Harry Styles isn’t ashamed of his One Direction days

Harry Styles may be gracing covers of magazines solo these days, but the singer has only good things to say about his time in boy band One Direction.

“When you look at the history of people coming out of bands and starting solo careers, they feel this need to apologize for being in the band. ‘Don’t worry, everyone, that wasn’t me! Now I get to do what I really want to do.’ But we loved being in the band,” the “Watermelon Sugar” singer said in an interview with Variety.

He added that though some may have the general desire to “pit people against each other,” he prefers expressions of gratitude.

“It’s about a next step in evolution. The fact that we’ve all achieved different things outside of the band says a lot about how hard we worked in it,” he said.

One Direction, as most know, was born after Styles and his four future band mates (Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik) were made into a group by Simon Cowell while auditioning for “The X Factor.”

“I learned so much,” Styles added. “When we were in the band, I used to try and write with as many different people as I could. I wanted to practice — and I wrote a lot of bad s–t.”

All the band members went on to release solo projects.

Styles’ latest effort, “Golden,” was released roughly one year ago but continues to produce hit singles for the singer.