Hayley Williams wasn’t surprised by the overwhelmingly negative reaction to Paramore’s decision to raise funds for reproductive services with their tour.
The Misery Business rockers announced in July that $1 (89p) from every ticket sale for their October trek would be donated to ARC Southeast to help women access abortion services following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which enabled leaders in some U.S. states to make terminations illegal.
Speaking to The Guardian, frontwoman Hayley acknowledged that she wasn’t surprised by the negative reaction to the announcement.
“Part of me feels like it’s a good thing because if we were always speaking the same ideas to the same people, it’s just an echo chamber,” she stated. “If we can nudge someone a little bit more towards equality and for people to have healthcare – because that’s what (abortion) is – then we’re doing something.”
The 33-year-old admitted that an anti-abortion stance wasn’t explicitly said where she grew up in Mississippi and Tennessee but it “was more in the air we grew up in”.
Together with her bandmates Taylor York and Zac Farro, Hayley has been processing social issues and having “crazy complicated conversations that needed to happen” over the years. However, while their perspectives have shifted on certain matters, some parts of America outside of their artsy area of Nashville are still the same.
“We all went through this crazy s**t and people are still not kind out there in the world,” she lamented.
Paramore’s intimate tour of North America concludes on 19 November.