Hayley Williams Talks Paramore's Reunion — and Learning She Won a Grammy from Taylor Swift: 'So Shocked'

Hayley Williams is getting real about Paramore's past.

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, the Paramore frontwoman opened up about getting the band back together to make and release last year's This Is Why — the trio's first album since 2017's After Laughter.

“We grew up knowing all the worst parts of each other, and we still love each other,” Williams, 34, told the outlet. “I mean, look at all the s--- we’ve been through. Our band has essentially broken up a million times. And Zac [Farro], we found each other again."

She added, "That keeps me going. It also keeps me excited to think: Who knew we would get here? What the f--- might happen for another 20 years? We don’t know.” 

While creating After Laughter, Williams said she felt "disconnected" from herself and in "a lot of emotional pain."

"When we were writing that record, I had nothing to lose by being really honest. I also wasn’t aware of what I was really talking about, like I didn’t really understand depression. I did not know s--- about PTSD," she said. "I thought that was something that you had to go off to war and come back with, you know? But by the time we finished that record, I had become comfortable talking about what this might be: depression."

She was later diagnosed with depression and "really tried to take care" of herself: "People talk about anger and depression being so related because depression is like when you turn your anger inwards. And I think that there’s bits of that anger mixed with bits of this real understanding of how frustrating it can feel to wake up with depression."

"So by this point, writing This Is Why — having learned about my own experience and looking at it head on — I think that it’s interesting to think of that being a foundational point to the angst and the anxiousness and worry that This Is Why holds," the singer added of the band's latest album, which released in February.

Williams also opened up about the band's bond after all these years.

"Somehow, in our thirties, we’ve still maintained the ability to tap into the 11, 12 and 13-year-olds that we each were when we met. We might still bicker in the studio, we might still be intimidated to show someone an idea, but also we make each other better."

"Not only do they challenge me, and they teach me, and we all learn from each other; but my experience is very much a balance between feeling that challenge and intimidation that I felt as a kid when I first met them and also feeling so empowered by them because they believe in me and we trust each other," she added.

Williams concluded, "For everything we’ve been through, it almost feels like as soon as Zac rejoined the band after six years of being away from us, not only did we get our guy back, we got ourselves back. We got a part of our childhood back. This thing that made us who we were, we got it back. And it’s such a superpower when we’re together."

Elsewhere in the interview, Williams recalled learning Paramore had won its first Grammy for "Ain't It Fun" from her good friend Taylor Swift.

"I was in Europe when I found out that we got nominated — could not believe it, had not sought to worry about whether we wouldn't be nominated, or we would be," Williams said. "And then when we won it, we didn't go. I got a text from Taylor Swift and [band mate] Taylor York in the same 30 seconds. Taylor, she just texted me a bunch of capital letters, like '[random noises] so excited for you!' I was so shocked."

During a recent appearance on The Tonight Show, Williams also told Fallon that Swift, 33, became her "first industry friend" — thanks to her mom, Andrea.

"We were at some Grammy party — it was actually Timbaland's Grammy party. Huge," she continued. "I was very nervous, but a woman came up to me and she said, 'I'm Taylor Swift's mom and, you know, Taylor doesn't have a lot of friends her age that do music. And I would love to, like, you know, introduce you guys or get your number.'"