Hayley Williams’ only musical hero: “I kissed her on the cheek”
Looking back at Hayley Williams’ career should be the ultimate inspiration for any aspiring rockstar. Plucked from obscurity in Meridian, Mississippi, she always seemed destined for greatness.
Perhaps it was a stroke of luck, or perhaps it was inevitable given her talent. When Williams was only just a teenager, playing little shows around her hometown or thrashing about in a high school band, she was noticed. By 14, she’d already signed a two-year production deal and then she was quickly courted by a whole gaggle of record labels.
When Atlantic wanted to sign her with big dreams to turn her into a huge solo pop artist, she stood her ground and said no. The only way she would sign on the dotted line is if she were allowed to make rock music. She added the caveat that she’d be making it with a band, too.
From then on, it’s that same sense of ‘self’ and security in her vision that has made Williams a star. It led Paramore through album after album, evolving in whatever way their leader wanted to stray but still inspiring fans to join them on the journey. It also led her into her solo career, understanding how that would interact with the band on her own terms but never seeming to feel the need to lay it out or explain the decision to anyone beyond herself.
It led her through different genres, too. While Williams is one of the leading faces and voices of modern rock, her collaboration with the likes of Taylor Swift, or her softer turn on Petals For Armour have taken her into power-pop, and even some folk and country elements.
But where do you learn tenacity and strength like that? For Williams, she learnt it from her idol: Joan Jett.
“I had a Runaways poster on my wall as a teenager,” Williams told Louder, admiring Jett from a young age. “I liked her masculinity. I liked that she wasn’t embarrassed to have that side of her as a woman, and she was also very sexy,” she said. It’s the sort of light and shade that would go on to typify Paramore’s own discography.
Around the same time that Williams was beginning her musical journey and starting to be poached by managers and labels, she added, “That really was the first woman performer that I was really around for an extended period of time in my early career.”
For a woman entering the male-heavy world of rock with all its sexism and inequality, it’s tough to think of a better role model. Jett navigated the industry at such a harsh time and such a young age, battling through sexualisation, abuse, and so much more to stake her claim as a defiant hero.
Through all of it, she stayed soft, telling Far Out as her ultimate life advice – “Kindness goes a long way. Even if you don’t notice its effects right away, it lasts. The other way, hate, it just burns you up like acid inside.” This spirit inspired the Paramore star from a young age.
When Williams played on the same bill as Jett in 2007, when she was only 18, they were the only two women playing as part of the Warped Tour. Finding a companion and comfort in her hero, Williams recalled, “I kissed her on the cheek, and I remember being like, ‘I love her’.”
