By now, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, Harry Styles and Liam Payne are seasoned professionals when it comes to award shows. They’ve got the whole red carpet look, the interview process, the backstage shenanigans and the proper audience behavior down to a science. And why shouldn’t they? They’ve been to enough shows together as One Direction and solo to last a lifetime. But, they weren’t always the suave heartthrobs looking cool as cucumbers that we have come to know and love from sitting miles away on our living room couches today.

With the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards just around the corner – this Sunday to be exact – Louis is reminiscing about some of the band’s first experiences at this particular award show. He gets super candid explaining what actually went down and after hearing it all, we’re really freaking confused about how this didn’t make it on camera.

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The “Back To You” singer said, “I remember the first time we went to the VMA’s, maybe the second time and like Rihanna sat like two rows in front with Drake and we were feeling out of our depth and I just looked over and me and Niall [Horan] are just, like, scarfing eating this hot dog proper messy, thinking, like, we shouldn’t really be here.”

LOL! The boys’ first Video Music Awards happened in 2012 when they won the award for Best New Artist and Best Pop Video. It was their second Video Music Awards in 2013 that they presented the Best Pop Video award to Selena Gomez. Regardless, they had a right to be there so Louis is just being super humble.

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However, we can’t imagine how intimidating that must have been. To eat a hot dog in front of Drake or not to eat the dog? I mean, the guys have to get their energy somehow, right? While we probably wouldn’t be caught dead downing a wiener with ketchup and mustard in the presence of the music industry’s most elite celebrities, they did it anyways. Honestly, this is a first impression everyone would remember and it’s probably the reason the world loved the guys so much. They did what they wanted – even if that was chowing down during their first Video Music Awards.

Again, I’m still mad this whole thing didn’t make it on camera because it would have been iconic.

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