Horan\u2019s knack for live performance has also proved useful during his three-season stint as a judge on The Voice, where he closed the loop on his reality TV competition days and mentored each of his seasons\u2019 final contestants to victory. He also got really into golf. (Like, so into golf that he bought a golf management company in 2016.) Through it all, he was still getting on planes and living out of suitcases. But something about turning 30, then 31 and 32, startled him into a reflective state.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re going through something when you\u2019re young, you\u2019re kind of either breezing through it and it\u2019s just happening around you or you\u2019re constantly overthinking,\u201d he says. \u201cThe older I get, the more grateful I\u2019ve become for what I\u2019ve had. Not that I wasn\u2019t grateful before, I would say, but I was blown away. Just taking it in now at 30-odd is kind of a cool thing. To look back and look at all photos, look at all the videos, think about what you did. It\u2019s pretty nuts. It\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
As so often happens with age, some of Horan\u2019s contemplation came under tragic circumstances. In early October 2024, while he was on tour for The Show, he met up with his former bandmate Liam Payne in Buenos Aires. Payne had been in town for a routine visa renewal<\/a>, but timed the trip to see Horan\u2019s performance so they could catch up.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was great,\u201d says Horan. \u201cSeemed in good form and we had a good laugh, good reminisce.\u201d He thinks of something another former One Direction bandmate, Louis Tomlinson, said. \u201cI heard Louis talking about this recently, it\u2019s so true. It\u2019s like you haven\u2019t seen each other in ages and then you just fall back in like it was 10 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n After their reunion, Horan went on to finish up the South American leg of his tour, but according to reports, Payne got waylaid in Buenos Aires waiting on an issue with his renewal. Soon thereafter, on the afternoon of October 16, 2024, Payne fell to his death from a hotel balcony.<\/p>\n