The Voice coach Niall Horan wouldn’t have turned his chair for his teenage self
“I’d turn now, wouldn’t have turned then,” the former One Direction crooner says of his career-defining 2010 audition on The X Factor.
Niall Horan struggles with rejecting contestants on The Voice, but there’s one singer he’d have no problem not rotating his chair for: his teenage self.
The former One Direction boy bander reveled at the full circle moment as an auditioner-turned-coach in between bites of spicy wings on a new “Hot Ones” segment Thursday, admitting to host and spice enthusiast Sean Evans that he would not have turned his chair around for his own career-defining 2010 audition on The X Factor.
“That’s the part I’ve struggled with,” Horan said of the rejection process as a mentor. “Because I know what it’s like to be 16 and stood on a stage. I’m looking at some famous dude that’s got your future in his hands. The easy part is pressing the red button, spinning the chair, and saying how you like someone. But when the chair turns around and you’re not with them, how do you give them that rejection feedback?”
He added, “That’s where I’ve struggled with it, but it’s full circle stuff.” Horan “wouldn’t have turned” for his own audition back in 2010, chalking up his success to being at the “right place at the right time,” but said that he would turn for himself now. “I’ve learned a lot,” the singer said. “I’ve been around the block a couple of times. I’d turn now, wouldn’t have turned then.”
Niall Horan on ‘The Voice’
Niall Horan on ‘The Voice’
| Credit: Evans Vestal Ward/NBC
In another full circle moment during this week’s episode, contestant Laura Littleton decided to join Team Niall after a performance of Styles’ “Sign of the Times” — much to the dismay of a resigned Clarkson. “I’m not even going to fight it,” she said.
Watch Horan’s “Hot Ones” interview above.
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