Zayn Malik regrets “not enjoying” One Direction and being with Liam Payne before leaving the group

“I feel like I just took things too seriously”

Zayn Malik attends the 60th Annual GRAMMY Awards at Madison Square Garden on January 28, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Steve Granitz/WireImage)

Zayn Malik has reflected on his departure from One Direction, expressing his regret for not “enjoying” the band before leaving.

Speaking on the Zach Sang Show, Malik took time to reflect on his past with One Direction.

When asked by host Zach Sang if there was anything he’s grateful for today that he wasn’t able to appreciate at the time, Malik said: “The main thing that I always feel bad about when I look back over my life is not enjoying the band enough.”

He explained: “I feel like I just took things too seriously. I’m grateful that I’m able to be happier now. I can actually enjoy things and own my own perspective a bit. Like, glass half full versus it being half empty. That’s my choice.”

He went on to add that as a teen, he “didn’t understand the importance of just trying to be happy.” “I had this teen angst thing going on — chip on my shoulder. I’m like, ‘It’s really cool to be moody as fuck all the time.’ It’s not. You’re just a loser. Let’s be honest, you know what I mean?”

Zayn Malik recalls saving Harry Styles from pyrotechnic accident at One Direction gig

“You see me run from one side of the stage and push him out of the way,” Malik said of the 2013 incident

“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.”