Louis Tomlinson says he felt 'forgettable' in One Direction

— -- Louis Tomlinson is the last member of One Direction to try his hand at solo success, and the singer is opening up about why he had reservations about striking out on his own.

The British singer said in an interview with The Guardian that he was often seen as "forgettable, to a certain degree" when the group first formed after auditioning on the British version of "The X Factor" in 2010.

"You know, I didn’t sing a single solo on 'The X Factor,'" Tomlinson told the British paper. "A lot of people can take the piss out of that."

Tomlinson, 25, added, "But when you actually think about how that feels, standing on stage every single week, thinking: ‘What have I really done to contribute here? Sing a lower harmony that you can’t really hear in the mix?'"

Still, Tomlinson said he eventually became confident in his role, even if it was often in the background.

"In the last year of One Direction, I was probably the most confident I ever was," he said. "And then it was: ‘OK, hiatus!'"

"If you’d asked me a year or 18 months ago: ‘Are you going to do anything as a solo artist?’ I’d have said absolutely not," Tomlinson added.

But that was then. The artist is now on the brink of releasing his first single, "Back to You," featuring Bebe Rexha and Digital Farm Animals. It's due out this summer.

In the wide-ranging interview, Tomlinson also revealed how losing his mother inspired him to keep pursuing his music career. His mother, Johannah Deakin, lost her battle with leukemia last December.

"I remember saying to her: ‘Mum, how the f--- do you expect me to do this now?’ And she didn’t swear much, my mum," he explained. "She’d always tell me off for swearing. And this time she was like: ‘You’ve got to f---ing do it, it’s as simple as that.’ It was football manager, team talk."

"I’m not gonna claim this is all for me mum. But it was definitely..." he said before trailing off.