Hayley Williams poignantly reflects on first-ever solo tour: “I am the ocean”
Hayley Williams is flying high after the first leg of her first-ever solo tour.
The 37-year-old usually performs alongside her Paramore bandmates; however, as the band is on a hiatus following their 2023 album, This Is Why, Williams has embarked on a solo career, celebrated with her first-ever solo tour.
Following North American dates that kicked off in Atlanta on March 28th and ended in Los Angeles on May 13th, the powerhouse vocalist has taken to Substack to reflect on her time on the stage.
Williams began, “Tour turned me back into a night owl. Back into a teenaged dreamer with dark circles.”
The ‘True Believer’ singer added happily, “I’ve not been this hungry for my days in quite some time. Nor my nights. Gorging on future memories while they’re hot and ready. Practicing hyper-presence. Swimming in a spiral, in a familiar fishbowl, back around to lessons I didn’t learn the first or fifty-leventh time. Hopefully, my brain is stitching all this together.”
It’s been a busy start to the year for the Nashville musician, who is happy for at least a moment of rest: “I’ve been waking up in my own bed around noon every morning for the last couple days,” she shared, before adding, “It felt so good to come home. But it felt so good to be out there too.”
Williams admitted that she has been figuring out how to put “current growing pains and pleasure” into words for two months. For this, she drew inspiration from Björk, who “said something once in an interview about how language and communicating was like trying to put the ocean through a straw.”
Williams concluded, “I think I am the ocean,” before adding several photographs depicting her time travelling across North America. She added defiantly at the bottom of the post, “No, fuck it, I’m the ocean.”
After a short break, Williams will pick up tour duties again on June 5th in Milan, before travelling to Amsterdam, Cologne, Berlin, Copenhagen, London, Manchester, Glasgow, and Dublin.
From there, Williams will return to North America to embark on another tour, titled The Hayley Williams Show, which adds Brazil to her list of destinations.
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