Getting nominated for a Grammy is something every musician dreams of. Winning one is the next dream, and finding out that you've won via Taylor Swift could easily be the third — as Paramore's Hayley Williams knows (all too) well.
In a new interview with Rolling Stone's Larisha Paul focused on the upcoming 2024 Awards, Paramore's frontwoman Hayley Williams revealed she only found out the band had won their first and only Grammy (which was for Best Rock Song for "Ain't It Fun" back in 2015) thanks to 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. And then when we won it, we didn't go," Williams told Rolling Stone. Then, the two most important Taylors in Williams's life dropped the news. "I got a text from Taylor Swift and 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."
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"And then Taylor [York] — he may have even called me — he was choked up, tearing up because he couldn't believe it. He was watching the pre-show and he heard them say our names," Williams continued. "My ass didn't even know that that existed. We were really shocked, especially because we were not a rock band compared to that category at the time. We got a lot of flack for not being as rock as those other people. But it also meant a lot to me when people said, 'You're the first female artist to win this category since Alanis [Morissette, in 1999]." I felt really honored and proud that Taylor and I wrote something that could be recognized that way."
But, as it turns out, Hayley Williams and Taylor Swift's Grammy story did not start there. In fact, we could even go as far as saying that the reason they met in the first place is because of The Recording Academy.
Williams recounted their first meeting in a recent appearance on The Tonight Show promoting Paramore's new album This Is Why. "Me and Taylor [Swift] met because both of us were nominated for Best New Artist the same year at the Grammys," she told Jimmy Fallon, throwing it back to the 50th Annual Grammy Awards, which took place in 2008.
"We were at some Grammy party — it was actually Timbaland's Grammy party. Huge," Williams continued. “I was very nervous, but a woman came up to me and 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.'”
The rest, as they say, is history, and the two stars have become inseparable since. Back in June, Williams admitted Swift was "the first industry friend [she] ever made and hung out with outside of work things."
This past year alone, Paramore was one of the opening acts during Swift's juggernaut Eras Tour in America, and they will continue to hit the road together in Europe next year. What the Grammys (and momma Swift) brought together will never be separated.
