Hayley Williams/Lil Uzi Vert
[Photo by: Hayley Williams/Wikimedia Commons/Ralph PH, Lil Uzi Vert/Spike Jordan]

Hayley Williams opens up about why she turned down a Lil Uzi Vert collab

Hayley Williams is gearing up for the massive release of her first-ever solo record Petals For Armor on May 8. The Paramore singer has showcased a variety of her talents already in the first portion of the album Petals For Armor I. 

But, Hayley Williams might have showcased her talents in a few other genres had things gone differently. Williams recently sat down with Zane Lowe on Apple Music to discuss all manner of things including turning down collaborations with Lil Uzi Vert and a very famous country star. 

Read More: Hayley Williams says she “will likely be rescheduling” upcoming solo tour

Hayley Williams is on a musical tear, dropping track after track from her highly-anticipated solo album Petals For Armor

Williams shared the first track, “Simmer” off of upcoming record in January. The vocalist followed it up with “Leave It Alone” and “Cinnamon,” all of which continued to build upon a connected plot. The three tracks appeared on an EP, PETALS FOR ARMOR I, which is available here now.

Following that, Williams dropped her widely-hyped boygenius collab. She first teased the matchup on International Women’s Day by sharing the lyrics for what would become “Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris.” 

She is even set to head out on her first-ever solo tour. But, stay tuned with that news because Hayley Williams recently said that “[she] will likely be rescheduling all of the shows for both upcoming tours.”

Read More: Hayley Williams unveils powerful boygenius collab “Roses/Lotus/Violet/Iris”

For now, though, Williams is at her home in Nashville, TN. The singer, who just turned 31 in December recently Facetimed (because of social distancing) with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. 

In the interview, Hayley Williams says she turned down a collab with Lil Uzi Vert because she didn’t want to be “that kind of famous person.”

“I get … This is so, so random. But I get asked to do like features on country songs sometimes. I’m no hater of country music. I mean, I grew up very young in Mississippi on Shania Twain and Dixie Chicks,” Williams says. “I’m pretty sure Jason Aldean asked me to sing on one of his songs, and I was like… And I remember too Uzi asking me to do some stuff with him and I know that fans are going to be so pissed at me for saying this, but I literally wrote him back on Instagram and I was like, “Buddy, I love you so much, but I don’t want to be that famous. Told him like we were getting ready to take a break.”

“I obviously had a lot of issues going on that no one really knew about and I was like, “Bro, I just need to disappear. I don’t want to be that kind of a famous person.” Because that is … He’s like a big artist, man. My stepbrother is obsessed with them. He was pissed when I told him the story.”

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In case you didn’t already know, Lil Uzi Vert is a massive Paramore fan. Back in 2016, he shared a video of him jamming to “Ain’t It Fun” and a year later talked about how Williams is one of his biggest musical influences. “She’s like the best,” he says in an interview. “It’s hard to top that. She’s like the best, just of my generation… There’s nobody bro.”

Lil Uzi Vert even had someone wearing the “Still Into You” jacket in his music video for “Ps And Qs.”

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In addition to the collab news, Hayley Williams also discussed settling into a grounded new life, the adjustments she’s had to make in her routines and life skills she’s had to teach herself. 

“I left home at 16 to tour, and a lot of the life skills that some of my friends had, going to college and fending for themselves at an earlier age than me, I’m learning now” Williams says. “I’m learning to meal plan and how to stock the fridge correctly. And it’s just so funny that that’s a skill that I’ve never acquired. But I’m working at it now and I’m encouraged.” 

“I feel lucky that right now I was supposed to be getting ready for a tour and instead I’m learning what it feels like to be grounded somewhere in one place for an extended period of time.”

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Williams also discusses how she felt when Paramore headlined the Van’s Warped Tour.

“I’ll never forget the summer that our band headlined Warped Tour. We were playing these slots that were like same stages, same sort of timeframes as Thursday, and they were really, really big band at the time. That was wild and we did get some… I wouldn’t say people treated us like… But there was definitely a little bit of people rolling their eyes or not knowing whether or not they believed we deserved it.”

Above all, Williams stresses that she doesn’t want to be pigeon-holed. She’s not a one-trick pony and that’s what Petals For Armor is all about. 

I don’t ever want to be pegged into one hole,” Williams says. “That’s why I get to do this Petals for Armor, who in a million years would think that Taylor [York] and I would write songs that are like the ones on EP3, that completes the record when we were growing up writing “Conspiracy” by Paramore. It’s the important thing to keep morphing and evolving.”

Petals For Armor releases on May 8. You can preorder the full album here. A full list of the tour dates is below. Keep in mind, they will most likely be rescheduled. 

Dates: 

05/13 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg Max
05/15 – Brighton, UK @ The Beach @ The Great Escape Festival
05/16 – London, UK @ Electric Brixton
05/18 – Paris, FR @ La Cigale
05/19 – Cologne, DE @ Live Music Hall

Read more: Hayley Williams talks abuse, anger, femininity in a male-dominated space

05/28 – Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre
05/30 – San Francisco, CA @ The Masonic
06/01 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern
06/03 – Denver, CO @ Paramount Theatre
06/05 – Dallas, TX @ HiFi
06/06 – Houston, TX @ House of Blues
06/08 – Orlando, FL @ House of Blues
06/10 – Atlanta, GA @ Tabernacle
06/15 – Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore Charlotte
06/17 – Silver Spring, MD @ The Fillmore Silver Spring
06/18 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Fillmore Philadelphia
06/20 – Boston, MA @ House of Blues
06/22 – Toronto, ON @ Rebel
06/24 – Brooklyn, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
06/26 – Chicago, IL @ House of Blues
06/27 – Detroit, MI @ The Fillmore Detroit
06/29 – Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl Nashville

Would you love to hear a collaboration between Hayley Williams and Lil Uzi Vert? Tell us in the comments below!

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