Simon Cowell on the chances of a One Direction reunion and why he wishes he could still profit from their name

nme.com:

Simon Cowell has opened up about the possibility of One Direction reuniting, and explained why he wishes he had ownership of the band name.The music mogul and talent show judge opened up about the boy band during a recent interview on Stephen Bartlett’s The Diary Of A CEO podcast, where he looked back at his time forming the band on the 2010 series of The X Factor.All five members of the band – Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Liam Payne – auditioned for the show 14 years ago as solo artists and were ultimately put together as a group by Cowell during the series.

They then went on to release five Number One albums and become one of the most successful boy bands of all time.“When I was talking to One Direction, I remember saying to them, ‘Our goal is for you to have enough hits that if you ever reform, that you can do stadium tours.

That means you’ve got to have about 10 hit singles,” Cowell explained (via Variety), before going on to list his biggest regret with the band.“One thing I regret is I should have kept the name … I should have owned the name,” he stated, explaining how this would have allowed him to use the band name to create some spinoff projects without necessarily needing the members’ permission.“That’s the problem.

Could have made an animation or whatever, but when you give an artist the name, it’s not yours – and that’s my only regret. If you’re listening, I’ll buy it back from you.”Cowell added: “If one of the band members, for whatever reason, say they don’t want to tour, it can stop the others [from] touring.