone UK described it as “a joyous fourth album that’s impossible to pigeonhole.”

 “In leaning into dance-floor-primed sounds, Styles has offered a record that pays clear tribute to dance music’s trailblazers, but also provides a bold new step in his solo superstardom,” our review stated. “It is the perfect soundtrack for this summer, when Styles’ fans will head to his huge Wembley Stadium shows to, well, disco, occasionally. But with this record’s uniting power, you wouldn’t rule out a few kisses either…”