One Direction fans attacked James Arthur on Twitter with insulting comments after the musician reportedly tweeted a message on Nov. 7 slamming successful boy bands.

Arthur, who found fame on The X Factor in 2012, made the disparaging comments about One Direction on his official page.

"F*** boybands! Bring on the hate I don't wanna be popular. Apart from JLS who are genuinely the coolest people I've met in music," the singer tweeted, according to Express.

He also re-tweeted the following message musician Ed Sheeran wrote: "When a band/artist gets popular I swear some people just hate them because they're popular, not even judging them on the music. Fickle."

One Direction fans replied with a slew of hate messages directed at Arthur including death threats, he admitted Nov. 8 on Twitter. One note described him as a "nasty little gnome" and another accused him of "bullying" his fellow pop stars, the report noted.

Arthur defended his comments, writing, "If you are now not a fan of me because of how honest I am then your (you are) not a fan that I want anyway... I don't care for markets and business... I make music... Love it or hate it that's your human right but if you were a fan and now you aren't then be my guest and hate me I don't care."

He sarcastically added, "You are all correct I wouldn't be where I am if it weren't for Louis Tomlinson.. Not the years of working hard in the real world.."

It is unclear what prompted Arthur to lash out at the band and his original message has since been deleted from the social media website. Some of Arthur's fans defended him and in return, the musician tweeted his thanks to them on Nov. 8.

Tags: One Direction