I was watching Louis Tomlinson’s latest interview yesterday as he takes us through his journey of life from his childhood to One Direction, life after One Direction and finally to his solo career. What was so special about this interview was that he talked so openly about his traumas, his griefs, his relations with other members of the band, the struggles he faced while being in the band and after that. And I being a directioner from a very young age relate to every single word he said and how things would have turned at that point of time. Here are the key things, I take from that interview:
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Tragedy in personal life: Louis, originally from Doncaster didn’t spend much time with his biological father. As per him, he only saw his father maybe three times in his life. He was the eldest in the family with four younger sisters to look after. Her mum was definitely the closest to him, as he would share all his life things with her. Louis, when he was only seventeen left the home, before he could realize he was in the One- Direction band. For the next five years he wasn’t able to spend that much time with the family. I mean we already what One Direction did in those five years was nothing close to normal. Five albums, four world tours and more than one hundred songs in a span of five years is nothing close to the normal. Louis mentioned how his busy life with band, concerts, tours, albums, brand-shooting, documentaries all gave him no time to be there with his family. He even mentioned that he spent so much time away from the family, that he was not even able to distinguish among his two younger twin sisters. But the worst part was yet to come. Not a year later after the infamous 1D hiatus, when Louis was still struggling to identify himself as a solo artist, Louis’s mum was diagnosed with leukemia and within eighteen months she passed away. This was one of the most heartbreaking things for him as she was not only his mum, his ally, his dad and everything. He mentioned that for the next six months, it was just him and his grief. He though bravely performed at X Factor only three days after her mother passed as this was his mother’s last desire. She knew that it was his first single as a solo artist and she don’t want her health to affect her son’s career. I remembered Louis looking up at the sky after the performance with tears in his eyes, probably one of the bravest things a person can do. After his mother passed away, the responsibility of his four younger sisters was on him. So, he had to get out of the bed and work as he has to take care of him family. Louis became a guardian to his sisters. But the agony doesn’t end here. It was not more than a year since his mother has died when his younger sister, Felicity passed away due to accidental overdose. And that thing literally broke Louis. He felt like he couldn’t fulfill his promise he made to his mother in her last days that he would take care of her sisters and specially Felicity. Louis could not fathom why things were going so bad with him. He literally became numb to emotions for many months. But that was not an end to his troubles as only in 2025, we heard the news of demise of Liam, his best mate in the band after falling from a cliff in Argentina against after overdose. So, what Louis achieved in his career after going through all of this pain while carrying the responsibility of his family on him is quite unbelievable.
Life in One Direction: Not many people know that Louis interviewed two times for X-Factor when he was 15 and 16 respectively and couldn’t make up to the final rounds. It was only in third year that Simon Cowell decided to put him in the band along with four other lads namely Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, Liam Payne and Harry Styles. The band become one of the most successful Boybands of all time breaking records with their first single, “What Makes You Beautiful” going number one in more than 37 countries. And after that there was no going back. Hits after hits turn the five normal lads into the biggest superstars of the world. Madison Square Garden, Wembley Stadium, MCG, they performed everywhere. But how was life inside the One Direction. Louis mentioned that he wasn’t the most confident singer in the band and that the band would have still do the same without him. He remembers having anxiety before every performance and he thought of running away from all that. Harry, Liam and Niall were all very confident lads. So, it was Zayn and Louis who were left alone and share the same ghosts which is why the two of them become the best friends in no time. In the early years, life was a lot more exciting but with time passing the things become to get more and more heavier. There was literally no time for boy’s personal things. As Liam also mentioned in his previous interview that all they do every day was to go on stage and perform, come back to their vanity and then in their hotel room. Drugs, alcohol became a part of their lives. Each day they would come back to their room and just do these stuffs. Louis mentioned that every time they are back from stage performance, him and Zayn would just sit in their room and smoke weed. It would just calm the noises in their head and connects them to the normality. He mentioned that we were only nineteen by then and there were so many times they would feel homesick. He remembered so many conversations with Zayn where they decided to call it a day off, but they couldn’t.
