Hayley Williams Artistfacts

December 27, 1988
Hayley Williams is best known as the lead singer in Paramore, a fiery rock band known for songs like "Misery Business" (2007), "Decode" (2008) and "Ain't It Fun" (2013). She released her first solo album, Petals For Armor, in 2020.
Williams was born in Mississippi and lived there until age 12, when her parents divorced. When she was 13 (in 2002), she and her mom moved to Franklin, Tennessee, just south of Nashville. She started writing songs and performing locally, which got the attention of music managers who helped her get a deal with Atlantic Records and form Paramore when she was just 15.
She started dating Josh Farro, the guitarist in her band Paramore, soon after they formed. Rock and roll romances have a low success rate, and this one didn't make it - they broke up in 2007 after the group's second album. Farro made one more album with the band - Brand New Eyes in 2009 - before leaving a year later. That period from 2008-2010 was a tumultuous one for the band and nearly broke them up.
She and Jack Antonoff formed a lasting friendship in 2010 when his band Fun was an opening act on Paramore's tour. Williams was at odds with some of her bandmates during this time, so she was happy to hang out with Antonoff instead.
In 2003, when she was 15, Williams signed to Atlantic Records in what might be the first-ever "360 Deal." The 20-year contract went outside the scope of recording to also cover touring, merchandise, and just about anything else related to her career. When her contract ended in 2023 she released music independently, starting with her 2025 album Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party.
With Paramore, Williams writes with various band members, but her solo material she typically works on with the Los Angeles-based producer Daniel James. He's 14 years older than Williams and not associated with Paramore, so it's a very different environment free from any band drama.
Williams gets really into it when she performs. By 2010 she was seeing a chiropractor to treat problems in her back and neck caused by headbanging on stage.
She and New Found Glory guitarist Chad Gilbert were a pop-punk power couple when they were together from 2008-2017. They got married in 2016 but split up just a year later.
She's naturally blonde but often dyes her hair in wild colors like orange, red and electric blue. In 2016 she launched Good Dye Young to sell "rockstar-grade, hair-healthy products."
When Williams was a cash-strapped teenager, she took paid vocal jobs "for like 50 bucks a pop," recording country demos simply because she loved singing and needed the income. One of those gigs led her to record "Jumping Inside," a song for a Christian comic-book soundtrack, something she didn't even realize had been officially released until fans unearthed it on YouTube years later. The long-forgotten track later became an inside joke among Paramore fans and was subtly echoed when Williams sampled it on her Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party track "Ice In My OJ."

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