The Backstreet Boy opens up about his connection with the late One Direction singer, how the Netflix series will show him “at his best,” and the moment he and co-stars Nicole Scherzinger and Kelly Rowland learned of his death.
Building the Band co-stars AJ McLean and the late Liam Payne built a true friendship while working together on the Netflix competition series.
Hosted by McLean and featuring Nicole Scherzinger, Kelly Rowland and Payne as mentor/judges, the show follows aspiring singers who form groups — without ever having seen each other in person. And while AJ had years of history with both Scherzinger and Rowland — whose group Destiny’s Child even once opened for his Backstreet Boys — it was fellow boy bander Payne he really made a strong connection with while filming the series.
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“Liam, I knew once the band formed. Once 1D was formed, we would see each other at award shows or festivals,” McLean told TooFab before the series premiere, saying it was always “super sweet” for the group to cite BSB as one of their inspirations in interviews. While he initially bonded strongest with Niall Horan, just by seeing him the most often, he and Payne really clicked when they started to work together.
“When you put Liam and I together in the same room, it was kind of remarkable to me how much our lives were parallel, even though there’s such an age gap,” said McLean. “We’ve kind of lived very similar paths. That really kind of connected us from jump street.”
“Both had the same kind of witty humor, dry humor and just talking about music, sobriety, talking about life,” continued AJ, who, like Payne before his death, has been very open about his issues with addiction and recovery.
“We were kind of in each other’s face for 14 hours a day, for like 5 weeks and you’re gonna learn somebody, if they’re open. And he’s very open,” McLean recalled of Payne. “He lit up any room that he walked into and he was just an absolute dream to get to know on a much more personal level.”
Payne unexpectedly passed away after fatally falling from his hotel balcony during a trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina, on October 16, 2024. The One Direction member was 31, leaving behind young son Bear, whom he shared with ex Cheryl Cole. He had multiple substances, including “pink cocaine,” in his system at the time of his death.
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“[The Backstreet Boys] were on a conference call with our team talking about [our upcoming residency at The Sphere] and this and that and the other, and my manager messaged me while we were on the Zoom, the news [of Payne’s death],” McLean revealed. “And I was like, ‘Guys, I’m sorry. I gotta log off for a minute.’ I took some time and then I called Nicole and I called Kelly and we all kind of cried together and talked and just kind of got it out. It’s sad, it’s horrible.”
“Hopefully … I’m assuming he’s no longer in pain, because it is a daily struggle,” McLean said of sobriety. “I’m coming up on 4 years sober. Am I there yet? No. And I won’t ever put the cart before the horse again. I’ve done that too many years where I’ve gotten complacent.”
“For me, I tried to contain it and just focus on day to day,” he said of how he deals with his own addiction journey. “What can I do to be better today and what can I do to be a better father, a better bandmate, and just a better person to others around me? I don’t think that was an issue with [Liam]. He was so kind to everyone. You’ve seen divas before. I’ve seen divas before. There was nothing diva about Liam, at all.”
The Netflix shows opens with a dedication from McLean to Payne, who appears in the later episodes of the season. While the series doesn’t drop until later this month, the One Direction singer’s family has already screened the show — and spoke about how watching it back over the past few months has allowed them to “still feel close” to their brother and see him at his “best.”
That’s a sentiment shared by McLean.
“I’m hopeful for all the 1D fans and for his family and for anyone that knew him, that they get to see him the way he truly was, at his best and just the person that everybody truly knew him for,” said AJ, noting that both of them had their “struggles” in very different times, with some of Payne’s playing out on social media.
“But we know the real Liam,” McLean concluded, “and he was a freaking legend.”
The first four episodes of Building the Band premiere July 9 on Netflix, followed by episodes 5-7 on July 16 and the final two episodes on July 23.
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