LOS ANGELES — Simon Cowell, the British record executive and a longtime judge on "America's Got Talent," spoke out about his last conversation with Liam Payne a year after the singer died.

"When I heard the news, it really hit me. I saw him a year before this happened," he said in a " Rolling Stone Music Now " podcast posted Nov. 24.

Cowell, credited for helping create the boy band One Direction — which also included Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan — recalled the last time he met with Payne.

"I saw him a year before this happened. He came over to my house. We talked about his son and being a dad. I remember saying, 'Music is not everything. Don’t let it run your life anymore. Find something else that you are passionate about,'" he told Rolling Stone . "Whe

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