Hayley Williams Tells Jimmy Fallon How Taylor Swift's Mom Made Them Be Friends
Paramore's lead singer visited The Tonight Show to talk about their newly-announced album—and told Fallon how a song of his influenced her rock band.
Paramore lead singer Hayley Williams visited The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on October 5 to talk about This Is Why, Paramore's first album in six years, and their newly-announced remix album. She also shared a little about her decades-long friendship with Taylor Swift, and how Jimmy Fallon's 20-year-old comedy song influenced Paramore in the early days.
Fallon also asked Williams about Paramore's upcoming dates as opener on Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, and Williams opened up about when she first met the "Anti-Hero" singer.
"You've known each other for a while, you and Tay," Fallon said.
"A long time," said Williams. "Yeah, we kind of both got started around the same time and the same age, as well. But Nashville's very—like, family, you know, It's great."
"So, me and Taylor met because both of us, Paramore and Taylor, were nominated for Best New Artist the same year at the Grammys," Williams continued.
While they met at a fancy Grammy affair, a very important person introduced Taylor Swift to Hayley Williams: Swift's mom.
Taylor Swift's mom introduced her to Hayley Williams
"So, we were at some Grammy party," Williams recounted. "It was actually Timbaland's Grammy party. Huge! I was very nervous."
That's when Swift's mom made her acquaintance. "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'."
"I love Taylor's mom!" Fallon said.
"Andrea, the legend that she is," WIlliams agreed. "She connected us."
Williams' appearance in Swift's "Bad Blood" video holds so much more meaning now.
As a bonus, Williams also shared an old photo of the two of them, Swift with her long curly hair of that era and Williams with flame-red locks.
"Every photo of us that's on the internet, one or both of us is [makes the thumbs ups gesture]," Williams joked. "I don't know why it's our thing—it's just to show how cool we are."
Hayley Williams was inspired by Jimmy Fallon's "Idiot Boyfriend" song
When reminiscing about the earliest era of Paramore—revealing a photo of the trio circa 2003— Williams also mentioned that a "huge hit with the Paramore crew" got major play when she and bandmates Taylor York and Zac Farro would hang out.
"My song?!" Fallon said. "I was the influence for Paramore?!"
"Yes," Williams said, very generously. The two then burst into an impromptu performance of the song, backed by The Roots.
"Idiot Boyfriend" is a song from Jimmy Fallon's 2002 comedy album, The Bathroom Wall. The title makes clear the topic of the song, and in the video, Fallon played the titular boyfriend—while Zooey Deschanel played his beleaguered girlfriend. There's definitely a hint of future Tonight Show sketch silliness evident in the project.
Watch The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon weeknights at 11:35/10:35c on NBC and streaming the next day on Peacock.
