AJ McLean revealed he kept a recording of his final conversation with his late 'Building the Band' costar Liam Payne. "I've not deleted it. I've kept it on my phone as a constant reminder of who he was.

Netflix’s “Building the Band” paid tribute to Liam Payne during episode 1. Payne, who died at age 31 in October 2024, posthumously appears as a judge on the reality competition series. At the start of the premiere episode, host AJ McLean acknowledged Payne’s death.

AJ McLean pays tribute to Liam Payne in the first episode of 'Building the Band' after the series premiere on July 9.

And in the opening moments of the competition series’ first episode, AJ McLean — who hosts Building the Band — paid tribute to his late friend. “When we came together to film Building the Band, we never imagined we’d soon be saying goodbye to our friend Liam Payne,” the Backstreet Boys member tells the camera.

Netflix 's new series Building the Band has been dedicated to the late Liam Payne and will feature a special tribute to the singer. The upcoming show, in which 50 singers compete from individual pods to form a band without seeing each other, sees Payne take on judging duties alongside Nicole Scherzinger and Kelly Rowland.

The circumstances around his death remain under legal scrutiny. Two Argentine men, Braian Paiz and Ezequiel Pereyra, are still in pre-trial detention, accused of supplying cocaine to Payne. Both deny selling drugs, insisting any drug use was shared, not transactional, according to the Daily Mail.