Hayley Williams Reveals Paramore 'Stole A Blessing From Taylor Hawkins'

Paramore lead singer Hayley Williams is opening up about the influence that the Foo Fighters and the late drummer Taylor Hawkins had on her band.

Paramore hit the ground running with their first album, All We Know Is Falling, which debuted on July 26, 2005. The band has released five studio albums, the last one being 2017’s “After Laughter.” However, the band is currently working on new material and fans hope to get a release date for their highly-anticipated sixth album sometime before the end of the year.

In a new episode of her radio show, “Everything Is Emo,” Hayley opened up about the influence that Foo Fighters had on the band and the “blessing” that they “stole” from the late, beloved drummer.

The “Misery Business” singer started out by saying that the iconic rock band is “a really important band, to everyone, the world.” She added that they are “such an important band to Paramore,” as per NME.

She added, “When I first met the guys, there were a few albums that we talked about a lot, that we referenced a lot, Foo Fighters was a band that always came up.”

When Zac Farro needed a “good drum kit” when Paramore began playing shows in the early 2000s, Zac was gifted a drum kit that used to be owned by the late Hawkins.

“A friend that lived in town lent him a drum kit—which he ultimately gave to him—and it belonged to Taylor Hawkins first,” Hayley explained. “For our first shows and tours, it’s like we stole a blessing from Taylor Hawkins. It’s like we took it as him saying, ‘Yes, go forth and continue.’”

“I think about Taylor Hawkins a lot when I think about Zac’s playing,” Hayley continued. “I don’t want to center myself or Paramore in the conversation around Taylor Hawkins’ death, but it’s just to say that he meant a lot to so many people and there are so many stories I’m sure we’re yet to hear about him, and things that he’s done for people, ways that he’s touched peoples’ lives.”

“But I think, more than anything, as a music fan and as a Foo Fighters fan, I love what [Hawkins] did for Dave Grohl,” she added. “I listen to his album There’s Nothing Left To Lose and I know it’s the first record that Taylor played on. He joined the Foo Fighters and they made this record together. And you can hear the difference; I think that it brought out something in Dave Grohl’s voice and the way that he wrote, all of it.”

Taylor and the Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters frontman, Dave Grohl, were extremely close. At one point, Dave had referred to meeting Taylor as “love at first sight.”

After he passed, fans looked through Dave’s 2021 memoir, “The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music” for any mention of Taylor.

“Tearing through the room like an F5 tornado of hyperactive joy was Taylor Hawkins, my brother from another mother, my best friend, a man for whom I would take a bullet,” Grohl wrote. “Upon first meeting, our bond was immediate, and we grew closer with every day, every song, every note that we ever played together.”

“I am not afraid to say that our chance meeting was a kind of love at first sight, igniting a musical ‘twin flame’ that still burns to this day,” he continued. “Together, we have become an unstoppable duo, onstage and off, in pursuit of any and all adventure we can find. We are absolutely meant to be, and I am grateful that we found each other in this lifetime.”

The band announced the news of his passing on Twitter, saying, “The Foo Fighters family Is devastated by the tragic and untimely loss of our beloved Taylor Hawkins. His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever. Our hearts go out to his wife, children, and family, and we ask that their privacy be treated with the utmost respect in this unimaginably difficult time.”