One Direction band members mourn Liam Payne as new details emerge
One Direction band members paid tribute to Liam Payne after his death.
In the wake of Liam Payne’s death, Bruce Springsteen is reflecting on how the music industry “puts enormous pressure on young people.” The former One Direction member was 31.
Payne died outside a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, local police confirmed Wednesday, after he fell from his third-floor balcony of the Casa Sur hotel.
“That’s not an unusual thing in my business,” Springsteen says of the young age in which Payne died during an interview with The Telegraph published Thursday. “It’s a normal thing.”
He added: “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. So they get lost … whether it’s drugs or alcohol to take some of that pressure off.”
Payne earned global fame as part of the since-disbanded pop group One Direction, alongside Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson, and later as a solo artist with his hit single “Strip That Down” featuring Quavo.
In recent years, Payne also spoke candidly about struggling with addiction and the mental health struggles he experienced during the peak of 1D’s fame.
“I understand that very well,” Springsteen added. “I mean, I’ve had my own wrestling with different things.”
More: Liam Payne, former One Direction member, dies at 31 after balcony fall in Argentina
Police release 911 call made before Liam Payne’s death
In a 911 call obtained by Reuters on Thursday, the hotel’s reception head can be heard, in Spanish, calling for medical assistance for “a guest who is intoxicated by drugs and alcohol.” At the times when the guest had been “conscious,” he was “breaking the whole room,” the hotel staff member also says on the 911 call.
The operator then confirms the hotel’s location before the staff member adds: “We need you to send someone urgently because, well, I don’t know if the guest’s life is at risk. He has a room with a balcony. And, well, we are a little afraid that he will do something that will put his life at risk.”
What was Liam Payne’s cause of death?
The National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office No. 16 in Argentina announced in a press release Thursday that Payne died from “polytrauma” and “internal and external hemorrhage” after falling from his third-floor balcony.
Authorities are investigating the circumstances surrounding his death, they said in the release translated from Spanish to English, but prosecutors believe Payne was alone when the fall occurred.
Liam Payne’s father visits site where his son fell to death
The father of pop-star Liam Payne, Geoff Payne, visited the balcony from where his son fell to his death in a hotel in Buenos Aires.
Prosecutors said the autopsy was conducted based on five witness statements from three hotel staff members and two women who were with the musician in his room but who say they left the hotel before the singer’s death.
According to the statement, Payne’s body was transferred to a morgue, where an autopsy was performed late Wednesday night and the forensic experts found that “25 injuries described in the autopsy are compatible with those caused by a fall from a height.”
Prosecutors said that his brain injuries were “enough to cause death,” while “internal and external bleeding” in the head and upper body also contributed to his death.
Contributing: Jay Stahl, Taijuan Moorman, KiMi Robinson, USA TODAY; Reuters
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance use disorders, you can call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357). The service is free, confidential and available in English and Spanish.