Republic RecordsLast week, Liam Payne became the final One Direction member to release solo material. But the singer tells Billboard he never actually planned to go solo at all.
“To be honest with you, I wasn’t going to do a solo venture,” Liam says. “I was just going to go into songwriting and carry on and do that. But then I was like, ‘You’ve been trying to do this since you were 14 years old. You would be ridiculously stupid to turn down the option to have a deal.’ Coming out of the band, we had some pretty good opportunities around us. I had to do something.”
His first solo single, “Strip That Down,” came thanks to a drop-everything call from Ed Sheeran last summer.
“I was in a gym in L.A., and I got a call that said ‘You have to get to London now,’” Liam says. “And we had literally just gotten to L.A., so we U-turned straight back to London — which of course you do for Mr. Ed Sheeran, because I’d do anything for the man.”
The song, which Liam co-wrote with Ed and Steve Mac, was created soon after. Then Liam had the idea to add Migos rapper Quavo to the track.
“Quavo is the man!” Liam says. “He turned the rap around in like 24 hours.”
No word yet on when Liam will be releasing a full album.
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