Louis Tomlinson says new single 'Two of Us' helped him deal with grief over mother's death

'I used to lean on my mum for a lot of things – anytime I needed advice on something she would be the first call I made'

Louis Tomlinson has opened up about how his new song, “Two of Us” helped him with his grief over the death of his mother.

Johannah Deakin, Tomlinson’s mother, died at age 43 two years ago. She leukaemia. The musician was 24 at the time and is the oldest of six siblings.

He told Radio 1 Newsbeat that writing “Two of Us” has been therapeutic, adding: “I’m not at the stage in my grief where I’m going to open the first verse and burst into tears.”

“It was something I needed to get off my chest. I used to lean on my mum for a lot of things – anytime I needed advice on something she would be the first call I made.”

Lyrics to the track include the lines: “It’s been a minute since I called you/ You’ll never know how much I miss you/ The day that they took you/ I wish it was me instead/ But you once told me don’t give up.”

The former One Direction member said it was “a tough one” to play the song in front of his siblings, because he “didn’t want them to get caught up in the sadness”.

He added that he felt responsible for looking after his siblings after this mother’s death, which he said helped him deal with his grief.

“There is a lot of fight in life and I just get on with it,” he said. “I’m quite a positive person but there’s no two ways about it – it’s sad what happened to me.”