The Ordinary Boys‘ frontman Preston has opened up about working with Liam Payne, and shared how they almost shared the same fate.
Payne died in October 2024 at the age of 31 after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. A judge later ruled that he was trying to make an escape, while he had pink cocaine and other substances in his system.
In 2017, Preston was hospitalised and told he would never walk again after falling from a second-floor balcony in Denmark while drunk.
In a new interview with the Guardian, Preston has reflected on the accident and said that inspired the song ‘Live Forever’ – a track which was recorded and released by Payne in 2019.
“And then he falls off a balcony and dies,” Preston said to the paper, reportedly while shaking his head in disbelief. “There are certain things that happen in your life where you just cannot believe this is a real set of circumstances,” he added.
He went on to describe Payne as “a very funny, sweet, kind guy. Misunderstood. A great talent”, adding that the songs Payne co-wrote with him were often “undisguised cries for help”.
“I saw a lot of him in me, because we both suffered. I massively wish I’d been able to do more. But as for some kind of intervention, I don’t think I [had that role] in his life,” he said, adding that ‘Live Forever’ “was me trying to say, ‘Look, man, this thing happened to me.’ But it’s hard to give people advice if they’re not ready to receive it.”
The Ordinary Boys share their comeback single ‘Peer Pressure’ today (April 17), marking their first music since 2015 – excluding a Christmas single with Olly Murs.
The latest interview with The Guardian also saw Preston open up about walking-off Never Mind The Buzzcocks, saying that the joke made by host Simon Amstell was “cruel and classist”.
In the aftermath of Payne’s death, the surviving members of One Direction – Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson – shared a joint statement on Payne’s death, where they expressed their devastation, and that they would need time “to grieve and process the loss of our brother, who we loved dearly.”
Styles also recently said that Payne’s death made him re-evaluate how he saw life, while Horan has opened up about the “fear, sadness and all the stuff that comes with grief” this year.
Tomlinson also recently spoke out about Payne‘s death, saying it was “impossibly difficult for him to deal with”.
The post The Ordinary Boys’ Preston on working with Liam Payne – and how they nearly shared the same fate: “I saw a lot of him in me, because we both suffered” appeared first on NME.