Despite Hayley Williams addressing concerns, fans are still worried Paramore might be over. We break down the rumours, the facts, and everything in between.
Like many elder emo millennial women, I’m in a parasocial best friendship with Hayley Williams of Paramore. From the moment she burst onto my TV on Channel V haughtily singing ‘Misery Business’ with a vocal range and attitude well beyond her years, I was captivated by Paramore.
From their ‘00s musical catalogue becoming the anthems of my moody teen years, to latter albums like After Laughter and This Is Why becoming my most-played every year on Spotify Wrapped, Hayley’s lyricism and Paramore’s music has been a guiding hand through the trials, tribulations and triumphs of my adolescent and adult life.
So when Hayley dropped her stellar new solo album Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party recently, there was cause for concern amongst the Paramore fanbase. Not because Hayley dropped solo work – she already has two solo albums to her name. But because all signs and lyrics were pointing towards a potential relationship demise between Hayley and Paramore’s lead guitarist and composer Taylor York, leading to speculation about the band’s future.
Hayley Williams addresses concerns about Paramore’s future
Thankfully, just before fans really started to Riot (couldn’t resist), Hayley Williams dropped in a recent interview with The Face that the band was simply “on a break”. If you’re a long-term fan, you know this isn’t all that unusual for them.
“Do we ever know where we’re at?” Hayley said. “We always take huge breaks. In order for us to metabolise shit that we go through as people, it takes the amount of time it takes between albums.”
“There are no better musicians in the world than Zac and Taylor,” she continued. “I feel such a vindication in knowing that nobody can discount Paramore. But it’s really important for me to strengthen other muscles and these parts of myself that I deflated because I was scared that people were going to notice me too much.”
Why are fans still worried Paramore is over? The TL;DR on Paramore’s changing lineup
Despite Hayley’s latest interview, fans are still worried about the future of the band and its current lineup.
Paramore has been known to take breaks in between albums – and the band has also been known for having a turbulent history when it comes to lineup changes. After the commercial success of their second album Riot, released in 2007, original band members Josh and Zac Farro left the band in dramatic circumstances in 2010 after the release of 2009’s Brand New Eyes.
In 2013, Paramore’s self-titled album was released, with the band continuing as a trio: Hayley, Taylor York (who had joined the band officially in 2009 as a rhythm guitarist) and Jeremy Davis on bass. But things were short-lived with this lineup too, with Jeremy leaving the band a couple of years later amid legal disputes over songwriting credits and royalties.
With Hayley and Taylor left as the only official members by 2016, the future of Paramore was left in doubt, but the return of Zac Farro in 2017 saw the band release After Laughter and then six years later follow it up with 2023’s This Is Why.
Since then, the trio has seemed tighter than ever, with Hayley saying in 2024 that the band was working on new music. In an interview with Dork, Hayley was positive about Paramore’s future, heaping praise on both Zac and Taylor, and saying the creativity within the band was “about to get cranked up”.
But now with no new Paramore music in sight, fans have begun heavily speculating that the current Paramore lineup we know and love might actually be over.
Breaking down the rumoured Hayley Williams and Taylor York relationship demise
If you’re new here, Hayley and Taylor confirmed their relationship in 2022, having started a relationship years previously, weathering a breakup, and then getting back together.
Fans were beyond stoked for the pair’s friends-to-lovers arc, something that was highlighted in Hayley’s lyrics with love songs like ‘Crystal Clear’ and ‘Liar’ written about falling in love with Taylor.
In a 2023 interview with Zane Lowe, Hayley spoke about the fear of falling in love with her band mate, after her previous relationship breakdown in her teens with original band member Josh Farro.
“These are the people I’ve known the longest in my life, that I’ve had the most consistent friendships with,” she said of Zac and Taylor. “It’s been the most real journey and to realise I love both of these people, more than I’ve ever loved anyone in my life. But I love them both slightly differently, that was also terrifying because I thought I must be a horrible person. I must be wrong. I must be everything people have said about me.”
The release of Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party has fans decoding lyrics, assuming the worst about Hayley and Taylor, and fearing for Paramore’s current and very beloved lineup.
“Hayley literally said, right after the last tour [the Eras tour] that the band was ready to get back into the studio and they were excited to work on another album,” one worried fan posted on Reddit. “But all of a sudden that changed. And that’s chill, things change, but it’s very obvious that things probably changed when H and T broke up.
“All in all, I don’t really trust this statement. Sure, Hayley is not going to come out and say the band is done, she is hopeful it will continue. But with Zac Taylor and Hayley? I don’t know if that’s in the cards… at least not for a while and she knows this. And that’s why she started focusing on solo stuff.”
“If Taylor’s still a part of the band they’re gonna need a good, long break to be able to work together again,” someone else said, with another fan commenting, “I still wanna know if Taylor is involved in anything. Both with the band and if he and Hayley have truly split. Only time will tell.”
Fans who have stuck around since Paramore’s beginning in 2004 seem less stressed about the future of Paramore, due to the band’s long history. It should also be noted that Taylor York is known in the Paramore fandom as being extremely private and not-all-that comfortable with the limelight. “Taylor York has always been something of a mysterious, silent ghost haunting the background machinations of the band. It’s just how he works,” one person quipped recently on a Reddit thread of fans wondering where he is.
And for those decoding the alleged breakup lyrics, one fan had this simple statement: “If anything, the previous Paramore drama further proves no one should’ve been fear mongering over this. Calling this album ‘major shade’ at Taylor, imo, is immature. She’s singing about their relationship but is never insulting him or putting him down. They have been together and broken up several times and Paramore never broke up before.”
So is Paramore the millennial emo equivalent to Fleetwood Mac’s Steve Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, and Taylor and Hayley are just going through a ‘Silver Springs’ moment? Or is there cause for concern that this is the end of Paramore as we know it?
Maybe, in amongst the lyrics about heartbreak, it’s best to just take the lyrics straight out of Ms Williams’ solo track ‘Ice In My OJ’ instead. “I’m in a band! I’m in a band!” she yells on the song.
Until she says otherwise, I’ll choose to believe her.
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