Bruce Springsteen on Liam Payne death: ‘It’s a business that puts enormous pressure on young people’

‘I understand that very well,’ added the rock icon

Bruce Springsteen has reflected on the shock death of One Direction star Liam Payne, saying that the music industry “puts enormous pressures on young people.”

Payne was just 31 when he fell to his death from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina earlier this week.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Springsteen said that artists dying young is “not an unusual thing in my business.”

The “Born to Run” singer-songwriter continued: “It’s a normal thing. It’s a business that puts enormous pressures on young people.

“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 in a lot of the difficult and often pain inducing [things]… whether it’s drugs or alcohol to take some of that pressure off.”

Springsteen went on to say he’d personally struggled with depression, adding: “I understand that very well. I mean, I’ve had my own wrestling with different things.”

Bruce Springsteen and Liam Payne (Getty)

In the interview, Springsteen’s manager Jon Landau brings up several famous musicians who’ve died young, such as Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. “And Kurt Cobain,” says Springsteen, “And people continue to fall to it. It’s a death cult.”

He adds: “It’s a grift, man. That’s a part of the story that suckers some young people in, you know, but it’s that old story. Dying young – good for the record company, but what’s in it for you?”

There has been a widespread outpouring of grief since news of Payne’s death. His former One Direction bandmates have said they are “devastated” over the singer’s death, while Cheryl, the mother of Payne’s 7-year-old son Bear, has opened up about her own heartbreak at an “indescribably painful time.”

One Direction formed on reality TV contest The X Factor in 2010, with Payne alongside Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson. The late singer was described as a “kind, funny and brave soul” in a tribute from his surviving bandmates.

Payne’s cause of death was revealed in a preliminary autopsy on Thursday, October 17. The report indicated that Payne had suffered “internal and external” hemorrhages and multiple traumatic injuries. Officials said Payne’s plunge from the third-floor balcony at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel was what had caused his fatal injuries.

Follow updates and further tributes to Payne as they come in here.