“I remember him as a 14-year-old turning up to audition on The X Factor, and blowing us away singing Sinatra. He just loved to sing,” he wrote.
“He was always a joy, had time for everyone, polite, grateful, and was always humble.”
Liam was one of five members of One Direction, along with Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Harry Styles.
Harry’s mother Anne Twist also paid tribute, posting a broken-hearted emoji on Instagram, captioning it: “Just a boy.”
Singer Olly Murs, who starred on The X Factor a year before One Direction, said he was “lost for words”, describing Payne’s death as “devastating” on Instagram.
Olly said: “We always had a good laugh when we saw each other, sometimes the catch ups were only short and sweet but when we did it was mostly about how annoyingly good his hair always looked, or our love for Becks, the old XF [X Factor] days and the tour we shared together.
“Liam shared the same passions as me, the same dreams so to see his life now end so young hits hard, I’m truly gutted and devastated for his family and of course his son Bear losing a dad.”
