Louis Tomlinson Says Zayn Malik’s Recent 1D Covers Made Him ‘Feel Good’ But Says to ‘Ask Him’ If They’re Friends

When Zayn Malik posted a cover of One Direction’s “Night Changes,” stan Twitter went crazy. And for Louis Tomlinson, it felt pretty good to see his former bandmate perform the song, too. On Wednesday, Tomlinson appeared on The Zack Sang Show and touched on his relationship with Malik and how it felt to see him sing a beloved 1D song after so many years.

“Are we friends? You’d have to ask him,” Tomlinson said. “I believe I said when you asked me a similar question before, I said… ‘I don’t think I’m mature enough to get over what’s frustrating me in that relationship.’ I don’t know if I’m mature enough now, but I’m definitely closer to being over all that.”

Tomlinson said he’s thought of Malik over the years and has unsuccessfully “tried to get in touch” with him over the years. Still, he wishes his former bandmate “well.” He also spoke about liking Malik’s recent One Direction covers on Instagram.

“He’s a different caliber in terms of singer, Zayn, definitely. I will say that,” he said. “I wasn’t just liking it for the sake of liking it. It was a nice feeling ’cause, you know, in the past he’s said what he’s said about the band. And I understand some of what he was saying.”

He added, “But for me, in those videos, it showed he was reflecting. It showed that he was thinking about those times. Of course, at the same time, showing off his incredible voice. But that’s why it made me feel good, ’cause it was like, ah, maybe you’re thinking about good times in the band.”

Tomlinson said that the two will have to “bump into each other” to reconnect and that they don’t have each other’s number, but that “social media might be the way” for them to reconnect.

Tomlinson joked that he’d DM him, “We go way back, man! You remember me, right?”

Then Sang asked the “Walls” singer about a recent interview with Liam Payne, who claimed that One Direction was built around him and had some not-so-great words to say about the band in general, including Malik. (At the time, Sang had tweeted that he had “just unfollowed Liam Payne and I feel clean.” In the episode, he apologized for doing so.)

“It wasn’t too bad,” Tomlinson said about Payne’s controversial interview before adding, “This job is fucking challenging at times, mentally… All I’ll say on that was… [Logan Paul] knew exactly what he was doing. The buttons he was pressing.”

He went on to defend his former bandmate even more, adding, “I thought whoever is involved with the show… It just felt disrespectful, I’ll say. They got so much out of it.” 

From Rolling Stone US.