The Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins has posted a new video on his YouTube channel to respond to the backlash he received regarding a previous video he made about the late Liam Payne.
The rocker sat down to read some comments he received. Some fans shared their dissatisfaction with one of Hawkins’ old videos about Payne from two years ago, saying he should take down the video now that he passed away.
However, the rocker refuses to take it down and agrees with the commenters saying ‘history shouldn’t be hidden.’ “I didn’t see that Liam situation coming. I didn’t pay enough attention to his career to recognize that they were signs of mental instability, I just thought it was definitely somebody who wasn’t coping with fame or was trying to put big themselves up or come across as something that was a little bit inauthentic, and that’s what I was highlighting, really,” the singer explained.
“I don’t think I actually said it, I think it really was just watching some videos where he was obviously behaving like a bellend, as simple as that,” he continued. “There’s videos of just about every artist in the world who are on a bad day where they get interviewed and they make themselves seem like pricks. It just seems to be more of them of Liam at my disposal for that particular episode.”
Hawkins then further explained why he still hasn’t deleted the video. “I didn’t take it down. The reason why I didn’t take it down is because that would be like, why would I do that? Why would I pretend I hadn’t observed those things? It’s really sad what happened to him, but at the end of the day it’s not going to change my view on those specific behaviors. Everybody’s complex, there’s layers to this, and laughing at some stuff that’s laughable, that’s what I do and that’s what I’ll always do.”
The comments were referring to the video titled ‘What A F***ing Muppet.’ In the video, Hawkins reacts to an interview of Payne.
The former One Direction singer passed away at the age of 31. He was staying at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and was in the city to watch his bandmate Niall Horan perform on October 2. The singer reportedly fell from his third-floor room.
In a statement, capital police reported that they were called to the hotel in Buenos Aires’ Palermo neighborhood due to an ‘aggressive man who could be under the effects of drugs and alcohol.’ Authorities indicated that Liam Payne’s fall resulted in ‘extremely serious injuries,’ and he was pronounced dead at the scene. Alberto Crescenti, head of Buenos Aires’ public emergency medical services, confirmed Payne’s death in statements to local media outlets, including Todo Noticias and La Nacion.
