Going to see the Pope and attending a Harry Styles gig are similar experiences believes the 1D star. He witnessed the Pope’s inauguration last year and was struck by the sense of communal joy: “having these moments of like rituals of like coming together and believing in something. And it doesn’t have to be God. It doesn’t have to be X, it can be music”
Harry Styles says witnessing Pope Leo’s inauguration in Rome last year made him realise how similar their professional lives are.
The former One Direction heartthrob was getting a haircut in St. Peter’s Square as the new Pope was being sworn in at the Vatican and ended up joining the thousands in the crowd, while wearing a ‘techno was my boyfriend’ hat, and sunglasses.
Experiencing the emotional outpouring at the Mass for the Beginning of the Petrine Ministry, reminded him of his own day job of being on stage in front of thousands of screaming fans.
Harry spilled: “What I found really interesting was like, in all the ways that it’s different, there are similarities with like live music and stuff….It’s this something about people gathering on behalf of something that is so much greater than what we can understand in some ways.”
Harry can see how people need communal experiences and continued: “I think it’s this idea of like, there is this inherent vulnerability in people where we are all coming together and there’s this admittance of like we’re gathering to something that we can’t see and we can’t feel all the time.
“And isn’t necessarily as tangible as the things that are always around us that feels like there is vulnerability in like admitting that we all believe in something, whether that is music, whether that is religion.
“And I think especially in a time where, you know, the kind of belief in the eternal and religion in that way is lesser than it was in like previous times.
“We’ve lost like a lot of like ritual…and I think having these moments of like rituals of like coming together and believing in something – and it doesn’t have to be God, t doesn’t have to be X – it can be music or the environment or nature. Poetry or nature or whatever it is. I think there’s something in these times in which we’re so isolated from each other and so divided that for me it was more, (what) I got more from like looking at the crowds of strangers together than I did.”
Harry was famously snapped joining in with the thousands of revellers at the Vatican, but – much like being at a massive Harry Styles gig – he couldn’t see much.
Harry spilled: “I couldn’t see the Pope. It’s like he was behind the thing. It was not like. I had bad seats. I had really bad seats. I was behind like a tree.
“But it’s the human piece of it that I think is like the way that we gather that I think is the most beautiful thing. And I think in the threads between gathering in that way and gathering at like a show or a concert, it’s like we’re all kind of there for the same thing.”
Harry Styles tried to tap some of that mass communal joy in the music for his new album, Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally which is on course to top charts across the world.
He said: “What’s really interesting in a lot of what I found with this record is there’s so many of those group experiences you can have. And then there’s versions of that that I think you can have like by yourself. I think there’s sometimes like in like songwriting there’s this moment where there’s a song that feels like it like writes itself.”
Following the release of his fourth solo record Kiss All The Time. Disco, Occasionally Hazza has three tracks from the album currently occupying the Top 3.
This comes in the form of American Girls, which currently leads out in front at No1, former chart topper Aperture in second spot and Ready, Steady, Go! at No3.
Harry’s Manchester gig is up on Netflix now.
For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.