Liam Payne: I just want to have fun

Liam Payne is just a "young lad" trying to have fun.

The One Direction star came under fire last week when a picture of him holding a shotgun was posted online. He's currently on the Where We Are Tour with his band and had visited the cast of US show Duck Dynasty for clay pigeon shooting during one of their stops.

Firearm laws are a hotly debated topic in the States and fans didn't react well to the snap.

Now the 21-year-old has logged on to Twitter to reassure his followers he's still the same person.

"hope people don't find me annoying on here that would b the worst just wanna make a few people smile and I'm bored as hell on this plane," he wrote.

"And I know people have read a lot about me the past few days promise I'm just a young lad travelling the world having fun with his friends

"I never mean any harm just want to have a some laughs and hopefully a few people enjoy it along the way
"I feel like you all know me better than that anyway but just wanted to let you know when I vent sometimes I'm just trying to stay genuine..

"And b myself thank you all for everythin an standing by us we really are... (sic)"

Liam also thanked his fans for supporting him and bandmates Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik, calling them "the luckiest guys in the world".

He ended his epic Twitter session by apologising for being so "sentimental".

But it wasn't all serious on the social networking site. Liam also teased fans by joking he would release their latest album, Four, which is due out on November 17.

"Gunna leak the album in four minutes (sic)" he wrote, sending his followers into an instant spin.

Liam found himself embroiled in another scandal recently. The star was hit by nude photos that claimed to show him caught in an intimate act with a man.

When he denied the picture was him on Twitter, he was hit by a backlash accusing him of being homophobic.

"I'm 100% not homophobic. But I'm also 100% not gay so when somebody says I am I'm gunna say I'm not which does not make me a homophobe (sic)," he cleared things up.