Hayley Williams apologises for kicking fans out of Paramore show
Hayley Williams has posted an apology for kicking out a pair of fans at a Paramore show. Last week, the band began a two-night stand at Madison Square Garden in New York when two fans shoved other audience members in an attempt to get to the front of the stage. Williams stopped the band’s performance mid-song and kicked the pair out.
“Yes, I will embarrass both of you,” she told them from the stage during the incident. “Both of you need to find somewhere else to take care of that shit because that’s not happening here.”
In a new post on the band’s Discord, Williams expressed her regret at how she handled the situation. “My insides were triggered from numerous personal experiences not fit for a blog post or a microphone on stage at an arena,” the statement partially reads. “My outsides were trying to maintain control of a situation I felt that myself and my bandmates were responsible for. Without the opportunity for a proper back and forth (and with a looming, strict show-curfew in the back of my mind), I bared my teeth like a mother wolf.”
“I embarrassed the hell out of these two people without truly knowing what the situation was. Then, as a group — all 25,000 of us or so — exiled these people from the show in record time,” Williams continues. “It was a moment that I would not fully process for a couple of days, when a friend showed me a video from the inside of the crowd, up close to the action.”
“What I saw on my friend’s phone screen didn’t look like the fight I thought I was stopping. It didn’t look particularly kind either,” she adds. “But I have not been able to shake the feeling that I abused my responsibility and my platform in that moment… that I hurt those two in a way that will outlast the momentary discomfort of their poor concert etiquette…”
Williams continued: “I love to say we make a safe space at our shows each night… but I’m also the one who may throw someone out without really even knowing what exactly is going on. Sure, maybe those two weren’t gonna get it any other way. But we should all try to imagine getting ridiculed and kicked out of a show in front of 10’s of thousands of people. When I saw their faces in the video, I didn’t see the smug smiles that some commenters criticized them for. I saw embarrassment and I cried for them. I’m telling you, I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.”
“So if you are those two people… I am sorry for whatever shame or embarrassment I may have caused you,” Williams concluded. “Rest assured, I will still have a person removed if necessary. I’ll just try with all my heart not to make it seem like some biblical era public execution next time.”
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