In a new interview with The Telegraph, Bruce Springsteen reflected on Liam Payne’s recent passing.
“It’s a normal thing,” the singer said. “It’s a business that puts enormous pressures on young people. Young people don’t have the inner facility or the inner self yet to be able to protect themselves from a lot of the things that come with success and fame.”
He continued, “So they get lost in a lot of the difficult and often pain inducing [things]… whether it’s drugs or alcohol to take some of that pressure off. I understand that very well.”
Springsteen added that he and his band have all been through their own challenges and revealed, “Danny [Federici] certainly did. Drugs were not uncommon in the E Street Band, you know. There was a boundary, however – I stayed out of your business, but if I was on stage and I saw that you were not your complete self, there was going to be a problem.”
“People continue to fall to it. It’s a death cult. It’s a grift, man,” the rocker also noted. “That’s a part of the story that suckers some young people in, you know, but it’s that old story. Dying young – good for the record company, but what’s in it for you?”
Payne died earlier this week at 31 after falling from a third-floor balcony at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Since then, many have blamed the music industry. Sharon Osbourne also said it failed him.
She shared, “Where was this industry when you needed them? You were just a kid when you entered one of the toughest industries in the world. Who was in your corner?”
Many in the music industry, like Shawn Mendes, Maggie Rogers, Robbie Williams, and others, have paid respects to Payne. One Direction’s remaining members shared a joint statement expressing their heartbreak and need for time to grieve.