Liam Payne's school friend told star 'to not let fame get into his head'

SWNS

A childhood friend of Liam Payne has revealed their last conversation - where he told the star to 'not let fame get into his head’.  John Carpenter, 31, first met the One Direction hitmaker on the first day of year 7 at St Peter’s Collegiate in Wolverhampton.   He explained how Liam was his first friend at secondary school - and how sports united them throughout the years.  They both went to compete in cross country together.   Teacher John said: “He was so passionate about running - he was an athlete before he was a singer.

Transcript

00:00My name is John Carpenter I used to be best friends with Liam Payne formerly of

00:08One Direction and we both went to school together at St Peter's Collegiate School

00:13from year 7 until year 11 and this is my story and my memories of the time that

00:19we shared together. So it was the first day of year 7 and I found myself

00:24looking like I was on my own with no one to talk to and then suddenly a young man

00:31a little bit shorter than I was came up to me and said John come on let's get

00:36involved with a cross-country and that young man was none other than Liam Payne.

00:41Liam and I from that moment became best friends in year 7 and we did everything

00:47together in sports and in class as well we shared classes for the first couple

00:52of years in our time together at St Peter's and Liam was a very hard-working

00:56humble encouraging and inspiring young man who wanted others to achieve exactly

01:03what he wanted to achieve. He had been a runner for three or four years here at

01:08Aldersley Stadium for Wolverhampton and Bilston Athletics Club but he wanted me

01:13to also join a running club as well and that running club for me was Tipton

01:19Harriers and Liam and I ran many competitive races together many of which

01:25were here at Aldersley in Wolverhampton where it be in the cross-country course

01:29just behind us they're all on the athletics track for athletics

01:34competitions and Liam was a very very keen athlete and he always encouraged me

01:42and said come on John we can do this together and boy was he right. For the

01:47first three years at our time at St Peter's Liam was the best runner in

01:51school and it took me until when we were in year 10 to actually start to catch up

01:57with him and then eventually become a cross-country champion myself for four

02:02years in Wolverhampton but none of that would have been possible without Liam

02:07Payne. Liam was so humble he was very grounded he would always be so loyal and

02:16kind and caring towards myself and others at St Peter's and to have heard

02:24the the heartbreaking and shocking and saddening news that he had suddenly

02:30passed away was very very very moving and he's only 31 we were great friends

02:38together in particular in our early years at school and he was a very keen

02:45athlete as I've said but when he reached year nine that was when he started to

02:51focus more so on the singing side of things he auditioned for the X Factor

02:56for the first time round and he got to the judges houses stage with Simon Cowell

03:02and Simon Cowell told him to come back in a couple of years time and to get his

03:06GCSEs done because he was only so young at the age of 14 and then in 2010 he

03:12came back to the X Factor and One Direction was born and it was amazing

03:18really Liam came back to school of only two weeks to go until the X Factor final

03:23and I had a feeling at that moment when he returned to St Peter's that it would

03:27be the last time that I would see him and that unfortunately proved to be the

03:32case and I'll never forget my passing words to them which were Liam I know

03:37you're going to get this fame I know you're going to get lots of money out of

03:40this but do not let the fame go to your head and that was the last time that I

03:45saw him and yes we exchanged a couple of messages online a couple of years later

03:52on Facebook and we were actually going to meet together in London but sadly

03:57that didn't happen and I also saw him at Molineux perform one of his songs from

04:02One Direction at halftime shortly after that and he was a totally different

04:10person then he'd gone on to a new level of fame but I'll never forget that time

04:17when it was the last occasion I saw him at St Peter's where my friend Liam was

04:22being surrounded by so many young people who were running out of their classrooms

04:26looking to take selfies with him and he actually joked and said John I think

04:32you're going to have to be my bodyguard there's so many of these young people

04:35that are going to probably want to take selfies with me and so that that was

04:40really surreal to see at the same time but also balancing in my head that it

04:44was only Liam there was a joke that went around St Peter's when we got into year

04:5210 and actually I pushed him into singing because of starting to beat him

04:57at cross-country in particular and certainly over the course of that two

05:02year period from year 10 to year 11 he certainly focused more on the singing

05:07side of things but he was so determined to succeed and he really did succeed and

05:15achieved something really really special something that the people of Wolverhampton

05:20hadn't seen before yes it's such a heartbreaking and sad

05:24situation and my thoughts and prayers go out to his family at this time but I

05:30really want to make a real positive story out of this really and that is

05:36that Liam was a great young man and he was a very very loyal friend and I

05:41along with lots of other young people who went to school with Liam Payne at

05:48St Peter's will sadly sadly miss him

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