- Former One Direction member Harry Styles said in a new interview that he suffered from anxiety while performing and touring with the band.
- “I was constantly scared I might sing a wrong note. I felt so much weight in terms of not getting things wrong,” Styles told Rolling Stone.
- But the singer also said that his time spent in the band was “so much fun.”
- “I don’t feel like I was held back at all,” Styles said of his experience with One Direction.
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Singer Harry Styles revealed in a new interview that he suffered from anxiety while performing and touring with One Direction.
“I was constantly scared I might sing a wrong note. I felt so much weight in terms of not getting things wrong,” Styles told Rolling Stone of his time in the band, which went on indefinite hiatus in 2016.
“I remember when I signed my record deal and I asked my manager, ‘What happens if I get arrested? Does it mean the contract is null and void?'” the 25-year-old singer revealed.
“Now, I feel like the fans have given me an environment to be myself and grow up and create this safe space to learn and make mistakes.”
But the singer shared with the magazine that he didn't feel restricted by One Direction, and, in fact, actually enjoyed performing with the pop band.
"I know it's the thing that always happens. When somebody gets out of a band, they go, 'That wasn't me. I was held back,'" Styles told Rolling Stone.
"But it was me. And I don't feel like I was held back at all."
"It was so much fun," Styles added.
"If I didn't enjoy it, I wouldn't have done it. It's not like I was tied to a radiator."
Read more: 12 things you probably didn't know about Harry Styles
This isn't the first time Styles has opened up about how his time spent in One Direction affected his mental health.
In One Direction's 2014 autobiography, titled "Who We Are," the singer revealed he struggled with stage fright when first performing with the band.
"I suffered some pretty serious confidence issues when I first appeared on stage," Styles wrote in the autobiography.
"At that point, any natural confidence I had was being taken over by nerves because back then I had no idea how to channel and control my anxiety."
However, the singer revealed that he was eventually able to "learn about nerves, to understand why and when they might hit and, best of all, how to control them."