Boy George Regrets His Hurtful Comments About Liam Payne Days Before His Death: ‘Wasn’t Very Nice’

With the music world still grieving the loss of One Direction member Liam Payne, Culture Club frontman Boy George is taking some accountability for comments he made about the late singer.

In the latest episode of the High Performance podcast, George expressed his regret over comments he left on a post of one of Payne’s performances. “I’d actually put a message under a post saying ‘he’s off his nut,’ which wasn’t very nice,” the “Karma Chameleon” singer said. “But I felt it. I felt like he was out of control.”

George continued, saying once he’d learned of the singer’s death, he was “hit” in a similar way to when Amy Winehouse passed in 2011. “It felt so senseless. I was up at five in the morning, and it came up on the American news, and I was literally just like, ‘What the f–k,’” he said. “Like, ‘No, this isn’t real,’ I could not take it in, and I think everybody felt like that.”

The singer added his anger and frustration with some of the comments he read after he posted a short tribute to the singer on his Instagram. “Someone tweeted at me, ‘Oh, you only care because he’s good looking,’ and I was like, ‘F–k off,’” he said. “You’re an idiot … no, actually, I care about his family. I watched his dad [greet fans after Payne’s death], heartbreaking.”

Payne was laid to rest in a private funeral on Wednesday (Nov. 20). Among those in attendance were Payne’s former One Direction bandmates Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik, along with The X Factor host Simon Cowell and former late-night host James Corden.

Watch the full episode featuring Boy George below: