AJ McLean Talks Bonding With Liam Payne On New TV Show - And Emotional Moment He Learned Of His Death

AJ McLean is opening up about his friendship with Liam Payne.

The Backstreet Boys member sat down with TooFab for an interview out Tuesday where he discusses forming a bond with the late singer on Netflix‘s Building the Band. AJ serves as host of the new show, which sees three other musicians who were all in famous groups — Liam, Kelly Rowland, and Nicole Scherzinger — attempting to discover the next big thing.

But it wasn’t just (show) business with the guys. Before the One Direction alum’s tragic death, he apparently formed quite the bond with AJ. The Everybody singer told the outlet:

“Liam, I knew once the band formed. Once 1D was formed, we would see each other at award shows or festivals.”

He noted it was always “super sweet” when the boy band would cite the Backstreet Boys as one of their inspirations. And that helped serve as a jumping off point for some bonding between him and Liam:

“When you put Liam and I together in the same room, it was kind of remarkable to me how much our lives were parallel, even though there’s such an age gap. We’ve kind of lived very similar paths. That really kind of connected us from jump street.”

The 47-year-old continued:

“Both had the same kind of witty humor, dry humor and just talking about music, sobriety, talking about life.”

AJ, like Liam before his premature death, has been extremely transparent about his struggles with addiction, too. The singer continued:

“We were kind of in each other’s face for 14 hours a day, for like 5 weeks and you’re gonna learn somebody, if they’re open. And he’s very open. He lit up any room that he walked into and he was just an absolute dream to get to know on a much more personal level.”

Awww. That’s so sweet.

AJ went on to detail the moment he found out about Liam’s shocking death at just 31 years old:

“[The Backstreet Boys] were on a conference call with our team talking about [our upcoming residency at The Sphere] and this and that and the other, and my manager messaged me while we were on the Zoom, the news [of Payne’s death].”

He continued:

“And I was like, ‘Guys, I’m sorry. I gotta log off for a minute.’ I took some time and then I called Nicole and I called Kelly and we all kind of cried together and talked and just kind of got it out. It’s sad, it’s horrible.”

Wow. How awful. But at least he, Nicole, and Kelly were all able to lean on each other! The host added:

“Hopefully … I’m assuming he’s no longer in pain, because it is a daily struggle. I’m coming up on 4 years sober. Am I there yet? No. And I won’t ever put the cart before the horse again. I’ve done that too many years where I’ve gotten complacent. For me, I tried to contain it and just focus on day to day. What can I do to be better today and what can I do to be a better father, a better bandmate, and just a better person to others around me? I don’t think that was an issue with [Liam]. He was so kind to everyone. You’ve seen divas before. I’ve seen divas before. There was nothing diva about Liam, at all.”

You can hear AJ talk more about Liam (below):