LIAM I’MNO FLESH INTHE PAN
Singer’s naked ambition is to be the new Mark Wahlberg
LIAM Payne doesn’t appear to be a fan of clothes. Since he was the boring one in One Direction, he’s spent more time stripping off than having hits.
His social media history is full of pictures of the young hunk wearing little – or sometimes even nothing at all. And he isn’t apologetic.
“Do I enjoy being naked?” he smiled. “And the answer was… yes.”
“There was a lot of stuff on my Instagram. I did a shoot with Mert & Marcus ( for Hugo Boss) and there was a photo of me naked on a chair. It’s just part of my job these days, I guess.”
After One Direction went on hiatus, Liam had a big hit with his debut solo single Strip That Down. That was followed by a more modest hit, For You, which was a duet with Rita Ora.
His latest song, Stack it Up, only reached No84 in the UK charts – despite being co-written by Ed Sheeran.
Headlines have mainly come from his relationship with Cheryl, who is mum to his son Bear, and his dalliance with supermodel Naomi Campbell.
And his addiction to flashing the flesh.
Liam has posed naked in a shower video, with just a curtain saving his modesty. There was also a very saucy bedroom snap, which he quickly deleted. But the posing helped get him a deal with Hugo Boss to become their global ambassador and launch the Hugo x Liam Payne capsule collection for men. He has shot an underwear commercial for the brand with legendary fashion photographers Mert & Marcus, which will be released next month. Liam, 26, from Wolverhampton, said: “It was actually an intent for me to want to do underwear modelling. Everybody wants to be the guy that’s on the box. “I got offers from a bunch of different companies to go and model for them and thought, ‘I really want to get into that side of it.’ So I went out and worked very hard to transform myself so I could do it. “We live in a very bodyconscious world – but in 2019, it’s all about acceptance and accepting yourself for what you are.” Outside of recording and promoting his music, Liam spends most of his time in the gym – even more so in the lead-up to the Hugo Boss underwear commercial Liam, who is now dating Texan model Maya Henry, 19, said: “I trained up to the commercial, shot the commercial. I
had a little bit of time off and then I had to start training again as we have perfume adverts and a bunch of other stuff.”
When he was younger, Liam boxed and was a cross-country runner. In 2012, he even made the English national running team’s reserve list.
He joked: “I gave up being an athlete because I was too lazy to keep training and now I’ve ended up doing it anyway.” When he was in talks with Hugo Boss for their underwear commercial, the inspiration they used was Mark Wahlberg’s shoot for Calvin Klein.
Liam texted Mark, who went on to become a Hollywood A-lister, joking he was going to take his underwear mantle from him. The actor then invited him to train in one of his Los Angeles F45 gyms.
Liam said: “He was like, ‘Just come out and train with us.’ So I’ve become quite good friends with him out of it as well.
“He’s such a great mentor to have as a businessman. He’s an actor, a model and started off in a band as well. So, for me, it’s like the perfect match-up for somebody who has done everything I’ve done so far and more.”
Liam also looks up to Brad Pitt and David Beckham.
He said: “I think Brad Pitt’s amazing. The fact that he literally started off as an extra at my age and now is probably one of the biggest male actors in the world.
“I’ve been lucky enough to meet David Beckham a number of times and he’s done some amazing things over his career.”
Former One Direction bandmate Harry Styles has managed to cross over and juggle singing with an acting career, starring in 2017 film Dunkirk. Now based in LA, Liam is hoping to have his own acting success and auditioned for the remake of West Side Story.
He said: “I got the chance to meet Steven Spielberg on the very first job I auditioned for, which was amazing.” Liam didn’t get the part but the process made him realise that if he does try acting, he wants to do something that’s darker – “just to kind of take away from stuff I’ve done in music and the way I’m perceived publicly”.
When he auditioned for The X Factor in 2008, Liam was 14 and Simon Cowell told him to come back in two years. He did.
He was an early favourite until the judges’ houses stage, where Nicole Scherzinger suggested he, Harry, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik should be put together to form a boyband.
Although they only came third in the live shows, they ended up becoming the biggest act to emerge from the UK X Factor.
They were the first band in American chart history to have their first four albums debut at No1 and had four UK No1 singles, including What Makes You Beautiful and Drag Me Down.
Last month, Louis admitted he’d found it hard to develop a sound but was happy with the Oasis vibe of recent single Kill My Mind. Liam, who mixes pop with R&B and hip-hop, understands that.
He said: “Louis and I wrote more or less half of every album after the first one – so four in total. It was great to learn writing and it was easier writing for the band as once you’ve had a success with something, you knew what the fans wanted.
“In your own career, you’re trying to figure out your sound. It can get quite muddled sometimes.”
Tracks are being added to his first album but he reckons his debut, which he likens to Justin Timberlake or Usher, is now ready to go.
Liam, who is desperate for success, added: “I want to give my son everything I might not have had when I was a kid.”
Everybody wants to be the guy that’s on the box
LIAM PAYNE ON BEING AN UNDERWEAR MODEL