Liam Payne has claimed that a promise Simon Cowell made to him personally was behind the X Factor’s decision to put he and his One Direction bandmates together instead of cutting them from the show.
After forming during the Boot Camp stage on the 2010 series of the popular ITV show, One Direction went on to become one of the biggest boy bands in history, releasing five studio albums and touring worldwide.
The band were put together after a controversial decision to axe its five members was taken during Boot Camp, with the young lads dramatically recalled and told the good news by the judges.
Now, speaking on the Impaulsive podcast, Liam has suggested that his first appearance on the X Factor two years earlier may have been behind Simon Cowell’s theatrical change of heart.
(Image: Dave Benett/Getty Images for Fri)
“I had already been on the show two years prior to the band being made. What happened when I was on the show the first time, I went on and I sang and I got from 180,000 people down to the last 24,” he observed.
“So it’s a step before you’re making it, and Simon kicked me off. Then the weirdest thing happened, Simon had dinner with me and my mum, and the manager of One Direction was at that dinner.
“Simon was like, ‘I’m really sorry I had to let you go, I didn’t want to let you go but you have to go and get your education and come back in two years.’”
(Image: Getty Images)
Liam remembered feeling frustrated at his mentor, but decided to use the time to develop his experience as a musician, performing regularly in local venues near his home in Wolverhampton.
Fast forward a couple of years, and Liam found himself back in front of the ITV cameras, when he was infamously told he would not be making it to the judges’ houses stage.
“I myself wouldn’t have put me through if I’m honest with you, I don’t think I was good enough for the standard of what it was,” he remembered.
(Image: UK Press via Getty Images)
“We got kicked off, all of us, and then me and Niall were about to go and get the train in Euston and this woman came behind us and was like, ‘please come back the judges want to speak to you’.”
So, Liam recalled how the judges had picked out his fellow bandmates – as well as creating a girl group out of misfits at the same time – and suggested that a promise from Simon Cowell during his first stint on the show may have influenced the decision to put the boys together.
“From what I’ve heard, part of the reason One Direction was made is because of Simon’s promise that, ‘in two years I’ll make this work for you’,” he claimed.
“So he kind of started with my face and worked around the rest… I was the honorary member of One Direction, and he’s told me that story in his house.”
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
