Simon Cowell addresses blame over Liam Payne’s death

Simon Cowell is opening up about what the public says regarding his relationship with Liam Payne.

On the Nov. 24 episode of the “Rolling Stone Music Now” podcast, the former “X Factor UK” creator and judge opened up about his final interaction with the late “One Direction” member, revealing he saw Payne a year before his death.

Payne died at age 31 on Oct. 16, 2024, after falling from his third-floor balcony of the Casa Sur hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Officials later determined he had a high alcohol level of 2.7 grams per liter, or 0.27% BAC, at the time of his death.

“I saw him a year before this happened. He went over to my house, and we spoke,” Cowell told podcast host Brian Hiatt. “He looked amazing, by the way. This is the best I’ve ever seen him, and we talked about his son, being a dad, and what that means.”

The 66-year-old shared that he told Payne not to let music “run your life anymore” and to “find something else that you are passionate about.”

Before his death, Payne had worked on Netflix’s show “Building the Band” alongside Tony Award winner Nicole Scherzinger of The Pussycat Dolls and Kelly Rowland of Destiny’s Child as they mentor contestants in search of the perfect musical group. “You’re in a position where you can decide when you want to put something out and when you don’t want to put something out,” Cowell said he had told Payne.

The “America’s Got Talent” host also spoke to Rolling Stone about wondering if he could have “done anything more” in terms of protecting Payne.

“What would’ve happened to Liam if he hadn’t been in the band?” he said. “Having spoken to his mom and dad recently, all they kept telling me was he was so proud of what he had achieved.”

Simon Cowell wishes he could’ve done more for Liam Payne

Cowell shared he hadn’t noticed any red flags during his final conversation with Payne. His death, he said, impacted him more than anyone he wasn’t related to.

“I wish I could turn back the clock, of course, to that day he came to my house if I had known,” he continued. “When I spoke to him that day, if I’m being honest with you, I felt really good about him. I thought, ‘wow, you seem in a really good place,’ and I was trying to give him some good advice just about life in general … And we just spent three or four hours talking, and I didn’t feel worried about him after he left.”

Simon Cowell on chatter that he’s responsible for Liam Payne’s death

After Payne’s death, online conversations bubbled up, blaming Cowell and other people in the music industry for his ultimate death.

Payne opened up about his struggles with alcohol and desire for sobriety in 2019 USA TODAY interview where he called his then-recent choice to go sober for a year “a case of growing up.”

“Luckily for me at those times (when I was drinking), I had the best people around me to make me realize different points in my life where I could be better,” he told USA TODAY. “And obviously, having kids completely changes the mindset around everything you do.”

To Rolling Stone, Cowell said he’s had to tune out the online blame directed at him: “I don’t read any of this stuff because if I did, you would just torture yourself.”

“When people speculate, and they don’t know the truth, is there a point reading what isn’t true? The idea that you are essentially responsible for somebody’s life is after you’ve signed someone. You can’t do that. You can’t live with them,” he said.

“I always say to anyone, I’m always here if you need me. When he reached out to me, it wasn’t like, ‘Simon, I really need your help.’ It was just, ‘I just want to see you, because I miss you.’ And I’m like, ‘great. I miss you too,'” Cowell said.

How did Simon Cowell and Liam Payne meet?

Cowell met Payne through the UK reality show “The X Factor” after having auditioned twice and being cut twice in 2008 and 2010, respectively.

In 2010, Cowell, along with fellow judges Nicole Scherzinger and Louis Walsh, saved Payne as well as fellow teen solo artists Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson from elimination by grouping them into a band that would later go down in history as One Direction.

“I had to tell you when you were 14 that this wasn’t your time,” Cowell wrote on Instagram on Oct. 18, 2024. “And we both made a promise that we would meet again. A lot of people would have given up. You didn’t. You came back and within months the whole world knew Liam.”

Cowell’s music label later signed One Direction, which went on to reach mega stardom and sell over $70 million copies before their indefinite hiatus in 2016.