Singer JB Gill claimed the late Liam Payne dreamed of joining British boyband JLS long before he found stardom with One Direction.

JB, 37, first met the promising talent during the auditions for The X Factor in 2008 when Liam stepped up as a solo act but failed to make it through the cutthroat bootcamp round.

JB told the Daily Mail: “He wanted to be in JLS, to be honest. But when he got knocked out at boot camp, we said ‘just keep going, keep working hard, you’ll get your chance’. I’m obviously glad that he was able to do that.”

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He continued: “I don’t know all the ins and outs… But one of the things I’ve taken as a silver lining is that he was actually able to do what he set out to do, which was to sing and share his voice with the world. I think it’s something that anyone who knew him, even his fans, will be able to take away from this incredibly sad situation.”

Fast forward to 2010, and Liam made an epic comeback on the show, which is where Simon Cowell saw the potential in him and brought together the heartthrobs of One Direction, including Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, and Louis Tomlinson, reports the Mirror.

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Tragically, earlier this month, the late singer suffered a fatal fall from a third-floor balcony at his hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was just 31.

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