Liam Payne says One Direction was 'toxic' and reveals he turned to heavy drinking while struggling to cope with the band's global fame
The singer, 25, admitted he struggled to cope at times
during the height of the boyband's global fame and turned to alcohol to help maintain a happy
facade.
In a candid interview with Men's Health Australia Liam revealed
he still struggles with feeling in control now and believes more mental health care is needed for performers.
Liam says his time in one direction was a little bit toxic
'When you're
doing hundreds and hundreds of [concerts] and it's the same 22 songs at the
same time every single day, even if you're not happy, you've got to go out
there,' he said. 'It's almost like putting the
Disney costume on before you step up on stage and underneath the Disney costume
I was p***ed quite a lot of the time because there was no other way to get your
head around what was going on, I mean it was fun.
'We had an absolute blast but there were certain parts of
it where it just got a little bit toxic, it's difficult when you have the level
of fame that we had in the band.
Liam added he was 'lucky to be able out of that
scenario and back into a sense of normality, then you know it's a bit
different'.
When asked if he ever felt in control during his time in
One Direction, Liam answered 'no' and said he still struggles now because he
doesn't like to let people down.
One Direction - which is was comprised of Niall Horan,
Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson - went on an indefinite hiatus in 2016 so the
group members could focus on their solo careers. Founding member Zayn
Malik left the group in 2015.
One direction
Liam previously
said his anxiety was so bad at times he struggled to leave the house. 'I'd
be going in to order a coffee at Starbucks and I would sweat because I wouldn't
know whether I was doing the right thing or not. I would be thinking, "f***,
I don't want to be here i even used to have a really bad problem with going to
petrol stations and paying for petrol.
'I can feel it now - it was like this horrible anxiety
where I'd be sweating buckets in the car thinking, "I don't want to do
this, he said