Published by Cel Manero from Global One Media Inc.
In August, Williams dropped her newest solo project, Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party.
Hayley Williams is shedding light on why she chose to confront the South’s troubled history with racism on her newest solo album, Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party.
Speaking with The New York Times’ Popcast on Wednesday, Oct. 1, the Paramore frontwoman explained the significance of including the track “True Believer” on the record.
The song, which became the 36-year-old’s first solo No. 1 on Billboard’s Alternative Digital Song Sales chart, explores her roots in Southern Christianity and calls out the hypocrisy and racial prejudice she says exist in some religious spaces.
In the track, Williams sings about chain-link fences under bridges, families posing for holiday cards with oversized guns, and the whitening of Jesus’ image as a way for some believers to avoid worshiping someone they see as “lesser.”
On Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party, Hayley Williams doesn’t shy away from addressing the deep scars left by slavery in the South. In “True Believer,” she even draws on Billie Holiday’s haunting 1939 classic “Strange Fruit,” singing: “The South will not rise again / ’Til it’s paid for every sin / Strange fruit, hard bargain / Till the roots, Southern Gotham.”
The “Mirtazapine” singer explained why tackling these issues feels essential to her. “I’m never not ready to scream at the top of my lungs about racial issues,” Williams said. “I don’t know why that’s the thing that makes me angriest. Maybe because it’s so intersectional—it overlaps with everything, from climate change to LGBTQIA+ rights.”
Williams also connected her faith journey to another track, “Discovery Channel,” which samples Bloodhound Gang’s 1999 hit “The Bad Touch.” She described how the song reflects her process of untangling her religious upbringing. “When I started deconstructing my faith around 19, I didn’t realize how much Paramore itself functioned like a religion to me—a God pillar in my life,” she admitted. For her, the band remains “the backdrop to every conversation.” Songs like “Discovery Channel,” she added, are her way of wandering through that structure and dismantling it piece by piece.
Beyond her music, Williams has consistently spoken out against racism and stood with the LGBTQ+ community. In early 2024, Paramore famously turned down a Tennessee House resolution meant to honor the group after their Grammy win—pointing out that the same lawmakers had rejected a resolution recognizing fellow artist Allison Russell.
In a statement to The Tennessean, Williams praised Russell, calling her “an incredibly talented musician and songwriter whose work spans genres, particularly Folk and Americana. You might have seen her sharing the Grammy stage with Joni Mitchell. She’s also a brilliant Black woman.”
