The Darkness’ Justin Hawkins defends criticising Liam Payne interview: “It’s really sad what happened to him, but it’s not going to change my view on those specific behaviours”

nme.com:

The Darkness’ Justin Hawkins has addressed a previous video he made criticising Liam Payne, and opened up about why he isn’t going to remove the post in light of the singer’s death.The frontman initially spoke about Payne on his hugely popular Justin Hawkins Rides Again YouTube channel, which sees him elaborate on his time in the music industry and weigh in his thoughts on news-worthy events and new releases.Back in March 2023, Hawkins shared a video in which he looked at previous interviews that Payne had done, and criticised some of his behaviour as coming across as “arrogant”.

A large segment of the video centred around the divisive discussion Payne had with Logan Paul, in which he recalled the formation of One Direction and implied that he was meant to be seen as the main member in the line-up.Although Hawkins seemed to defend Payne to an extent – describing him as his “favourite” member and sympathising with him as one whose brand “suffered the most post-One Direction” – the comments made were brought to light once again following the singer’s death earlier this year.Payne died on October 16 at the age of 31, after falling from a third-floor balcony at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina.