Liam Payne had been crying out for help for years.
Maybe no one can save him.
To the casual fan, the One Direction star may have seemed cute and boyish. He was a father known to his friends as a happy and optimistic soul. As a former member of an iconic band, he sold more than 70 million records. Even more rarely, as a soloist, he also found success.
How can someone caught in that spiral lose control and fall into reckless drug addiction? Fall to your death?
A woman staying at the same Argentine hotel where Liam died on Wednesday says she heard some of his last words.
Liam Payne had been crying out for help for years. Maybe no one can save him.
To the casual fan, the beautiful young One Direction star might seem to have it all. How could someone like that spiral get so horribly out of control?
He was behaving erratically in the lobby, seemingly out of it, and after smashing her laptop, he told her, “I was in a boy band, that's why I'm so angry.”
'Was…'
What a sad combination. Very revealing.
When I heard about Liam's death, memories of people I knew from my days as an MTV video jockey in the '90s flooded my mind.
I've seen a lot of guys go from stinking bar snatchers to global one-night sensations that made grown men cry. I'm Kurt Cobain, Scott Weiland, Chester Pennington, Chris Cornell, Michael Jackson and my favorite of all, Shannon Hoon.
Shannon, lead singer of Blind Melons, was a few years older than me when we met in 1993.
In our first interview, after singing back-up in the music video for Guns N' Roses' song 'Don't Cry', I was hard-pressed when Shannon once dismissed it as 'Who Cares'.
Before Blind Melon's 'No Rain' (remember Bee Girl? There was nothing better than that in the '90s!) completely blew up, Shannon was a down-to-earth, gentle, passionate rocker.
I immediately connected with their lovely Midwestern energy. I lived in his hometown of Lafayette. Birthplace of Indianagans N' Roses frontman Axl Rose (Ross and my brother went to the same preschool).
Shannon seemed familiar to me, like an older brother.
But with each of our meetings, his light dimmed. In one year, she had gone from a stoic cutie to an eco-maniacal weirdo.
I stayed with the musicians long enough to see Shannon slide into the rhythm. Fame tormented him.
Imagine having 80,000 people who love you so much yelling your songs at you so loudly that you can't even hear your own instruments.
what are you doing Many meet as many women as possible, party as late as they can (night after night, year after year) and surround themselves with bags of drugs to ensure the rage continues.
Obviously, this comes at a price.
When I heard about Liam's death, memories of people I knew from my days as an MTV video jockey in the '90s flooded my mind. (Pictured with girlfriend Kate Cassidy in August.)
In a 2021 interview, Liam Payne said his band's managers would put the One Direction children in a hotel room for their safety after their unimaginable stardom became too much.
'Sure, what's in the room? Mini bar,” Payne recalls. “So at one point I thought, 'Okay, I'm going to throw a party for someone.'
Fame is lonely. Alcohol and drugs are destructive. And then I can't live without it.
That's what happened to Shannon. He died of a heart attack in 1995, alone and face down on a tour bus after snorting cocaine.
Like Liam, he left behind a child and an audience interested in his latest creations.
It has now been reported that Liam's label, Capitol Records, dropped him days before his death. His public relations manager resigned earlier this month. And his girlfriend, Kate Cassidy, left him alone in Argentina.
In the coming days and weeks, we will learn the truth about Liam's disappearance and how and why he fell from the balcony to his death.
But I already knew what killed Liam: fame.
Fat Uncle Sam
Elon Musk, who recently lost 30 pounds with the help of weight loss videos, is threatening to put Uncle Sam on a diet.
Trump said that if re-elected, he would “make” Elon “Secretary of Spending.”
But Musk will soon discover that there is no ozembic cure for bloated bureaucracy.
Just bad!
Why can't mother-daughter duo Heidi Klum and Leni stop posing for near-nude photos together?
In their latest ad for underwear brand Intimissimi, they're practically teed-o-teed, with Heidi, 51, once looking like an incomparable jewel in Germany's crown and always looking like a lecherous Berlin pimp.
Why can't mother-daughter duo Heidi Klum and Leni stop posing for near-nude photos together?
Low interest
that has Victoria's secret? Nobody really cares.
After the upper management wookies laced up their underwear in pesky bluehards as 'body-positive' catwalk stomps with BMIs close to the ages of Megan Rapinoe and Joe Biden, they brought back the old fashion show after a five-year hiatus. years.
The problem: We've all moved on… now buy our underwear at Target (but you can blame Biden for that!).
I need a new tailor
Isn't Taylor Swift a billionaire? Couldn't your assistant take a cruise on a private jet and maybe some nice shoes in the meantime?
For someone on such an artistic and cultural journey, he drops his football every time he opens his wardrobe.
Isn't Taylor Swift a billionaire? Couldn't your assistant take a cruise on a private jet and maybe some nice shoes in the meantime?
pure veep
Whatever JT Vance does, it works.
He refuses to use Kyliner, but I don't care if it goes live on November 5th.
With her newly toned physique, dreamy blue eyes, wrinkle-free forehead and permanent tan, this couch lover has become a true killer lady!
Outside the walls
Meanwhile, Tim Walls is making the most supportive campaign speech in American history.
Now he seems to be telling us he's a complete idiot, admitting to being a “fool” when he bad-mouthed being in China when he wasn't.
'I don't even know what a venture capitalist does!' He said this week that it must be an insult to his MAGA.
Hi Tim, acting stupid doesn't make you relatable or electable.
