Simon Cowell, who co-created and first signed One Direction, is speaking out following the death of band member Liam Payne at age 31.
One Direction was created on Cowell's reality show, The X-Factor, in 2010.
Together with Nicole Scherzinger, Cowell selected Payne, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik for a boy band that ended up finishing third in the competition.
Cowell then signed them to his label Syco Records where they went on to sell over 70 million records.
