In a recent interview with London's The Times, Niall Horan spoke about the death of his former One Direction bandmate Liam Payne, who died in 2024 at the age of 31 after falling from three stories of a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Horan said he was with Payne in Argentina just a few weeks before his death. Upon learning of Payne's death, Horan said he was immediately unable to come to terms with what had happened.
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«"I'm glad about that, because it means my last memory of him was a happy one," Horan said. "It still feels surreal. The first day, I thought, 'No, that didn't happen.' Our friendship was a bond that always existed, even if we didn't see each other for a while, and it's incredible that one day, like a switch flipped, he was gone.".
Horan said that since the incident, "all our families" have stayed in touch to cope with the loss. He added that there is "light and shadow" in his grief.
«"When I think about Liam's death, I'm overcome with sadness, but at the same time, I laugh and grin, remembering our moments together," he said. "I'll be in different places and remember some silly thing in a hotel or something random that makes me laugh. In Australia, we always had fun because we could go to the beach. Liam was a pretty good surfer. I can barely swim.".
His upcoming solo album, Dinner Party, due out June 5, features a track dedicated to Payne called "End of an Era." When asked how Payne would react to the song, Horan replied, "I think it's his style. He liked Coldplay, he liked songs like One Direction's 'You & I,' songs that were leading up to something bigger.".
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