The sad story of Liam Payne is as old as show business itself. A fresh-faced young man, full of dreams of stardom and wealth, whose meteoric rise is matched only by his fall from grace.
Someone who seemed to have it all (talent, good looks, money, a son, loyal friends, armies of admirers) but ultimately had a void in his life that he simply couldn’t fill.
For some reason, poor Liam was suffering: the kind of pain that leads a person to self-medicate into oblivion and, in his case, a gruesome and tragic death, after falling from the balcony of a hotel in Buenos Aires.
I can’t help but think of that Justin Bieber song, Lonely: ‘What if you had everything, but no one to call? Maybe then you would know me, because I have had it all, but no one listens to me, and that makes me feel very alone.
Bieber, of course, was a youthful collaborator of Sean Combs, aka P Diddy, who is now mired in one of the biggest scandals to ever hit the pop music industry. But there is a terrible symmetry here. A similar age to Payne (30 compared to the late Payne’s 31), Bieber also rose to fame at a tender age.
Liam Payne died Wednesday night after falling from a third-floor balcony of the CasaSur hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
While Liam was breaking through with One Direction, Bieber was breaking teenage hearts as a pop sensation in the United States.
He first met Diddy, in many ways his mentor, when he was 14, the same age at which Payne first auditioned for The X Factor, delivering a silky smooth performance of Fly Me To The Moon that impressed the judges, including Liam’s future. girlfriend, Cheryl Cole, ten years his senior.
Footage has recently resurfaced of teenager Bieber making plans to “go pick up some girls” with Diddy, who is accused of sex trafficking, sexual assault and other crimes. Bieber is said to be “disturbed by Diddy’s allegations and is unwilling to process or discuss them.”
No child could have emerged unscathed from any association with such a man and, in fact, Bieber has made no secret of his psychological struggles with depression and anxiety.
But unlike Liam in his final days, Bieber has good people around him, namely his wife, Hailey, 27, daughter of actor Stephen Baldwin, whom the star routinely credits with saving his life.
Unfortunately for Payne, his support system appears to have failed him in the weeks leading up to his death. His girlfriend, Kate Cassidy, had initially been on the trip to Argentina with him, but left early, telling her social media followers that she just needed to “get home.”
Hours before she died, she posted a photo of the two of them together, her in a bikini and him showing off an impressive six-pack. He doesn’t look like someone whose life is falling apart.
And yet, just days earlier, his record label, Universal, had fired him after the release of his second solo album was put on hold. His publicist had also abandoned him.
Perhaps worse still, his ex-fiancee Maya Henry had earlier this month launched legal proceedings against him, accusing him of repeatedly contacting her against her wishes. In short, his entire world had collapsed.
The knowledge of all this only makes his latest sightings, generously posing for selfies with his fans, even more heartbreaking. The pop star to the end: consoling herself, perhaps, with that unconditional adulation.
Of course, ultimately, no one is directly to blame for such a tragedy. If someone wants to destroy themselves, it is almost impossible to stop them. Situations like this are very common, in which a person is in terrible emotional and psychological pain, and their loved ones try, again and again, to help, only to end up hurting themselves.
Liam with Simon Cowell and former One Direction bandmates Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, Harry Styles and Zayn Malik.
When that happens, often the only thing to do is walk away, especially if children or other vulnerable people are involved. Ask the family of any addict: they not only harm themselves, but also those around them. When someone has as many demons as poor Liam, it’s hard.
That said, there is a duty of care, and that’s what no one in the music industry seems to have thought about. How a young man catapulted into the public spotlight at a tender age, showered with money and adulation, might have felt unable to face the prospect of losing it all.
How, never having known anything else, he could have succumbed to self-loathing and despair. Tellingly, one of the last coherent things he said to a fan minutes before he died was, “I used to be in a boy band, that’s why I’m so screwed.”
This is a question of responsibility and, in that sense, the burden falls squarely on the shoulders of a music industry whose bosses, in their desire to make money, have no qualms about exploiting vulnerable young men and women like Payne, demanding that they increasingly. , exposing them to all sorts of potential dangers and risks without, it seems, giving enough thought to the safeguarding risks involved.
Pop music is especially guilty of this. Manufactured acts like One Direction, created by moguls for the express purpose of making money, are famous for pushing naïve young people over the edge.
It’s especially difficult when the people involved come from troubled or difficult backgrounds and where the pressure comes not only from the industry and fans, but also from their families. In this sense, Liam was different: he was close to his family, who are now said to be paralyzed by grief.
But in the case of Bieber, for example, his mother grew up in absolute poverty and was abandoned by Justin’s father when the boy was still very young. The boy’s talent was a ticket out of Nowheresville; an opportunity for a better life.
Perhaps that explains why she allowed her 15-year-old son to spend an unsupervised weekend with Diddy, a man who already had a reputation for violence and debauchery. The same could be said of Britney Spears, whose public collapse in 2007/08 was largely a result of the enormous pressure that fame put on her.
And I think this is the crux of the problem with these very young stars. Because of their success and the financial imperatives of their situation, they skip the important process of growing up.
They find fame at the age of 14 or 15, often after years of hard work. They are then highly sexualized by the industry, which exposes them to an adult world that they are not mature enough for.
Instead of forming normal, healthy friendships, they spend their time with other people in the same situation or find themselves isolated, never really knowing what is real and what is not. They become emotionally stunted and experience love in the form of fame, which in itself is the most fickle currency. Chained to a conveyor belt, their entire lives are decided for them.
And then, when the dew on their cheeks has faded and the next fad has taken hold, they find themselves on the scrap heap. Physically, Payne may have been a 31-year-old man; but emotionally a part of him was still a vulnerable teenager.
You could well say that the rewards are excellent and that is simply the price you pay. But can any 15-year-old really understand the consequences of taking that path?
Plus, the essence of being a teenager is wanting everyone to notice you. Young stars like Payne can’t be expected to understand what they’re getting into. That is the job of the adults around them and those who run the industry. Or, at least, it should be.
Of course, not all former pop sensations end up dead. But many end up damaged. The list is endless, from Miley Cyrus to Billie Piper, Robbie Williams and Charlotte Church.
I remember once meeting a very young Selena Gomez at an industry event. She was so fragile, so vulnerable, sitting there surrounded by leering executives three times her age. It reminded me of a fawn among a pack of wolves.
If you are lucky and allow yourself to receive help, you will find strong partners who will care for you and heal you. Bieber has Hailey, Williams has Ayda Field, who many credit with saving him from his worst excesses. But many, like Liam, don’t. Spears is still dancing in her underwear on Instagram, poor girl.
Payne’s death is a personal tragedy for all those who knew him, loved him and wanted better for him.
For the music industry, it should be a wake-up call. Be better, do better. And treat people like Liam like human beings, not money-making machines.
