I was pissed quite a lot of the time because there was no other way to get your head around what was going on." On Wednesday, Oct. 16, the 31-year-old singer died after falling from a hotel balcony.

After the boy band broke up in 2016, Zayn Malik, Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Payne all pursued solo careers to varying degrees of success.

Dermot O’Leary, who hosted The X Factor while Payne was a contestant, shared an image of him and Payne on Instagram, with the caption: “The worst news. I remember him as a 14 year old turning up to audition on The X Factor, and blowing us away singing Sinatra. He just loved to sing.”