From the New York Times, this is the interview. I'm Lulu Garcia Navarro.

I don't know quite what I was expecting when I walked into Simon Cowell's home in southwest London,

but I was greeted by endless cups of tea, a warm welcome from his longtime partner, Lauren,

and his 11-year-old son, Eric.

Cowell was also pretty charming.

What I discovered was that the King of Mean, who shaped American TV culture and changed the music industry,

is definitely in his cozy era.

Cowell knows he's mellowed.

Part of that is age, he's 66, but he's also suffered the loss of his parents,

become a father, gone to therapy, and more recently he's grappled with the death of Liam Payne,

whom he discovered on X Factor and cast in the mega famous boy band One Direction, which we talked about at length.

Now, Cowell is looking for his next hit. In his

latest project, a Netflix docu-series called Simon Cowell The Next Act. In it, Cal goes back to his

roots as a talent scout, auditioning and training a group of teenagers to be in his new boy band.

At a moment in our culture where bullying seems to be such a driving force,

I was interested in Cal's evolution away from his harsh public persona,

how he sees the music industry today and his plans to stay relevant in it.

Here's my conversation with Simon Cowell.

Music in it. Here's my conversation with Simon Cowell. All right, are we ready to go?

Well, good. All right.

Simon Cowell, thank you so much for coming on the interview.

Thank you for coming over.

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