Zayn Malik has reflected on saving his former One Direction bandmate Harry Styles from an accident onstage in 2013.
Speaking to Sean Evans on the latest episode of Hot Ones, Malik talked about his upcoming record, reflected on his past solo music and more. While eating his seventh spicy wing, Evans asked Malik if he had experienced any mishaps onstage, including pyrotechnics.
“I’ve never actually been burned by pyro. One time – there’s footage of it, it’s actually amazing because it makes me look great – but on stage, Harry [Styles] was right next to a pyro. The pyro was about to go off, because they were on timers and he had a towel over his head, and his head over the pyro – he didn’t see that the pyro was there.”
“You see me run from one side of the stage and push him out of the way and the pyro kind of explodes in front of his face. That was real dangerous.”
Speaking on other technical difficulties he’s faced, Malik recalled long power outages during One Direction’s earlier shows: “We’d just burst into ‘Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,’ a capella. Just do the whole performance of that until the microphones were working again.”
“That was the thing that we had in our back pocket always like, ‘If the microphone goes, we’ve always got that,’” he added. “As if it was some amazing performance. Funny times.”
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Watch fan-shot footage of the almost-accident from 2013 below.
Earlier this week, Malik announced a new album, ‘Room Under The Stairs’. The record is due to arrive on May 17. It will be Zayn Malik’s fourth solo record overall, and his first with Mercury Record, which also houses the likes of Noah Kahan, Post Malone and Lily Rose.
‘Room Under The Stairs’ will be previewed by its lead single, ‘What I Am’, later this week. A track list for the record has yet to be revealed. While it has yet to be confirmed, fans are speculating that the record will see Malik experiment with country music, as suggested by him working with country and rock producer Dave Cobb.
Speaking on the Call Her Daddy podcast last year, Malik teased: “I’m doing a record I don’t think people are really gonna expect. It’s a different sound for me.” He continued: “And it’s got some more narrative going on, like real-life experiences and stuff. My daughter’s mentioned in there a couple of times.”
Malik’s 2021 record ‘Nobody Is Listening’ scored a three-star review, with Dhruva Balram writing for NME: “‘Nobody is Listening’ has its flaws, but Zayn is clearly working out a few chinks in his armour, and this comes across as a step in a new and fresh direction for the enigmatic artist.”
One Direction formed in 2010 during The X Factor UK as all five members auditioned as solo acts but were grouped together by Simon Cowell and Nicole Scherzinger. Zayn Malik left One Direction in 2015 to focus on a solo career, and the boyband announced an indefinite hiatus in 2016.