This won't be an easy pill for One Direction fans to swallow.
In his first on-camera interview since leaving the group, Zayn Malik speaks out about his time in one of the most popular boy bands ever -- but, the way he tells it, he wasn't feeling it from the very start.
"I think I always kind of wanted to go, from the first year, really. I never really wanted to be there in the band, I just gave it a go because it was there at the time," he tells Apple Music's Beats 1's Zane Lowe. "When I realized the direction we were going in with the music, I instantly realized it wasn't for me. I couldn't put any input in, give my opinion on this or that, it didn't fit the grain of what we were as a band."
He says the group has a hard time coming up with original songs, as everyone came at the process from different vantage points.
"How do you write a song from 5 people's perspectives? You don't know where you want to take the music, what you want to say, so you go with whatever's going on," he explains. "I didn't want to be the person to say that I was right."
Malik also reveals that the other guys weren't exactly shocked when he announced his decision to leave them behind and go solo.
"I think the boys kind of knew — in terms of the music — that wasn't my cup of tea," he adds.
When asked if they tried to talk him out of it, Zayn says, "No, not really.
"They obviously didn't want me to leave, but they couldn't talk me out of it at that point. I'd already made my mind up, so I just left."
The full interview airs on Beats 1 on Thursday at 9am PST -- wonder what else he'll have to say!
