The Darkness frontman Justin Hawkins defended his old video criticising Liam Payne’s ‘arrogant’ behaviour in interviews

The Darkness singer Justin Hawkins has defended previous comments he made about Liam Payne.

Justin called the One Direction singer ‘arrogant’ and criticised the late singer’s behaviour on his popular YouTube channel, Justin Hawkins Rides Again, in early 2023. The star uses his channel to discuss his time in the music industry and share his thoughts on newsworthy events.

In the video, he looked at old interviews that Liam had done and slammed the star’s behaviour as coming across as “arrogant”. A huge part of the video was about Liam’s controversial interview with Logan Paul where the 1D star called Zayn Malik a ‘d**k’ and claimed One Direction was formed for him.

However, he’s mostly complimentary towards the late star – who died aged 31 in mid-October after falling from his hotel balcony in Argentina. “I’m going to offer a bit of media training to Liam Payne because he’s my favourite one and I feel like his brand suffered the most post One Direction,” he said.

Justin said he wouldn’t be deleting the video from early 2023 ( 
Image:
Redferns)

Liam Payne died aged 31 in October ( 
Image:
Dave Benett/Getty Images)

Speaking about Liam’s comments on Logan’s show, Justin added: “He’s definitely got a little bit of a David Brent about him with the way he conducts himself in these interviews. There’s a level of arrogance and a complete lack of self-awareness. It’s quite inspiring.”

Almost two months after his death, Justin addressed his old video after a fan commented that he had “blood on his hands”. The comment, which he shared in a new clip, said: “And now he’s dead, well done. You have blood on your hands.” Another angry comment said: “Well I hope you’re happy. You did it.” Others called for him to delete the video.

Defending his video, Justin told viewers: “I didn’t see that Liam situation coming. I didn’t pay enough attention to his career to recognise that there were signs of mental instability. I just thought it was somebody who wasn’t coping with fame or trying to big themselves up or come across as somebody inauthentic. That’s what I was highlighting really. It really was just watching some videos where he was obviously behaving like a b*llend.”

He added: “As simple as that. There are videos of just about every artist in the world who hits a low ebb or on a bad day where they get interviewed and they make themselves seem like pricks. There just seems to be more of them with Liam at my disposal for that particular episode.” He explained why he didn’t ‘take it down’, saying: “Why would I do that? Why would I pretend that I hadn’t observed those things?”

Justin said: “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 behaviours. Everybody’s complex and there are layers to this and laughing at some stuff that’s laughable… that’s what I do. It’s what I’ll always do.”