Hayley Williams is sorry.
The 34-year-old Paramore singer is backtracking on her recent actions at a show.
According to reports, Paramore was performing in NYC at Madison Square Garden last week when an incident happened that involved two concert goers. A video from the event seemingly showed a young man pushing his way through the crowd in order to get closer to a young woman. The situation seemed to escalate, and got so heated that the band made a move to get them off the venue.
Now, Hayley is looking back and apologizing for her actions.
In a statement posted on the band’s Discord channel, she wrote:
“My insides were triggered from numerous personal experiences not fit for a blog post or a microphone on stage at an arena. My outsides were trying to maintain control of a situation I felt that myself and my bandmates were responsible for. Without the opportunity for a proper back and forth (and with a looming, strict show-curfew in the back of my mind), I bared my teeth like a mother wolf.
As a group – all 25,000 of us or so – exiled these people from the show in record time. It was a moment that I would not fully process for a couple of days, when a friend showed me a video from the inside of the crowd, up close to the action.”
Hayley admitted that she views her actions as abusing “my responsibility and my platform in that moment… that I hurt those two in a way that will outlast the momentary discomfort of their poor concert etiquette.”
She went on:
“I feel the same tension in this moment that I wrote about all over the new album. I love to say we make a safe space at our shows each night … but I’m also the one who may throw someone out without really even knowing what exactly is going on.”
She apologized to those involved:
“So, if you are those two people … I am sorry for whatever shame or embarrassment I may have caused you…I’m not telling you that it’s perfectly fine to act entitled or ignorant at a show.
I’m just saying that I’m sorry that I handled the whole situation like the arbiter of the same type of cancel culture that doesn’t often teach or lead in any productive way.”
