Liam Payne "One Hundred Percent" Thinks Staying In One Direction Would've Killed Him

    "There's no stop button, and you have no control over your life."

    Terry Carter Jr.
    by Terry Carter Jr.

    BuzzFeed Staff

    This week, Liam Payne appeared on the Google podcast Table Manners with Jessie Ware and opened up about his experience as a member of One Direction.

    The 26-year-old singer said the success of the band "scared the shit" out of him, adding that he lost "complete control of everything." "I wanted nothing to do with it. There's no stop button, and you have no control over your life," he shared.

    "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," he said.

    "Someone asked me how to pay car insurance. I haven’t got any fucking clue," Liam continued. "You're really grown up in some things. In other things, you're like a baby."

    The UK native admitted he was in "self-destruct mode" during his time in the group. "I used to get off stage, high off the endorphins or whatever and get horrendously drunk, get up at, like, five o’clock in the afternoon, and then do it all again."

    Liam says after having "a real episode" and getting a message from his manager, "I kind of just thought, 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."

    "I needed to stop, definitely," he stated. "It would have killed me. One hundred percent."

    Listen to Liam's full interview here.