Harry Styles credits a former girlfriend with helping him feel comfortable going out in public after years of fame left him reluctant to leave home, according to E! News.
The singer discussed the change with Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke in Rolling Stone UK’s Musicians on Musicians conversation, published Oct. 8.
Styles did not name the girlfriend or say when they dated.
The pair met at a London studio near Camden Town in July to discuss their approaches to fame, songwriting and the music that had influenced them.
A Girlfriend’s London Visit Got Styles Out of the House
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Styles said he carried the confinement of One Direction’s hotel stays back to his own home. During the band’s early years, staying indoors had begun to feel safer than facing the attention that followed him outside.
When a girlfriend he described as “very outgoing” planned to visit London, he pictured them spending three days inside his house and worried she would think he was “nuts.” The two began walking everywhere together. “Oh, it’s fine to be outside,” Styles recalled realizing.
He said getting around on foot now helps him stay engaged with the world. At street level, he notices people and details he would miss if he traveled everywhere by car.
On tour in 2022, Styles attended a philharmonic concert in Hamburg eight hours before his own show. Wearing a surgical mask, he moved through the intermission crowd without being recognized, according to Rolling Stone UK. He had been making time to explore local architecture after repeatedly visiting cities without actually seeing much of them.
Yorke Was Surprised to Find Styles Walking Alone in Rome
Styles was listening to Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool through his headphones when he spotted Yorke on a small street in Rome in summer 2024. A hat bearing the word “Acid” first caught his attention before he recognized who was wearing it.
He stopped the music and introduced himself to a musician he had long been nervous about meeting. Styles recalled feeling lighter afterward because Yorke’s kindness had made the encounter feel ordinary and welcoming.
Yorke was in the city to perform with The Smile, and Styles already planned to attend the show. They met again when Styles attended the concert. Yorke, meanwhile, had been startled to see Styles without visible security.
Michael Stipe Had Helped Yorke Venture Out During a Tour
Yorke recalled shutting himself away in dressing rooms while Radiohead toured with R.E.M. in 1995. Michael Stipe noticed and began taking him out, including to a busy club in Stockholm.
Stipe encouraged Yorke to stop looking around for people who might be watching them. Yorke said the approach worked and nobody bothered them that night, although he acknowledged that being in public could still leave him feeling vulnerable.
Walking also helped him work through a difficult period while writing Radiohead’s “A Wolf at the Door.” Yorke said he spent roughly two and a half days walking with a notebook, continuing in the rain and writing as he went.
He described watching passersby and imagining where they were going or what they were doing as a way to redirect his attention beyond his own troubles.
Styles Wants His Music to Stay Rooted in Ordinary Experience
Styles described a problem that can follow musical success, a song connects because it captures something recognizably human, but its popularity can surround the artist with an increasingly artificial way of life.
He said he wants to preserve access to those ordinary experiences when writing. Songs focused on studios, touring and the glamorous privileges of fame held little interest for him.
London still feels most like home, he told Yorke. He moved into his house shortly after his 19th birthday and said he had grown up through different versions of himself there. The kitchen is the room where he feels most firmly at home.