When I met Liam Payne five years ago, he was 26 years old and riding high. He was about to release his debut solo album and buoyed by the success of the first single, Strip That Down, which he claimed had outsold any of his former One Direction bandmates’ efforts to date. Photos of Payne in Hugo Boss underwear, his body absurdly built, were inescapable, plastered all over buses and billboards.
It was clear, throughout our interview, that Payne took some satisfaction in all this. Through his six formative years in the X Factor boyband, he had been pegged as the group’s “Mr Vanilla”. Payne told me of feeling manipulated by management to keep the others in check, worsening their relationships and the already immense pressure he was under.
