Hayley Williams Reflected On The ‘Reality Show-Style Drama’ Surrounding Paramore’s Self-Titled Album On Its 10th Anniversary

Paramore‘s new album This Is Why was one of the most invigorating releases of this year, but yesterday (April 5) was a point of reflection for the “Misery Business” band. It was the 10-year anniversary of their beloved self-titled record, which contains ubiquitous hits like “Ain’t It Fun” and “Still Into You,” and fan-favorite deep-cuts like “Now” and “Part II.”

For the anniversary, Hayley Williams took to socials to share a poignant statement about what that LP means to her. She also discussed the “reality show-style drama” concerning the exit of Josh and Zac Farro (though Zac returned in 2016). Last year, she also actually changed the record artwork because of complaints from ex-bassist Jeremy Davis.

Read Williams’ rumination below.

“10 years ago we put out a record that took a lot of guts and self-determination to make. Mainly because after losing 2 members of the band there was so much discourse around whether or not the band could make anything worthwhile — let alone stay together.

The story of Paramore has been rife with reality show-style drama. Well, until the last 6 or 7 years. It’s really great to be able to look back from where we are now, knowing the story didn’t end when some said it would.

If all that led to our Self-Titled album hadn’t happened, we’d be the most boring band of all time. If we hadn’t been forced out of our trauma-bonded comfort zones, we would’ve never known what we might be capable of.

Thank you Justin Meldal-Johnsen for expanding our musical vocabulary and believing we could be more than a band from one specific scene. And thank you Carlos de la Garza for engineering the shit out of the album. Thank you Ken Andrews of Failure for mixing it, singing backups on it, and being a musical hero to us.

Taylor and I wrote these songs having no idea if people would accept a reformed, more liberated version of Paramore. Our fans not only accepted but championed our rebirth.

Thank you for allowing us the room for creative risk and for keeping this story going.

We love you.

Paramore forever.

-H.”

Paramore is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.