Relationship with other band members: Louis also openly talked about his relationship with his other band mates. He admitted that in the band it was Zayn who was his best friend. The two of them were likely in their behavior. They both come from a small town of London. The two of us were the mischievous one in the band who don't use to care much about the rules and regulations, a thing because of which Liam gave them a hard time somedays. He mentioned that he was absolutely fuming when Zayn decided to leave One Direction in 2015. He felt betrayed, as like at least Zayn should have talked about his decision to Louis even though if he did not want to throw the other boys at the bus with this news. He even mentioned that in the last tour that Zayn did, all of the other boys had separate rooms, except for Louis and Zayn who shared the room. This talks about the epitome of his bonding with Zayn. He also however mentioned that he probably understands that if Zayn would have told him, he might probably convinced Zayn to stay which was why the reason Zayn didn’t tell him. He highly applauds Zayn for doing things which he like no matter the consequence. If there was a thing that Zayn don't want to do, nobody in the world can force him to do so. Zayn’s reason to leave the band was that he wants to live his life like a normal twenty-two-year lad and also the music which we did in the band was too childish. Louis mentioned that these were the things which all of us felt within the band but only Zayn had the courage to address it which is why he respects him so much. He was always sure that Zayn is going to have a blast as a solo artist as he has one of the best voices in the band. Louis also throw light on the little bug they had on twitter after the One Direction hiatus. But the thing that broke him was that Zayn didn't turned up when Louis's mother passed. For the next five years both of them were not on talking terms. It was only at Liam’s funeral, the two of them meet and things have been very smooth after that. Louis attended Zayn’s first solo concert as he knew Zayn always suffer from stage anxiety. The two of them were then spotted playing darts in LA. Louis admit that they are back on good terms and soon there might be a documentary featuring the two of them. Zayn had also openly talked about Louis something which is very rare from him and the demise of their common best friend Liam had brought them together. Talking about Liam, Louis mentioned that the former band member was one of the saftest pair of hands with every task he was awarded be it interviews, lyrics, Music Videos, songs etc. He also mentioned that he is the one with the most experience among them as he started his singing career even before One Direction. As per Louis, Liam really wants to live this career of stardom which was one of the reasons why he struggled when his solo career didn't too well. He also mentioned that he was one of the most misunderstood members of the band. He was the one who always put the other person first. He remembers Liam’s attending Louis’s documentary release talking about how he became successful solo artist after one year of struggle in life after One Direction. He mentioned that Liam himself was so much struggling at that time with his career but yet he attended Louis’s success story, a thing none of the other boys would have done in his place. Louis felt sorry that he was not there for Liam in his tough times like he was not there for her sister Felicity. Surprisingly enough, Louis didn't talk much about Niall and didn't mentioned Harry even once in the entire two hours interview.
Life after One Direction: Louis also openly talked about the struggles he faced after One Direction. He said that he felt like where to go from now after One Direction. He had never ever thought of something like this, and it took him a lot of time to identify himself. He mentioned that his first two album was all about experimenting and finding what is his type of music. He struggled badly as there were so many things going on his personal life which I already mentioned above. He remembers sometimes calling Liam and the two of us wishing they were in the band. He mentioned when the band announced hiatus, he knew in his mind that the only way from here is downwards which is a very difficult thing for a twenty two years old. He mentioned that he is still trying to live up to this reality. Even though he is successful as solo artist, but he can never ever supersede or even match the success he had in band. He tries in his mind to not compare the two careers but sometimes the figures and sales hit his mind. He mentioned a particular incident when he was recently performing cover of One Direction’s song “Night Changes” in front of a small gig of 1300 people and he said that he suddenly had the very vivid images of him singing Night Changes in band at Wembley Stadium in front of 1,00,000 people. And the lyrics were just how fast the night changes. So, life sometimes is poetically brutal. He said that this is a thing he is still learning to deal with it. He also mentioned that never in a million years at the start of his solo career he would have thought that his album would go number one which his last album, “Faith in the Future” did. He also said that he is growing in confidence as a singer with each song and ended the interview on a very positive note saying that the blurry picture that he always had in mind is now getting sharper.
