The longtime friends will be hitting the road together in May for the remaining international dates on Swift's blockbuster tour.
Hayley Williams is ready to hit the road with longtime pal, Taylor Swift! The Paramore frontwoman gushed over Swift's new album, The Tortured Poets Department, while offering a tease of the band's upcoming Eras Tour run.
The 35-year-old musician took to her Instagram Story on Monday, after enjoying an electric Record Store Day over the weekend, to share a handful of her current favorite albums. Unsurprisingly, Swift's TTPD made the list.
"Had me from the storytelling alone, my friend," Williams wrote. "Every one of us knows this kind of grief! It's so impressive to me how specific and colorful Taylor's words get without ever losing the universal thread. I'm so ready to be tour-mates."
Also receiving honorable mentions from Williams were Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter, Brittany Howard's What Now, Rufus Wainwright's Want One, Bee Gees' Main Course, Tierra Whack's World Wide Whack, Radiohead's The Bends, The Smile's Wall of Eyes, Blonde Redhead's Sit Down for Dinner and Idles' Tangk.
Paramore is set to open for Swift on her Eras Tour when it resumes on May 9 in Paris, France. The band will continue to tour with her through her remaining international tour dates, which includes a whopping eight shows at London's Wembley Stadium.
The dates come less than a year after Paramore's headlining This Is Why tour was derailed due to a lung infection for Williams. At the time, Williams shared with fans that she would be using her downtime to "dive head first into creating some better routines" and getting back into "the creative process."
"For me, when we get into this mode it always feels nice to disappear in a way," she admitted in a post on Discord. "Maybe this time I will be able to find balance between the disappearing and yet not completely shutting out the world. But probably not."
It was last summer that Swift, 34, announced that Williams' band would be joining her on the Eras Tour around the same time she dropped Speak Now (Taylor's Version). On the rerecorded full-length, Williams is featured on the from-the-vault track, "Castles Crumbling."
"Really can’t contain my excitement because… we’re adding 14 new shows to The Eras Tour," Swift shared in July 2023. "And I get to travel the world doing shows with Paramore!! Hayley and I have been friends since we were teens in Nashville and now we get to frolic around the UK/Europe next summer??? I’m screaming???"
In a recent interview with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show, Williams spilled details on how she and Swift first became friends back in 2008.
"Me and Taylor met because both of us -- Paramore and Taylor -- were nominated for Best New Artist the same year at the GRAMMYS," she said.
Though the late Amy Winehouse took the trophy that night, Williams and Swift ended up at the same after-party.
"We were at some GRAMMY party -- it was actually Timbaland's GRAMMY party. [It was] huge. I was very nervous," Williams recalled. "But 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 or whatever.'"
"So Andrea, the legend that she is, she connected us," Williams added, referencing Taylor's mom, Andrea Swift.
Swift's 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, and its lead single, "Fortnight" featuring Post Malone, were released on Friday to much fanfare.
In terms of traditional album sales, Billboard reports that Swift's TTPD sold 1.4 million copies -- including CD, vinyl, cassette and digital download versions -- in its first day alone. This surpasses her own biggest sales week, when 1989 (Taylor's Version) sold 1.359 million copies. All signs indicate that TTPD will be making a massive, record-shattering debut when tracking for its first week concludes on Thursday, April 25.
The 31-track collection -- which turned out to be a surprise double album -- features a hefty helping of heartbreak songs following her splits from Joe Alwyn and Matty Healy, as well as a few sweet love songs amid her current relationship with Travis Kelce.
"She has put her heart and soul into the music, just like with everything she does," a source told ET about the album, "and can't wait for her fans to listen to it and to share it with them."
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