Liam Payne knew how he wanted to be remembered.
The singer and former One Direction band member died on Oct. 16 after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at the age of 31.
In resurfaced video from VeeCon in May 2022 with Logan Paul and Swan Sit, Payne, who leaves behind 7-year-old son Bear, was previously asked what he would like to be remembered for — and he delivered a heartfelt response.
“Honestly, just being a nice guy,” Payne said in a TikTok shared by user Matt Hall following Payne’s death. “I’d rather be known for being a nice guy than anything else.”
“For me now, it’s trying to give everybody the time they deserve with you if that’s the thing they’re excited about,” he continued. “It doesn’t matter what they say or what they do. You just gotta give your time and effort into those people, because it comes back. So, yeah, I’d rather be known for being nice than anything else.”
The “Strip That Down” singer’s comments echoed what many fans and his friends have said about him in the wake of his death. Before he died, Payne was seen greeting fans and taking photos with them in Argentina.
His One Direction bandmates in their joint and separate tributes also touched on their wonderful memories they had with him.
Additionally, in another clip from the same 2022 event, Payne spoke about the pressures of being a role model when he was still learning and growing.
“I always hate the term role model,” he said. “We were 16-year-old boys in a band that would, like, be dumping water on stage on each other on stage every night.”
He added that very early on, he learned “you can’t really be a role model if you’re still learning. So, like, don’t follow me ‘cause I’m learning with you.”
Payne said that he supposed it changes when one gets older, but the pressures of being a young role model are “crazy.”
The “Familiar” singer previously spoke about drinking alcohol to cope with his One Direction fame. In a July 2023 video, he revealed that he spent 100 days in rehab taking “a little bit of time our for myself” because he “didn’t really recognize” himself anymore.
“I was in bad shape up until that point, and I was really happy more than anything when I arrived to kind of put a stopper on life and work,” he said at the time, adding that he wanted to get a “more of a grip on life.”
While TODAY.com has yet to verify Payne’s toxicology report, the singer’s cause of death was “polytrauma and internal and external bleeding.” According to the release from the prosecutor’s office, the pop star died as a result of “multiple traumatic injuries” and “internal and external bleeding” he sustained after his balcony fall.
