The British singer also remarks that the group didn't have enough time to celebrate their success as they were always busy, adding that it's what got on top of them in the end.
- Nov 22, 2017
AceShowbiz - Being successful doesn't always mean that you are happy and that is what Liam Payne felt when One Direction was at the peak of their fame. The British singer revealed that he was often forced to put up a front during performances.
"I shouldn't have been able to do as many shows as we did, if I'm honest about it, if I'm brutally honest about it," Liam told The Sun. "Going out and putting that happy smile on my face and singing the songs, honestly, sometimes it was like putting on one of those costumes, going out there and, underneath the costume, people don't really see what's going on."
Liam added that the group didn't have enough time to celebrate their success as they were always busy. "The more we did, I just don't think we stopped and celebrated enough how great things were and I think that's what got on top of us in the end," he continued. "It was like, 'Oh, you've just won three EMAs, but get on the plane and go to the next place.' "
The situation eventually came to a head when the group cancelled a show in Belfast in 2015 after Liam suffered from panic attack-like symtomps ahead of the gig. At that time, he had also just split from his former schoolmate Sophia Smith. "I let it get to me that day. I wasn't in a good place. And unfortunately I was going through a rough time and I let it get to me a little bit too much," he recalled.
The father of one concluded his story by saying that going on a hiatus was the best decision for the group, even though it made many fans sad. "We needed a little bit of time away from each other. We needed a realisation point to find the love for it again, rather than it just becoming a job," he remarked, adding, "I'm a totally different person now to how I used to be about it."
