""I remember seeing him walk into this room and saying: 'God, you look amazing, Liam. What have you done?' Cowell said from his London home. "'Well, I'm going to the gym' and blah, blah, blah. We talked about his son and how much it means to be a dad. And I was talking to him about there's more to life than just music; you've got to a point in your life where you've got choice now, etc. We just hung out as friends.""
""You're signing a lot of artists, and when you sign an artist, my role is, essentially, get them with the right production team, get the managers and try and make them successful," he said. "But at the same time, I probably had about 20 artists on my books at the time. It is a little bit like they leave the nest." He added, "There's only so much you can do with any artist.""
Simon Cowell described a recent meeting with Liam Payne in which Cowell complimented Payne's appearance and they discussed his gym routine, fatherhood, and life choices beyond music. Liam Payne died in October 2024 after falling from a third-floor balcony while on narcotics and had a history of substance abuse during his time in One Direction. Cowell learned of the death while filming a Netflix docuseries and experienced profound shock, comparing the loss to his own father's death and requesting to speak with Payne's parents immediately. Cowell acknowledged limited knowledge of Payne's struggles and emphasized that judges are not managers and have limited capacity to intervene.
Read at Vulture
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]