Liam Payne is feeling better than ever — and it was his appearance on Logan Paul’s podcast that forced him to get his life together.
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Looking back on the past year, Liam acknowledged that he wasn’t quite himself and realized he needed to take a step away from the spotlight.
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“I just needed to take a little bit of time out for myself actually because I kind of became somebody who I didn’t really recognize anymore. I’m sure you guys didn’t either,” Liam shared in a new YouTube video.
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Liam said part of the reason he made the realization was the negative reaction to his comments about his One Direction bandmates on the podcast.
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“A lot of what I said came from the wrong place,” he said. “I was so angry at what was going on around me and instead of taking a look inwards I decided to look outwards at everybody else and I just think yeah I took it out on everybody else, which is just wrong, really.”
Liam admitted that he “took shots at everybody” in an act of “self-protection” and because of his own “frustrations” with his career.
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While he believes his words required an apology, he says the rest of the guys in the band “really stuck by” him and “kinda came to the rescue.”
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“It’s probably one of those life-changing moments that saved my life in a way,” he shared. “I went through a lot, don’t get me wrong, but to actually arrive where I am here today and where I hope we’re going to go forward together it could be one of those makers or breakers.”
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Following the podcast, Liam checked into a sobriety treatment center in Louisiana, where he ended up spending 100 days.
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“I kinda had to go away to kinda get better. The whole thing up to that point was just a scramble to stay relevant,” he explained.
He continued, “I was in bad shape up to that point and I was really happy more than anything when I arrived to kind of put a stopper on life and work.”
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At the treatment center, he didn’t have a phone and spent time trying to get to the root of who he was, the things he liked, and why he chose to be a musician.
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Now Liam is almost six months sober and is looking forward to the future in his career and his life with his son Bear.
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“I’ve got more of a grip on life and everything that was getting away from me, I just feel like I’ve got more of a handle on it,” Liam concluded.
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ICYMI: The “Drag Me Down” singer sparked controversy earlier this year, when he went on the Impaulsive podcast and made a series of shady comments about the group.
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Liam said, among other things, that he disliked Zayn for “many reasons,” that he’d “outsold” everyone when they went solo, and even that the band had been created around him.
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His claim about the creation of One Direction prompted The X Factor to release a video from when it first started putting the group together, showing that Niall Horan was actually the first pick.
Liam says now that he was going through something personal at the time — and that he had unfairly taken it out on his former bandmates.
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“I got quite dark for me for one point when you guys turned on me,” he wrote in an Instagram comment to a fan this weekend (via the Huff Post). “I didn’t leave the house for three months.”
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“I’m sorry about all that stuff,” he continued. “I love my boys. Not sure what was going on with me other than I had a problem with me, and I took it out on everyone else.”
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“Never had a bigger chip on my shoulder, and I’m really glad to lose it,” Liam continued, before asking fans for their grace. “I’m hoping that you guys can forgive me in time because we’ve been through far too much — but the jokes are funny, keep ’em coming.”
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So far, his former bandmates have not commented publicly on his post, but we’ll let you know if they do!
